So it's my last month here. Como...? I haven't had much time for writing the past few days/week, so I'm going to try and make up for lost time. I have exactly three weeks and two days until I leave the country of Argentina and only two more weeks of living in the city. Introspection time will have to wait until later, though (I pity you ahead of time for when it does come and I'm inspired to write a post full of profound personal reflections), for now there's still too much diem to carpe here.
Two weeks ago today I had the opportunity to participate in an activity that I'm fairly certain was the best experience I've had my entire stay here. There's an organization that was started in Chile and has spread over the years to nearly every country in Central and South America called Un Techo para mi País (A Roof for my Country- more commonly known as just "Techo"). It's run entirely by people between the ages of 18 and 30, and every few months it sponsors a huge home construction project in areas of extreme poverty. From what I've heard the projects can be pretty difficult to get into, and I think the construction we were a part of had a team of nearly 3000 people, but we were very lucky that Raúl signed us up at the beginning of the semester and did the registration process for us.
Hmmm, let's see. It really was such a wonderful weekend I'm not sure where to begin. We brought clothes for working in, a few toiletries, a sleeping bag and a floor pad to put under it. The whole team met up Thursday night at about 9:00 in the plaza of one of the military centers here in the city, and we all went to our respective barrios. Basic overview of construction team structure: the nearly 3000 of us were divided into schools of about 60-70 people (schools because we literally slept in elementary schools), then once we arrived at our school each school split into 10-12 small groups (cuadrillas) of 6 or 7 people, and each cuadrilla built a house. Keep in mind the term "house", by the standards of most people who have one, is used loosely. It is four sideboard walls lined with heavy black paper, three windows, and a door, raised about a foot about the ground by a stilt foundation (no concrete), with a tin roof over insulation. For the people we built it for, though, it was a brand new home.
Our "jefa" was a 44-year-old woman named Adriana. She had twelve children, although she only lived with five of them, and eleven grandchildren. Her oldest child couldn't have been older than 24, and her youngest had just turned 6. The oldest child at home was 14, and the next oldest was 16- the seven that were age 16 and older each had at least one child, some had two, and one had three. They all lived nearby and almost all of them came each of the three days to sit and watch us build, help cook, or help with the house. The house Adri was living in was basically one large room with sections of board or tin to divide it into sections- there were electrical wires strung through the rafters, two lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling, a small fridge, and a stove/oven. One section had a double bed for Adri and one child, the other had four beds for the rest of the kids. The walls were made of pieces of anything that would keep most of the elements out- a piece of board here, a sheet of tin there, a sheet, a blanket, another board. There was no running water and the bathroom was an outhouse attached to one of the walls of the house.
We spent all of the sunlit hours of three days with Adri's family- there were little kids everywhere at all times, there was constantly a mate being passed around to us as we worked, Adri cooked our lunches with food we brought, and we talked, ate, made jokes, played with all the kids and let them draw on our shirts and our faces, and just generally all had a fantastic time together. That family was a group of some of the most generous people I've ever met in my life. They were very interested in the fact that I was from the US, and I got to talk a lot with Adri about the differences I've seen between life here and there and all that I've learned. The kids asked me how to say more things in English than I can remember, and we taught each other games in both languages- things like "Down by the River" and the hokey pokey and hand-clapping games. It's hard to describe the impact it all had on me- it was so wonderful to just sit and get to know each other, talk about everyday human experiences and problems that we all have no matter where we come from, and share a little bit about where we all came from.
It's hard to explain everything I feel I gained from doing Techo- for now I can say it taught me quite a bit about myself, and it was the best practice with the Spanish language I've had since I got here. I got the chance to build a connection with some amazing people with a lot of wisdom to share, and I realized that putting myself to work participating in projects like Techo is something I need in my life. Working on finding a similar organization to come back and work with for more time sometime the next couple of years.
