Floating over the Andes

This morning we arrived in Mendoza after an overnight 15-hour bus ride. We arrived at our hostel and signed up to go paragliding. It was remarkable! We went up a dirt ¨road¨ to reach the take-off zone. I swear I got whiplash as we bumped over huge rocks as we reached the summit. The ride up and down was probably the most strenuous part!

Alejandro, our instructor, took me flying over the Andes and Mendoza. Paragliding is such a calming and surreal experience. You run off a cliff as your parachute fills with air and just float off over the mountains. While paragliding is not a high adrenaline activity, you have to have quite a bit of faith that the wind picks up enough to lift the parachute and fill it with air as you run off a mountain top! This was definitely a great way to get an overview of our newest travel destination.



The thin, fresh, mountain air made us hungry and sleepy. We headed back to town and ate at a restaurant called the Old Bull. We ordered super hamburgers, which ended up being a slab of ground beef topped with ham, cheese and a sunny side-up egg with NO BUN. This country and its cuisine continue to shock me.


Later in the evening, I decided to get some ice cream from Soppalsa, a italian gelato shop, Alejandro had recommended. Now, remember we are in wine country -- where I am convinced they put wine instead of milk in babies´ bottles. Seriously...wine is everywhere! Our hostel gives us wine for free. So, of course, at the ice cream shop, there was wine-flavored ice cream. I sampled the vanilla with Malbec (the most famous type of red wine in Mendoza). The wine overpowered the sweet vanilla. I couldn´t handle a whole scoop of it, so I settled on chocolate.

Our evening ended with a stop to Subway. Yes, the US franchise...we wanted a little taste of America and to "eat fresh." After finally satisying the vegetable food group once in Argentina with our subs, we headed back to the hostel and now are getting ready for our wine tour tomorrow!

@ La Plata

Yesterday, we visited a new centro at Villa Alba to meet some more borrowers. We also met Grameen La Plata's president, Alicia. Not only does she lead the administration, but also is a bank worker. It's wonderful how the board involves themselves in all aspects of the bank. In this way, they can feel the pulse of the bank, which is the borrowers. I think this is a great way to lead and make sure the bank fulfills the right goals!

We had a great discussion with the ladies about microfinance. The most interesting discussion was on whether there are microfinance institutions in the United States and if they improve the lives of the poor. Pramod and I knew of Grameen USA, which is giving small loans to Americans. When I thought about the businesses of the ladies in Villa Alba, I started to wonder if these same entrepreneurial ventures would survive the competitive marketplaces in the US. With Wal-Marts and McDonald's serving the poor at scandalously low prices, I don't know if small businesses could compete and still make a profit. Also, given the lack of developed business infrastructure here, it is easier to start a business. While there are not enough marketplaces and some legal obstacles, it is much easier for the poor to launch a small business in a developing nation than the United States.

The verdict on whether microfinance reduces poverty is still undetermined, but I would wager that it would be less effective in developed nations than the developing world because of competition and red tape.

Here is a photo of us with some of the ladies:


Today we started our first series of surveys for the impact study we are doing on behalf of ADITO. While Grameen wants us to present and then write a report on our experiences with microfinance in La Plata, ADITO (the Harvard student group we came with) is conducting a study to examine the impact of microfinance on the living standards of the poor. We are the first year of interns who are collecting data. Pramod and I were the last group to conduct the study, so we didn't really have to deal with initial issues regarding the survey questions and reaching out to borrowers. The collection of data was relatively simple. However, with Swine Flu, the impact study has had to adapt and be accommodating of the effect of Swine Flu on these communities.

Here is a photo of the kindergarten that all the Villa Alba meetings are held. There are a few of the borrowers in front of the school:


Tomorrow evening we are heading out to Mendoza (Argentina's wine country) for the conferences of all the banks in the Federación Argentina de Replicas Grameen. We'll be there for the weekend and then head to Chile for a few days before heading back to BA!

A Random Assortment of Facts

Last night, we went for salsa and tango classes at La Viruta again. The funny thing is my favorite part of each class is the Reggaeton Electric Slide interlude between salsa and tango class (see video in older post!). I've learning how to shake my hips and shimmy like a Latina! I've got my Reggaeton dance mix from a taxi driver in Salta that I will be playing on repeat to practice my new moves!

Thursday, we finally got to see Harry Potter. Given the fear of the pig in Argentina, the release of the film was postponed a week. So we went on opening night and I've never been to a movie where the audience cheers and girls start crying in excitement before the movie even begins. A first for everything, no?

