mi trabaja / my job

I had my first meeting with my supervisor, Diego, on Monday; we talked about Argentina's community, how JDC fits into the community, and the type of work I will be doing.  Learning about the Argentina Jewish community is probably more fascinating for me than for you but in order to understand the scope of what the organization is accomplishing in Argentina and what I'll be doing for the following year, I'll give you a brief overview of Argentina's (Jewish) history:

In 2001, there was a huge economic collapse and many people went from upper middle class to poverty overnight (think people in Armani suits going to soup kitchens because they couldn't afford food anymore). The JDC office at that time had about 20 people and quickly began to grow as they started welfare programs for the ¨new poor¨ of Argentina's Jewish society. From 2001 until last year, the JDC office had between 60 and 70 full-time staff. However since the community has now been rebuilt and is back to the similar level they were at before the economic collapse, the office has undergone large changes in the last few months and are now back to about twenty people in the office doing a variety of welfare, community development, and educational programs. 

Half of my time will be spent in the JDC office helping with a variety of community development programs and the other half will be with a Jewish teen group called Hebraica. For now I am only working in the office and after the Jewish holidays, I will begin my work at Hebraica.

My time at work the past few days:

-Monday was spent meeting everyone in the office and getting acclimated. The director's assistant Mara has extremely long beautiful curly hair and she told me that her hair is like Medusa and she keeps all of the organization's secrets in it. Definitely going to get to know her better...

-Tuesday I was given my first task of finding photos, videos, interviews, and texts about Rosh Hashanah that could be used for their social media feeds. I thought this video was great...

-Wednesday my colleague Kevin explained to me the whole scoop about Argentina's Jewish community. Some fun facts:

• There are around 250,000 Jewish people in Argentina (WOW!) making it the 7th largest Jewish population in the world
• 6 out of 10 Jewish children in Buenos Aires attend a Jewish school

-Thursday I helped another colleague translate a report in English into Spanish...awesome practice! 

It has been a great first week in the office...looking forward to more!

ps. This is what my desk looks like...

mi casa es su casa / my home is your home

Welcome to my apartment! I am living in the city of Buenos Aires and in the neighborhood Belgrano.  Here is a map of the whole city of Buenos Aires to put the city into perspective...my neighborhood is Belgrano and my office is in Palermo.  If you remember from my last post, I was in San Telmo, Boca, and Recoleta this past weekend.

Belgrano is mostly a residential neighborhood with lots of restaurants and shopping.  This is the outside of my apartment building, it has about forty apartments in total.

And now for the virtual tour of my apartment! Here is the kitchen and living room (I even have a balcony!),

Here is my bedroom and closet...

This will be my home for the next year! 

bienvenidos a Buenos Aires! / welcome to Buenos Aires!

The past few days have been quite a whirlwind as I arrived in Buenos Aires, moved into my apartment, met up with a JDC Entwine group from Brown University, and started work at the JDC office in Buenos Aires. WOO! 

JDC Entwine Staff: Evan, Jenette, and me in Buenos Aires!

After I got through immigration and customs, I was met by Kevin, one of my colleagues from JDC who brought me to my apartment and introduced me to my landlord Nestor. Nestor used to work for JDC for seven years in Cuba and Austria so was familiar with what I was doing in the country and made me feel right at home.

After, I went to have Shabbat lunch with a group from Brown University who had been doing service work for the past week in Argentina and got to hear about their experiences. It was quite nostalgic for me because it brought me back to my first experience with JDC when I traveled to Israel with UVA's Hillel to work with a Russian immigrant community. That was my first glimpse into global Jewish communities and now almost three years later I will be fully immersing myself into another Jewish community abroad for the year.

I stayed with the group the rest of the weekend and did a whole lot of sightseeing; the city is just as I remember it!

We went by the famous Plaza del Mayo, the Casa Rosada (Pink House where the President lives), a cool synagogue...

walked through Recoleta Cemetery which has tons of huge mausoleums that hold generations of families,

visited La Boca, a super cool neighborhood full of brightly colored houses and tango dancing, and

drove by the famous Boca Juniors stadium (hopefully I'll get to go see a soccer/futbol match)!

