In what is commonly known as a gap year, between her secondary education and attending a University, Sophie Kiner Jørgensen (20) has decided to devote her time to traveling and volunteering around the world.
Sophie volunteers four hours a day, five days a week at an early childhood development center in one of the many impoverished neighborhoods of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is a neighborhood that struggles with upward growth of its residents and Kiner sees this as an opportunity to help people less fortunate than herself and also to advance herself toward her final educational and career goals as well as do something positive for people in need.
“My task is to assist the teachers whenever they need me. I am playing with the kids, singing songs with them, helping them to go the bathroom and just making sure that they have a good day in kindergarten.” Said Kiner.
Along with working as a volunteer to achieve her academic and ultimately her career goals, making a difference is also important for Kiner, she believes that she is helping to make a difference in the lives of the children.
“The thing is that they are living in a slum area, so they need some space where they can express themselves and where they can play and feel happy.” Kiner said. “Most of them live in just one room with their entire family or in the streets, they just need to feel happy.”
Watching Kiner work with the children, it is obvious that she is enjoying what she is doing and also that the children are happy when they are in the school with her.
Kiner wants to study anthropology when she continues her education. This opportunity here in Buenos Aires is critical to advancing herself to study her chosen field.
“I came to Argentina because I wanted to learn about the culture here and I thought that volunteering would be a good idea because I can see how the living conditions are here and in the slum and that is a big contrast to what I have back home.” Kiner said. “I think it is a good experience for me to learn about another culture”
Kiner believes immersion in another culture is also critical to learning more about herself. The opportunity working with Voluntario Global has helped her to learn more about herself in the five weeks that she has spent in Buenos Aires. Working with the children in an environment that sharply contrasts to her life in Denmark, where poverty and homelessness are not an issue and have played a crucial role in her own self development.
“Before arriving here, I traveled for two months with a big group from Denmark. Here I am pretty much alone and I experience a lot by myself and I though that I would be fine but I am a little alone here.” Kiner said. “But it makes you stronger if you just grab all the challenges.”
Volunteering every day at the soup kitchen is a great way to get to know the community and the atmosphere at the neighborhood. Last week I had a couple of great volunteering experiences, very authentic and real that made me feel very happy with my participation at the project – exactly because it made me feel like I’m getting to know the project and the neighborhood much better. In one of the days, a big truck, full of boxes of food arrived. I discovered that the cooks at the soup kitchen are a part of a cooperative which helps them buy large quantities of food for their families in discount prices. It was great to see who everyone helped each other in organizing all the food inside the kitchen. The cooks and their helpers lined spontaneously in a row, starting outside the street near the truck and going towered the room inside were they organized all the boxes. The boxes moved from one hand to another and they finished the unpacking quickly. Every one helped to unpack the truck and the cooperation between all was perfect. They all were very cheerful and happy to see that they work so good together.
A day after, there was a fire drill at the project, it was also great to take part of it and to see how amazing all the cooks and everyone else were during the drill. They helped the kids go out from the class to the street and once again I was lucky to see the perfect cooperation between all. Of course the kids relate to the drill as a game and they were so happy with the excitement of it. Maybe because the cooks and the helpers, although taking the drill seriously, were so great with the kids so the kids were just very happy to get outside for a couple of minutes. I sow how everyone at the project cares so much for the kids and it made me realize that they are in good and amazing hands that look after them so much.
These experiences made me realize how great the cooks and everyone else at the project are, so caring, so cooperative; they are all true community leaders. realizing that made my volunteering become much more authentic – I was not just helping in the kitchen, but, for a couple of weeks, I was also part of the community. And that is something you cannot experience unless you volunteer, especially in such well operated organization like Voluntario Global who makes sure to send you to great projects, were everyone take care of you like you are truly a part of the community.
And one more thing, last week I also understand how strong the women at the soup kitchen are – not physically, although you need some of that when working every day at the soup kitchen… but mentally. In their minds and heart they are so strong. They know how to join forces in a cooperative in order to organized food for themselves and their families, to manage a fire drill perfectly and to make a volunteer feel so good with his stay at the soup kitchen. You realize that when spending a couple of weeks with them at the kitchen. They are really so strong and inspiring women.
I can believe that this week my three weeks of volunteering will end, so soon… I really recommend, if you like cooking, like kids and want to experience Buenos Aires not just as a tourist, to come to the soup kitchen. If I could, I would have stayed much more than three weeks, maybe you would want too…
I was feeling a bit homesick this week so I decided to venture out into the Bachata community first. I knew that finding people who loved dancing this dance as much as I do would make me feel more connected to home.