Well, I was disappointed by the film. The angst and love between all the characters was dry and without passion (even for Brits). There was little magical combat and just not enough Potter magic. They didn't even play the theme song!

On the work front, Pramod and I are getting ready to make our first presentation for the conference in Mendoza next weekend. We are going to be away for a week for the conference and to visit Chile. Santiago is about 5 hours away, so we didn't want to miss the opportunity! Let me know if you have any suggestions of where to visit in and around Santiago, Chile.

We've been spending the last couple weeks interviewing bank workers and borrowers about bank operations, the importance of microfinance and the state of poverty in the barrios. While we don't have office work or a daily 9 to 5, I'm really enjoying experiencing microfinance here. I use the word experience, because we have become immersed in the community and see what they see. I don't feel as though I am working, but rather just getting to know people and learning about their lives.

A Drumming Orchestra

Yesterday was friend's day in Argentina. International friendship day is the first Sunday of August as declared by the United States in 1935. However, many countries, most notably Argentina and Uruguay, celebrate friend's day July 20th. This is not a national holiday, so people gather with friends in the evening to celebrate the day and each other.

My friend's day involved meeting with Ana, an old friend from high school who was in BA for the weekend. We met up with more friends and went to this awesome show called La Bomba De Tiempo. It is a group of 20 of so percussionists that are led by a conductor. This is the first time I've seen a drumming orchestra. The audience was wild and a bit too merry because of friend's day, so the whole crowd became a mosh pit. The only way to not get knocked around was to jump around with them. It was a fun time, great concert venue and another new experience! Unfortunately, I forgot to charge my camera battery, so no home videos of the night. Bad news bears. But here is a video of them from youtube:



Later in the night, I met up with Priya and we went to Milión, an old mansion that was converted into a restaurant/bar. Very chic and the drinks were delicious. So all and all the evening was a good celebration of friends and a great way to start off the week.

Bullseye

Friday night, after going to the movies, we headed to this cool bar that was more of an arcade than anything else. There was billiards, air hockey, foosball, board games, video games and even archery. The last time I used a bow and arrow was when I was 5 years old and me and my friend would shoot plastic arrows at his cat. FYI, they were kid-friendly, "cat-safe" arrows. I don't want PETA calling me out for unethical treatment of animals like they did to Obama for killing a fly.

Anyway, here is me 16 years later with a much more dangerous bow and arrow.

Later that night, I saw maybe the coolest piece of clothing ever. This kid had a shirt with a sound equalizer on it. It tracked the beat of every song!! Fashion never ceases to surprise me.

Break it, BA

The weekends in Buenos Aires get poppin' on Thursday nights (for some even on Wednesday or Tuesday nights...). We started our night with Chinese food. We were craving something other than beef and cheese and searched for a Chinese restaurant in town. From a select few options, we landed up at Garden. The food didn't exactly satisfy our craving, but it was a nice change of pace.

Afterwards we headed to Shamrock, a random faux Irish pub. Again, not exactly what you would expect for a pub. Then we headout out around 1:30 am (this again is a bit early for folks here) to the Aroaz club. On Thursdays, they call the place Lost. It is all hip hop music and before 2:30 am, break dancers take over the dance floor. It was awesome to watch and see a subculture of BA. Most boliches (clubs) play techno/house music. More "eurotrash" than anything else.

At Lost, I felt like I was in New York or Chicago. The style of clothing, people (most wearing a New York Yankees hat) and dance was completely hip hop. A lot of United States ex-pats and travelers come here. It is one of the few, if not only, hip hop dance parties here. They played a lot of old skool songs like Gangsters Paradise. They even played a Bhangra/Jay Z mash up!

The coolest part of the night was when a break dance circle organically formed in the middle of all the dancing and we were right in the inside of the circle watching it. It was awesome! The night was interesting because we experienced three distinct cultures that have all been fused to Argentinean culture into a unique blend.

Hiding Poverty

We had our second meeting at the bank branch in Villa Alba today. We met with a different group of women who were absolutely fantastic. They are the most experienced group, so much so, that the women are in charge of themselves. Instead of an bank worker running the meeting, the borrowers run the meeting and manage the loans themselves. The level of sophistication, understanding of microfinance and trust among the women still amazes me.

