EIL Intercultural Learning

The following costs are covered by the award

• Part 1: Arrival in Buneos Aires
  • Pick up at airport and transfer to host family – plan to arrive on a Saturday or Sunday.
  • Arrival orientation which begins on Monday.
  • Homestay in Buenos Aires for 10 to 12 days depending on arrival day (includes breakfast and dinner).
  • 30 hours one-on-one language training in Spanish survival skills.
• Part 2: Transfer to Project
  • Sleeper bus transfer to and from host community.
  • Homestay with full board in host community.
  • Placement in a Volunteer Project.
  • Emergency 24/7 support system.
  • Transfer to airport on departure at end of program.

The following costs are not covered by the award

• Air fare to/from Argentina.
• Transportation during homestays in Buenos Aires and during the volunteer project.
• Mandatory Health and Liability Insurance.
• Lunch during the Buenos Aires portion of the program.
• Personal expenses.

Host organisations

Escuela “Cooperativa de Chicoana”

The school Director is Claudia Prieto de Castro who has been director for seven years. The school has 20 teachers, 5 assistants and 400 students who are offered breakfast daily. Most of the children belong to poor families of the area. There is a wonderful "family atmosphere" in this school. Parents organise events (festivals, games, etc) to collect money for improvements, but it is a difficult task as the community itself is low middle class.

Escuela “El Tipal”

A public primary school with 500 students from the area, each class has its own teacher and there is a dining room where meals are served. A new Director will be chosen in February.

Volunteer Work

The participant will work at the Escuela Cooperativa de Chicoana every morning Monday to Friday and two afternoons per week, and three afternoons at El Tipal. If there is any free time left, there are additional projects at the church, museum and local library. There are many intellectual activities as well as manual tasks to carry out:

• Organising library books and visits from children to the library
• Gardening work
• Painting inside and outside the school
• Building a new classroom and other carpentry work
• Teaching some classes
• Helping teachers create classroom materials
• Organising events for children and the community
• Repairing, cleaning and painting a swimming pool
• Creating a club for getting donations for the school

Donations of classroom materials are needed, such as classrooms boards, fans, a television, tape-recorders, DVD, computers, academic materials for primary classes, and books for the library.

There is also the opportunity to help with a community project aimed at attracting tourists to the community: creating a museum exhibit about the farming history of the area. Beyond helping to promote tourism and the income source it would offer to the community, this project offers the opportunity to spend about five hours a week interacting and engaging with members of the community.

Arrival and Orientation

The participant should arrive in Buenos Aires on a Saturday or Sunday. Upon arrival at the international airport they are met and taken to their host family where they will experience life in the big city for the next 10 to 12 days. On Monday, the participant will be greeted by TLE/EIL Argentina staff and receive a full orientation on the country, its customs and the project in itself. Thirty hours of one-on-one Spanish lessons form an essential part of the Buenos Aires stay, giving him/her plenty of time to get to know our beautiful and large cosmopolitan city and putting into practice what they are learning. Then the participant will travel by sleeper bus to the city of Salta where he/she will be met and then go to Chicoana by bus or car.

Accommodation

There is the option to stay in a hostel or with a local family - while the conditions might be a little more basic than the hostel the cultural immersion of staying with a family might be of particular interest to anyone learning Spanish.

The hostel is located near the main square and opposite the local church. The hostel is part of a 100-year-old colonial house that used to be the typical grocery store where rural workers would come every Saturday to buy their goods. The house has been restored and is now a comfortable and colourful hostel. It features plenty of natural light, spacious restrooms for men and women, and private showers. There is also a nice kitchen with all the needed elements for participants to cook their meals. There are some Internet places within walking distance from the hostel, and there are plans to have Internet in the hostel soon. The back patio of the house is available for reading and resting and is a place where one can prepare snacks, meet friends and listen to music.

“Tiempo Mío” is the restaurant next to the hostel. The owner, Graciela, has been a teacher for many years in Salta and will work in these two Chicoana schools starting next February. She has been teaching disabled adults, prisoners in the local jail, and is quite interested in helping the locals with their projects. She is willing to donate part of her busy time to help improve the community.

Chicoana is a very small, safe, quiet place. Our volunteer may walk to work or ride a bike to visit different places and enjoy our wonderful views. There is a river near the hostel where some tourists like to go to enjoy the view of the mountains. There is a public club in town with a swimming pool and basketball court where young people like to gathe

Weather

Chicoana is famous for its nice hot weather during the summer months. Average temperatures during this period range from 30 to 37 Celsius. In January and February there can be heavy storms that last half a morning or an afternoon. Immediately after the storm there are nice bright sunny days. Late evenings are cool, so some days a light jacket will be appropriate. Winter is the driest season with cold weather. May, June and July are the coldest months with temperatures as low as 5 above zero.

Autumn (March to late May) and Spring (September and October) provide the best weather with mild temperatures and mostly sunny days.