Buenos Aires!

  9 de Julio y Corrientes, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hey everyone. Oy gevolt, I did not realize that it has been so long since my last blog! To make up for that, this one is really long. Que disfruten! 

Tufts University Comes to Argentina!

From May 24 – June 1, Tufts University came to Argentina on a JDC mission trip. Danielle, Zara and I (the three Argentina Jewish Service Corps fellows) spent quite a bit of time with the group in order to further integrate them into the Argentine culture, share with them our experiences with the JDC and hopefully recruiting some Tufts students to apply for the fellowship after graduation. We spent the majority of the trip in Mar del Plata, a small coastal city 4 hours south of Buenos Aires. In Mar del Plata we went to SUIM, the Mar del Plata Jewish community center and repainted the gym, designed and painted two new murals, helped the madrijim ( Argentine teenage leaders) plan and do activities for young kids on Saturday, had Shabbat dinner and lunch with the community, went out to dinner with the madrijim and had a city tour of Mar del Plata. We were very well received by the community and it was amazing how everyone (Tufts students and people from Mar del Plata) connected and bonded really well, although they only knew each other for a few days and the language barrier was quite a challenge for many people. We then headed to Buenos Aires, the cosmopolitan capital of Argentina and were there for four days. There, we went on a city tour, visited LeDor VaDor old age home and Baby Help (a JDC sponsored day care center for kids between the ages of 0-3 that have family and economic issues), went on home visits of some of the JDC beneficiaries, visited the Tel Aviv school that JDC helped saved after the 2001 crisis threatened its existence, toured a kosher alfajor factory, helped pack food bags at the Sephardic community center, went to a milonga (tango dancing), made empanadas with Hillel students at Hillel, had dinner at the Moishe House, visited AMIA and more. I had a great time with the Tufts students and experiencing Mar del Plata with them, showing them my work and Buenos Aires, speaking English and being with Americans again. Some highlights from the mission trip, 1)Singing American songs Friday night with the Tufts students, 2)Kosher wine tasting with the Tufts students, 3) Having dinner with the madrijim and helping them plan and facilitate Saturday activities for the kids and 4) Getting to know the Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires Jewish communities on a deeper level. This was the first time that a JDC mission group ever came to Mar del Plata and our help was very much appreciated.

New work, Buenos Aires!

I recently started the second part of my fellowship and I am now working in Buenos Aires. I am working at the Baby Help center where I worked last year, working at LeDor VaDor nursing home as an occupational therapy aid and working in the youth department at Sociedad Hebraica Argentina.

-       Baby Help: It’s great to be at Baby Help and work with the kids again, especially the ones that I was with last year. It’s amazing how much they have grown and developed in a year!

-       LeDor VaDor: I’m really enjoying working with the elderly and I love hearing their life stories. This is the first time I have ever worked with elderly people and it has been great! Many of them come to occupational therapy to make things for their kids, grandchildren or so they can work their muscles that they normally wouldn't use (example: delicate work with the fingers such as sewing). However, quite often due to health issues (Parkinson's, poor eye sight ect.) the residents' are not able to start or complete projects on their own. That's when I come in, to be another set of eyes, hands and pure motivation so they can do it! 

-        Sociedad Hebraica Argentina:
            *It is enormous, a city within itself. It is the oldest and biggest Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, with about 8,000 members (the size of the entire Jewish community of Cordoba). Hebraica offers everything and more for any age and any type of person. It's ENORMOUS, by far the biggest Jewish community center I have stepped foot in. Within the youth department where I'm working, there are at least 12 directors for a variety of age groups and activities. Thousands of people come to Hebraica each day to participate in classes, workshops, seminars, to chat with friends over coffee, go swimming (there are 2 indoor pools), and more. I am so baffled and impressed by Hebraica and I learn something new there everyday, as if everyday was my first day because there are millions of new things happening all at once. It's really quite remarkable and slowly but surely I am getting the hang of things such as  how Hebraica functions.
           *Since I started working, I have been translating the youth department blog and website, helping to plan and participate in Mitnadev, the youth community service program (they are working on collecting nonperishable foods such as powdered milk and in October they will go to poor schools in Missiones, Cordoba and Corrientes to distribute them). Something really cool about Mitnadev, every friday a group of teens from Mitnadev go to a shantytown (Ramon Carrillo) to play with the kids and give them attention and love that they don’t necessarily get at home. They carefully plan activities for the kids with the objective of having every child gain more self confidence, dream and realize that they have a future. The program is really amazing and I feel so fortunate to be a part of it. For me personally, it’s extremely eye opening to see this other side of Buenos Aires which is very deeply hidden behind the fabulous and fashionable streets and neighborhoods of Recoleta, Palermo and Puerto Madero. Even my Argentine friends have never witnessed such poverty.
           *At the end of July, the madrijim (teenage leaders) will be going to Montevideo, Uruguay for winter camp. I attended a meeting for the planification of the camp and it sounds fabulous. It will entail different types of  programs, bonding with the Montevideo teens, getting to know the community (we will be sleeping at the houses of local community members)  and seeing the city of Montevideo. Although I was at the planning and have talked to the madrijim and their leader about the camp, it’s very hard for me to imagine how it will be, because Argentine camp is very different than my camp experience in the US. I’m also helping to plan for the AMIA ceremony (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMIA_Bombing) but again just like the madrijim camp, although I understand what’s going on, I can’t imagine how the event will be. Even my boss said that it’s something that I have to live through and to see in person to really understand.
            * Hebraica is eager to start up a relationship with a Jewish community in the US and they want me to pilot that, which is awesome! I’m hoping to intertwine my connection with the San Diego Jewish community, my BBYO background and my peers from BBYO with Hebraica. My ultimate goal which would be so great is to have Argentine and American teens in contact (via internet) talking about what Jewish life is like in their countries and to send Hebraica teens to a BBYO event in the US. I’ve thrown out some ideas to BBYO about how to get this connection started. Hopefully, I’ll have a meeting with Hebraica soon to see how they would like to shape this relationship.

