EIL Intercultural Learning

Chilecito is a small city with a main plaza. This plaza is where I hang out, drink coffee and meet with my friends. The plaza is only a 5 minute walk from my host house so I am in walking distance  from the banks, shops and post office. The landscape is extremely dry here, with the only water supply coming from the Famatina Mountains. I feel very lucky to have been granted the individual travel award to volunteer in this beautiful place.

My volunteer placement means that I work Monday to Friday and I have every weekend off. I am using my spare time to travel around this beautiful country and this weekend I travelled to Cordoba which is the second biggest city in Argentina. You can travel all around Argentina by bus, the buses travel throughout the night which is nice. I got the bus Friday night and arrived in Cordoba Saturday morning which was great because I didn’t waste a full day travelling.

Sorry about the delay in getting my blog up for everyone but time is flying by very quickly here in Chilecito and I honestly can’t believe my first week is over already. I have already fallen in love with everything here  the people, the food (Dulce de leche... Nina you were right very addictive) and my project. I arrived in Chilecito at 9.00 am Friday the 1st of July. The landscape here is so vast and breathtaking, I have probably taken 100 photos of the Famatina mountains already they are honestly so beautiful.

Hi everybody! I'm back from Argentina about 3 weeks now and I'm already finding it hard to believe that I was really there! It turns out coming home is almost as hard as leaving in the first place. I'll tell you all a bit about my last few days in Chilecito, the journey home and what its like to be home!

¡Hola!

Apologies again for the delay between my posts. My only excuse is that I have been so busy, I haven't noticed the time passing! Hard to believe it, but I am now in my second last week in Argentina.

¡Hola from Chilecito, Argentina! I've delayed posting this for a few days, because I stupidly stood on my camera lead, and now I can't upload my photos! I'm annoyed because I took lots of great photos to accompany the blog but unfortunately I just can't find a way to get them on the computer! Anyways the show must go on...

Greetings from Argentina, where World Cup disappointment has slightly dampened the mood here in Chilecito!! Argentina´s 4-nil defeat by Germany has not upset me too much after an incredible first week and a bit here!!

Happy Children’s Day! And what a great day it was. Children’s day in Argentina is on the 11th of August but we celebrated it in the comedor on the 16th of August which was yesterday. It was a special day. Families from the neighborhood came to the comedor to eat nice food, play party games and get a present before they went home.

Interesting times in San Luis at the moment. There is a nice build up for the 16th of August that being the “kids day” when Argentinians have big parties for children and give them presents. The official day was actually last Sunday  but we are having the party in the comedor this Sunday. The other workers tell me that there are usually a few hundred children who come for the party !! It is going to be crazy but I am looking forward to it and I think it will be good fun overall.

I have settled into my work in San Luis at this stage. The comedor ( soup kitchen) is located in a poor area of San Luis and that is where I go each day to work. The food is prepared for the families of that neighbourhood by about twelve workers. Due to the restrictions of the swine flu people can’t stay in the comedor to eat food, instead they come with plastic containers to bring the food home.