Party Food

I have lovely memories of my own childhood birthday parties .... the food was always special. Mum would labour in the kitchen, producing pikelets, lamingtons, and jellies in orange skins.

When we arrived in Argentina I wasn't sure what to serve at our kids' parties. But I'm learning that it is a pretty simple formula for a successful Argentine party ....

....huge bowls of potato chips, cheezels, colourful cereals (like giant Fruit Loops), and palitos (another type of savoury chip). If hot food is offered, it is inevitably the PANCHO (hotdog) that makes an appearance.

One time I did try the pikelet recipe (of course I covered them in Argentine 'dulce de leche' .. caramel spread ... to make them more acceptable), but there was a bit too much suspicion. They sat quietly on their plate until one valiant young partygoer recognised their merit and disposed of them!

Posted by Julie

The Bicentenary Argentine style

I can remember back to celebrating the Bicentenary in Australia in 1988. We went to the harbour, along with the masses, and watched the tall ships coming in, and then the fireworks of course!

This past weekend we got to see a Bicententary Argentine style. Very kindly the President gave another public holiday- so we had Mon and Tues off. We went up to the hills - our favourite spot Los Cocos. Up in the hills each town had their own 'acto', with music, speeches and a march past, often with horses.

Down in Buenos Aires, everything was huge of course. On Tuesday night we watched on tele the 'Artistic' display (as opposed to the military one which was another day). They had chosen about 15 floats to represent important aspects of the last 200 years.

What did they choose?

1. Pueblos Originarios- the aboriginal people of Argentina.
2. Miss Argentina- well it wasn't really, but it was a woman floating wiht the flag wrapped and colours wrapped around her.
3. Connection with the 'campo' (the country, farming)- folklorico
4. Immigration- both from across the seas (with a massive boat) and from neighbouring countries (there are 2 million Bolivians in Argentina)
5. Tangos and Taxis- the dancers arrived in the classic Buenos Aires cabs!
6. Peronism and 'manifestaciones' - demonstrations of the workers for their rights and conditions
7. Argentine industry- for example, autos and fridges.
8. Golpes del Estado (military coups) including a burning constitution.
9. Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, those who protested about the 'Disappeared' during the dictatorship.
10. Las Malvinas- remembering the war.
11. Carnival- celebrating the return of democracy
12. The Economic Crises (plural)
13. America Latina- Argentina taking its place in the continent.
14. Technology and looking to the future
15. Finale - with Argentine Rock and everyone dancing.

It was very well done and quite moving.

How different would a list of 15 look for Australia? Some things the same? What would be different?

How history helps...

There is a well known rivalry in Argentina between Buenos Aires, the capital, and the other cities of the interior, like Córdoba. (Perhaps a little like Sydney/Melbourne, but as with all things here, more passionate). 'Los porteños', that is those living at the port, are thought of as arrogant and brash by the Cordobeses. And a little history helps us understand where this rivalry comes from.

In 1810, when Napoleon was taking control of Spain, various influential people in Buenos Aires took the chance to get rid of the Vice-roy of the area known as the Rio de La Plata. They wanted open trade with other nations for one thing. And so they formed a new government in Buenos Aires. However, when the news reached Córdoba, the majority of the men of influence in Córdoba supported the deposed vice-roy. They didn't want this new government- they saw it as something to favour Buenos Aires, and not the rest of the country. An army was sent from Buenos Aires, and those who opposed the new government were captured, and then executed (except for one who was a priest- there's one good reason for wearing your dog collar!) This was seen by many as barbaric. And so even from these early days we can see animosity between the cities. It continued on in what was essentially a civil war for much of the 19th century and in many ways it is surprising that Argentina remained as one country.

This weekend is a long weekend- 25 of May is the bicentenary of this revolution that took place in BA. 200 years of patria. We look forward to seeing how the Argentines celebrate.

