Friday
We are landing in Buenos Aires soon. So far a very smooth trip. I lucked out with my seats and haven´t been cramped--well no more than usual in lower class, the whole trip. I can only imagine how awesome one of the first class pods would be. Maybe some day. I met up with one of the other team members in TO before getting on the plane and by the time we arrived in Santiageo Chili the four of us on our flight had met up. Looking forward to meeting the rest of the team.

Frist supper with group at Plaza Asturais. Everyone getting along well. Note to travellers when you order steak in BA, all you get is steak. And a lot of it. We guessed 20 ounces. No garnish, no side dish, just pure meat. It was good. I didn´t order steak but did have a few bites of someone else´s. I had chicken with pureed pumpkin. It was yummy. A couple nice glasses of a Norton Malbec and to end the evening a shot of Lemonicilloi (sp?). A short stroll down the street looking for an open supermarket proved futile but we did find a store open 25 hours. Yep, that´s pretty good service.

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 a visible minority here I am as is everyone else on the team a verbal minority. English is not as common here as it is in India, Paris, etc. But we are certainly surviving. They had 3 English menu´s at the restaurant and we simply passed them back and forth.

Hotel is quaint. Not fance, no frills, but totally acceptable.

Saturday
We went on a tour of BA today. One of those totally tourist things where you sit at the top of an open air bus with headphones on to the language of your choice. It was a great way to see the city and was over 3 hours long. The commentary was interesting but not a lot of great picture opportunities.

This evening we had our GV orientation. Learned about Habitat in Argentina and about where we would be building. Here´s a few facts, 1/3 of the population of Argentina is in Buenos Aires. 4/10 people live in poverty but the Habitat people think that number is old and low and think is more like 5/10. Habitat has been in Argentina since 2002 and have helped with over 150 homes. Their mission statement is "Mucho mas que casas" "Much more than houses"

I like it.

In BA, to rent an apartment you must have a large down payment, upwards of 4 months rent, a guarantor who owns property in BA, and proof of a job. It is difficult to get all these things lined up when starting out. We will be working with 4 families, Laura & Daniel, Miguelina, Gustavo & Lourdes and Elba. They live 24km from the city centre and make around $300 US per month.

Tonight we had mate, a traditional drink for the area. It is a very strong green tea. Interesting way of drinking it...they hollow out a gourd (and let it dry) then they fill the gourd with yerba mate and put in a silver straw that has holes in the bottom--tiny holes not like a normal straw. Then you add the hot water. The server tries it and then you drink until all the water is gone and then pass it back. Then they add more water and the next person drinks out of it--same straw. I bought two of the gourds and may experiment when I get back to Canada.

Tomorrow we start building! Yeah!!!

Oh, awesome surprise for me before I left FMMA. My workmates got together and collected $730 towards my trip. How nice is that? And they gave me a birthday cake and card. I was totally touched, Ok, yes, I cried a bit when they presented it. People really are good.

I will update when I can.