aprendí escuchar y preguntar / i learned to listen & ask

Especially at the beginning of my time in Buenos Aires, I really had no choice but to sit and listen. I arrived a year ago with a basic level of Spanish so I could not easily express my ideas, thoughts, or ask questions in their language. I sat in many meetings in order to learn about the community. A lot of the time I did not understand anything that was going on, I pretty much was forced to sit and listen. Each day I started to understand more Spanish. Eventually I could speak well enough to share my thoughts, ideas, and ask questions but I still continued to listen. But also began to ask lots of questions because I came to understand the importance of listening and asking questions. 

Listening teaches so much more than talking. It lets you understand what the other wants, needs, and understands. Really listening (and sometimes asking clarifying questions) helps you understand where the other person is coming from and where they want to go. It allows the conversation to go to a place where it should go instead of merely where you want it to go. Listening helps form stronger relationships with others because it gives both an equal chance to share. Listening allows you to recognize where opportunities exist to help, collaborate, or give advice. Asking questions while listening is extremely valuable because it helps you understand what the other person is really saying, lets the other person know that you understand what they are saying, can help push their thinking to the next level, and lets you know how to properly respond. By asking questions and listening I came to really understand what was going on in the communities I work this year and where I could best offer my help. 

There were many times when my teens would be talking, stop, and ask "but Kate, what do you think?". I would smile and say honestly, I first want to hear what YOU think. Next I would ask many questions hoping to impel them to think harder, more broadly, and more creatively.  In this sense, listening allows the other person to push themselves to think more analytically and allows more creative thought to come to surface. It also let me know where I could let me teens develop themselves and where they needed me to support them. I really think one of the main reasons the BBYO partnership in Hebraica grew and strengthened this year is because I listened. I listened to what my teens wanted, what Hebraica wanted, what BBYO wanted, asked questions to clarify, and acted accordingly to help make it happen. I listened in order to find opportunities and then acted based on what I had been hearing. Gracias a listening for this!

Even though I now understand and can communicate in the language that surrounds me in Buenos Aires, I still listen. Now I can just easily ask many more questions than I could before. I know I'll continue to listen and ask questions in all parts of my life moving forward because I now truly understand all that listening and inquisitiveness offer.

aprendí más paciencia y flexibilidad / i learned more patience & flexibility

The word "quilombo" in Argentina is slang for chaotic, a mess, etc. Sometimes things just don't work in Argentina. They say Argentina can be quite a quilombo. Blackouts all over the city during the summer because people turn on their air conditioning (this should not happen), text messages arriving one hour or one day later than when they were sent, waiting in line at the supermarket for thirty minutes to checkout, twenty to thirty percent inflation as a norm each year, looking down when walking to make sure you don't step in a hole or dog poop, the dollar to peso exchange rate abruptly spiking for a day, subway not working for days at a time, meetings getting cancelled for world cup games, etc. 

But also timing in general is different in Argentine culture. Dinners not starting until at least 9pm (although I have met for dinner many times at midnight), meeting for drinks at someone's house at midnight (but no one would really show up until 12:30/1:00am), meetings scheduled for a certain time start when the other person is ready (usually meaning late), and when they start you can expect thirty minutes to an hour of small talk before you get down to business, asking someone to do something ASAP seems to mean whenever they have time even if it ends up being a week later, etc. 

Through all of this I have learned patience and to be more flexible. In the US, I come from a culture of get it done efficiently and as quickly as possible. Things generally work and when they don't they tend to get fixed much quicker than in Buenos Aires. Between the culture of Argentinians and the fact that not everything functions all the time, this city and culture has a different rhythm. At first I had trouble getting used to it: when someone would show up an hour and a half late for a meeting, when dinners lasted until 2am, when something did not work so I had to think of an alternative quickly on the spot, when the exchange rate skyrockets so I rush to exchange cash, etc. But what I have learned through all of this is patience. To take things as they come, when they come, and to deal with whatever comes. A lot of times things happen slower than I tend to work but now I am much more patient while waiting. When things do not function properly, I am much more flexible and generate multiple solutions before settling on one. This year I have learned much more patience and flexibility; I will definitely carry these into my future personal and professional lives.

Gracias al quilombo que es Buenos Aires por enseñarme más paciencia y flexibilidad. Thank you to the chaos that is Buenos Aires for teaching me more patience and flexibility!