I think that a good way to gage how active a dance community is in a particular place is to attend a class (if you are able to). Since I have some experience in this particular dance style, I also wanted to see how and what instructors were teaching in their classes. The hope was also that they could tell me where they go out social dancing.
I attended two classes this week; the first was on Monday night at Bailá BA! which is located in San Telmo. I got there in time for the warm up and instantly got this huge smile on my face when I recognized the steps that were being shown. The class was advertised as being for all levels but there weren’t any beginners, from what I could see. We did a pattern with a pendulum hand toss for the follow and body rolls. The music played in class was popular in the congresses I’m used to attending so all in all, I left the class feeling like I had learned a lot and excited to go out social dancing. In addition, I made a new friend in class! Her name is Jesica and she started dancing because she also teaches Zumba. I left the class that night with the familiar comforting feeling I have after a good night of dance.
The second class I attended was a class for female styling in Bachata on Wednesday at Full Dance. Although there were only two other girls there with me, these are my favorite types of classes because they allow for each person to add their own flavor to the choreography being taught. Our teacher incorporated a lot of classical spinning techniques in our warm up and a lot of modern footwork and hand styling (like La Alemana) in the routine. It was a perfect mix of old and new in the dominican dance. Afterwards, I felt empowered and really sure of myself. The girls in the class let me know that they like to go to Azucar for Bachata dancing on Friday nights.
Just like that, I felt included. If social dancing Bachata is like it is in Europe and North America, I won’t feel alone when I finally do go out and check out the social dancing scene.
What is the correlation between duration of stay and amount of difference made? Does it mean the longer I stay, the more change I see? Would I make any difference at all if I stay for only 2 weeks?
One of the greatest things about living in the volunteer house for an extended period of time is the chance to meet volunteers from across the globe. I’ve had the privilege of meeting volunteers from the US, Australia and Denmark to name a few. Some stayed for months while others were here for 2 weeks. Despite the difference in time period, we all had one question in mind. Are we making a difference in our projects?
Whenever the volunteers gathered, we talked about the progress we were making. We each had different experiences simply because we were in different projects. Some worked in kindergartens and orphanages while others worked in health clinics and soup kitchens. We came with expectations, some of them met, some not and others exceeded.
Personally, I believe that one should set goals before thinking of volunteering. Sure it’s only natural to have expectations for yourself and for the projects you undertake. But I’m almost 95% sure that the majority of those goals would change week by week. You never know exactly what to expect until you get to the volunteering site. Furthermore, many of us volunteers could only speak basic Spanish and some couldn’t even speak Spanish at all. We each had different struggles and when we shared them, we realized we all had the same question in mind.
A fellow volunteer from Australia faced a lot of difficulty communicating with the teachers in the kindergarten and felt rather exasperated at some points. A volunteer from Israel didn’t feel like she was doing enough with the kids she was volunteering with. A communications volunteer felt she was not being resourceful enough without having sufficient equipment to execute tasks.
It is normal to experience negative emotions. We always expect to see change immediately but if we’re being completely honest, visible change never happens in a day or two. It’s a long term process but what we fail to realize is that the effects are immediate. You make an impact on the people you work with. By just being there, you leave a lasting impression. In that one day, you’ve perhaps made the tasks easier for others.
“People will forget what you did but they will never forget how you made them feel”
The answer is yes. You are. You are making a difference. You could be there for a day, a week or even a month and the answer will always be a ‘yes’ as long as you’re there with the intention of helping. Be a volunteer and be a part of that difference.
Book club Buenos Aires: Todos los fuegos el fuego by Julio Cortázar
Written by Sophie Aitken
Julio Cortázar is one of the names most synonymous with both Argentine literature and the Latin American boom, and perhaps the most experimental. While he is best known for his novel Rayuela (Hopscotch), in which the reader can choose their own path through the chapters of the story, he also has a large oeuvre of short stories, many influenced by surrealism, which he no doubt encountered during his years in France, after leaving Argentina due to his dissatisfaction with the Perón government.
