Argentina: Community Service and the Great Outdoors, Thomas Carr

Argentina: Community Service and the Great Outdoors, Thomas Carr

After quite a long plane ride, my EIL group and I had finally landed in Buenos Aires.  I had been anticipating this moment for a long time leading up to my first trip outside of North America.  As I expected, I was extremely exhausted after going over a day without any sleep.  Unfortunately for me, it was 8:00 in the morning and my group and I had a full day ahead of us.

My first day in Buenos Aires was filled with a big tour of the city.  I was able to see the Plaza of San Martin in the center of city, and our guide provided us with some interesting culture and background about all the sites we visited.  It was also the very first day that I tried my first media luna, a type buttered pastry that was definitely a staple of Argentine culture.  The next couple of days followed a similar format to the first: tours, sightseeing, and lots of food.

La Boca: a small, colorful part of Buenos Aires

Me with my host family

On the evening of our third day in Argentina, we took a small airplane from Buenos Aires up to Salta, a very touristy city in the northwest region of Argentina.  Upon our landing we immediately met our host families and so began the second phase of the trip.  I was greeted by my host brother, Emiliano, and taken back to his newly acquired house where I encountered his sister, Guadalupe, and their parents.  Things with my host family got off to a relatively awkward start as I was not accustomed to the usual kiss on the cheek greeting and instead went in for an uncoordinated handshake.  Fortunately, my homestay experience went nowhere but up from there.

Over the next two weeks of living with my family, I had many new and unique experiences.  One of my favorite activities was attending dance classes with my host brother almost every night.  Dance is a very big part of Argentine culture and it was cool to see how influential it was the lives of the locals.  Surprisingly everyone in the dance studios enjoyed english pop music, but they were all much better dancers than I have ever dreamed of being.

One of the biggest differences in American and Argentine culture was the pace of common life.  In Argentina, everyone was always super relaxed and laid back.  It is customary to be “fashionably late” explaining why my host brother brought me into class thirty minutes late on the first day.  Another common custom was the afternoon siesta.  After not getting a whole lot of sleep during the nights, I could always count on a solid three hour siesta in the afternoon.

After spending an unbelievable two weeks with my host family, I rejoined the EIL group and we travelled to Chicoana, a smaller town near Salta.  In Chicoana we were able to have a more cultural experience as it was a relatively rural town.  We were able to see and meet gauchos (South American cowboys).  Chicoana was also the place where we got to do the bulk of our community service.  Throughout the few days that we spent there, we managed to paint the entire inside of a school and build shelves and other necessities for the kids that go there.  The most rewarding part was that all the school kids went to school as we finished up on the last day.  We were able to talk with them and it was incredible to see how much of a difference we had made for them.

Me and the mountains around Cafayate

After living for a few days in a hostel in Chicoana, we embarked on a journey through the local hills on horseback.  The horseback riding expedition was by far one of my favorite parts of the trip.  We camped for two nights in the mountains and spent the entire day riding horses.  The only downfall of this part of the journey was the extreme weather at night.  Of course it was winter in Argentina and if you mix that with the lack of sun and high altitude, it was obviously very cold.

After a fantastic time in Chicoana, the EIL group travelled to Cafayate, another small, rural, touristy town.  It was in Cafayate that I had my hands down best experience of the trip and that was biking to and from the sand dunes.  The weather in this region was very nice and the town of Cafayate was surrounded by mountains, creating a beautiful and scenic view, no matter where you looked.  On top of the sand dunes, I could see for miles on every side, and it was one of the coolest sites I’ve ever seen.

Running down the sand dunes

Finally, the last steps of our journey were to return through Salta and back to Buenos Aires.  We stayed in the same hotel, Hotel Mundial, as we did on our first night, giving the impression that we had literally and figuratively come full circle on our experience.  As we approached our final day in Argentina the group had many reflection sessions where we remembered all of our incredible experiences and talked about how this trip will change our lives moving forward.  The last day was very sad, but I will always remember my group and we will continue to keep in touch for a long time to come.  Overall it was truly the experience of a lifetime.  I would especially like to thank the Wilson family, Sr. Paolicchi, Sra. Victoria, and everyone else who contributed to giving me this amazing experience.