Alan's Blog: Life in San Luis
I have been in the town of San Luis in Argentina for about a week now and I am starting to settle in to life here. In the morning time I have spanish classes for an hour an a half and I then go to the “Comedor”. The Comedor is a type of soup kitchen in a poor neighbourhood in San Luis. The building is attached to a church and it consists of a kitchen and a large dinning room area where people come to eat food during the day.
About 12 people work in the Comedor preparing food each day for families in the neighbourhood. Some days they can feed over a 100 people. The children can also come to the comedor and do arts and crafts, but the boys mostly want to play football all day long – they can play for hours without stopping a- football is much loved in Argentina !
The other workers at the Comedor are all very welcoming and friendly and they are good fun as well. They know all the kids who come during the day so there is a good community spirit around the place.
At the moment the whole of Argentina is on high alert about the swine flu – or as it is known down here the “ Grippe A “. They are taking a lot of precautions to try and prevent the spread of this flu ( although I don’t think San Luis has been affected that badly), . This week the children have not been allowed come to the comedor in case the flu might spread in a crowd and so people come in the afternoon to collect the food and eat it at home. These restriction should settle down quite soon- hopefully after this week.
The town of San Luis is quite nice. The population of the town is about 150,000 so it is quite big. People take a siesta in the afternoon and then around 4pm the town comes alive and the shops open. There is a nice atmosphere in the town and the people are friendly and helpful. It is winter here at the moment. It gets dark at 6pm and quite chilly at night but during the day it can be quite warm maybe 17 degrees and nice blue skies.
Overall it has been an interesting week and I am looking forward to getting used to the lifestyle and work here in San Luis.
- Alan Ralph's blog
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About San Luis
Hi, I've enjoyed reading your blog. I'm considering retirement in Argentina and was wondering what life was like in San Luis? Any idea of how cost of living there compares with other cities in Argentina? Very little info on San Luis out there. I'm interested in San Luis because just looking at map it looks like a great place to travel from being centrally located. It appears to have a good movie theater. Sounds like you are doing very good community service there! Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences there.
Regards,
Wade Kilpatrick