Travel recovery and a road trip

We made it! BK and I arrived in a very cold Buenos Aires Saturday morning, joining a couple of our fellow Habitat volunteers who had arrived early. We arrived in time for lunch and walked from our hotel to lunch with our fellow team members. I didn't do a lot of research on traditional Argentinean food, but I don't think we've had it yet. I will say- there seems to be a big Italian influence.

Habitat Argentina's office-house

In the afternoon we went to Habitat Argentina's "office/house" for an orientation on the work they do and the programs they have. Their "office/house" is truly that, as volunteers who are here for the summer, and I think some employees, live at the office, which is a converted house.

A little bit about Argentina: 

• There are about 12M people living in poverty;
• Most renters must rent under the table, as it's common practice to require a relative's property to be put up as collateral;
• Lots of people live in abandoned buildings that someone has taken over and rents to squatters;
• There are slums all around Buenos Aires, but often they are overlooked and overshadowed by the skyscrapers.

Monument in Buenos Aires

It honestly seems that Buenos Aires has a lot of the same problems any mid-to-large sized city does, with one exception- inflation. I'm not sure how anyone ever invests in Argentina, as inflation has increased about 40% year over year for the past few years. BK says something about devaluation. Essentially, one day you could have $30,000 in the bank and then next it could be worth $10,000. Not good over all.

Habitat does two types of projects here- seed houses and tutored rent. The seed houses are similar to what we're familiar with in the US, with the exception of the fact that the family builds the house and we are here to help them. They manage the construction schedule, what materials are used and all other aspects of the project. Tutored rent is a program that I particularly love, as it takes families out of the "under the table" rental market, lets them rent from habitat for a few years to gain rental history and credit and then gives them a boost as they move on to other living arrangements. Right up my alley.

Today was a long day, as we had a 10 hour bus ride. Road trips are not really BK and my thing, but we're along for the ride on this one. We drove from Buenos Aires to Bahia Blanca in a minibus. The roads were surprisingly good, although BK is convinced that we took the long way to get here.The trip consisted of a lot of farm land, a few gas station stops and getting lost about a mile away from the hotel in Bahia Blanca. I dozed off and on all day, listened to podcasts and made BK play cards with me to pass the time. Needless to say, I don't think we'll be switching to road trips anytime soon.

Our group at dinner

We ended our night by checking into the hotel and immediately going to dinner. I'm wrapping up here so I can get some rest and be ready to head to the worksite in the morning, where we'll meet the family we're serving and will get things started. Hope to update you soon, but with the spotty wifi we'll have to wait and see!