Service Learning Project at Hogar El Alba

Love is Universal-El Amor es Universal-Ame é Universal

Morgan holding hands with one of the children.

While I was at the Hogar El Alba, I decided to take a moment for myself. I took a step back, closed my eyes, and focused on what exactly I was feeling inside. Despite the fact that it was 86 degrees, I felt a different type of warmth. I felt similar to the way that I do when I am surrounded with my family and friends. I could not help but smile because I knew that I felt the love in the air. This feeling existed between us and the children and workers at the orphanage, even though there was a language barrier. By giving love to the kids/workers and getting it back, we were able to form connections. Claire said it best when she told me that her favorite part about the visit was the fact that she "was still able to play with Fabiana (one of the children in the orphanage) even though I did not speak Spanish". For these reasons, it can be argued that love is universal, and knows no language boundaries. 

Matt and Nicole are making bracelets with the children!

I experienced this sensation first hand when I was making bracelets with Chris, Srdan and Carolina (one of the girls at the orphanage). Despite the fact that Carolina was not able to communicate with Srdan directly (because she does not speak English) she still made a bracelet for him. She did this because she felt a strong connection with him because love is not something that is shared through words, but rather actions. One of the reasons why spending time at the orphanage was rewarding was that we were able feel the love that we are all missing from home. Morgan even told me that playing with the kids reminded her of all the time that spends playing with her nephew from back home. This experience reminded her of her nephew because she felt loved by the children because this feeling is universal.

The communication barriers present between us and the workers seemed non-existent because love is triumphant to language. The feeling made it easy to connect with them. Jon really captured this idea when he told me that his favorite part of the trip was when we were painting one of the houses with Ruben (one of the workers). He told me that he had a blast laughing with him, even though they did not speak the same language. The only words that he seemed to know how to say that were not Spanish were Justin Bieber (because he called me that approximately 8 times). One of the main things that we will all take away from this trip is that if you give people love, you will get it back- even if you cannot directly communicate with them. We will never forget this day because of the way that Hogar El Alba made us feel- loved.

Jackie took an adorable picture with one of the children!

Agribusiness Presentation - Iván Ordoñez

For our first business meeting of our trip, an expert Agribusiness Consultant named Iván Ordoñez presented to our group at Alem 1074 about the changing global conditions in Agribusiness and its effects on Argentina's Agribusiness. Ordoñez highlighted the global change in Agribusiness and a growth in consumption because of food, feed, and fuel. For food, people living in urban areas do not normally grow their food, but they do in rural areas. Currently, because of an increase in GDP in rural areas, a middle class has formed, pushing people to not grow their own food (usually carbohydrate sources such as rice and vegetables). In turn, this has created and increase in food consumption around the world. With a rising middle class, these people are looking for higher quality protein sources, thus increasing food production used as feed for these protein sources. As for fuel, the United States uses 50% of ethanol production; the supply for fuel is low and the demand keeps rising (price increase). Matt G. asked an interesting question on whether Ordoñez thought the increase in demand for Agribusiness was created from new technology, but the presenter emphasized food, feed, and fuel as the main reasons. 

Students and faculty at Iván Ordoñez's presentation

Argentina's Agribusiness is improving because of these global situations. Network farmers are able to produce crops year-round, such as the soybean, which is important for making grain, flour, and oil and is responsible for 58% of Argentina's exports. South America's Agribusiness will continue to thrive because it is a large producer of vegetable protein, which has the highest growth potential near an ample water supply. 

Iván Ordoñez

Ordoñez concluded the presentation by answering Professor Zdravkovic's about GMO's (genetically modified organisms) and their effects on agribusiness by discussing the environmental issues with this topic. This presentation proved to be quite interesting because of Ordoñez's enthusiasm for this field; we were able to learn the importance of Agribusiness in Argentina and what global factors influence it. 

Iván Ordoñez with Bryant group

Today the dogs went to work!!!

This morning we embarked on our little excursion to el Hogar el Alba for a service learning project. The Hogar has been functioning for 90 years and it was founded by and English teacher. Usually they house 50 kids in five different ten person houses, but today there were only about 35 children because Argentina is currently in holiday, so the children are away on vacation. The children vary in ages from 3 years old to 18 years old. The purpose of this Hogar is to house, protect and educate children that are in situations of social risk. Children may end up at the Hogar for different reasons such as that their parents are imprisoned, they were suffering sexual abuse, or were just in a bad home. Generally they stay around three years; the goal is obviously to get the children back to their family as soon as possible, granted that the situation is better, or to place the children with an adoptive family. While at the Hogar the children work around the hogar like working in the bakery that is located in the Hogar, dairy farming, or making cheese from the dairy farming. This daily work shows the children something new and teaches them to work hard, where the parents of these children most likely worked for two days then had ten days off and sat around watching television. It is extremely apparent that all the people that work at the Hogar care about what they do and the children, especially considering the fact that the do not get paid. The Hogar mainly survives off of donations from people like us due to the fact that the government funding barely ever comes through.