Todos los fuegos el fuego, published in 1966, is a collection of 8 of his short stories, separate but with pervasive themes running through all of them. The title story exemplifies this the best, with a dual narrative of both a gladiator fight occurring in ancient Rome, and an argument between lovers in modern-day Paris, the two stories first alternating paragraphs, until the interchanging is so fast it is difficult to know what is happening on which timeline. And this is very much the point - the story’s title ‘Todos los fuegos el fuego’ (All Fires the Fire) points to an abstract sense of perpetuity through the many ages of man solidified by the concurrent events in the story.
Challenging the conceptions of time in this way is evident in other stories in this collection, notably ‘La autopista del sur’ (‘South highway’), which begins as an innocuous tale of a long traffic jam, which lasts longer and longer until a new microcosm of society is formed in between the cars stuck on the road, children are conceived and born, the elderly become sick and die. No timescale is given to the story but it still manages to show many facets of the human condition through the community that emerges out of the stationary cars.
‘La isla a mediodia’ (‘The Island at Noon’) carries the surrealist influence into a story about a flight attendant, Marini, who fantasises about escaping to the island that his plane flies over every day at midday. After much teasing from his colleagues and passengers he decides to quit his job and join the population of the island, living the life he has fantasised about for so long. But the sound of his old plane flying over the island and a body washing up on the shore cause both Marini and the reader question their perception of reality…
Everyone can agree that love is the universal language. However, I would like to argue that dance is too. I don’t just mean solo dancing, I also mean partner dancing. No matter where you travel to in the world, there is a dance that connects communities and cultures. To me, dancing has been one of the main things that has bridged many gaps I’ve come across while on my trips. It’s become a comfort thing for me to find the places to go dancing as soon as I reach a new destination.
To give a little bit of background on me, I have been partner dancing for 5 years and I am from Austin, Texas. I dance every style you can think of, from salsa to swing and from tango to the country two-step. I go out social dancing regularly (at least two times a week) and since I knew I would be spending quite a bit of time in Buenos Aires, I took a few Argentine Tango classes before coming, hoping I could get a jump start in understanding the culture here. Before my arrival to the great country of Argentina, I asked the Tango community in Austin if they knew of any places to go dancing while I was here and unfortunately, they gave me names of people, not the names of places.
Long story short, I did some research and have decided to chronicle my dance adventures because I know that I can’t be the only one who comes here with an itch to dance.
In honor of my temporary residence, the first class I decided to go to was an Argentine Tango class. Another volunteer and I attended a class at La Viruta in Palermo. It was 100 pesos to attend and included the practica afterwards. They had a beginner, intermediate and advanced class and they were all well-attended. Although this was not a milonga, the atmosphere was very similar to my expectations and what I have become used to at home. For example, everyone is polite and switches partners, we say thank you after we are finished dancing with a particular person, etc. Even my expectations of how a tango class would be were met; the women were dressed in skirts and heels, making eye contact was an invitation to dance, etc. All in all, it was extremely newcomer friendly and the tango-ers there were very willing to help a new dancer with whatever we were confused about.
With that being said, there were also a few new customs that I was not used to. Towards the end of the night, it was like the floor had become a show. Only advanced couples were dancing and they stayed with the same dance partner the whole time instead of switching for each song. It was intriguing, watching the ladies do their flares and kicks, accenting the music. I had never seen such musicality with this particular style of dance. Nobody tried to make small talk during the dance. Instead, they keep quiet, not even acknowledging any missteps. The embrace is close, so this is not surprising. However, I have always apologized after I make a mistake and when I did that the first time during class, I was told that was a really American thing to do.
I left La Viruta wanting to take more classes and to attend a milonga. This dance culture is unique to this country and through it, I am hoping to learn more about the social norms and make a few Argentinian friends.
It all started with the concept of bringing together chefs, farmers, cheesemakers, beer brewers, bakers, and many more to the same table. However, since they couldn’t find a table that would fit them all comfortably, they started this food festival called Feria Masticar. In it’s fifth year, Feria Masticar boasted its biggest numbers yet at the heart of Palermo, in a place called El Dorrego. Their tagline loosely translates to ‘Healthy body=Happy heart,’ and here, they take pride in the reunion between the urban chef and the rural geniuses we like to call farmers.
We could literally smell the festival at least from a mile away and were really surprised by the crowd that we found when we reached our destination. Masticar had a very lively atmosphere and everywhere we turned, we saw people holding food that almost looked like pieces of art yet delicious enough to inhale. Since we had waited to have lunch at the festival, we began scouting out our choices. There was a really long line at el Choribondi de La Cabrera (a food truck) so decided to have their signature ‘bife de chorizo’ and I’m happy to report that it was the best one I’ve ever tasted. For the dessert lovers, there were countless of stands filled with cookies, brownies and scones. We had a dulce de leche brownie from Sugar and Spice which was unlike any brownie I had ever tried.