The biggest downside so far is that it has been FREEZING the past few days so I am already looking forward to spring!

la semana orientacion / orientation week

"When we become connected with others we become better people." 

-Randy Pausch

Me with the other JDC-BBYO fellows, JDC Entwine, & BBYO staff

I spent this past week in New York City becoming more oriented with the program and meeting all the other fellows.  There are 28 of us serving in different regions around the world such as Haiti, Germany, Latvia, Israel, China, Estonia, India, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Poland, and Ukraine.  We spent a lot of time talking to each other, finding out what brought each person to this fellowship, and what everyone wants to accomplish this year. I realized that even though I'll be the only fellow in Argentina, I am both connected to something greater through being a JDC volunteer and connected to a community of amazing and inspiring people serving around the world. 

Want to know what else we did this week?

We learned more about our individual placements,

reflected on WHY we have chosen to serve abroad for a year (and watched this interesting Ted talk video by Simon Sinek), 

explored our Jewish values,

met all the staff that will be supporting us from NYC,

refreshed our Israeli dancing skills,

And even celebrated a few birthdays! Happy birthday to Ron and Erica who are both serving in Israel!

I can't wait to keep in touch with these amazing fellows throughout the year! 

las reglas / the rules

With one week to go, I want to set eight ground rules for myself throughout the year:

1. 

Simply said.

2/3.

I am leaving the country for approximately 365 days and want to fully enjoy the experience by embodying a "why not?" mindset and saying yes to opportunities that arise.

4.

Whether working in Buenos Aires, learning tango, traveling to other parts of South America, or having friends or family visit me, I'm going to be thinking about this quote...

5.
One of my goals is to really force myself to speak Spanish. I'm a bit of perfectionist so I know I'll have trouble with this but I'm going to push myself because without making mistakes, I won't learn the language.

6. 

This will be a growing year for me. Each day, whether it is good or bad, will teach me something important. Whether it is mastering a new word in Spanish, developing a new relationship, or trying a new food, I want to make sure to celebrate both the big and little wins.

7. 

I am not the best at keeping in touch with friends and family but I'm going to make the extra effort to do so this year. At the very least my promise is if I hear from you, you'll hear back from me!

8.

Most importantly.

Have any other words of wisdom for me?

servicios en la comunidad / community service

“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”

Winston Churchill

Last week I participated in Bright Beginnings with the Shady Grove YMCA, a program that takes eligible students from the community shopping and provides them with backpacks full of supplies so they can start the school year off on the right foot.  Forty volunteers matched up with thirty-five children to go shopping for a new jacket, shoes, socks, undies, and a few new outfits.

I got partnered with Nevayeh, a 5 year-old who will be entering kindergarten in the fall, and whose favorite colors are purple and pink.  We got some awesome pink sneakers, jeggings, polka dotted leggings, a “Monster High” t-shirt, a purple shirt, a pink shirt, a turquoise jacket, and more.  She loved trying on her new clothes and even asked if she could try on her shoes one more time in the check out line to make sure she loved them.  After shopping we ate dinner and talked with Nevayeh’s sister Tiona and other children Nevayeh knew in the program.  It was so fun shopping with Nevayeh; I asked her what she was most excited about for school and she said playing on the playground with her sister but she was also nervous and didn’t know if she wanted to start school.  I told Nevayeh not to be nervous because school is a lot of fun and told her she will make lots of new friends.

