Homestays and Despedidas in Lujan

HOLA Friends and Followers of Putney Language Learning Argentina!

None of us can believe that we´re entering the final stretch of our Putney odyssey--Matt and I are incredibly proud of each member of our group. Last week we continued our work on the finca at Carlos Keen, where we painted the cages for day-old bunnies, laid tile and built a brick wall, cooked empanadas and dulce de leche, and did about a hundred other diverse farm and restaurant-related tasks alongside the boys who live on the farm. These orphaned and abandoned boys have some of the most difficult early life stories we have ever heard.

Susana and Hugo, the older couple who run the finca, gave us an emotional goodbye salute and told us how much the past three weeks have meant to their boys--they have become extremely close with our Putney group, and vice-versa. It´s been incredibly moving to watch the relationship between both groups develop. These boys adore our students and you can tell that the younger boys like Daniel and Lucas feel deeply proud that they are able to teach American teenagers about their lifestyle. Every day when our bus arrived they literally ran to meet us, and on our last day we exchanged presents, cards, tears, and promises to return and to stay in touch. Susana would like you to know that all of you are welcome to come and stay at the finca in Carlos Keen--CAMINOS ABIERTOS--and to eat in the adjacent restaurant, Las Girasoles, anytime!

The homestay week was an all around fantastic experience--it flew by! Matt and I had the chance to visit many of the host families and we were jealous of your kids--these families were terrific, warm and funny and totally charmed by our students. They were also wonderful cooks; one lucky girl was living with a pastry chef, and another had a quincho--essentially a BBQ--in his house!

Three of our students had a FIVE HOUR conversation with a group of Lujan teenagers--they told us this with a bleary-eyed pride the following day, and recounted every joke they´d understood and laughed wildly at (Spanish jokes are always funnier than English jokes, I think, because it´s such a triumph to have understood the punchline!). Everybody´s Spanish has improved dramatically, although one girl did tell us that her Lujan grandma had a tough experience in her youth wherein her arm ´fell off.´ Since Matt and I shook both of this kind woman´s colorfully manicured hands at the fiesta de despedida (Goodbye Party), we suspect something may have been lost in the translation.

Speaking of which, that Goodbye Party was one of the most emotional and beautiful experiences we have had this entire trip. Everybody in the town came to see us off! The mayor, all of the Lujan families and our kids new teenage friends and homestay siblings, and about fifteen boys accompanied by Hugo and Susana. The boys had made us handwritten cards and there was not a dry eye in the house, with the exception of the stoic stray dog who had smelled pizza and empanadas and followed us into our salon. Each of our students stood and made a speech in Spanish about how much the week of homestay had impacted them, and their families told Matt and I that they felt the experience had been a life-changing exchange for them as well. We were so proud of everyone for their maturity, openness, and kindness this week, and for the moon-man leaps their Spanish has made.

We are currently in Humahuaca, a small town near the border of Bolivia, and today we leave on our 3 day trek, followed by a fourth day of rafting and jungle canopy. Yesterday we saw Las Salinas--the Salt Mines--where we felt like Neil Armstrong on a lunar expedition. This is a totally white terrain, a huge salt deposit left when a lake evaporated 10,000 years ago, which means it is impressive from a geologic perspective and also, simply put, WAY COOL.

We took lots of fun perspective shots, creating optical illusions. Apocalyptic winds were a´blowing and there was lots of shouting and laughing as we climbed the Salt Mountains. We´ve seen the Garganta del Diablo waterfall in Tilcara and the Sierra de Siete Colores, and we´re all walking around slack-jawed with wonder at the beauty of N.O.A., the northwestern corner of Argentina. Can´t wait to begin the last leg of our adventure with our amazing group!

Un beso y abrazo desde Grupo Putney LLARG!!

Matt, Karen, and Team America

La Bombonera, Life on Hugos's Farm, and the Homestay

Hello all!

Putney Language Learning Argentina apologizes for the blog hiatus! We have been BUSY, folks--last weekend we went canoeing on the Rio Tigre, saw the Phantom of the Opera in Buenos Aires, did a walking tour of Boca and San Telmo, and we got a tour of Estadio ´La Bombonera´ that even the non-soccer fanatics amongst us could appreciate (fun trivia: the stadium is called La Bombonera because one of the stadium engineers was always popping bon bons on the work site, and the stadium itself is said to resemble a box of chocolates--now your kids can win big money on Jeopardy! one day, courtesy of Putney). We ate an incredible meal against the glowing green harpsichord-like bridge in Puente de la Mujer in Puerto Madero.

