We chose to do volunteering in the ONG “Voluntario Global” which is a nonprofit organization in Buenos Aires offering international volunteer projects such as English classes, environment projects, childcare, soup kitchens and primary classes in schools and so one with other organizations and communities and we are involved in the community center project and the English classes.
The COVID-19 virus started few months before we arrive in Buenos Aires, and after a few days visiting the city and enjoying our exchange experience in Buenos Aires, the Covid 19 virus started to expand worldwide and gained space in our lives. The first measure told by Alberto Fernández, the President of Argentina, was to keep foreign people, who comes from the main affected countries in quarantine during 14 days. So, we were concerned by this measure, so we started our containment.
We were quite frustrated to be in this huge and symbolic city and stay home during all this time. We could go back in France like many others French students in Argentina, but we chose to stay because we couldn’t leave without discovering the culture, the monuments, the gastronomy, the landscapes and meet “Los porteños” of Argentina.
During this containment, as foreigners, we have been through different difficulties such as buying food to eat during all this time, because we couldn’t go out to buy it but hopefully some neighbors helped us to get food as soon as possible. Otherwise, others neighbors were afraid to get the virus from us, thus they started to call the police every day to check if the containment rules were well respected which we completely understood even though it was sometimes annoying and frightening for us. Besides, we were always in contact with the coordinators, directors of Voluntario Global through Skype and WhatsApp, they offered their help and made sure to keep us safe.
Unfortunately, we had to reduce our volunteering time from 4 to 2 months because of this coronavirus crises, but we hope to learn and discovers many things anyway professionally and personally anyway. During these days closed at home, we took advantage of this time to do sports, yoga, lessons of Spanish, note things to do in Buenos Aires, cooking, watching movies in Spanish subtitles to prepare our exchange. After a week, the full containment started for everyone in Argentina, and it will be finished in the 31th of March, after all of that, we hoped to finally meet the coordinators, volunteers and all the persons involved in the projects of the ONG, visiting Buenos Aires and begin fully our incredible exchange semester.