Back in time

Sometimes living in Argentina feels like going back in time. Today we drove past a service station and there were 4 men waiting to 'serve' someone. This is something that I think went out a long time ago in Australia- a service station where they serve you (perhaps only in some country towns nowadays). You will also see lots of corner stores- little shops selling the basics, butcher shops, newspaper stands, little pharmacies, even sometimes people set up a little shop in the front room of their house. Yes, there are big supermarkets but the small shop is still alive (not so sure about how 'well' they are). And the surprising thing is that the prices are actually quite good- sometimes even better than the big supermarkets.

World Cup Fever

Preparation for the ¨Mundial¨ (the World Cup Soccer) is reaching new heights. When I entered the supermarket last week I was assaulted by huge signs declaring 26 days until the Mundial ..... had to wade through Argentine flags, TShirts and blue and white boxer and knicker sets to do my regular shopping.

At school, our 12 year old is a little frustrated by tomorrow´s test .... in PE they will be sitting an extensive exam on the rules of soccer. As he is a basketballer, not a footballer, that´s a bit freaky. He´s swatted up on dimensions of the field, the ball, the uniform regulations, and of course, the rules.

And for bonus points the teacher urged them to come prepared with some information on the weekend´s big games in Buenos Aires. So now he´s all teed up on who played who, which players scored and those who were sent off, rah rah rah.

I have heard rumours that school will be cancelled on days that Argentina plays, but I just can´t believe that one .... wait and see.....

Posted by Julie

You know you´re adjusting to the culture when .....

.....you take your 5 year old son out for an icecream at 7.30pm because dinner still feels a long way off.

Posted by Julie

The Godmother

In Argentina there is apparently a certain amount of superstition attached to having seven children of the same sex in a row in the one family.

During the week, Laura and Ricardo presented their 7th daughter for baptism at their local Catholic church, and as national custom allows, were able to ask no less than the President of Argentina to complete the role of godmother!

The President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was not able to personally attend the event, but sent her new god daughter the customary gold chain with her best wishes.

It is believed by some Argentines that the seventh child of the same sex to be born to the same couple has a high chance of howling at the full moon .... yes, they are quite likely to turn into werewolves.

Does this mean that the nation´s President is also buying into the legend, and is trying to somehow break the spell with her magical governmental intervention??

I´m a bit mystified....

Posted by Julie

Primary School P & C

Being part of the local primary school Cooperadora (P & C group) is a real eye opener. I have the privelege of drinking mate (Argentine tea) with the principal and contributing to the functioning of the school in a real way. I learn all sorts of things in these meetings!

I remember how in Oz the various P & C groups we observed would raise enormous amounts of funds for luxuries like sporting equipment and musical instruments.

Sadly, in this country government assistance is so slow in coming that principals rely heavily on parental involvement to keep the school functioning. Last year our group funded the absolute basic necessities .... putting glass back in broken classroom windows, fixing faulty plumbing in the kids´toilets, restoring the heaters to good health for the cold winter to come. The Cooperadora even pays for the replacement teachers, and if there aren´t enough to go around, the kids are sent home.

Sometimes I forget the differences between the school systems here and in Oz, but the other day I was reminded of one difference ... our 7 year old effortlessly completed a Maths paper from Oz, but came to a halt when she read 'how many pencils fit in a lunchbox ... 5 or 90?' She stopped, and said 'Mummy, what's a lunchbox?'
For a kid who's only ever known a 4 hour morning class primary school routine, who's home for lunch each day, that's a fair question!

Posted by Julie

The Argentine hero

On Saturday we went to a nearby town called Alta Gracia to visit a museum dedicated to Che Guevara (of motorcycle diaries and Cuban revolucionary fame). Enersto 'Che' Guevara lived there for 11 years of his childhood. The musuem is really well done and an interesting insight into his life. Also interesting to see photos of Fidel Castro visiting the museum when he was in Argentina in 2006.

