los chicos

la boca, buenos aires


appropriately after a gloomy post, el sol returneth. if last week i was lamenting, then this week i am bustling. the reason being that the past five days have provided me with two viable projects, both of which are to be finished by the end of next week.


otra mirada, the photography project involving children, has gotten under way. following a visit to familiarize ourselves with one another, we returned to distribute the disposable cameras this past wednesday. to our relief, there were ten students instead of four and they were jumping out of their seats to receive their cameras. while i was advised to have them shoot their pictures at the school for fear that they would not return the cameras, i thought they should go home with the students anyway. my reasoning is that two rolls that show the life of a student are better than ten rolls of the same small schoolhouse. vamos a ver.....


on the carlos-front, we have decided to assist him with his davos presentation and to offer some suggestions for ways that he can expand his program. we have taken the opportunity to dive a little further into his work, including a visit earlier today to crecientos juntos, a primary school in the poorer outskirts of the city. carlos and his team at cep have been working with this school for over a year, teaching them how to build a playground out of bottle caps, a solar water heater out of plastic bottles, as well as composting food from the cafeteria for use in a potential school garden, among other cosas. the next step has been to transfer all sorts of other discarded materials to the school so that the niños can build a school eco-laboratory. this building will be about the size of a tuff-shed and be composed entirely out of recycled/discarded materials. the idea is that the kids will build it, learn about its various components in the process, and hopefully take this knowledge to assist their families with cheap energy solutions.


entonces, this means that i have been able to return to the classroom. while our cities may have different monuments, our tongues different languages, or skin different hues, one place where it's all the same has to be the school. no matter if you're in argentina, namibia, the us or anywhere else, kids are kids. some are going to want to talk to you to figure you out. others will quietly watch you from a distance and never come near and still others will accept you provided that you show that you can play soccer or just not be such an adult. in short, if you ever need to be humbled, reminded as to what life is about or just a prescription for culture shock, you can find it at recess.


post scripto. el campo won in the senate, with the vice president casting the tie-breaking vote against his own superiors. while i do read the final score to be: oligarchs 1 redistribution 0, it may be enough that this country avoided a prolonged conflict and possible undemocratic transition of power. the sea is a little calmer here today, but there's still a ton of dead fish.