It was great getting to know the ladies and hearing their stories. The best part of this organization, and this may be true for microfinance in general, is the solidarity, support and community spirit among the borrowers. Each borrower is put into a group of five and are responsible for each other. If one defaults on her loan, then the others must pay it for her. If someone leaves the group for any reason, the rest of the girls choose a new person to become a borrower. It is totally run from the inside by the women themselves. A large difficulty for the poor is the feeling of exclusion from the rest of society and lost hope to escape poverty. Microfinance, in addition to giving out monetary support, creates a system of individuals who become more confident in their abilities to break the cycle of poverty and gain hope for a better future for themselves and their families.

Afterwards, we interviewed operators of the branch for our report. When we asked them about the state of poverty in the neighborhood. One interesting thing that came up was that individuals here try to hide their poverty. The poor do not want to appear poor so they buy and wear expensive (or expensive-looking) clothing so when they go into the city, they don't appear poor. However, their homes and living standards are of a level of extreme poverty. Most use tin for the walls of their houses and have dirt floors. This observation really struck me. I never really thought about the amount of shame or consciousness individuals might have about being poor. Enough so that they spend money on fancy clothes instead of basic necessities.

I've studied poverty at school, but the textbooks and courses cannot actually show or teach what is poverty. Being here, talking to these women and seeing their neighborhood, I am able to begin understanding what it really means to be poor. Unfortunately, in most societies, the extremely poor are excluded by the rest of society -- so much so that many that could help are unaware of the terrible conditions others are in. One of the goals of Grameen La Plata is to create more awareness of the state of poverty in the city's surrounding neighborhoods. However, I think that only after one visits and connects with individuals in extreme poverty, can one actually partially comprehend the complexity of poverty.

Salta: Giant Cacti

On Saturday, we went westwards to the sub-Andean mountain range to see Los Cardones, which are the giant cacti in Argentina. Inside the cactus is actually wood that they are able to use for many different types of handicrafts as well as more utilitarian purposes. In addition to seeing Los Cardones National Park, we were able to admire the different types of mineral-dyed mountains around us. We also saw condors, which are birds that live only in the American Southwest and Argentina. They are called romantic birds because after the female condor dies, her partner/lover/husband dives directly into the rocks and commits suicide because he cannot live without her. A bit like Romeo and Juliet, no?


Then we headed out on the Inca Trail. The Incas were a powerful civilization that took control of many different tribes in Argentina. After conquering a tribe, the Incas would continue on their trail. At one point, the Inca Trail was constructed in a straight line that is been said to be more straight and accurate than many of the highways constructed today. Here is the trail (now cemented over for modern users):


Our final destination for this trip was a town called Cachi. They have a cemetery on the top of a hill. We climbed up there to get a view of the town and surrounding landscape. The Spanish family that founded the town mandated that all buildings must be of colonial style. They also all use the wood from the los cardones cacti to make street signs as well.

After a full day out in the outdoors, we moved to our new hostel...I was looking forward to a warm evening indoors, but unfortunately, our hostel was mostly outdoors. We also had to use a communal bathroom. We had to go outside in the cold from our room to reach the other covered part of the hostel to use the bathroom. Then, there was no heat. However, they provided a space heater that glowed brighter than a lamp. If I stood in front of it for long enough, I could have gotten a tan. Free tanning salon right in our hostel room. Guess that was a plus.

Despite our surprise at the quality of our hostel, especially compared to the one we stayed at for the past couple nights, it was quite an experience. I felt I was camping...this really was an au naturale kind of weekend.

Salta: Goin' to the Flats

This long weekend, we went to Salta, which is in the northwest of Argentina near the borders of Chile and Bolivia. We took a 20 hour bus ride there. Yes...20 hours in a bus. It was actually really easy and super comfortable. They serve wine -- for free!

When we arrived, 20 hours later, we checked into our first hostel and then climbed a mountain in Salta. It was quite a struggle, especially because of the high altitude...I think some of the old women and babies were moving faster than us. We got a great view of the city and then took a gondola (like they have in Switzerland) back down.

The next day, we took our first 14 hour tour of the nature that makes Salta a must-see location. At 6:30 am, we headed out to the Eastern Mountain Range and went to see the Salinas Grandes. These are called the salt flats. This is all salt -- no joke.


To prevent altitude sickness, our tour guide gave us coca leaves. Yes...coca leaves that are used to make cocaine. Coca leaves are imported from Bolivia, however, they are only sold here in small quantities and cannot be carried outside of Argentina. The fear is that without control on coca leaves consumption, individuals would buy kilos of them and start making their own homemade cocaine. Anyways, the 8 or so coca leaves I used definitely did help with the altitude!

