Paradise

Today I made this!!! A Bamboo fence! My first attempt and I think I did okay!

We are volunteering with a NGO called 'Chacras de Buenos Aires' (translated: Farms of Buenos Aires), it is a fairly small organisation that has big aims and goals. Four months ago the organisation acquired control of a decent sized piece of land, complete with the shell of a grand old house that was abandoned and came to ruin during the financial crisis that happened in Argentina 10 years ago. It is hard to believe how nature has reclaimed the house and how much disrepair it has fallen into in just 10 years. I am sure people scavenging for materials may have had something to do with it though. The house was the residence of a very wealthy man, who sold it to the bank days before the recession hit, he had signed the papers but the bank went broke before he was paid. It also hosted gatherings for the local elderly people, I can just imagine them having high tea on the pattio and wandering through the gardens. Check out a few photos, you can just imagine the grandeur and luxury that it originally held...

Check out the beautiful bluestone floors!

The land is located between two small villages, neither rural or suburban, they are kind of a nowhere land (a little like Lysterfield, though nowhere near as posh!) It is surrounded by small hold farms growing various organic produce. The eventual use of the property will be to house a shop where the local growers can sell their produce at a fair price. The locals are an odd mix, mainly Japanese and Bolivian immigrants who are pretty tightly monopolized by an individual 'entrepreneur' who takes all of their produce but pays them for only half of it, claiming the other half was spoilt or unable to be sold, and keeping the profits. The farmers don't have any other options, they don't have the wealth to buy a truck to take it to markets to sell it themselves, nor the ability to sell it to someone who will give them a fair price. The aim of Chacras de Buenos Aires is to provide fair trade to the growers, allow them some independence and fair wages for the work that they do. 

Some of the stories we have heard are horrendous. One lady who we saw, though she was very shy so she refused to be introduced, looked about 40. When we got back in the car our host informed us that she was actually 17, her husband is 40 and very strict. She was married when she was 12 and has four children. It is an entirely new world to us. This used to be common practice however it is apparently slowing down, the government has made laws preventing it though they are rarely enforced.

Our little horror story is nothing in comparison.....

Our first day here volunteering was Saturday, we drove out to the farm with the head of the organisation, a couple of other volunteers and her dear little 5 year old son 'B'. As we got to the gate, B jumped out of the car and yelled out (in Spanish!) "We are in Paradise!!!"

And at first glance that is what it was, a humming bird by the fence, giant stands of bamboo, green grass and the shell of the house, some beautiful gum trees to remind us of home.... Paradise...

We enjoyed our day, drinking mate, eating food cooked on the fire, laughing and joining in the conversations where we could. We unpacked, we found our room and were a bit apprehensive about the state of it... but we didn't say anything, afraid to offend. At around 5pm we said Hasta Manana to our new found friends, saw them off, locked the gate behind us, ready to settle in for the night. I'm not going to type all of the details, but the night consisted of terrifying spiders (more so as we do not know anything about the spiders here) a profound amount of mosquitos, roaring music from the property next door, barricading the room against the stray dogs that generally used the bed we were sleeping on as their own. We did not feel safe, we did not feel comfortable, we did not sleep. I can't describe how scary it was. Bumps in the night that you know logically are nothing to be afraid of is one thing, bumps in the night when you don't know their language, are surrounded by stray dogs, you are the only gringos in 20 kilometers and do not have a door to lock are another thing. Really we weren't in any danger, but had that feeling of being totally out of control and out of our depth with no lifeguards on duty. It was awful.

Below is a picture of our room, no door, some mesh over the window, and a smell that I can't put words to... 

Needless to say, the next morning when the little family arrived to see how we are going and to do some work on the property we quickly made it clear that we couldn't stay there for another night. They seemed surprised, offered to clean the room for us. We told them there was no way we could stay another night, no matter what happened. They were so so kind, so understanding and so damn accommodating they made me want to bawl, I held myself together though. So instead we are staying in San Telmo, Buenos Aires, at the office and headquarters of Chacras De Buenos Aires, where they have a loft upstairs with a bunch of beds for their volunteers. The bus ride to the farm each day is long, but interesting to see the different suburbs surrounding the city, and how the dynamics change the further out of town you go. 

We are enjoying our work there, but really not working too hard. Today we spent some time playing with the goats. Blanco, the male, is super cheeky. He is a clown.

Very shortly after him hopping on the table, the whole thing fell over, spilling a flask of near boiling water down one side of me... I feel a little sunburnt! 

 Travel is so much about the places you see, but it is even more about the people you meet who will go out of their way to help you out, the stories you hear that seem to belong to another world, a wold a million miles out of our own comfort zone, which I guess is where we are, but are we not all but one and the same? Don't we all deserve the same rights and freedoms? 

This is one of the most civil, most wealthy countries in South America, I don't know how we will cope when we see real poverty...

Every single day I am realising more and more how good we have it in Australia, how damn lucky we are to have all that we do. We are here and seeing hardships, but at a click of our fingers we could be back home, warm and safe.

And how lucky I am to know that, if I have had enough, if I have seen enough, if at any time I need to feel a bit more safe and secure, if  I need to fade back into oblivion and shield my eyes from the pains of the world, I can jump right on a plane and be back in Paradise. Because that is what Australia is for me... 

Paradise.