Hola! Como Andan?
So much has happened in the last week in Buenos Aires. I am having an awesome time and I am exhausted from all the stuff I have done. We've had a bunch of seminars about the education system. It has been really interesting to compare Argentina to what we've learned in Chile. One of the biggest problem here is retention in secondary school. School is mandatory here from 5 years old through secondary school. But secondary school was only made mandatory in 2003 so there are still a lot of people who drop out.We also took a trip to The University de Buenos Aires to learn about Educacion Superior. In all of UBA there are 300,000 students, that's a little bit more than the 2,000 at Stonehill.
We also had the opportunity to talk with Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo. This is a group of women who lost children during the dictatorship. They work to bring justice to their lost children. Every Thursday since the 70s they march around the Plaza de Mayo. This thursday we got to join them to march for their 1661st protest. It is amazing to see these women who are now all in their 90s still fighting for their disapeared children. Their symbol is the white hankerchief that they all wear when the march. On it it says "aparicion con vida de los desaparecidos" which means "Living appearance of the disappeared.
La Marcha
So cute
The hankerchiefs
Me marching with las madres
Also, this week I started taking Tango classes! Tracy's host sister and her boyfriend are tango dancers and so they made a class just for us. We've met 4 times and have our last class on Wednesday. It has been so amazing. We showed up on the first day to the adress they gave us, and we found out that we are dancing on the roof terrace of the appartment building. It was very surreal to be learning the Tango on a beautiful rooftop in Argentina. And they are really good teachers, I feel like I know enough now to be able to improve. Obviously we are not at an amazingly high level but I am definitely able to dance the tango somewhat. Its a lot of fun to learn and is such a cool dance.
Tango with Matias, my teacher, on the roof
The teachers
So I am kind of in love with the tango and my abuela here said that one thing I need to do is go to a professional tango show. So on Saturday night, Sophie and I went to Taconeando, a tango show/restaurant. It was a really cute small little place with only really two rows of tables so we had a really great view. The show was a mix of instrumental and vocal tango music and dancers. They were all amazingly talented. The coolest part though was at the end of the show, the dancers came out into the audience to get partners. I said no at first but he kept insisting so I got to go up on stage and dance the tango! It was crazy but really fun. I even felt like I a little bit knew what I was doing. haha. The pictures are not so great cuz we were moving all around but o well, at least I have proof.
My favorite tango couple- also I do not yet dance the tango like this, my tango is a little more tame haha
Me onstage!
After the tango show we went out to Plaza Serano and met up with a bunch of people. We stayed out until 4am which is way past my bedtime but Argentinians stay out super late. It was a lot of fun.
Also, on Saturday before I went to the tango show, a group of five of us went to Uruguay...like the country. It was crazy going to a different country for the day but it is only an hour away by bus so it was a great day trip. We took a tour around the little town of Colonia and then had lunch at a farm. At this farm is also the largest collection of pencils in the world. There are 8,500 pencils. Haha it was really funny to be be in another country to see the largest pencil collection in the world. The town was adorable and very quaint. I had a blast and it was totally worth the trip. And I counted and Uruguay is now the 9th country I've been to. Cool!
This is a street that legend says if you walk down, up, and back down thinking about someone, you will end up with that person. So of course we all had to do it!
So on Sunday, I stayed in the country and met up with some people to go to the Ferias- the artisan market places. I bought a really cute dress and some gifts for people. The shopping in Buenos Aires is really good in general. I bought a really cute pair of leather sandals for about $20.
Today, we turned in our proposals for our ISP and I met with Roberto and my idea has been approved. Which is very excited but also very scary cause I actually have to do it now. My topic is Comparing Inclusive Education for Students with Special needs in Temuco, rural Temuco and Santiago. I think it is going be very challenging to go to all the schools I want to but also really interesting to see what I learn. For those of you who don't know, ISP stands for Independent Study Project. After this week we have four weeks on our own to research, interview, and observe the topic of our choice. I'm excited to do special education cause not many people have researched that and I think there is a lot to research about it. So after our meetings this morning we went to a former concentration camp suring the time of the dictatorship. It was really crazy to see the things that the people went through. They were kept in boxes the size of a coffin with sacks over their heads. They could only use the bathroom once a day and were not allowed to speak to one another. They were given numbers instead of their names and they could be called any day to be tortured. Many were brought in a plane and dumped into the ocean. Its unbelievable that stuff like that went on not that long ago. One of the saddest things I think is that if a woman was pregnant in the camp, she would have her baby and then after a couple days the baby would be taken away and given to another family. There were 500 babies total taken away and today, with the children now in their 30s, only about 100 know their true identity as the child of a detenido-desparecido.
This week we have a lot more school visits. We had once last week at a school for people who had left school for a year or more and were coming back to finish their schooling. We're going to two tomorrow and one is a school for pregnant women and mothers. Its going to be super interesting to talk to the girls there. I can't believe there are only a few more days left in Buenos Aires and then we start our ISP. Its going by so fast!
Besitos, Kim
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