I dashed out the door on Friday morning (December 2) and headed to work for my last 4 hours of work before my vacation started. I was able to concentrate on work but also very aware of the time. One of the gals from work, Tara, was kind enough to take me to the airport and even hung out for a bit with me while waiting for the flight. She and the rest of the office surprised me with a donation for my trip--and a birthday cake! Tara had gone around that morning and told people what I was doing and received $730 in donations towards the trip. I was so touched by everyone's generosity I cried.
Flights went smooth all the way through.
From notes: We are landing in Buenos Aires soon. So far a very smooth trip. I've lucked out with my seats and haven't been cramped--well--no more than one can feel not cramped in lower class. I can only imagine how awesome one of the first class pods wouuld be. Maybe some day. I met up with one of the other volunteers before leaving Toronto and by the time we left Santiago, Chili the four of us on this flight had met up. (My first time on the same flight as another GV volunteer.) My flight was Fort McMurray to Toronto, Toronto to Santiago, Chili and the Buenos Aires, Argentina. A total of 26 hours from check in to landing in Argentina.
The hotel is quaint. If you didn't know exactly where it is located you would walk right by. The front of the hotel is about 6 feet wide including the door. But it opens up inside and and it surprisingly wide with a lovely open roof that brings great light and a wonderful breeze into the hotel. From front door to 3rd floor there was 108 steps to walk up and down...and I did 2 times a day at a minimum. There was an elevator but it only held three people at a time--max and frankly it was usually faster to walk then wait for the lift.
The view from the first floor lobby area...there was another set of steps down to the key desk before you got to ground level.
The dirty clothes chair...it probably smelled pretty bad.
Room with a view? Taken from my bed. In the bathroom we had a bidet as did all the rooms and a walk in shower. The shower curtain touched your knees when you sat on the toilet. Tiny.
Plaza Asturais. The first restaurant we ate at as a group. (Saturday evening) Everyone is getting along well. Note to travelers, when you order steak in BA, steak is all you get...we had three people order stead and these giant pieces of meat came out for them to eat. No garnish, no side dish, just meat. It was about 2 inches high, 4 or 5 inches wide and 10+ inches long. I had chicken with a side of pumpkin. It really tasted more like butternut squash and not at all like pumpkin pie.BA seems to be very European in scope but with a slightly different feel that I haven't yet put my finger on. While I am not presently a visible minority as I have been on my other builds I am very much--as is the entire group--a verbal minority. They had 3 English menus at the restaurant even with that we were challenged to order food. But we all ended up well fed.
The Spanish in Mexico is a lot closer to the French in Canada than the Spanish in Argentina.
In Buenos Aires to rent one must have a large down payment, up to 4 months rent, a guarantor who owns land in the city and proof of a job. That is very difficult for many people to achieve and so a lot of people live just outside the city or in hotels in the city. According to the information presented at our orientation session about 35% of all people in Argentina live below the poverty line which is $1300 pesos per month. (Less than $300 US/month) We were building in La Matanza which is located about 24km from downtown BA. The four families we would be working with were: 1. Laura & Daniel, Miguelina, Gustovo & Lourdes,and Elba. They live in what Habitat calls seed houses and habitat helps with incremental improvements.
Monday--December 5 Day 1 of building
We were split into two groups.I offered to go and help the group that would be putting in a new floor vs helping with painting. I'm not much of a painter and finishing painting is something I should be kept far away from.
I headed out with 5 of the guys from the team at Laura & Daniel's house. They have 3 kids; 5, 12 and 14. He is a cook and she does cleaning at various parks in the area 1/2 days.
The mortar mix was 2 buckets of sand, 1 cement and 1 lime and 10-14 buckets of aggregate plus water as needed. We did about 15 loads--so do the math and figure out how many buckets of sand and aggregate I helped shovel. We had an electric mixer which made the job much easier and faster than I had anticipated. Mixing on the road or a flat surface would not been reach nor would it have been as consistent. We finished the floor area by end of day and everyone was pretty happy with the job we had done.
The other group had completed the finishing work at the first home and after a quick round of photos at the end of the day with the family we were off and back to BA for the evening. This evening would start two very dangerous behaviors that would follow us for the remainder of the trip--eating gelato and drinking red wine--not together.
After a hot day working in the sun it was fabulous to pop down the road to the local gelato store, select from over 30 flavours--and picking 2 or 3 at a time then sit and eat. The first night we got back to the hotel, showered and then headed out for our cool, sweet treat. By the second day we knew better and instead of climbing the 108 steps to the showers headed for gelato first. I'm sure the guys that worked there were impressed with the look and smell of us.
And after the second or third day we even figured out the right way to order--pay first and then select the flavours. Whoops.
The gelato was 18 pesos a pop or about $4.50 CDN per night--by far my biggest expense of the trip.
The red wine came after the showers and before dinner. Knowing we were in Argentina where they make red wine we took it as a challenge to find some great wine to bring back with us to Canada. Each night 3 of us shared a bottle of wine--for research purposes.
