First Impressions of Cordoba, Argentina

If I was a typical tourist, I would not have been whisked from the airport by Julio, my Argentinean mentor, and taken to a gathering of 10 locals in an upper middle class home, complete with swimming pool, and to enjoy paella, wine, champagne, and mate (a South American form of tea drunk all times of the day). Julio arranges for volunteers to work with non-profits here and is a management consultant/accountant. Of the others I was observing and seldom understanding were a sports reporter, a race car reporter, their wives or girlfriends, and an owner/manager of buildings. The conversation touched on religion, politics, but missed money. People here are following the race between Clinton and Obama, but don’t seem to know much about McCain or Romney. It seems I can’t escape American politics, but it’s nice to have a little distance from it. I do get the headlines every time I turn on my computer.

After finally arriving at my home away from home, I learned that my new housemates were at the park. I left my luggage packed and we went to meet them. Little did I know they were biding their time in Parque Sarmiento for dinner. After getting acquainted with fellow volunteers—a French woman, a Spanish woman, and two Americans, and Diego, the house manager, we meandered to city central for a buffet at about 9:30 p.m. We were among the first ones there. This was some spread, and all for less than $10 U.S., including wine and pop. I’m going to get fat down here at this rate.

Today is my first day on the “job”. After a relatively sleepless night due to the heat (which I know is hard for those in the northern part of the U.S. to even comprehend at this time of year), I awoke minutes before meeting my Spanish tutor, who I didn’t even know would be here, not that I could have prepared myself any more for our first encounter. He’s actually an English teacher. I’m his guinea pig for teaching Spanish. (Apparently the regular Spanish teacher went on holiday, without giving much advance notice). We’ll see how this goes with my smattering of Spanish.

My next meeting was a briefing with Julio, Catherine—the French student who I will be tutoring in writing a marketing plan and Veronica, the volunteer coordinator. This week we’ll develop questions and thought about what should be included in the marketing plan for a 13-year old non-profit organization that works with children who have disabilities. Next week, at the expense of the Argentine government, Catherine and I will go to the Sierras for a program in which we will spend time with children who have disabilities and their parents. The following week, we finally meet with AYSAND, the non-profit for which we will write the marketing plan. That’s what I’ll then spend the rest of my time here doing, as well as taking a few side trips to see more of central Argentina.