Yesterdat brought another day of intensive labor and community service. We spent the day under the hot sun, toiling in the garden of a soup kitchen in the suburbs of La Plata. By suburbs I mean the outer limits where the poorer people live. They don´t own their land, they just grab a patch and throw a make shift house up. It is a hard place to live, because it is not a goverment “authorized” neighborhood, the people just move in, so there aren´t a lot government services…such as running water, electricity, schools, bus service, etc. A lot of people depend on this soup kitchen, which at the moment is attempting to start a micro enterprise: a bakery. We had some of their bread for lunch and OH MAN, I would buy it! I thuroughly behind it, YUMMMMM!
Their garden had to be cleaned of all its weeds and all the soil turned over. It was a long day in the sun after a day of painting, and a night of eating meat (and maybe drinking a little bit….), but it was extremely rewarding. It is amazing what so many hands can do in a small period of time. Here are a couple of shots of us hard at work…
It was a really great experience. Today, in about an hour actually, I will be moving in with my host family. I met them last night, well I met the mother, the son had to stay at home because they are fixing their house and they live on the first floor and they had no windows right now! Can´t leave a house like that empty, or you will come back to nothing!!!! But tonight I will have dinner with both of them. I will keep you guys updated! I have a lot of reflections that I want to share, but I need a few minutes to sit down and give them thought, hopefully I will have internet in my house, and time this weekend to share them with you! I leave you with this “inspirational” image of me!
Jen! I have been following your blog since you posted it but haven’t had a moment to write until tonight. Things down there look wonderful and I am so glad that you enjoyed BA and are onto La Plata. Ahora yo tengo que hablar contigo en espanol. Yo estoy llegando en Colombia en mayo por dos meses! Go South America! Miss you! Renato manda beijos pra voce tambem!
jen great job on the blog so far!
i can’t wait to hear about your host family and what you think of la plata after your 1st full week!
looking forward to your new posts =)
Is that just dirt in your hand? You are concentrating on something??
[...] neighborhood on the outskirts of the city…where poor people live. For instance where the comedores have been). Today one of the teachers was starting a new workshop, that had been designed over the [...]