We also went north to the state of Jujuy and browsed around a typical feria (open air market). The people of northern Argentina look much more indigenous like people in Peru and Bolivia. In the north, when the country occupied was by the Spanish, the indiginous people were not killed off like in Buenos Aires, but used as slaves to work the land. At least the people and their culture remains here and was not completely lost.

At the end of our day, we followed the path of the train to the clouds. We even walked across a narrow train track over 30 feet above the ground!

Villa Alba

This afternoon, we headed out to La Plata to visit the neighborhood of Villa Alba. We sat in on a weekly meeting of a group of 30 borrowers. The meetings are normally run by a bank worker who goes over the women's books with their weekly business accounts.

The meeting includes everyone discussing any problems they are having with their work or with their lives. What struck me at this meeting was how open and understanding these women were with each other. One woman was telling everyone how the heavy rains from the past two nights ruined her roof. She said she can't afford to get a new roof right now, but obviously, it's something she has to get immediately in this winter weather.

In true entrepreneurial spirit, the women (or as they call themselves, las chicas) decided to create a raffle for three computers that were donated to the group and use the raffle money to start a roof fund. This would mean that they loan one woman money for the her roof and overtime she would repay it. The fund would continue, so next time someone may need funds for a broken roof, they can borrow from the fund.

I was so impressed by this idea and the helping hand las chicas gave to one another. We are planning on visiting more of these meetings to better understand the community, and after getting to know the ladies better, be able to ask questions and gather data for our impact study.

Afterwards, as usual, the gang went out for food and we got back here pretty late. Here's a picture of Villa Alba. There are very few sidewalks and people tie their horses up on the sides of the road. As we took the bus ride from the city to the neighborhood the changes in living standards changed dramatically. When we walked around, one image that struck me was of a baby playing in the backyard next to a horse, which was malnorished and eating from the family's trash. This is one of our first experiences actually seeing the poverty of Argentina. In Buenos Aires, one is deceived that Argentina is a developed nation, but while BA may be well off in parts, the rest of the country is in need for growth and development.


Tomorrow evening, we are heading out for the long weekend (Thursday is Argentina's independence day) to Salta, which is a beautiful area in the northwest. We are taking a 19 hour bus ride there...that alone should be enough of an adventure! We won't be back until Monday, so expect a full report next week!

Hard Love

Last night we went to a fútbol (soccer) game. We saw River Plate, one of the main Buenos Aires teams, play the La Plata Estudiantes. It was cool that the game was between the city we live in and the city we work in.

With the combination of swine flu panic, winter weather and timing of the game, the stadium was unusually empty. However, the amount of cheering from the quarter-full stadium was more of a roar that you would ever hear at a soccer game in the USA. The game was a ton of fun. The fans are nuts. They bring their own fireworks (we got a little fireworks on July 4th!) and shoot them from their seats in the packed sections of the stadium. Also, they never stop cheering and chanting. For the entire 1 hour 30 minute game, there was a constant buzz of chants, which peaked when River Plate scored:

So River Plate ended up losing 1-2. The most surprising part of the loss was how angry the fans were at their team. The fans were livid. They expressed their disappointment through swears and taunts -- they even threw bottles of sprite at the field. Some people climbed over the barriers to shake their fists at the team. Talk about hard love.

The game was a spectacle worth watching live. Another hilarious part of the game was how diva the players are. I had heard that in Latin American fútbol, players overexaggerate injuries to gain an advantage and break the other team's momentum. There were points in the game when players were rolling on the ground and I'm pretty sure they hadn't even been in contact with another player...

Another interesting sight was the number of fans with mullets...didn't know that mullets were still in style.

A Cuban Argentina

Last night we went for salsa and tango classes at La Viruta. While salsa isn't quite Argentinean, but rather Cuban/Colombian/Puerto Rican, I absolutely loved it! I think because it is relatively easy for me (I am not the most graceful nor rhythmically gifted) and I love the music. I'm excited for Roy and I to take classes in the fall at school.

Our instructor was Cuban and taught us all kinds of steps. We learned them while standing in place and then we partnered up and tried out the moves in pairs. It was interesting how focused everyone was on becoming serious salsa stars! Here is a video of Priya, Ashvini and I learning the basic step:

After learning the salsa, the instructors taught us some sort of salsa-reggaeton fusion. There was some salsa steps, but tons of shimmy and body rolls. Just imagine a randomly assorted group of 20 to 50 year olds from around the world in dance lines doing body rolls in unison. Here is a video of us learning some of those moves. A couple more classes and I think I'll be a pro. ;)

We ended up not learning tango, but just watched, because we were eating pizza. Also, I think I'm a little too young to tango. The group at La Viruta aged about 10 years in the 15 minutes between the salsa and tango classes.