YOLO - el viaje a Iguazu

Have you heard of the term "YOLO"? It stands for "You Only Live Once". I headed up to the incredible Iguazu falls for less than 36 hours for a quick YOLO trip during my final time in Argentina. How did this happen? In summer 2012, I went up to Iguazu falls but had some misfortune on the journey there and was pickpocketed. That resulted in me not having all the money I was supposed to have in order to full enjoy Iguazu falls. The falls border Argentina and Brazil so last time, I also only went to the Argentine side of the falls because I did not have a Brazilian visa. Now I do. I also wanted to take a solo trip before leaving the country. So I went to the airline ticket office on Thursday morning hoping to book a trip for the following week. They said well next week is quite expensive but we have a deal if you leave tomorrow at 9am. I said great, lets do it. So off I went!

I arrived to my hostel, Mango Chill (recommended), at 12:10pm and they told me a bus would be leaving for the Brazilian side at 12:20. YOLO. I quickly jogged to the bus station so I could buy my ticket and board the bus. After going through immigration and customs, we arrived on the Brazilian side of the falls. The biggest difference between the Brazilian and Argentine side is that on the Brazilian side, you first see a panoramic gorgeous view of the Argentine side of the falls. Spectacular! Further down the path you get to get up close and personal with the falls that lie on the Brazilian side. The sheer size and volume of water that flows from the falls is incredible. I stood there (getting soaking wet even through my poncho) just taking in the sounds and feelings of the water rushing all around me. It is truly impressive. Thankfully with my timing I even got to witness a gorgeous rainbow that spread over the falls and made them appear even more impressionable than they already are. 

If you have to choose between seeing the falls from the Argentinian or Brazilian side, here are the differences. As I said, the Brazilian side you get to see more panoramic views of the falls and then get a short time being up close and personal with the falls. There are less paths to walk around the falls so you can see most of it within a couple hours.  On the Argentine side, you get to walk to the "Garganta Del Diablo", Devil's Throat, which is one of the most impressive things I've seen. There are also many more paths on the Argentine side so to properly explore the falls, you'll want a full day. If you have the chance to do both, I would definitely suggest it.

My next day I spent rappelling and zip lining in the morning through the jungle around Iguazu and then walked to a beautiful place called Hito Tres Fronteras for a picnic. Hito Tres Fronteras, Three Frontiers, is where Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay meet at the forging of two rivers. It is a beautiful place and fun to see two other countries across the river. About a 30 minute walk from the central bus terminal, its a fun activity in Puerto Iguazu on the Argentinian side if you have some time to spare. I had gone there in summer 2012 so wanted to go back again because its such a peaceful beautiful place. There are many local artisans selling crafts so its always fun to see what types of things they are selling as well. 

My YOLO trip ended up being a huge success! I am now heading into my final ten days in Argentina and can't wait to see what they will bring!

los franceses en argentina / the french in argentina

This past week we have been hosting Jewish scouts from Paris, France in Hebraica. The teens in the BBYO Hebraica project have been doing some activities with them including a dinner, accompanying them to the 20th anniversary ceremony for the terrorist attack on AMIA, and an asado (barbecue) with them in Hebraica Pilar. 

During the asado, the teens had planned a program to figure out similarities and differences in the Jewish communities in Buenos Aires and Paris. I enjoyed listening to their discussion and reflecting further on how both of these communities relate to Jewish communities I know in the US. For example, some of the French scouts told me they were surprised at all the Jewish organizations and how they all have their own buildings and lots of people involved. Living in the US or Buenos Aires, most Jews are accustomed to having Jewish community centers to go to for sports, activities, etc. The French teens said when their scout group meets, they don't have a center where they always congregate, instead they meet in whatever synagogue, school, or other building that they can. The French teens were also surprised to learn that most of the teens in Argentina go to Jewish schools (in Argentina, about 1 of 6 kids go to Jewish school). I was also surprised at this when I arrived because a very few Jews go to Jewish day schools in the US compared to Buenos Aires. 

Interacting with the French teens has been great. It has been an awesome opportunity for the Buenos Aires teens to spend time and learn more about Jews from another part of the world. 

amia - la historia de jessi / amia - jessi's story

This Friday marks the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack on AMIA (Asociacion Mutual Israelita Argentina), the umbrella organization for all Jewish organizations in Argentina. 85 people died in the attack and each year the community gathers to ask for justice and remember those lives that were lost. My supervisor and Hebraica's Youth Department Director, Jessica Rozenbaum, was 16 when the attack happened. She has told me her story from the day of the attack before but I wanted to share it with all of you. Although it was a terrifying day, her story is inspiring:

It was July 1994. I was in my second year of Madrichim School in Hebraica. It was going to be my last camp as a chanicha. The first winter break’s week had already gone by, and then on the second we would go to Kesher, the winter camp for teens.

