Jet lagged in Buenos Aires. Our GapBreak volunteers prepare for their first week of work

Sleeping, eating, and drinking had become our small but tiring routine for the first three days. Had we known just how jet lagged we would be, we might have tried to prepare ourselves for a city that never sleeps, Buenos Aires. By now most of us have indulged in the overly cheap prices here in Buenos Aires, where it costs us less than 50 Australian dollars to buy a whole weeks’ worth of food and less than 30 Australian cents to catch a bus to where ever we choose for our next exploration.

Amazed by the city’s rocketing sky high buildings, stunning historical architecture, hectic city life and its extremely welcoming and carefree people it is without a doubt fair to say that we will be sad when the time comes to pack our bags and leave for home. Wednesday night was a night of pizza and vino out on the student residence terrace. As the sunset, the pizza was being cooked and the vino was definitely being drunk. We all met other volunteers and students who were here to do placements much similar to ours. People had come from all over the world to give their time to those in need of help. People had come from as far as Holland, America, England and of course Australia. The night was definitely an ice breaker and a really fun night. Some did enjoy the vino a little too much but we were able to recoup in the morning. After we had the first two or three days to settle in and meet new people we all started to venture off and explore the city. Friday we were lucky enough to be accompanied by our Spanish teachers in a grand tour of one of the eldest towns in Buenos Aires, San Telmo. San Telmo having been standing for thousands of years is historically known from the British invasion that took place in and around 1806. San Telmo became known as violent, street fighting neighbourhood. Now San Telmo boast of exotic flea markets and antique markets where all the streets are closed so shops can set up and prepare for the mad rush of Argentines.

This was a trip we all greatly enjoyed. We learnt how to catch the sub whilst keeping our eye on our day packs to make sure they hadn’t been scrummage through whilst climbing through the people to get a spot on the sub. One or two of us experienced just how quickly the sub door shut without too much warning, but low and behold no one was injured. As we peered out of the sub and walked into the middle of San Telmo we could not have looked any more like a group of Caucasian tourists. We whipped out our cameras and crammed as many photos in as possible. Our Spanish teachers took us to see Plaza de mayo. This is a place where the mothers of the plaza de mayo congregate with pictures and signs of their missing children. These children disappeared during the national reorganization, also known as the Argentine dirty war. 

The Argentinian military was anti-communist and those who supported this idea were to be tortured till death. The mothers took advantage of the plaza and still to this very day gather on Thursdays where they still look for their children. We were also taken to see a very historical church, the metropolitan cathedral where they hold the first union jack that was successfully taken down after the English invasion.

The next to cross off our list was La Boca. This was of all the most exciting and exhilarating of our experience’s so far. The streets were of original cobble stone, the buildings were of bright colour and the streets were full of life, food and markets. Here we saw a small glimpses of the Argentine street tango which we are all looking forward to seeing more of. We ended up splitting into small groups of three and four and venturing off to see just what La Boca had in stall for us.

As lunch time hit our stomachs were screaming for food so we all decided to join and see what the argentine BBQ boasts, except for one of us who is vegetarian but was happy to sit and participate in the fun of watching us all feast. Now we have been shown what volunteering placement we will be doing we are preparing ourselves for a very busy first day of work. Some of us will be travelling an hour away from home to work, for others it’s a short bus trip. No doubt we will all come home exhausted and surprised. A lot of our expectations will be different to those we predicted only a few hours before starting. Alex.