Finishing our Quilmes and pizza, we went to a bar called Tazz in Palermo Soho. It was a really cool place with great atmosphere and decoration. They had pool tables and we got to play. I need to work on my game!

Okay, now back to polishing my boots...(seriously, my room smells like polish).

When Pigs Fly

We just finished our third day of work for Grameen La Plata. The past couple days we've been heading out at 8:30 am and catching a city bus to the omnibus terminal then catching a bus to La Plata. The buses are really nice here, and we get to catch up on a little sleep. :)

Our bosses at Grameen are professors at the National University of La Plata (UNLP) and got us access to use the University facilities this week. Yesterday, Mercedes picked us up and took us to the university. We worked on creating a list of questions to ask the bank workers to get a better understanding of the efficiency and impact of microloans and the state of poverty in the barrios (neighborhoods) of La Plata. We'll then use our interviews with the workers for the report we are writing over the next 6 weeks.

Midday, I called my boss, Martín, to check in and see when we were heading out on Friday to meet the bank workers and borrowers. What I didn't expect to hear is that we won't be heading out to the barrios because many borrowers have swine flu. In fact, my boss was unsure if we would be interacting with them at all because of the swine flu. As most of you must have read, swine flu has become a major concern in Argentina. Actually -- there is a feeling of panic among many people here. The most swine flu deaths (35 reported) have occurred in Argentina. It is unclear if there are more infected individuals here compared to other countries since it is hard to keep track of who has it or doesn't have it.

One reason there are many deaths in Argentina is that those who have it are very poor and do not get medical treatment. Mercedes was telling me that in the barrios of La Plata, there isn't even a hospital. They have 1 doctor who can't reach everyone. Thus, they have a medicine shop where people can just pick and choose what they need/want (without a doctor's prescription). Of course, only if they can afford it. If people had medical care and proper medicine, swine flu (or even the common cold) wouldn't lead to severe health problems or death.

One of the major concerns for Argentina is that unlike the US or Mexico, which also have a large number of cases, Argentina is in the southern hemisphere where it is winter. Therefore, individuals here are already susceptible to the flu because of the cold weather. Thus, swine flu could spread quicker when people's immune systems are already down. In July, Argentinean schools and colleges close for two weeks for winter holidays. However, in light of swine flu, schools have been closed for all of July. We were going to see a soccer game this Saturday, but we heard it might be canceled due to the authorities wanting to avoid mass groups of people in close contact spreading the flu. We also were looking for tango classes last night and were told that some classes might be canceled because of fear of the flu. Darn pigs...


Anyway, Martín had a meeting with the bank workers yesterday and determined that it was safe for us to come to meetings in the barrios. We aren't going tomorrow or Monday, but will go on Tuesday. Of course, we'll have to take precautions like not giving the usual kisses when we greet people or passing around the maté.

Despite the soberness of this post, I'm having a great time at work and enjoying interacting with people at the university! After work on Wednesday, our friends at the university took us out for lunch at a parrilla (argentinean steak house) in the bosque, which is this beautiful park in La Plata. Unlike my escapades with the meat platter in Buenos Aires, we had normal cuts of steak. After lunch we walked around the park and chatted. I took a couple pictures:


Today, as we left work, there was a small protest. To barricade the streets from traffic so the protest would not be interrupted, the protesters had lit paper on fire along the crosswalk. We didn't go see what the protest was about, but Sofía thought it was probably against the government. Last night in BA when we went out for ice cream, a friend of mine had said that he had heard there was going to be a protest in BA over the current political situation in Honduras. Maybe this was a simultaneous protest in La Plata. What I thought was the most interesting part of the whole protest/fire in the streets, was how unphased all the pedestrians were. There was no panic, people were continuing with their daily business.

Before heading back to BA, Sofía, Pramod and I had lunch at this great pizza place and just chatted. We had a long lunch and ended with this delicious flan topped with a huge dollop of dulce de leche! We're heading out to the gym soon. With all this meat and sweets, we feel like a little aerobic exercise would do our bodies some good.

Despite some interesting sights here, everything is calm and everyone continues with their everyday activities. As of now, all is well and it is smart for the Argentinean government to take precautions. We know all too well in the US that waiting too late can be a recipe for disaster.