Since arriving in Argentina earlier this year I’ve been working Un Techo Para Mi Pais, an exemplary organization that works within nineteen countries in South America. Their youth-based, horizontally structured, local leadership and volunteer base works to help families in extreme poverty develop[...]
Archive for the ‘Argentina’ Category
Un Techo Para Mi Pais- More than Just a Roof
Mathapi Apthapi Tinku: Coming Together
The community of sikuris in Buenos Aires is, to say the very least, unique. We are our own little world. Though the community has surely always existed, many consider 1992 (the 500 year anniversary of Columbus) a marking point in its history. Over the past two decades it has been growing stea[...]
Aguanten las Warmis! Women Sikuris in Buenos Aires Do More than Just Dance
In learning to play the siku one learns a lot about the Andean cosmovision. It carries a lot of meanings and reflects on a way of life. At the heart of it all is the idea of equilibrium: two parts that fulfill their unique purposes to create one whole. You’ve got the two halves of [...][...]
“Y como, y como, y como es la wea? Aca estudiamos gratis en Chile hay que pagar!”
“Y como, y como, y como es la wea? Aca estudiamos gratias en Chile hay que pagar!” ~ Chant of Chilean students exiled by education in Argentina Surely by now most have heard about the massive student protests going on in Chile demanding free, public and secular education for all students[...]
Reinsertón: the Frente de Artistas del Borda Fights for Desmanicomialización and a better Buenos Aires
One of the best things about rehearsing in IMPA is that there are always interesting things going on in other parts of the factory. Be it circus training on the third floor, dance classes in the machine room, or chess in the lobby, my friends often make fun of me for getting caught up in [...][...]
Don’t Cry for Me Argentina! A Volunteer’s Last Day
Yes, you might as well picture me as a brunette Madonna crooning from a balcony “Don’t cry for me Argentinaaaa, the truth is I never left yoooooou.” Because it’s true, I didn’t leave. I am still here. As much as I complain about Buenos Aires being a massive city, the booby trapped sidewal[...]
Desde Lejos He Venido: How an Opera Singer Became an Urban Sikuri
On the 24th of May 2010 the 16 lane avenue 9 de Julio was teeming with boisterous manifestations of national pride as hundreds of thousands of Argentines celebrated the Bicentennial of the May Revolutions. Meanwhile, 6 city blocks up the Avenida de Mayo, on the far side of the Plaza del Congreso, th[...]
What’s God got to do with it? Volunteering for Faith Based NGOs
For the past several months I have been volunteering with a non-denominational Christian NGO. If you are like me four months ago, you may be asking yourself, “What the hell does that mean?! …Does that mean I can’t say hell?” What this means is that families do not need to be religious to re[...]




