calcutta si, ant wars no

It would seem that I am suffering from a complete and utter lack of sleep. I eat dinner late and go to bed around midnight and then get up early to go to work. For most people eight or so hours is enough, for me it has proven not to be. Thus, I have embraced the very Spanish tendancy towards siesta, however today was busy and did not afford me the opportunity to siesta (which I am now using like a verb) and as such it is 9:30 at night and I am exhausted and have work tomorrow, but must stay up late for food. :(

This morning Ines took me to Calcutta, which is in Alta Cordoba, for work. Projects Abroad, however, forgot both my map and written instructions so I was shown the bus, told where to buy "cospeles", verbally told the route in broken English, and sent on my way.

Calcutta, the orphanage, is more like a house and not really an orphanage. The children there (currently eight children ranging in age from four months to four years on Thursday) all have parents, but not parents capable of taking care of them (the result, predominantly, of alcoholism). The parents are allowed to visit for a an hour, four times a week.

Mostly I played with the children and fed Luna, the youngest, her bottle. Then we fed them, bathed them, calculated their weight and length, and then put them down for a nap - my cue to leave. I work Mondays to Fridays, 9:30am to 1:30pm.

Feeding them is not...let's say, as pleasurable as feeding my cousins. All the children don't eat very much (as a result of their parents deficiencies I'm told) and so have to be force fed (lot's of crying) and then weighed and measured daily in order to ensure growth.

Of the eight children I got to spend time mostly with five of them.

DAMIAN - probably the cutest little boy you will ever see. He is about one and half and has really curly brown hair, constantly loses his shoes, has no patience whatsoever, steals everyones food, and cannot stand not being the centre of attention. But he makes up for all these admirable qualities by smiling and laughing and playing ALL THE TIME.

LUCIA (Loo-chia) - Lucia is a smily, happy, adorable two year old (as long as you are paying attention to her), if not she has a tendency to bite, push, pull, et cetera.

LUNA - is ridiculously pretty. She is four months old and has a sweet smile and the most stunning green eyes you will ever see. She is easily entertained by her sister Lucia or any of the other children.

MORENA - Reminds me of Rebecca. Free-spirited, adventurous, no sense of safety, and completely independent. Morena enjoys a good game of hide and seek and peek-a-boo, as well as knocking over furniture (and unsuspecting toddlers) but will run if you try to lay a hand on her.

CAMILA - my first encounter with Camila was when she pulled at my shirt and said, "agua". For the next hour I held a cup to her lips (leaving her alone for a moment resulted in tons of water all over the floor) as she said, "mas, mas, agua, mas." Camila has an abnormality and as as a result has an extra finger on her left hand. Camila also thoroughly attached herself to me today and every time I left the room she cried and she refused to let me put her down. A living example of what Ines told me, "your job will just be to love these children. They just need attention."

I finished my work today by putting all three girls; Lucia, Morena, and Camila to bed. They sleep in a sort of dorm room together in similar cribs and nap time consists of them playing peek-a-boo and chatting happily with one another.

When I got home (successfully!) I ate and left almost immediately for Villa Allende, which is where the projects abroad office is (approximately 40 minutes away by bus).

Now here's the funny thing about buses in Cordoba. There aren't really any stops. You kind of stand on the side of the street and you have to flag the bus down (otherwise it just goes barreling past). The other thing is you don't really know when to get off. You find some landmark and then go up to the busdriver and say, "la proxima, por favor" and hopefully he lets you off.

My landmarks?
-getting on the bus to work = a big yellow A
-getting off the bus to get to work = a park
-getting on the bus to get home = a pink house
-getting of the bus to get home = i fail, everytime i go to far and have to get off and walk

I spent the afternoon walking around Villa Allende with another volunteer (Benjamin from the US) and got home around 6:30 and then the ant wars began...

So the story behind this story is that my converter doesn't work in one of the plugs so I use a different one. When this one was in use I went in search of another one, which I found in a corner next to some plants. So I plugged in my computer to charge, left it on the floor in the corner, and went to work.

When I came home and opened it up it was SWARMING with red ants and that is where our story begins.

