Felicidades Nils!

Sonntag abend, 21.45 Uhr deutscher Zeit, ist Nils Ole Lindhorst gesund und munter auf die Welt gekommen! Herzlichen Glueckwunsch an alle Beteiligten und alles Gute fuer euer Zusammenleben!!

Auf dem Foto seht ihr uns noch am selben Abend auf euer Wohl anstossen. Mariana, Sekretaerin und noch viel mehr gute Seele des Diakoniebueros und ihr Freund Sebastian haben sich mit mir gefreut. Und vielleicht haben die beiden eine Chance, Nils direkt zu treffen? Marianna wird in 2 Wochen ihre Diakonausbildung in Bethel beginnen. Ein herber Verlust fuer Buenos Aires, aber fuer Bielefeld und alles im Reisespektrum ein Riesengewinn!

Smoked Aires

The picture I shot from my window view (compare below) appeals at first to be an impression of the beginning autumn in Buenos Aires. In fact it has nothing to do with the season's change. Since half a week the city is covered in smoke and smells like a big campfire site. The farmers of the river delta are burning their fields to prepare the land easily for the next seed. Some 70.000 hectars are burning and because the rain is missing, it causes the biggest smoke in Buenos Aires since the beginning of weather chronicles. While the practise of burning the fields is undertaken by the farmers year by year, for the first time the wind blows in the direction of the capital, whereas in recent years only Rosario, sencond largest city of Argenina, suffered from the smoke. Therefore, political discussion has been started about the effects on health and environment and about possible means against the farmers. Who looks for the deeper reasons of the smoke encounters once more: la soya. Since the bean needs a lot of nutrients and is grown in huge monocultures, fires have become bigger and bigger over the recent years. At the moment the only solution is waiting for rain to come and the wind to change.

Wie man in die internationalen Medien kommt...

Endlich!!! Nachrichten aus Deutschland! Denn der Sprung aus Europa in die Weltpresse ist nicht leicht, dazu muss man schon zum dritten Mal Berlusconi waehlen oder Militaerschlaege gegen die Farc anbieten. Aber am Mittwoch, nachdem mich auch noch meine Spanischlehrerin und meine Kollegin auf die Noticias aus Alemania ansprachen, ueberkam mich ein leiser Stolz auf die internationale Wirkung meiner Regierungschefin...

Andere wichtige Termine zur Zeit:
20.04.: Parlamentswahlen in Paraguay - Chance auf die Abloehsung der seit 60 Jahren herrschenden Rosarios.
08.-20.04.: Internationales Independent Filmfestival BAFICI in Buenos Aires, mit einer riesigen Auswahl interessanter Produktionen.
Und in Europa: 24.-27.04. Krakaus queeres Festival "Kultura dla Tolerancji", mit dem Marsch fuer Toleranz am Samstag. Dieses Jahr hoffentlich bis zum Rynek!

Murga in Florencia Varela

While visiting Vanessa and Carina of the EKiR volunteers in Florencio Varela last thursday, I had the great opportunity to take part in my first murga lesson! Murga is folkloristic music performed in the barrios, a stamping rythm played on different drums, accompagnied by a circle dance which looks energetic and ancient. Who ever took part in the Samba they play under the Severinstorburg while Colonge carneval has a comparison to the joy the murga means to people here. Aditionally, the murga is used as an instrumenent in societal conflicts. It is performed in political manifestations, e.g. on the 24 of march when Argentina remembers the military coup in 1976 and the 30.000 desaparecidos during dictatorship, as well as in the demonstrations of recent political conflicts when the people from the villas manifest their political will.

Besides, the visit in Florencio Varela clearly displayed how large the economic disparities between the rather weathly "Capital" district and the suburbs of Gran Buenos Aires are. In some parts, the scenery equals the images of the movie "city of god" of which some of you might be familiar with. The "villas" in Florencia Varela started as an occupation of land of those who had nothing after they migrated to Buenos Aires. Every family who took part in the occupations got a marked piece of land, had to build something with a roof during the first 6 months and slowly has been improving the own houses and territories. Therefore, one clearly gets an impression of the ages of the different villas. Areas where the houses are made of pieces of wood and corrugated sheets, areas where the houses start to have concrete walls, up to villas with a functioning tab water system. While seeing the situation one question was the strongest: Which chances do the people have to escape the poverty?

