Sunday 24th April

At last the system is working and I have access to the internet both at the same time!
Life has been really busy since we have arrived and there is so much to tell though Jerusha and Sam have pretty much covered the visits up to yesterday so here is my contribution with the bits that I have done without the team and some feelings and experience of Rotary in Argentina.
First, I am staying at The KafeeHaus with Hugo and Heidi they are just so lovely and have made life very comfortable for me here. Nothing is too much trouble for them and my stay wioth them has been very memorable, I will leave them tomorow with great sadness.
On our first day I hardly saw the team untill later that evening. I was taken to visit three schools for children and young people with disabilities. Partly these visits were arranged due to my vocation and partly as a Rotarian these form a large part of the work that the local Rotary clubs are doing here in Beunos Airies. The first was a very poor school, the children were mainly disabled due to lack of nutrition pre and after birth. The school receives very little funding from the government apart from the pay for the teachers. Rotary works hard to provide for their other needs. This consists of mainly providing materials for their learning. They make cakes and sweets as well as carpentery items and plants which they sell to buy more materials. The children learn skills in these areas that will help them get work in the future. The children are given two meals a day at school and without this they often go without food all day. The staff worked with groups of 10 or 12 children with none of the behaviours that we see at home. They are very committed and positive and show huge respect for the children and a true desire to make their lives better. During the school holidays they go to the school and hand out food to the children.  The second visit was to an adult work shop where they teach catering skills to people in wheelchairs. They also run projects to support families with children with physical disabilities including deafness. The staff work voluntarily in their spare time running classes within the community and using this money to provide the cooking materials needed for the disabled members that they help. They also support the social workers in finding adoptive families for the children who are abandoned. Lastly we went to a place, a day center though they still call it a school. Here the building was very basic. They teach skills in machining wash cloths, carpentery, mechanics and gardening as well as continuing education in readining, speach and writing. They were so gratefull for materials to fix the roof and spend their spare time doing the repairs them selves. They had little equipment and space and the people were lucky to get two sessions a week. Sessions are morning, afternoon and evening.
The day was very sad and made you realise what a materialistic society we live in. No one here seems to complain about cuts and lack of money just look to finding ways to make things better.  Later that evening we had a welcome dinner. We were made to feel very special and they made some very elequent and touching speaches to make us welcome. We then did our introductions, the team were very confident and spoke well and the audience were lovely I am very proud to say that I completed mine in spanish, they were very complimentary about my spanish, not sure if this was just politeness or if it was my amazing language skills!  Here the Rotary clubs mainly have their own buildings where they hold their meetings. During the days they rent these out and the money is used to support the fund raising and projects that they support.they cook their own meals as this also saves money and the lower subs which then makes Rotary open to more people.  Hugo is a Rotarian of 32 years and is both very knowledgeable about Rotary in Argentina and abroad. He was a team leader in England and then Germany and is able to share these experiences with me. He is also very astute as to the changes needed to keep Rotary going in the future.
District 4855 are as committed to the values of GSE as we are in 1090 and I have already met previous team members and leaders who are very supportive and enthusiastic about making our stay both valuable and enjoyable. Today we have had a fun packed day with a visit to the city centre. Tomorow we leave the lavely people that we have met and the great families who have given us homes to stay in and we move to the club of Gerneral Rodriguez which is the largest club in this district and 60k from the city center.