I get rid of all the visible ants and start to type, while sitting next to Jere. Then Jere notices and becomes really obsessed with squishing all the ants. Then we realize that they are actually in the computer so we start taking apart the computer.
After successfully (or so we think) getting rid of all the ants and littering the floor with dead ant bodies we put the computer back together and go about our business. But apparently it didn't work, there are still ants. So after killing ants (and getting covered in ant bites) we decide to open up the computer a bit and blow smoke (from a cigarette - not mine) into the computer and chase all the ants out. Now we have spent the last twenty minutes killing all the evacuating ants and I fear my computer will never be the same.

Pobre computadora.

tengo trabajo manana

I am exhausted, truly and thoroughly exhausted. After eating dinner at about midnight last night and waking up at eight to meet Ines (my coordinator), I spent all day out and about. First I took a 45 minute bus ride to Villa Allende (usually it's pronounced Viya Ayende but in Argentina the double L is more of a Vijja Ajjende) and visited the projects abroad office. Once there I was introduced to the other newly arrived volunteers: Hanny (from Germany) and William and Benjamin (from the US). Then we were hustled around Cordoba to get our cellphones, our calling cards, our maps, our instructions, and then (finally!) to eat.

Now I'm home and I've decided that if I'm going to maintain the whole stay up until midnight for dinner and wake up early for work thing I'm going to need a daily siesta, however given that I'm spending my siesta blogging and not sleeping I'm not sure how that's going to work out exactly.

Tomorrow I will start my placement. It's in Alta Cordoba(there are, to my knowledge, three areas: cordoba centro (where I live), nueva cordoba (where the partying takes place), and alta cordoba (where I will work)). Being the only volunteer there I will apparently have tons of freedom to do what I want (within the realms of taking care of babies) and I will only be working in the mornings (approximately 5 hours a day). Should I want to take a weekend trip I need only to work a full day the day before and then I can take a day off.

Ines has encouraged me to travel as much as possible. She says that I should even take a bus to Chile (only 100 pesos, so about 40odd dollars) or Montevideo in Uruguay which is about the same price. I'm mulling over my options...

expectations are just that, expectations

I had my expectations about this trip; what kind of family I would be staying with, how my work would go, who I would meet, things I would do. However I can safely say that all those expectations went straight out the window when Ines (my Projects Abroad coordinator) opened the door to the apartment I would be staying in.

It seems almost European-style, with tall ceilings, open spaces, sparse decorations, and a full-length window looking out over the street below and through which you can hear the constant sounds of Spanish music. Bienvenidos a Rivera Indarte.

Jeremias Di Pietra and Franca Maccioni? Not the parent-like couple I was expecting. "Jere" is a soon to be 24 year-old graphic design student at one of Cordoba's universities and Franca is his 23 year-old girlfriend who works one day a week as a secretary, speaks minimal English, and is quite nice.

I was under the impression that I wouldn't have a roommate until Laura arrived to study medicine from England, however that too was just one of my many misinterpretations. I share a room with Sophie, a 20 year-old from Grenoble who, after an early midlife crisis while studying science at university decided to go to Argentina for five months, speaks flawless Spanish and talks (in a good way) all the time.

In another room is Ari and Francie, two girls from Germany here for six months to learn Spanish. On a walk around the city today I learned - and met - the seven thousand other German students which can be found pretty much everywhere in Cordoba.

It's been a tiring day. I spent most of the day at the park with Sophie and millions of German students playing ultimate frisbee and drinking mate (mah-tay) which is a very strong, traditional Argentinean tea which involves putting a bunch of marijuana-resembling substances into a cup, filling it with boiling water, passing it to one person who then drinks it out of a fancy straw. Once empty it is refilled and passed to a next person and so the process continues. **apparently you don't say "gracias" until you have had all the mate you want, because it's a sign that you are finished.

Tonight I went for a walk around the outdoor market (which stays open until midnight) and am now back at home waiting for dinner, which apparently isn't eaten until 1130 or midnight, 1030 if im lucky.

bueno, nos vemos :)