July 18th was a Monday, and the attack happened in the morning. I heard when everything tumbled, as I lived in the neighborhood. Quickly we found out AMIA had been blown up.

Two friends of mine, who are still my friends today, lived very close to the building. One lived next to it, and the other by the corner. So my first worry was to see how they were, but clearly all the phone lines were cut and there was nothing I could do to hear about them. Hours went by and we would keep hearing about all the horror and the deaths. A few hours later I got news from my friends, luckily nothing happened to them and their families. They were quickly evacuated from the place.

First time in the evening we were all there in Hebraica. We needed to get together, see what we could do, see each other, hear about one another. The children, the madrichim, the members, the employees, everyone was there. And fast Hebraica became a gathering center of medicines, water, and all the things people were asking for in order to help.

Me and some friends tried to go to Pasteur, AMIA’s street, in order to help remove all the debris. Everything was chaotic, everyone was trying to help but nobody knew what to do and how to do it. We returned to Hebraica. They wouldn’t let the minors get close to the scene. The situation got worse and worse, we would keep finding out about people who went missing, people we knew, friends of friends.

In the afternoon, all of us who went to Madrichim School went to the streets and started to post flyers in the streets to invite all the people to the event that would take place on Thursday of that same week, in order to ask for justice. That act was afterwards known as the “Umbrellas act”, because that day it rained a lot, and the act took place under the umbrellas of all the people who were there. The walk we did to hand out all the flyers was really long and hard. We knew we were doing something but we didn’t feel it was enough. Everyone looked strange, or we were strange.

My Monday ended in Gaby’s uncle’s house, the girl who lived in front of AMIA, trying to understand the unintelligible, being there to accompany Gaby and her family in the house they would live in for the next time as her house was destroyed by the hit.
My other friend, Deby, the one who lived in the corner of AMIA, wasn’t able to get back home either, as people were not allowed to step on the streets near the place. She lived in my house for a week.

My camp, Kesher obviously did not take place. We spent the whole week in Hebraica, with our need to do something, the fear, the questioning, and the looking for answers. We were in our second year of madrichim school, and our compromise was huge. Many families decided to take their kids out of Hebraica and other Jewish organizations. There was fear, a certain paralysis. All the teens that went with me to Hebraica didn’t stop going, and our compromise was bigger after the attack.

We learned and got used to being checked everytime we entered a Jewish building, to go with a security guard to every camp, to parents not wanting their children to go to the club, to wonder why. After the attack I learned the word impunity and its meaning. I had never heard it before, it had never happened to me before.

The next week winter break was over. We had to get back to our routines, to our regular activities, but nothing was regular, something had changed forever. We went back to school. That Monday was harsh. We went back to madrichim school. That week was also hard there. There were not enough words to talk and keep talking. To look and look for an answer.

Then the situation settled a little. In that second half of the year I went to rescue some of the books that were left from AMIA’s library as a volunteer with some of my friends. We would take them out of the street and then clean them and clasify them, and that was all minors could do. By doing that, we were rescuing the history, the culture, the past. Books in hebrew, in yiddish.. books and more books….

A few years went by and a group called “shinui” (change) started growing in hebraica. The idea was to generate a space for madrichim, to think and start taking action in the call for justice, in the claim to not let it stay unpunished. We would get together every week. In 1997, the night before the main act, the first big action of shinui was proposed: “Youth on guard until it clears”. The idea was to get together, generate a space and stay awake all night before the main act. The proposal was shared among all the organizations and madrichim.

We stayed there in the street where the AMIA was bombed the whole night, there where workshops, talks, and mainly youth presence.

That night that was the first youth act that still happens each year. As years went by it changed, got shaped in different ways, by different organizations, different people, but the space was always a filled one, and one with a legacy taken and assumed by the young generations along these past twenty years.

I hope this legacy keeps being passed over. For justice. For not letting impunity get naturalized. For the role of the youth, asking for justice and saying all the things others don’t say and keep on silence. For the role of being a madrich as a living transmitter of all that moves us and that we believe in. For the feeling of knowing there’s always something we can do. For the Jewish sense of asking for justice.

-Jessica Rozenbaum, Youth Department Director, Hebraica

para los nenes / for the babies

My experience volunteering at JDC's Baby Help in Summer 2012 was magical. I worked with the caring teachers and became a tia (aunt) for the kids, showering them with love and making sure they knew they were special independent of their backgrounds and family situations. 

