There was something refreshing about arriving in Buenos Aires. It's a rather secure city and I have a lot of independence here and freedom to explore. I also took a step up in my ability to communicate. In Brazil I was able to tell people that I don't speak Portuguese, and in Spanish I'm able to say....very little more.
Buenos Aires has a complicated bus system in which the fare varies depending on the passenger's destination. I try to just tell the driver that I'd like to pay the maximum rate in order to avoid the quick banter about destinations. This interaction can go one of two ways. I can ask the driver to charge me $2.70, pay, and move to the back of the bus, or I can ask the driver to charge me $2.70, have the driver ask me something in Spanish, give him a blank and confused stare in place of an answer, and then let him decide he's not going to get a proper response and will have to charge me $2.70 anyway. The second situation produces the same ultimate result as the first one, except I get to look like an ignorant and uneducated American who arrived in Argentina ill-prepared to communicate with anyone.
So Argentina is humbling, if nothing else.
About a week before I left, I was introduced to an attorney who worked on the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and was able to introduce me to several activists in Argentina. After speaking with a series of contacts, I managed to arrange interviews with some wonderful activists here. When I tell people I've come to Argentina to study the way people with disabilities are being treated, people often advise me to not expect much. However, it's been quite interesting to see how organizations here have worked against government bureaucracy and a troubled economy in order to bring about change. This is no paradise for PWDs, but organizations here have used a lot of interesting models and to me, Argentina has reinforced that there is something to be learned from every destination.
A lovely highlight of this trip was a spontaneous trip to Iguazu National Park. The park sits on the border of Argentina and Brazil and is home to the second largest set of waterfalls in the world. I don't think enough North Americans know about it and I highly recommend a visit here. There are some things in life that pictures can't capture.
Do beware of the coaties, they look like a cross between a raccoon and a wolverine and they will summon their pack and charge at your food. I actually think the park has used them to their advantage in order to develop a very lucrative business model. They charge inflated prices at the park food courts and restaurants, then the customers go out to the picnic tables to eat their snacks. The coaties swoop in and grab the food, scaring the customers and eventually prompting one of the food court employees to come out with a coati scaring device (a plastic water bottle on a broomstick) which clears the picnic tables and gives other park visitors the mistaken impression that the tables are safe. So the people who have had their food stolen need to buy another round of overpriced snacks and other park-goers can feel a false sense of security eating in coati territory. And the cycle continues.
The hefty journey to Australia begins on Sunday. I'm going to get well acquainted with the Pacific airspace.
No comments:
Post a Comment