This family-friendly event provided me the chance to see that there is a really big foodie community in Buenos Aires, much like the one in my home city, Austin, Texas. When I came to Argentina, I came with the misconception that all they eat is meat. I had no idea that their cuisine was so diverse and that chefs were dedicated to join the clean food movement. I saw people walking around with everything from craft beer to aprons and we saw stands dedicated to the discussion of wine and cooking techniques. With the growth of Masticar and other food festivals in Buenos Aires, I would not be surprised if this became a destination event in the coming years.
With only 3 published novels it may seem curious as to why Ernesto Sábato is considered one of the literary greats of Argentina, however his personal life and activities make his appeal more unique than that of a standard author. Born in Rojas, a province of Buenos Aires in 1911, he was involved with politics from his youth, a member of the Argentine Communist Youth Federation. After gaining his PhD in Physics, he later moved to Paris, France for a research position where he experienced the European surrealist movement first-hand, later to influence both his own work and that of other Latin American authors. After leaving science for writing he produced many essays in addition to 3 novels; many politically charged. Most notably, Sábato was the main author of the report Nunca más, on the atrocities committed in the Dirty War of Argentina which led to the prosecution of the responsible military leaders.
His first published novel, El túnel, came out in 1948 and tells the story of Juan Pablo Castel and his descent into an insane obsession with a woman named Maria. This obsession finally pushes him to murder her, and the events recounted in the novel are written from his jail cell. The two first meet at his gallery, where Maria is struck by his painting entitled ‘Maternity’, and Castel feels a connection to her, one he struggles to find with most people. He wanders the streets of Buenos Aires desperate to bump into her, which he does after many months. They start a relationship despite her being married, but Castel’s jealousy and irrationality causes the affair to break down, though he is still obsessed with the notion of fate, and the two being together, enough so that he eventually murders her for leaving him.
This short novel is concerned with existentialism to the extent that it has been compared to Albert Camus’ The Stranger, the character Castel laments the futility of existence: “A veces creo que nada tiene sentido.”, and takes pride in his solitude, while still longing to be understood. The name Juan Pablo is even a nod to Jean Paul Sartre, the philosopher who constructed existentialism. The story is also interesting when read psychologically, as Castel can be read as having an Oedipus complex, and his obsession with Maria is simply his search for a replacement mother figure - which makes the name of his painting over which the two bond, ’Maternity’, stand out, coupled with the fact then when he kills her he stabs her breasts and her stomach. Buenos Aires as a setting is important to the story, especially with its juxtaposition to the country ranch in Mar del Plata. While walking through the busy streets of the city you can almost feel as Castel did, desperately searching for Maria among the thousands of faces.
If there’s anything international it’s the love of books and classic films. April is a pretty busy cultural month in Buenos Aires, Argentina, especially concerning these popular pastimes.
This year was the 18th year of BAFICI, the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival. Movie-goers were able to catch at least one featured film daily from April 13th-April 24th at 27 different locations all throughout the city.
Not only is BACIFI an important vehicle to showcase local Argentinian talent, it also serves as a diverse channel to learn about cultures all over the world. Five continents were represented in unique ways and awards were given in categories such as Best Feature Film, Best Children’s Film and a UNICEF human rights award.
Bacifi is an opportunity to get to know Buenos Aires and the Argentinian culture as well! Among the list of theaters was the historic Teatro Colon and a few films featured live concerts, and food trucks.
Throughout the years, this film festival has become well known and reached well over a million spectators! Film aficionados have the opportunity to attend workshops and discussions with the cast and crew of specific films.
If you’re a book lover, never fear! The 42nd Annual International Book Fair in Buenos Aires is the place for you.
Held at La Rural, Predio Ferial, this enormous book fair is considered one of the five most important in the world. It houses over 2,500 stands and features books by over a million international authors.
Although the fair is a great place to stock up your book selection for the next year, it also provides an opportunity for small businesses, non-profit organizations and other governmental entities to have a presence and educate the public about their organization.
From new reads to classic fiction and interactive activities, to open discussions and workshops, there is sure to be something for everyone.
VOLUNTARIO GLOBAL
Voluntario Global helps local communities by being available to discuss anything that local organizations need, and offering ideas for further change and development.
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