Since 2003 Baby Help, a center helping at-risk Jewish children in Buenos Aires followed by the country's economic collapse in 2001, has helped hundreds of families and babies aged 1-3 have a safe place to go while their parents work and most importantly a community on which to lean and gain support. In 2014 as part of JDC's efforts to transition critical social welfare services to local community institutions, JDC partnered with the Tel Aviv School, an elementary school based in Buenos Aires, to transfer Baby Help's daycare services into the existing structure of a local academic institution. While this is amazing for the long-term sustainability of the project, the families have entered into unfamiliar terrain and still need the support they were receiving at Baby Help. Money is being raised to make sure tuition will not hinder these kids from going to the school and to ensure these kids have the same food and materials as the kids around them. 
I have had the opportunity to return many times this past year to Baby Help and to the new center at the Tel Aviv school. All I want is to ensure that the children continue receiving the same services they had at Baby Help and that money will not be a hindrance to letting them attend the school, eat, or interact with their peers.

When thinking about wrapping up my year, I wanted to do more than just what I can do with my own hands but also invite my family, friends, and community to support a project that is extremely important to me and to the continued success of Argentina's Jewish community. So far I have joined with a few other past Baby Help volunteers to support this incredible program. Our kickoff project was a merienda where we gathered our friends and ended up raising about $300! 

I am reaching out to all of you with the opportunity to join me in supporting this wonderful project. Thank you in advance for all your generosity, your gift means so much to the families of Baby Help and to me. 

If you are ready to make your donation, please click here.

Thank you again, please let me know if you have any questions or want more information! 

vamos a basavilbaso

In the 1890s, Basavilbaso and other towns like it throughout Argentina farmland were settled by mostly Russian immigrants through the Jewish Colonization Association. As the first Jewish settlements in South America, these immigrants started to tend to their lands, became farmers while at the same time developing their Jewish community. Driving around Basavilbaso is what I imagine a shetl in Eastern Europe would look like. Every other building either a synagogue or Jewish institution, sign off the road that says Shabbat Shalom, Jewish street names, and menorahs on the doors. On Friday I had the opportunity to visit Basavilbaso and learn more about the Jewish roots in Argentina. 

I went with a group of forty madrichim from the four largest Jewish clubs in Buenos Aires: Hebraica, Macabi, Hacoaj, and Cissab. We visited three synagogues, the Jewish cemetery, and their version of a Jewish federation. At one time sixty percent of the population of the town was Jewish but now less than 2% of the town is Jewish. Many eventually moved to the bigger cities with urbanization and the search for opportunity. While two of the synagogues were in the town, the third was in the middle of the farmlands about four kilometers outside the city. It was beautiful, looked like a farmhouse outside but was marked with a Star of David to let people know it was the synagogue. The Jewish cemetery is quite large and holds many ancestors of Argentina's Jewish population today. A few of the madrichim in our group looked for their family's tombs while we were in the cemetery. 

We came to learn about the Jewish colony but we really came to support the community. The previous week swastikas and graffiti had been painted on the local synagogue. We wanted to let the Basavilbaso community know that even though they are small, they are supported by the larger community in Buenos Aires. We met with the president of the community to learn more about the current Jews living in the town. There are about 200 Jews and most of them are senior citizens. There are a handful of children (about fifteen in total) because most of the kids leave for school and don't return. We celebrated Shabbat with community members, hearing about their stories and telling them ours. It was a beautiful day and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to visit the colony. 

la copa mundial y fútbol / world cup & soccer

Fútbol. La copa mundial. The World Cup has taken over Argentine life these past few weeks. Work stops during the games, meetings are rescheduled, and everywhere without a TV is temporarily closed. Yesterday was the craziest day yet with Argentina in the semifinals against Holland, 0-0 and the game ending with penalty kicks in which Argentina took the win! Everyone in the country went crazy with the win, people were crying all around me, dancing and cheering on the streets, honking their horns, bus drivers were throwing Argentine flags out the windows, and police officers shut down streets so people could crowd and cheer safely. The energy in this country right now is amazing and I can't wait for Sunday! Vamos Argentina! Vamos a la final!

un mes más / one more month

I am heading into my final month in Buenos Aires full of emotions. I cannot believe that almost a year has passed. I am sad thinking about wrapping up my yearlong adventure, excited to go back to the United States to be closer to family and friends, reminiscent of all the memories I've created, proud of the work I've done with the BBYO Hebraica partnership, overjoyed thinking about all the wonderful people that have entered my life, reflective on all that I have learned, and amused at all the Spanish errors I've made. 