Participating in a service project in my local community a couple weeks before my year of service abroad made me think about this quote.  The past years, I have done as Winston Churchill says and have made giving part of my life.  I have traveled to do service work in places such as Baltimore, Israel, Ukraine, and Argentina, served as co-chair of Relay For Life at the University of Virginia this past year, raising over $143,000 for the American Cancer Society, and planned many philanthropy and community service events for sororities at UVa.  I have done these things because it makes me happy to be involved with these efforts.  Now as I start a career with nonprofit organizations, I really hope that I can one-up Winston Churchill and both make a living and life a life by what I give.  My first step will be working in Argentina…I can’t wait!

el verano pasado en Buenos Aires / last summer in Buenos Aires

So as I said before, this will not be my first time in Buenos Aires.  Last summer I served for two months as a multi-week fellow with JDC Entwine.  I spent my days volunteering at a daycare center called Baby Help, which provides daycare services for Jewish children aged 1-3 on welfare.  It was a perfect volunteer position for me, mainly because my Spanish was at the level of a two-year old so I could clearly understand the little ones (most of the time).  Here are some of the precious two-year olds:

Most of the children did not come from the best home situation so my job was to be a loving figure to the kids by playing with them, hugging them, and sometimes disciplining them.  One day one of the troublesome two-year olds snatched a toy out of his friend’s hand so I said to him “please share your toys nicely”.  His response was a screamed “NO” so I replied “you need to give the toy back to your friend, when she is done it can be your turn”.  His response was to run over to me and slap me across the face (he tended to hit the other teachers and fellow two-year olds so I knew I was supposed to grab his hand and tell him that hitting was not okay).  The little two-year old looked at me and with his little attitude replied “mi papá golpea a mi mamá todo el tiempo “ (my dad hits my mom all the time).  Oh how was I supposed to explain to this little boy that his father’s actions were wrong.  I left it at “I’m sorry but we do not ever hit our friends or teachers here”.  That was my saddest moment all summer but my time in Buenos Aires was mostly filled with a whole lot of fun.  From learning salsa and tango, to eating at the famous Argentine steak restaurants, 

Derek & I learning tango

Ellie, Jay, and I eating at La Cabrera,
a famous parrilla restaurant

and going to different Shabbat dinners every Friday night, my two months in Argentina were full of exploring, meeting people, and a whole lot of eating. My fellow multi-week fellow Megan and I even got to travel to Igazu Falls which lay at the border of Argentina and Brazil. 

I am most excited to go back and continue to explore the amazing Buenos Aires street markets, travel around the area (I'm thinking Patagonia, Mendoza, and Uruguay to start), meet tons of cool Argentines, and make Buenos Aires my home for the year.  Any other places you think I should travel while there?

numero uno / number 1

“Throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

– Mark Twain

This quote has inspired me ever since I walked into my 11^th grade English class and saw it written on the board.  I have been fortunate to do quite a bit of exploring/traveling and try to live daily the idea of “If not now, when?”.

In three weeks I will be departing on my biggest adventure yet as I head to Buenos Aires, Argentina for a year as a Global Jewish Service Corp Fellow with JDC Entwine.  I am so excited for this opportunity and know that it will be a year of exploring and growing.

A little about me: I love Asian food, drink green tea almost every morning, have an acute shopping addiction, and love spending time with my family and friends. I graduated from the University of Virginia (Go Hoos!) in May and since then have been working to increase the amount of stamps on my passport.  Don’t’ believe I love traveling? This is where I have been this summer:

Outer Banks & Lake Lure, NC

Capetown & Kruger National Park, South Africa

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe

Chobe National Park, Botswana

Copenhagen, Denmark

Berlin, Germany

Visby & Stockholm, Sweden

Riga, Latvia

Tallinn, Estonia

St. Petersburg, Russia

Helsinski, Finland

Houston, TX

New York City & Rochester, NY

Cleveland, OH

Washington, DC

Atlanta & Athens, GA

Virginia Beach, VA

I spent two months last summer in Buenos Aires with JDC Entwine so I am extremely excited to go back for a longer period of time! (more about my past adventures in Buenos Aires and with JDC later)  My next three weeks will include packing, researching, and spending time with friends and family.  I am definitely excited to go but also am extremely nervous.  Less than 20 days until departure!

Happy reading and as they say in Argentina, “Bienvenidos!” Welcome!

Kate