                 *At work, especially at Hebraica, at times I feel lost and confused but I think that’s normal. My colleagues have been really great in explaining things to me, notifying me about meetings and community events and just sitting down with me and asking how I’m doing and if I have any questions (I always have millions of questions).

Un Techo Para Mi Pais!

Fathers day weekend, myself along with 5 people from Sociedad Hebraica Argentina volunteered for the Latin American NGO Un Techo Para Mi Pais http://www.untechoparamipais.org/english/. About 2,000 people from all over Argentina and the world (Latinos, North Americans, Europeans, Australians and so on that were in Argentina) came together to build houses in slums located about an hour outside of Buenos Aires. This was by far the most extreme poverty I have ever seen in Argentina, including the shantytown Ramon Carrillo where I go with Mitnadev, the social justice youth program at Hebraica. The slum had no paved roads and many of the houses had no running water, electricity, or bathroom. The floor was made of dirt and the “door” was an old bed sheet if you were lucky. These houses were tiny, just about the size of my bedroom and on average 6 people lived there. Inside the house was a “bed” the typical being old bunched up newspapers. When I first saw the slum, I felt like I was in one of those commercials where there's the old Christian guy in some poor country with a skinny, dirty little kid that has torn clothes, hair filled with lice and barefoot. The Christian guy has the child in his lap and he says, “for only a dollar a day you can feed Guadaloupe lunch for a year”. Building the house was very difficult and the weather certainly didn’t help us because it was pouring rain the whole time. We built the foundation of the house which consisted of lots of digging, measuring, lifting piles of dirt, logs, rocks and more. I think that this particular house, or maybe the whole slum was built on a landfill because while we were digging deep into the ground, we found old bags of garbage, torn up shoes, bones (from meat) and even a cell phone. Apparently, the woman we were building the house for lost the phone awhile ago said to us “oh my gosh where did you find that, I’ve been looking everywhere!” We did everything from cutting the wood, to putting in the windows and the roof on the house.  We were not allowed to use any electric tools because the theory was that the people that we built the house for don’t use electricity so neither should we. Also, I’m sure that it was not permitted for insurance purposes (Maybe or maybe not. It’s possible that I’m thinking very American). The house that we built was much nicer than the houses in the slum because it had a real wooden floor and door, 3 windows and a sturdy roof. However, it had no electricity, bathroom or running water but none of the other houses did either. Me along with 6 other people built the house for a woman named Brenda, age 23 and her son Alexi, age 5. Brenda recently separated from her husband/boyfriend and was living with her parents. Un Techo Para Mi Pais was an incredible experience and really special to me. I bonded more with the people from Hebraica, met incredible people from all over the world and saw a level of poverty that I never would have seen on my own walking the streets of Buenos Aires.

Limmud

This past Sunday was Limmud, a daylong event filled with all types of classes related to Judaism. There were classes such as the history of Jewish immigration to Argentina, Yiddish songs, Charoset cooking class, salsa dancing and more. I went to three classes, the B’nai B’rith presence in Argentina, the history of Jewish immigration to Argentina and a class about the Holocaust for teens and how they can teach it to younger kids/ non Jews. In total, I'd say that a few hundred people attended Limmud. There were a variety of people there, from babies to grandparents and people from all over Argentina (some Cordobeses went). It was my first time going to Limmud (although we have Limmud in San Diego) and I enjoyed it a lot.

Jewish Book Fair

From June 23 – 30, Hebraica hosted the first ever Jewish book fair. Many Jewish institutions such as AMIA, the Holocaust Museum and Judaic stores were at the book fair selling books such as Jewish jokes, testimonials from Holocaust survivors and Argentina Jewish history. Each night, there was a guest speaker such as an author that presented their book and even the Israeli Ambassador spoke. There was a lecture for the madrijim about Yanis Corchak which was very special and interesting. Instead of it being just about his life, the focus was on his ideals about education and how he applied them to the kids at the orphanage. The idea was for the madrijim to learn about creative ways of teaching Judaism to their janijim (their groups of little kids that they do activities for on Saturday). I really enjoyed the lecture and thought it was very creative. I wasn’t the only one that thought this, because the room was jammed pack with madrijim! I bought a book at the fair from the AMIA called “From Auschwitz to Being a Plaza de Mayo Mother”, the testimony of a woman named Sarah who survived Auschwitz, immigrated to Argentina and then her son disappeared during the military dictatorship in the 1980's. I just started it and now it’s my new read for when I’m on the bus or subway.

Hebraica Pilar

In addition to Hebraica in Buenos Aires, Hebraica has another location in Pilar, about an hour outside of the city. This location is for people that live in the province and can’t commute to Buenos Aires everyday and, it’s also where the portenos (people born and raised in Buenos Aires) go on the weekends where there's fresh air and lots of room to run outside, something that’s quite challenging in Buenos Aires. Hebraica Pilar is HUGE, even bigger than Hebraica Buenos Aires. I’ve been twice and have yet to find my way around. Hebraica Pilar has everything that the Buenos Aires location has including but not limited to at least 3 restaurants, a golf course, 2 swimming pools, houses and apartments that you can buy or rent within Hebraica (a weekend house) and more. The grounds are absolutely stunning, it’s like its own little city within Pilar. I usually don’t go to Pilar, unless theres an important meeting, event or help is needed. 

Ok, that's about it for now. I'll write the next blog sooner I promise! Happy July 4th!!!!!!!!