la casa grupal, mi proyecto cultural, y más
hola a todos, hoy voy a contarles sobre todo que ha pasado en los días recientes.y si hablas español y equivoqué en el oracion pasado, lo siento. `
bueno, so the real "work" has started here in salta. what that actually means is that everything has slowed down significantly. we recently moved out of our second homestay homes here in salta. 
Me, My homestay grandma, Alicia, and my bro Dan, another Robbie.
we moved into a house in san lorenzo as a group. i´m with 5 girls in one room, thank god i got a top bunk. you get to hear all kinds of stories this way. san lorenzo is a little outside of salta and not quite a town in itself, at least where we live, meaning that we get to straddle our days between the city, the bus, and our house, which has spiders and no channels on our nice big television. it´s just another stage of the trip, i suppose. i´m actually getting tired of moving seeing as this is the fourth place we´ve stayed in four weeks.
more importantly, i started my volunteer work here at la casa del niño. it´s great, in the sense that i am learning and experiencing and just being somewhere that i never thought i´d have a chance to be. in the mornings i help out with office work and in the afternoons i play with the kids when they come back from their treatments at the hospital across the street. hospital is kind of a stretch for this place though, in american standards. today i walked through the halls of this old, crumbling building and was impressed that it is still being used. they obviously don´t have the same building standards here as they do in the u.s. i work with fani, virginia and marcia. then there´s my bud daniel, who´s in my program and works at the house with me as well.
today we had a chance to see the hospital because it was the fortieth anniversary of the escuelita, or little school, that functions there. basically how it works it while kids are here for extended periods of time, as inpatients, there are teachers that go from bed to bed, teaching and continuing the students education while they´re sick. they was singing, dancing and cake-which here comes with a mini roman candle on top instead of your basic wimpy birthday candles. (pictures below) the event was highly attended by the kids in the hospital, former students of the school and supporters of all shapes and sizes.
my afternoons with the kids in the casa are my favorite. there have been one or two kids staying at the casa each night while i´m here, so i get to spend individualized time with each kid. i´ve been chilling with an adorable two year old girl whose heart is struggling to work and is getting consulted here on the possibility of heart surgery. her fingers are always dark purple and you can see the veins on her head, but she´s the sweetest, spunkiest little thing i´ve played with in a while. she´s bossy too, veni! veni! come! come! all the time, now that we´re friends. i even got a kiss on the cheek today. my other friend is 9. we´ve been drawing together the past couple of days, everything that we can think of. yesterday i asked if he wanted to take a break, and no way he did not, drawing or die for this little trooper. the house is very calm and relaxed with tons of toys and colorful walls all around. it´s really great to see the kids smiling and having fun here for days on end.
two of the kids from casa del niño dressed up in salteño ponchos for the celebration. 
the gathering
casa del niño kids singing their song
cutest thing i´ve ever seen, with her mom at the party.
salta as a whole has not really caught my fancy as a city yet. i love the big buenos aires with everything and anything. but i do love the mountains here. we´re going on another day trip tomorrow to a town outside of the city. but the people here do have more time to talk. my friend daniel and i were in a store the other day and we were hailed down by an old argentine man who learned some english 50 years ago that he still remembers today. his name was orlando and he wants to visit orlando, florida. he told us first that he does not like bush. he then proceeded to ask us all about ourselves, why we´re in salta, etc. in a cute spanglish. by the end of our conversation he had warmed up to the idea that we were americans and when we walked out the door he yelled after us in his great argentine english, "you are very nice!"
so i´ve been here a month. i have to be honest. i really love it here- it´s unique the people are so friendly, ubertalkative and their culture is very distinctive. the food is great, the ice cream- to die for. i´m starting to eat dulce de leche daily. i´m upset when my friends don´t like mate. i don´t notice the trash everywhere, the insanely dangerous traffic or the goofy weather. i speak in spanish before english most times, although i´m still frustrated by my lack of language skills. but, i miss home too. sobre todo, the people of argentina are what have made my experience great, and what i miss most about home is my family and friends. and maybe peanut butter. (i could make a fortune bringing mateca de maní to this deprived population.) i guess what i want to tell you if you´re reading this is that for me, traveling is the bomb. it´s like life on steroids, it´s rips you open and makes you new and you love it. it´s so hard it´s worth it. as they say here, vale la pena. todavia, i´m homesick.