Argentinischer Alltag I

Schlange Stehen: Mag auch in Argentinien einiges nicht funktionieren, im Schlange Stehen sind sie Weltmeister. Vor dem Bus und an der Kasse, in der Post oder vorm Bankautomat, es wird sich ordentlich aufgereiht, ohne Murren und mit betraechtlicher Geduld stellen sich auch die aufmuepfigsten Jugendlichen hinten an. Die Schlangen erreichen haeufig erstaunliche Laengen, manchmal mehr als einen Haeuserblock. Ob die Leute hinten wissen, wofuer sie hier anstehen, kann getrost angezweifelt werden.

Zahnstocher: Im ausgiebigen Benutzen von Zahnstochern erkennt man den wahren Argentinier. Nach dem Essen darf ausgiebiges und kollektives Stochern, Kratzen und Pulen nicht fehlen. Leicht ueberkommt einem der Eindruck, dass die Zahnzwischenraeume der Argentinier unendliche Weiten aufweisen. Vielleicht stellt diese Form der Vorratsspeicherung auch eine geschickte Anpassung an die oekonomischen Krisen der letzten Jahrzehnte dar.

Koeperkontakt: Gerne ein bisschen naeher! Zum Abschied und zur Begruessung wird gekuesst, Maenner mit ein bisschen Abstand, Frauen mit Beruehrung, Kinder ohne jede Hemmung feucht und direkt. Anfassen ist in allen moeglichen Zusammenhaengen erlaubt, als Zeichen der Bestaerkung, um Aufmerksamkeit zu erzielen, als Ausdruck von Sympathie. Im Collectivo (Bus) und in der Subte (U-Bahn) erreicht die Naehe ihren Hoehepunkt. Wer um 19.30 Uhr in die Subte steigen will, wirft sich in den Eingang und hofft darauf, dass der Rest der Menschenmasse ausreichend nachgibt, um so noch einen Platz zu ergattern.

Back in the big city

Monday was the day I finally could continue my travel and visit Charata and J.J.Castelli. Tuesday, the farmer activists stopped there blocades in total, after the political pressure of other parts of Argentina's society grew and were displayed - among others - in a huge demonstration of the supporters of Christina's policy in Buenos Aires. Among the protesters there, were also a lot of ex-farmers who had to leave the countryside in the last years due to the process of automatization in the country urged by big agricultural enterprises.

Insteresting also the reception of my hosts in Castelli who were, above all, concerned about the language and attitude of the farmer activists. It reminded them of the undemocratic elements which still exist in Argentina and which goverened the country in the years of the military dictaturship. "This government won't last more then 6 months" was one of the most cited sentences in which one can find this attitude exposed. Especially the women I met pointed at another aspect of the conflict. For the parts of the fight were simply due to the fact that the country people couldn't stand giving in to a female president in a still largely macho society. 30 days is the period for which the agroactivits suspended the strike and the time to find compromises outlined in my entry before.


Besides these political impressions, I visited two social organisations, one working with women and children in Charata (mostly workshops with inhabitants of poor neighbourhoods) and one working with aborigenes in the areas of education, health and agriculture. Both worth to write more about but I won't break the mould here. After two weeks of Buenos Aires, it was great to experience other parts of Argentina and the region, which are so different and served to get a broader picture of Argentina's reality. The topic of the Aborigenes, of which I didn't know that it is a topic (which can be already seen as a sign of the consciousnes of today's Argentinean society); the conflicts around the soya which affect the whole region; the tempo of living on the countryside and its religous traditions were some of the most impressive experiences.

Nevertheless, it felt gorgeous to come back to Buenos Aires yesterday, almost like coming home. Even more, the country trip served to make up with the life here better - Understand more and enjoy the situation in Buenos Aires. On top of that, I got a new room in the student's home which is much nicer then the old one and has a great window sill to spend the sunny mornings on (which I - thanks to Jens' Laptop and the wireless conection which surprisingly works today - do at the moment!). Think it could continue like this!