Soon after my apology for not blogging more often came an accident that prevented me from blogging at all, the crashing of my 3 week old computer. I've had to purchase a new one and now I'm back online. I also have newfound sympathy for my friends who refuse to own PCs.
That aside, the trip to Australia went about as smoothly as 36 hours in transit could. My flight from Santiago to Sydney was delayed for a few hours but the other passengers on the plane were lovely and I spent the extra time in the airport with new friends drinking fresh squeezed raspberry juice from the airport bar. It may have been the best drink I've ever had. (By regular standards, not airport bar standards)
It's been refreshing to hear English again, and my friends keep teasing me to speak in an Australian accent here and see if I can convince anyone that I'm a local. I've been too shy to attempt this yet. My Australian accent is my only party trick, and if I find out it's no good, there will be dreaded ill effects on my self esteem.
I will write more about my interviews and travels here in a later post. I'm wishing everyone a wonderful weekend from down unda!
Thursday, June 12, 2014
Saturday, June 7, 2014
The Mother of All Flights
3 flights, a layover in Brazil the day before the World Cup, and almost 2 days in transit. What could go wrong?
Thursday, June 5, 2014
Linguistically Challenged
I'll begin with an apology for not blogging more often. I've gained a great deal of respect for the people who write regularly. The good news is that I haven't been writing because I haven't had a lot of down time and things have been pretty easy here in Argentina.
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.
I look forward to spending the few days gorging myself on steak and enjoying the wonderful people here. To receive more regular updates follow me on twitter @MadelineList.
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.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Rio's Bad Rap
Travel blogs and friends alike gave me a slew of warnings about going to Rio de Janeiro. The city is certainly not as safe as many traditional vacation spots in the US or Europe, but it's certainly a place worth seeing and with proper precautions I think most travelers can have an exciting and fulfilling vacations to the city. I wanted to come out and write about some of the safety steps I took because tourism has been low there lately, even with the World Cup fast approaching, and people deserve to know which warnings are real and which are exaggerated.
I took precautionary steps that were not the "normal" steps most people would take for Europe. I didn't wear any jewelry (though many locals did) and I didn't carry more money than I needed for the day. I carried a decoy wallet with a couple expired credit cards in it in case I was in a situation where I was forced to hand it over, and I purchased a cheap decoy watch in case I had to hand something over when I wasn't carrying a purse. I didn't end up needing to use the decoys but I'm glad that I carried them. I also carried extra money and credit cards in an inside pocket and researched how the locals would dress in Rio to make sure I didn't stand out as a tourist. It's also important to get good directions before heading to any new destination and to be careful to not pull out a map in public or look overtly confused. I was careful not to speak English in public. I didn't pull out my camera unless I was in a secure area and didn't pull out my phone in public, though a lot of locals were comfortable doing that.
Locals gave good advice on how late it would be safe to stay out and it's always helpful to look to the locals to see what they think is safe. If I saw other young women on the street carrying purses and walking their yorkies, I felt pretty comfortable. It's also good to pay attention to whether or not locals are pulling their wallets out in public. I didn't learn this until I arrived, but a large portion of thefts in Rio are committed by males under the age of 18. That gives you a good idea of who to be wary of. There were some neighborhoods, like Lapa, where the samba clubs are, that I researched and chose to avoid because I was traveling alone. I may have made a different decision if I had someone to accompany me.
I can't say any one of these things played a hand in making this a smooth trip, some of this depends on good luck. I know there are some people who had a bad experience in Rio despite taking precautions, but I'm convinced that many of the horror stories came from people who made textbook tourist mistakes. Rio isn't a war zone. Don't let the additional safety precautions stop you from visiting a spectacular city!
I took precautionary steps that were not the "normal" steps most people would take for Europe. I didn't wear any jewelry (though many locals did) and I didn't carry more money than I needed for the day. I carried a decoy wallet with a couple expired credit cards in it in case I was in a situation where I was forced to hand it over, and I purchased a cheap decoy watch in case I had to hand something over when I wasn't carrying a purse. I didn't end up needing to use the decoys but I'm glad that I carried them. I also carried extra money and credit cards in an inside pocket and researched how the locals would dress in Rio to make sure I didn't stand out as a tourist. It's also important to get good directions before heading to any new destination and to be careful to not pull out a map in public or look overtly confused. I was careful not to speak English in public. I didn't pull out my camera unless I was in a secure area and didn't pull out my phone in public, though a lot of locals were comfortable doing that.