Tuesday, Day 2 of building
I learned today how to plaster--I suck. I spent the morning back at the same house I had the first day, digging, filling buckets, etc. After lunch I decided to change things up a bit and one of the gals who had been painting and then plastering switched with me. After my failed attempt at plastering I grabbed my camera and took a few shots of the garden the home owner tended to.
My tiny bit of plastering...
After the photos I grabbed a quick drink of yerba mate with Antonio--he was the master plaster helping. Mate is a tea. The traditional way to drink it is to share it. You fill the mate (cup) with the yerba mate (tea) dry and then add a bit of cold (or hot) water to it and insert the bombilla (straw). The idea is to wet only one small area of the mate with the liquid. The person making it sips it to check and then passes it to someone else who drinks until the liquid is gone and passes it back. The water is added, the tea is tested and it is passed to someone else. Sometimes it is mixed with tang instead of plain water. With the tang it is super refreshing and super yummy.
After my quick drink I offered to help sift sand for the plasters. It took about 20 minutes to sift a wheelbarrow full which was about the same amount of time it took them to use up a batch of stucco.
Wednesday--Day 3 of the build
I headed back to Laura & Daniel's house to help fill a couple of support columns. I filled the buckets with sand, gravel and cement mix then into the mixer, add some water and voila! It was a bit more accurate then that but not by much. The rest of the team with me filled pop bottles with the cement and passed it up to be poured into the columns. When the cement was mixed and dumped I went back to trying to dig a hole that a couple of people had started the day before with a pick axe. Yep...it was some pretty hard dirt.
The family and the support beam building team. (Actually the team from Friday--but you get the idea) From left to right: Joy (co-leader), Maureen (daughter of Joy), Laura's dad, me, Peter. In front kneeling Bo and beside him Laura (home owner)
The support columns ready to be filled.
Some tools of the trade.
Starting the hole.
My buckets for making cement.
The hole...partially filled with water. When you put water in and then use rebar to make a few holes in the dirt the water is absorbed quickly and then it is a bit easier to dig out...muddier yes, but it works.
Supper on Tuesday night was at a local pizza parlour. Yummy. We ordered 4 different types and tried them all. My favorite was the Nepolean. It had proscuito on the bottom followed by slices of ham and palm heart, lots of cheese and then chopped hard boiled egg with a pepper and olive for presentation. YUMMY. It also has salsa golf on it...yeah, that is actually this sauce made out of ketchup and mayo. Trust me...it was amazing.
Ok...enough for tonight/today. It has taken a good chunk of the day to get the pictures uploaded. I'm off to Edmonton in the morning to catch up with a friend. More photos and stories later in the week when I get back.
Flights went smooth all the way through.
From notes: We are landing in Buenos Aires soon. So far a very smooth trip. I've lucked out with my seats and haven't been cramped--well--no more than one can feel not cramped in lower class. I can only imagine how awesome one of the first class pods wouuld be. Maybe some day. I met up with one of the other volunteers before leaving Toronto and by the time we left Santiago, Chili the four of us on this flight had met up. (My first time on the same flight as another GV volunteer.) My flight was Fort McMurray to Toronto, Toronto to Santiago, Chili and the Buenos Aires, Argentina. A total of 26 hours from check in to landing in Argentina.
The hotel is quaint. If you didn't know exactly where it is located you would walk right by. The front of the hotel is about 6 feet wide including the door. But it opens up inside and and it surprisingly wide with a lovely open roof that brings great light and a wonderful breeze into the hotel. From front door to 3rd floor there was 108 steps to walk up and down...and I did 2 times a day at a minimum. There was an elevator but it only held three people at a time--max and frankly it was usually faster to walk then wait for the lift.
The view from the first floor lobby area...there was another set of steps down to the key desk before you got to ground level.
The dirty clothes chair...it probably smelled pretty bad.
Plaza Asturais. The first restaurant we ate at as a group. (Saturday evening) Everyone is getting along well. Note to travelers, when you order steak in BA, steak is all you get...we had three people order stead and these giant pieces of meat came out for them to eat. No garnish, no side dish, just meat. It was about 2 inches high, 4 or 5 inches wide and 10+ inches long. I had chicken with a side of pumpkin. It really tasted more like butternut squash and not at all like pumpkin pie.BA seems to be very European in scope but with a slightly different feel that I haven't yet put my finger on. While I am not presently a visible minority as I have been on my other builds I am very much--as is the entire group--a verbal minority. They had 3 English menus at the restaurant even with that we were challenged to order food. But we all ended up well fed.
The Spanish in Mexico is a lot closer to the French in Canada than the Spanish in Argentina.
In Buenos Aires to rent one must have a large down payment, up to 4 months rent, a guarantor who owns land in the city and proof of a job. That is very difficult for many people to achieve and so a lot of people live just outside the city or in hotels in the city. According to the information presented at our orientation session about 35% of all people in Argentina live below the poverty line which is $1300 pesos per month. (Less than $300 US/month) We were building in La Matanza which is located about 24km from downtown BA. The four families we would be working with were: 1. Laura & Daniel, Miguelina, Gustovo & Lourdes,and Elba. They live in what Habitat calls seed houses and habitat helps with incremental improvements.
