This is something that blows my mind. I have a feeling like I have never had before.
I feel like I am always on the same page, or even one page ahead, of what is being taught in the classroom. I don't know how you all feel at school, but for me, there are certain days when I feel like I am drowning in information that is going way over my head. I want to shout "stop! Let me catch my breathe! I can only take in so much at a time!"
But this has changed. I feel like I am surfing. It's like "whoa, I am actually understanding all of this!" It feels great, and I digg it because I know I can use it like a tool belt when I walk out the door and even more - I feel a desire to do it.
The teaching in the school becomes closer to a mix of needed review and perfecting touch up's.
I can relax.
I can breath.
The cool thing about school is that you don't have to be burdened by it.
Education can really be empowering.
In order to fully satisfy the full possiblities of education and of this trip, I need to learn outside of School.
At the Law School students put their skills and imaginations together to
create a program encouraging bicycling for alternative transportation,
as well as to give free bicycles to less-beneftited youth from the Villas
as another source of empowerment.
Here at the commencing of the program a youth picks his new bike.
Over the past few weeks as the exams have been multiplying in difficult, I have found myself breaking out of the bubble of a little United States that has been formed among the study-abroad students that I have been acompanied with here. I am seeking out new things to try, stepping into the shoes of an Argentine citizen. I didn't travel half-way around the globe to be a tourist, but to become a local. I think that if I had it any other way I would be robbing myself of an amazing oppurtunity to meet incredible people, and understand incredible experiences.
The natural first step for me was to not follow the group of 25 U.S. Americans to the typical lunch stop at Restaurant "Zona 36." Instead I made way down a street I had not walked before, and found a Café with seating in a back terrace surrounded by vines of white flowers, rustic steel gates, and baristas that would challenge my understanding and use of spanish, because they themselves spoke no english.
With my new Argentine friends we would talk for hours about politics, current events, about life, love, and poverty. I have learned that there are many issues of great importance here that are shed little or no light upon by journalists back in the U.S. Things such as protests for education in Chile, economic crisis in Argentina, and politcal outrage throughout Latin America.
For example: recently in Argentina a cap has been placed on the purchasing and importing of U.S. Dollars. This means that I can't go to a bank and ask for any Ben Franklins or George Washingtons. It's as if they are untouchable. This is really big news, and the people here are going crazy!
"La Nacion" is one of the major newspaper printed in Buenas Aires. An Article that was printed yesterday entitled "Dolarmania" explains that historically thousands of Argentines have depended on the investing of U.S. Dollars as a form of saving and investment. Why you may ask? The U.S. dollar is steady. It is what most other forms of currency are held up to, to designate the value at any given moment.
"Regardless of the generation, the dolarmanía is rooted among Argentines. Although," said the former Minister of economy Carlos Rodríguez, "it is not that people have so much confidence in the dollar, but what happens is that they have distrust in weight, a currency in its short history has traveled more devaluations as periods of stability."
Imagine the outrage now that this has oppurtunity has been shut down. Its something that not even I can fully understand. But trying to understand, and talking to people about it helps me to understand them.
What I hear is that right now the U.S. dollar is worth roughly 4.215 times that of the Argentine peso, but about only 5 to 10 years ago they were 1 for 1.
Recently the banks have been overflowing with investors who have been going crazy to try and buy and sell there saved U.S. Dollars in order to make a killing off of the exchange rate.
I know it goes deeper then this, but as I asked my host-mom over lunch what she thought, I was strucken by the reality of a language barrier. I was lost in translation.
I found a funny and remarkable comment in the article I was able to translate through an online website:
"Since I started to have my own money from losing teeth, birthdays and other gifts, my parents always said that the safest was to have it in dollars and I was exchanging it," says Guido Commenge, "although at the time it was not so important because we were in full convertibility and a peso was equal to one dollar."
It goes on to say:
"Dolarmanía is rooted among Argentinians".
Again, I looked and I looked on a grip of websites and newsources from The U.S. but could not find even one lead in to this story. Where are the perspectives from the U.S. bankers? From the ones who distribute the money at its origin? It seems to be quite silent, but here, it has become a a horrendous hastle, as I am needing U.S. dollars in order to make a payment from a bank.
Media sources like to pick and choose what they show and tell, and stories typically get cut that don't directly impact in some form or another the audience, or that the government has some political interest in. (Who do you think helps pay for a certian policitcal parties campaigning?) Maybe they don't cover stories that they don't have a beneficial reason to get involved in.
What stories get published, (I have seen some of firemen rescuing cats- its not just a myth!) whose voices get heard, (who has the power and influnce) and what side of the story is told reflect a certain news producers perspective. Everyone has a bias, so I know that it is important to have a critically thinking mind so our bias doesn't create blind spots.
From reading stories like these that are leaving marks in the society around me, I am getting a better understanding of what is considered important and what is not, and it allows me to engage in conversation with friends and to listen to the opinion of the citizens of Rosario. It lets me open up to new and unheard perspectives. With an open mind I am able to grasp a deeper understanding of what pushes the buttons of the people, and what kind of reaction they are used to producing.
Who do you think has control over what is broadcast on the news, or written about in the newspaper?
Do you ever feel like something is changed, or is being left out in a story that you hear?
What do you think the benefits are of hearing the mulitple perspectives of any story or issue?
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