  This is the main eating area and contains the kitchen 

                         

Upon arriving at the Hogar we were divided into six different groups in order for us to work in stations around the Hogar. The stations consisted of some work on the property and also playing with the kids. A lot of the stations had us painting different buildings some inside others out and various colors also. My group started en la panadería (the bakery) where we painted the tops of the walls and the ceiling then we went around back to a house that holds some of the children and we painted up the staircase into the hallways and the actual children’s rooms. The one that we were in was a girls room and there were two bunk beds and the walls had the girls drawings on them, which were very pretty flowers and there were also magazine pages taped all over the walls and it was exciting to think about if the kids would like their new room with freshly painted walls and what more will be drawn on them. 


Some other groups did some more painting elsewhere and then the other yard work station was in el Jardín, where there were some orange and lemon trees. One of the men from the Hogar weed wacked the grass as we racked up the hay and carried it over to the bridge near where the cows were. They put us to work and opened our eyes to a whole new side of the world. I was talking with a few of my group members and I remembered Ale saying “this puts things into perspective” and this experience really did. Not many of our students can say they have been to a place like this before or have experienced any hardships like these children face every day in our own lives. When talking to Nicole and Karin we reflected on the state of the Hogar and how by us doing all this work it really helps them save their time to do more for kids and spend their resources else where to help keep the place running and helping children. Also, we discussed how we feel like there should be more opportunities and requirements for students at Bryant to do service learning projects because it only makes us a better person and it also makes other people lives better. 

The look on the children’s faces as well as the adults faces while we were helping will stay with us for a long time and push us to be more aware of others situations as well as to help others.  

Boat Ride on the Delta Tigre

Following our exciting and exhausting kayaking adventure we were all in a little need of some rest. We all got to enjoy a relaxing boat tour of the Delta Tigre. Our tour guide of the Delta, Juan, explained all about the history, local life, and the people of the area. Some things we learned on the tour are, the Delta Tigre is the only delta left in the world that is still growing. The reason the Delta got its name is because long ago there were jaguars that lived in the region and the indigenous people thought they looked like tigers. We were able to see the new islands that are forming in the delta as well. On the developed islands people in the region live in houses on stilts and get around in boats. Getting around by boat is the main form of transportation in the delta. All the houses and boats have unique names that have a story behind each house.

There are people that live in the Delta all year round and for those who do kids go to school. You may be wondering, how do they get to school if they are surrounded by rivers? Well they have a bus boat. The boat picks up the kids and brings them to school. Another cool part about the island is that there is a boat that is like a super market. It carries produce to the people of the delta, so this allows easy access to groceries.

We eventually crossed into La Rio Plata and sailed down it until we got back to Buenos Aires. At this point on the boat ride many including some professors woke up from there naps at the sound of coffee and snacks being given out. Then since we were all awake from the coffee and sugary snack all the students were given the opportunity to go outside on the stern of the boat and look at the view. We could see the entire city of Buenos Aires from the boat. We then entered back into Puerto Madero, which sadly meant that our exciting day at Delta Tigre had come to an end. However we all came back with new stories, and some tans or sun burns.

Chris D., Wilson H., and Laura H. in the front row - the rest of us enjoying the ride... inside


...and outside...

Kayaking on the Delta Tigre

Following the meetings with two different companies in the morning, we set out to go on a kayaking adventure on the Delta Tigre.  Upon entering the beautiful city of Tigre, everyone was admiring its beauty as Sofia was talking to us about all the interesting things that make this city very unique.  After seeing its beauty, we were all really excited to get out on the water.  There were many different options in term, how many people you wanted to kayak with.  

Griffin and Daniel picking their boat

Students choose to be in a ten person row boat, a two person or three person kayak.  Depending on the boat that the students picked some people were able to relax on a bigger boat, while others got their workout in paddling the smaller kayaks.

At first, we were kayaking around a small cove and everyone was splashing each other and “accidentally” bumping other’s kayaks.  I’m pretty sure Chris and Professor Zdravkovic made it their mission to bump everyone’s kayak along the way.  Once we started kayaking down the river, we were continuously looking from left to right to look at all the cute houses that were on either side.  At one point, we even saw some adorable dogs, Jackie even said “that she would jump out of her kayak to go and pet the German Shepard”.  Many students were racing each other and making it a competition.  Also, we watched as some people, who had never kayaked before, become very good at this new activity.

As we left the smaller part of the river and entered into one of the busier parts, many people felt their fair share of waves as the taxi boats and other boats would pass on by.  There was one time when two boats passed by us at the same time and a bunch of us got splashed by the waves.  The water was so refreshing because it was about 90°.  Three of the students even jumped in the river when we were finished kayaking.  Overall, today was a really fun day on the water filled with lots of laughs and smiles.