Monday--December 5 Day 1 of building
We were split into two groups.I offered to go and help the group that would be putting in a new floor vs helping with painting. I'm not much of a painter and finishing painting is something I should be kept far away from.
I headed out with 5 of the guys from the team at Laura & Daniel's house. They have 3 kids; 5, 12 and 14. He is a cook and she does cleaning at various parks in the area 1/2 days.
The mortar mix was 2 buckets of sand, 1 cement and 1 lime and 10-14 buckets of aggregate plus water as needed. We did about 15 loads--so do the math and figure out how many buckets of sand and aggregate I helped shovel. We had an electric mixer which made the job much easier and faster than I had anticipated. Mixing on the road or a flat surface would not been reach nor would it have been as consistent. We finished the floor area by end of day and everyone was pretty happy with the job we had done.
The other group had completed the finishing work at the first home and after a quick round of photos at the end of the day with the family we were off and back to BA for the evening. This evening would start two very dangerous behaviors that would follow us for the remainder of the trip--eating gelato and drinking red wine--not together.
After a hot day working in the sun it was fabulous to pop down the road to the local gelato store, select from over 30 flavours--and picking 2 or 3 at a time then sit and eat. The first night we got back to the hotel, showered and then headed out for our cool, sweet treat. By the second day we knew better and instead of climbing the 108 steps to the showers headed for gelato first. I'm sure the guys that worked there were impressed with the look and smell of us.
And after the second or third day we even figured out the right way to order--pay first and then select the flavours. Whoops.
The gelato was 18 pesos a pop or about $4.50 CDN per night--by far my biggest expense of the trip.
The red wine came after the showers and before dinner. Knowing we were in Argentina where they make red wine we took it as a challenge to find some great wine to bring back with us to Canada. Each night 3 of us shared a bottle of wine--for research purposes.
Tuesday, Day 2 of building
I learned today how to plaster--I suck. I spent the morning back at the same house I had the first day, digging, filling buckets, etc. After lunch I decided to change things up a bit and one of the gals who had been painting and then plastering switched with me. After my failed attempt at plastering I grabbed my camera and took a few shots of the garden the home owner tended to.
My tiny bit of plastering...
After the photos I grabbed a quick drink of yerba mate with Antonio--he was the master plaster helping. Mate is a tea. The traditional way to drink it is to share it. You fill the mate (cup) with the yerba mate (tea) dry and then add a bit of cold (or hot) water to it and insert the bombilla (straw). The idea is to wet only one small area of the mate with the liquid. The person making it sips it to check and then passes it to someone else who drinks until the liquid is gone and passes it back. The water is added, the tea is tested and it is passed to someone else. Sometimes it is mixed with tang instead of plain water. With the tang it is super refreshing and super yummy.
After my quick drink I offered to help sift sand for the plasters. It took about 20 minutes to sift a wheelbarrow full which was about the same amount of time it took them to use up a batch of stucco.
Wednesday--Day 3 of the build
I headed back to Laura & Daniel's house to help fill a couple of support columns. I filled the buckets with sand, gravel and cement mix then into the mixer, add some water and voila! It was a bit more accurate then that but not by much. The rest of the team with me filled pop bottles with the cement and passed it up to be poured into the columns. When the cement was mixed and dumped I went back to trying to dig a hole that a couple of people had started the day before with a pick axe. Yep...it was some pretty hard dirt.
The family and the support beam building team. (Actually the team from Friday--but you get the idea) From left to right: Joy (co-leader), Maureen (daughter of Joy), Laura's dad, me, Peter. In front kneeling Bo and beside him Laura (home owner)
Supper on Tuesday night was at a local pizza parlour. Yummy. We ordered 4 different types and tried them all. My favorite was the Nepolean. It had proscuito on the bottom followed by slices of ham and palm heart, lots of cheese and then chopped hard boiled egg with a pepper and olive for presentation. YUMMY. It also has salsa golf on it...yeah, that is actually this sauce made out of ketchup and mayo. Trust me...it was amazing.
Ok...enough for tonight/today. It has taken a good chunk of the day to get the pictures uploaded. I'm off to Edmonton in the morning to catch up with a friend. More photos and stories later in the week when I get back.
3 comments:
Jennifer:
I really enjoyed hearing about the trip down, the wonderful, generous people you work with who took up the collection for you. Marvelous! Interesting that there is such a variation on the Spanish they spoke. Interesting to hear about the hotel and to see the pictures of it. We always enjoy seeing and hearing about your accommodations. The hard labor of the build is incredible. You and your fellow builders are to be commended for volunteering to work so hard.
I enjoyed hearing about the gelato and the wine. You deserved to have that cool meal and then to savour your wine.
It is so hard for we, your readers, to appreciate the whole experience if you do not give us such great detail and your description is terrific.
I am really looking forward to the next update.
Edith
Hi Jennifer:
Now that I've seen so many photos of all of you at your build site, I can really appreciate all of the hard labor all of you accomplished while you were there. Love the photos of the hotel, and very glad you got to have some of the red wine there. I am sure there Gelato is outstanding. Looking forward to more updates when you return from Edmonton!!
Jack
great pics and reporting... Thanks for posting!
B.
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