Locals gave good advice on how late it would be safe to stay out and it's always helpful to look to the locals to see what they think is safe. If I saw other young women on the street carrying purses and walking their yorkies, I felt pretty comfortable. It's also good to pay attention to whether or not locals are pulling their wallets out in public. I didn't learn this until I arrived, but a large portion of thefts in Rio are committed by males under the age of 18. That gives you a good idea of who to be wary of. There were some neighborhoods, like Lapa, where the samba clubs are, that I researched and chose to avoid because I was traveling alone. I may have made a different decision if I had someone to accompany me.
I can't say any one of these things played a hand in making this a smooth trip, some of this depends on good luck. I know there are some people who had a bad experience in Rio despite taking precautions, but I'm convinced that many of the horror stories came from people who made textbook tourist mistakes. Rio isn't a war zone. Don't let the additional safety precautions stop you from visiting a spectacular city!
To hear a real time rendition of my impressions, follow me on twitter @MadelineList.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Palm Hearts and Sugarloaves
Welcome to Rio de Janeiro, a beautiful city with a whole lot of problems. The city is home to over 6 million people and will soon experience an influx of visitors as sports fans from all over the world come to witness the World Cup and later the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The trip opened with a huge treat, a visit to one of the seven wonders of the natural world. I took a cable car to the top of Sugarloaf mountain, which provides a spectacular view of the harbor, as well as a distant view of Christ the Redeemer.
I was awestruck on Sugarloaf, and I must admit that pictures don't properly capture the majesty of the place. The view also made me wish I had paid more attention in high school earth science and could understand how the mountains I were seeing were formed. I hope you're happy Mrs. Oshry.
My research began in ANDEF, located in Niteroi, a suburb of Rio. Even with my embarrassingly limited Portuguese, I managed to buy a ferry ticket to meet my contact Dani on the other side.
I loved our drive through the hills of Niteroi. It was a refreshing break from the rush of the big city, and as we bumped through the streets I felt like I had traveled from a bustling metropolis to a jungle town built into the side of a mountain. ANDEF is located on the edge of Niteroi, and Dani and I had a quick lunch there before we began our tour.
ANDEF offers a huge variety of services. One major part of their service is training and job placement for people both with and without disabilities. The job training program helps fund the sports programs, which are also available for people with and without disabilities. Dani walked me past the pool, the basketball court, the soccer field, and the dance studio. The facilities also serve as training centers for many successful paralympians, who are displayed proudly on banners in the offices.
ANDEF felt like the summer camp I never had. There were smiling faces all through the cafeteria, the offices, and the fields. The organization's president says that people are drawn to ANDEF because "they are winners". Indeed, it was easy to feel that the people there had something to be proud of. The integrated dance troupe (half members with disabilities, half members without) were kind enough to show us the routine they had been working on. The number ended with one member doing a handstand in his wheelchair. I was floored.
The organization is one that draws some of the most talented people with and without disabilities, so it was easy to feel the sense of empowerment that reined throughout the grounds. Watching warm ups for a game of blind soccer while the sun set over the hills of Niteroi, I felt like there was little the people around me couldn't do.
Of course, the standard of living for people with disabilities is strongly connected to economic prowess, and poverty is a major issue here in Rio. The next day I left my westernized hotel in Copacabana to visit a social services center in a much more impoverished neighborhood. The center is one of 6 around the city that provides free services such as physical therapy, speech therapy, and music therapy. They try to act as an early intervention for children living with disabilities. The centers also provide important education for parents who may not know how to properly care for their children with disabilities. One therapist told me that she sees children with disabilities who are 4 or 5 years old when they first learn to communicate. The services offered are essential but in a city of this size more resources are definitely needed.
I did promise I would write about food. On Friday night I visited a friend of a friend of a friend who had me over for dinner. She served the biggest first course I have ever seen in my life. My favorite dishes were artichoke heart salad, sesame studded tuna skewers with teriyaki sauce, and roasted eggplant. For the main course we had fantastic beef, potatoes, roasted okra, and roasted hearts of palm. I didn't even realize that they could be eaten if they didn't come out of a can. But you know what they say, once you go roasted palm you never go back.
There are only a couple more days left in Brazil and I'm trying to enjoy some quality time on the beach and hopefully visit Tijuca Park. Argentina is coming up on Tuesday!
Monday, May 19, 2014
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