Che has become quite an icon around the world, especially in Argentina amongst young people of the left. I really haven't read enough about his life to make much comment, but it is interesting to note how people become 'idolised' much more rapidly if they die young. One just has to think of Evita Peron, Princess Di and perhaps even Steve Irwin. Diego Maradona is a hero in Argentina, but his 'problem' is that he is still alive, and so has the potential to keep making mistakes, like deciding to coach the Argentine soccer team. However, all will be forgiven if he leads them to victory in South Africa (in fact more than forgiven, I'm sure he'll be sainted! There is already a 'church' of some sort to him in the city of Rosario!)

school memories

Its funny isn't it what we remember of school days. I had to write about some of my school day memories for my Spanish classes (in Spanish of course). I remember that on one of my first days of school I ate a meat pie that I took out of the garbage bin. That's right! I had seen a kid throw a nearly whole meat pie into the bin in our classroom, and for a kid who had boring sandwiches, that was just an incredible waste. So I did some recycling before it had become fashionable. (This was kindergarten by the way, not the first day of high school!)

Unfortunately, I was an honest kid. So when my Mum asked me how my lunch was, I told her all. And of course it became the family story forever after. My brothers and sister never let me forget it. It has now been etched in my memory forever!

Why is it that the memories of the difficult times at school- embarassing moments, times of fear, etc, are etched so vivdly in our memories whereas the successes are so vague and almost not there?

The influence of the catholic church

In a sign that the influence of the church is descreasing in Argentina, the lower house of the Argentine parliament voted yesterday to allow 'homosexual marriage'. The vote was 125 in favour, with 109 against. It still has to pass the Senate. If it passes, it would be the first country in Latin America to allow this.

Its a sign that although the country has a strong catholic heritage, its influence and sway with the powerbrokers has dwindled (also a sign of the very able politicking of the gay movement).

saying thank you

Today, with a student, I was handing out ABUA leaflets in the Law Faculty. So far it has been relatively easy to do that on the uni campus- and it is surprising how many people actually say 'gracias' as they take a leaflet. One guy stopped to ask us about the group and when we meet.

The leaflet we are handing out uses some of the data from the survey we did last year about student beliefs.

It says- '63% of students in Córdoba believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he rose from the dead. However, of those, 44% have never read the Bible as adults.
Isn´t it time that you understood what you believe?'

Hopefully it will get some of the 'nominal' Christians thinking a little. We are going to come up with another leaflet that targets the 20% or so atheist and agnostic population.

Learning from Mark

We have been studying the last few chapters of Marks gospel in the small groups on the university campus this year. One passage that has grabbed my attention is Mark 14:1-11.

The passage is in the style of a 'Marcan sandwich' - where one story starts, is interrupted by another, and then finishes again with the original story.

The theme is the death of Jesus- the leaders and priests are plotting how to kill Jesus. But before we find out how they are going to do it, we meet Jesus in the house of Simon the leper. And a woman anoints Jesus with perfume- perfume worth about a years wages. The people there are outraged.They see it as a waste- the money could have been given to the poor. But Jesus explains that she has done a wonderful thing because she has anointed him for his death.

For Judas it seems this event is just too much- Jesus has gone too far. He leaves and agrees to hand Jesus for a sum of money to the priests and scribes.

The question which seems to tie the two passages together is:

How much is the death of Jesus worth? What value do we put on the death of God's Messiah?

The unnamed woman gave all she had- she even broke the jar so that none of this expensive perfume remained. The disciples and others all think it was too much. And Judas, he was willing to hand Jesus over for some dirty coins from the leaders.

And me? What price do I put on the death of Jesus?

Students from everywhere

We had our training meeting for students yesterday- and a very encouraging turnout of 17. It was amazing to see that we have students from everywhere here in Córdoba, which is reflected in the ABUA group. We had students from the provinces of Corrientes, Misiones, Jujuy, Salta, Sante Fe, Chubut, and of course some from Córdoba. Its a reminder of how strategic Córdoba is as a place for uni ministry- they come from all over Argentina and after graduating, they will spread all over the country.