Ray's Travels

I’m going to have to take back a lot of the nasty things I’ve thought and said a about the Catholic nuns throughout my life. Many of the nuns that I had as teachers seemed unhappy and overburdened.

The women that we are working with and for are wonderful. They are totally appreciative of the work we are doing. They are active all of the time. They smile genuine smiles and act as though they are happy. They will serve our lunch and set up food and beverages for breaks. When they do a task they work as a team. There is very little talk. They just seem to know what to do.

There are several that are in their 20’s, and they wear habits. They could not be more gracious. They are taking special care of Marie.

I think I needed this experience. I shouldn’t die thinking of all nuns as being like my sixth grade teacher, Sister Marky DeSade.

Hot as Hell today! The temperature had to have hit 100F. The sun is brutal. You have to work in spurts. You want to do as much work as possible and not be a slacker but you have to be realistic.

As the story goes, the threatening gang-banger stopped by last night and apologized. Maybe someone in the community got to him or he just sobered up. He told the nuns that the wall would not be marked up. We’ll see if this holds but it is progress. Our crew has been cleaning up the area between the sidewalk and the street. Some of the parents have seen it and like it. They have offered to donate plantings and trees.

This is the point of these projects. We can’t clean up an entire downtrodden area. Maybe we can start the ball rolling to show people that a little effort and pride can motivate everyone to do better and take more of an interest. Somebody has to make a start.

Mike suggested to the nuns that maybe they should have some art students paint a mural on the wall. They called an art school and they were excited by the idea. They are going to come out and look at it. It could be a great project for them. A mural would go a long way to prevent graffiti.

Lunch, my favorite time of day. It just get’s better. Today the specialty was pasta with meat sauce. This wasn’t just any pasta. The secretary of the school has worked there for 50 years. She hand made the noodles. They were fresh and soft when she brought them to the school. Truly amazing!

You work on these projects and usually there is a great outpouring of gratitude at the beginning and then things tail off. The food gets worse and fewer people show up. This project is exactly the opposite. It’s almost as if enthusiasm is building. There is more and better food every day. They want to accommodate our every whim. There are more people there every day and they want to come back. The great thing is that ours is a group of giving, experienced people that have all checked their ego at the door. We don’t expect their appreciation but it is still heartwarming and motivating. There is absolutely no sense of ingratitude.

Dinner tonight was back to the local Italian place. Great food, reasonable price. What more could you ask for except a full time masseuse to ease my aching muscles.

The repainted wall. It will be painted blue. White just is too inviting to graffiti.

The local workers that are helping with the wall. They act a site managers to make sure we are doing things right. They also mix cement and coordinate things.

This is how hot it was today.

We left the hotel at 8:00 am. It is about a 50 minute ride to the school that is our job site. The school was very well prepared for us. Mike had sent money down so they could pour the columns for the second floor expansion. Those columns were in place so that we could proceed with laying brick. I was put in charge of the masonry crew. Others were working on improving the playground. Another team is working on cleaning, repairing and painting windows. It did not take long to get into action.

It is summer break Argentina so the students are not around. However, many of the teachers are around to assist. We also have a couple of university students that are acting as translators.

Part of our arrangement with the school is that they would prepare lunch for us. They took that very seriously. The cook and a crew worked all morning on preparing lunch. There was chicken fried steak, potatoes, a lot of different vegetables, fresh fruit and ice cream for desert.

We clean up at about 3:45 pm and leave for the hotel at 4:00 pm. Tonight we were on our own for dinner so we found a nice local Italian restaurant.

The weather is getting hotter. There is a lot of bright sun and the humidity is creeping up. When you are not used to doing heavy physical labor (like brick laying) it takes a lot out of you. As you might imagine, it was an exhausting day.

The wall we are constructing. It will be stuccoed later. The brick is red clay and is breaks quite easily. It is certainly not like the cinder blocks we are used to.

Marie on the paint crew.

Some major work on the playground. Large plants were transplanted and a lot of dirt was removed for the construction of a sandbox.

The schedule is basically the same today. We were warmly greeted on our arrival at the school by the nuns, the teachers, the novitiates (nuns in training), and a few others that are helping with the project.

It seemed like the weather is hotter and the sun is brighter. It is tough to sustain your work effort in those condition. You have to stay hydrated. People are bringing us water but every once in awhile you have to get out of the sun even though you have a hat and sunscreen. It was probably over 96 F. When laying bricks on a second story it is not a good idea to keel over from heat stroke.

Again, the cook went all-out for our lunch. There was quiche, something like a stuffed pizza, vegetables, fruit and some kind of flon for desert. Lunch is a production. This isn’t cheap swill that they are serving. Everything is freshly prepared and of very good quality.

Interruption: What Americans call soccer is very big in Argentina. I will call it “futbol” so as not to be confused with American football without having to use the word “soccer”.

There is a crew that is working on removing the graffiti, cleaning and reprinting the outside wall. One of the pieces of graffiti is an amateurish shield of the local futbol team. Some young gang-banger came by and took great exception to the remove and painting over of the shield. There were some harsh words between the punk and the nuns and some of the teachers. We were fearful that the clean-up work would be destroyed by a gang. The guy was probably drunk or high. He had the shield tattooed on his body. It wasn’t a pleasant confrontation. We’ll see where this goes.

After an exhausting day we had dinner at a nice local restaurant. I had some wonderful chicken with mushroom sauce. The food is good here in Argentina!

Mike in executive session with Sister Theresa, the Mother Superior.

One of our reptile friends that hangs out in the garden area by the playground.

It was actually a rather pleasant flight to BA. Instead of taking the direct flight from JFK at a horribly expensive rate, we stopped over in Miami. We spent our layover in the airline lounge and caught an overnight flight that arrived at about 10:00 am. By the time we got to the hotel the room was ready so it all worked out quite well.

We had the rest of the day to walk around the city. The weather was absolutely magnificent so it was a great way to get reacquainted. This is Marie’s first time here. She didn’t expect the city to be as beautiful as it is.

At 7:30 pm the group got together for a dinner. We went to a nice Italian place.

The downer of the day is the one of our group, Patrick, was at an outdoor market and was robbed. It was the old scam of something being spilled on him, a couple of girls rush to clean him off while someone picked his wallet out of a zipped pocket. He lost his money and credit cards. It is an old but effective scam. You always have to be on total guard in cities like this.

Now that is a lamp pole.

Today we went back to the school to meet with the sisters and firm up our project for February. We were given a full tour of the school and the facilities. School was in session so we were able to observe and visit with the students in their classrooms.

Along with running the school the sisters operate soup kitchen that serves lunch to street kids and homeless adults. Street kids are a particular problem in South America. If a family can’t afford to send their child to school the kid will just wander the streets throughout the day and possibly throughout the night. When we went out the door to see who was waiting for lunch there was on kid about 6 or 7 years old smoking a cigarette. One of the nuns talked to him and got him to give up his cigarettes and matches. She was quite persuasive. There are two shifts for the soup kitchen. The kids are served first and then the adults.

The Soup Kitchen.

Visiting the classrooms was very interesting. We found ourselves to be very disruptive. Mike is a giant of a man and the kids were very excited. They all wanted to have their picture taken with him. During the time that we will be doing the project in February the students will be on holiday. We asked for volunteers to help up with the project. Amazingly, a lot of kids signed up. The nuns thought there would be little or no interest because volunteering would interfere with their holiday. Yet, they seemed very excited. We will see if they follow through.

Visiting a classroom.

Dinner wouldn’t be dinner in Argentina without beef and several glasses of Malbec. Very enjoyable!