Hola del Norte! I have been in the North of Argentina for almost a week now. After a 24 hour bus ride to Salta, we spent a few days in the city, looking around and taking classes at Universidad Nacional de Salta. The topics here are gender and peasant organization for human rights, so it´s all been very interesting.
One thing that strikes me immediately here is the poverty. It seems so much more stark. While eating outside, children would come and beg at our table almost every five minutes. It´s very challenging to confront such harsh realities, but it has also been a very important experience. I feel uncomfortable a lot here (in Argentina in general), but I think that is a very important part of being abroad. One day we worked in a comedor, a soup kitchen, in which many children received their only meal of the day. As I helped the mothers cut potatoes and chop lettuce, they were so kind and open, letting an extranjera into their cooking space. Although they barely receive subsidies from the government, it is impossible to not see their bodies and their work as politicized. It was a diffucult but very worthwhile experience.
In other news, my classmate William and I were selected to be on the radio the other day! We were featured on the University radio (which looks like any college radio station), talking about our impressions of the country, our ¨typical days¨in New York. It was really cool!
There is so much to take in and digest here, and I cannot possibly write about all of it at an internet cafe! Tonight we are in Quiaca, a border town with Bolivia, and we will cross the border tomorrow. It should be very interesting.
We are at an extremely high altitude (13.000 feet) and the natural beauty is breathtaking. Mountains, llamas, it´s incredible.
Emily
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