But above all I feel incredibly thankful and blessed for all the wonderful people in my life. For my birthday yesterday, my friends here put together a video of all the people who have made this year so special for me. I was so touched by their kindness I burst into tears watching the video (this is extremely out of character for me, I'm not a crier). I was so overwhelmed by the thought and heart that went into making it and truly realized I have created a home for myself within this community. 

As I head into my last month, I want to challenge myself to a few things:

• To uphold my resolution to really connect this year, making sure to focus my last month on strengthening and maintaining the relationships that are so important to me
• Keep following the rules I set up for myself before this adventure began
• Continue reflecting on all that I have learned this year and reflect on the question I was asked at lunch on Friday, "so you have been here for 11 months, how has the experience changed you?"
• To eat at all the restaurants that remain on my Buenos Aires food exploration list 
• Continue asking questions because as my supervisor Hache said to me the other day, "you know Kate, the thing I like about you is that you have been here for almost a year and yet you continue to ask questions to understand and deepen your experience"
• Help support Baby Help's transition into the Tel Aviv School (more information to come)
• To really think critically about how I'd like to finish my time in the community and make sure all that I have done this year will be sustainable and continue when I am gone

Here's to one more month!

pilpul

A few days ago I volunteered at Pilpul, a JDC program in Buenos Aires that is basically a debate competition in a Jewish context, where teams of three from surrounding Jewish schools debate different cases. The cases are all dilemmas that the kids had to debate and back up using evidence from Jewish texts, values, and history. The debate topics included:

- Graduation Trip: Comparing two growth opportunities, what should be prioritized: an individual or group experience?

- The Value of a Life: In a wartime situation, is one life valued more than another? How should one think about the exchange of prisoners?

- The Great Journey: When one commits a mistake, is regretting it sufficient to overcome it? 

-The Truthful Friends: In relation to two friends, what is more important: always tell the truth or maintain the happiness of the other even if you don't offer all the information you have?

The winning team won some fabulous prizes and all the participating students, teachers, coaches, and judges were thanked for all they had put into the day. It was a super interesting day and I was amazed at the arguments formulated by the teens. It's quite amazing to hear fifteen year-old's spewing out quotes said by Maimonides and backing up their arguments using stories taken from the Talmud.  I hope this type of program has been replicated in other places and if not will be in the future, it contained a powerful blend of mature articulation and Jewish learning. 

hacemos voluntariado con los viejos / volunteering with the elderly

The BBYO Argentina teens participated in BBYO's J-Serve in April, an annual event where thousands of Jewish teens from across the world volunteer simultaneously. Afterwards they decided they wanted to continue doing service year round. Two of our teens, Juli and Mai, formed a J-Serve committee to plan the different service events throughout the year. Last week the group went to a state of the art Jewish elderly home in Buenos Aires, Ledor Vador, to visit with the residents. Here is more information about the program from Juli and Mai:

Last Thursday we went to the Jewish elderly home Ledor Vador to do a program with a group of elderly. First, we perceived a certain hesitation, the elderly didn't fully understand the intention of the meeting and what we would be able to achieve but don't worry, everyone left the program extremely happy!

The proposal was to make an intergenerational exchange and to discuss some issues of our interest (how young people have fun nowadays and what they did in the past, technology, the safety on the street, the relationship between men and women, education, and all the other topics that arose) and try to teach each other the differences and similarities between our present and their past. As we started talking and getting warmed up, we listened with interest to all the anecdotes and opinions and ended up chatting with nearly forty elderly people. 

In the end, the atmosphere was so nice that we split up into more intimate conversations with some people who showed no hurry to leave and got to know the life of Mario, a lawyer who taught philosophy and called his ex-wife two times while chatting with us, and Cata, a survivor of the Shoah. Both they and we learned with pleasure that the age difference does not have to stop us from being friends. I believe we all left Ledor Vador feeling a little more similar to people that are 80, 90, or 100 years old than we thought we could.

-Juli Cohen, 18

In my opinion going to Ledor Vador was an excellent experience. It was a different activity than usual because it was the first time we did something like this and with these type of people. It was fantastic because everybody said very interesting things, we were all very happy because the topics that we were discussing were very interesting for them and for us!

-Mai Stamati, 17

 Thank you Juli and Mai for such a great program! I can't wait to see what other great service projects you guys plan!