We returned to the Villa Maristas on Monday and went directly to work on Hugo´s finca in the pueblecito of Carlos Keen, which we all agree is a storybook-idyllic place--Hugo and his wife Susannah are the defacto parents of a group of abandoned boys ranging in age from 8-20. We are working alongside the boys (who live on the farm) and even though we´ve only been on site for a week, our students are forming incredible friendships with them. Not only is everybody´s Spanish improving, we are also learning tons about working on a farm and in the adjacent kitchen and restaurant. Every day we collect the new words we´ve learned, which includes such specific vocabulary as nonato, the word for a stillborn calf, and apicultura, the word for bee-keeping. One of our favorite quotes from the trip so far came when a student told us the following about his new friend from Carlos Keen:

"Yeah, Gino is the MAN! We bee-kept together."

Every day groups of our students rotate to help out with cooking in the kitchen, lay down tile, assist with the herding of cattle, sow and harvest in the fields, feed the rabbits and sheep, and assist with other farm duties (and play futbol games with the Argentine kids, and eat heaping plates of spaghetti and gnocchis that we help Susanah and the chefs to prepare at crazy velocities). We´ll be working there all this week from 9:30-3:00, and in the afternoons and evenings our students will be with their homestay families in Lujan. In fact the group will be meeting their families in just half an hour--we are all excited for Homestay Week! This is the week where we typically see the most language growth (and personal growth), and students often tell us that it´s the highlight of the entire trip.

Here are some highlights from our last week in Lujan, and our weekend trip to Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires:

1. On Wednesday we had a Dia de Cabalgatas, where authentic gauchos put ponchos on our Putney students and taught them how to saddle up and ride! We got to watch the moon and stars come out on a genuine pampa while eating heaps of delicious asado.

2. On Thursday after working at the farm we went to Zoo Lujan, a baffling place where chickens roam free lording their mobility over the caged toucans and lions and the organizing principle is a mystery shrouded in time--why did we see classic cars cordoned off in between the amorous monkeys and tigers? Why did the miniature choo-choo circumnavigate what appeared to be a junkyard with a liberal spattering of confused and angry looking lions? Group reactions ranged from Huh? to Hooray! as we each took a turn riding camels and elephants and taking pictures on old train cars. We loved it.

3. Friday we woke up in the freezing dawn and headed out to Mar del Plata (which one of our students inaccurately yet hilariously translated as Ocean of Dishware), a gorgeous town on the Atlantic coast about five miles from Lujan. Had a bit of a grey day but when things cleared up we were able to see a sea lion preserve and a museum of sea shells, and eat incredible seafood at Pulpo Gallego.

4. Saturday and Sunday we spent in Buenos Aires, getting a second helping of incredible food and culture--a group went dancing on Saturday night and we all enjoyed a drumming show at the Japanese Gardens on Sunday, followed by the MALBA art museum and a stroll through the Feria de Recoleta and a great dinner in Palermo Viejo.

5. And now, onwards...to the homestay! Stay tuned and un beso enorme desde el grupo Putney LLARG. Matt and I feel like we have won the lottery--we have a fantastic group down here and we can´t wait to share more of our adventures with you.

Saludos desde Lujan

Hello friends and parents,

All of us here at Putney LLARG are in awe of the fact that 3 days ago, none of us knew each other. We are settled into the Villa, where we have a Lady House and a Dude House (I keep trying to get everyone to break into gendered song, a la the movie Grease, to no avail!) and an excellent common space to cook meals, do our Spanish games and lessons, and hold our meetings. The Villa is a little chilly at night, as evidenced by this hilarious photo of our girls wearing their Davy Crockett fur-lined hunting hats, but for the most part we are adjusting to the mild Argentine winter and had beautiful weather today.

Our days have been jam-packed! Yesterday we started our service projects at La Escuela del Pueblo Nuevo and at la finca de Carlos Keen, an organic farm that also serves as a home for orphaned boys. We returned to both sites today, where one group of students learned how to make pan con cebollas with a group of chefs and another group taught English to a group of students in the Pueblo Nuevo high school. Our Putney group planned lessons together that included games of Simon Says and tag designed to teach English, and later we got a chance to play futbol with some of the Argentine boys. Matt and I wanted to share these lovely photos with you--we are incredibly proud of our group!!

We just returned from a tour of the Basilica de la Virgen de Lujan, one of the most important pilgrimage sites in all of Latin America. Tomorrow is another service day, and on July 3-4 while you guys are spitting out watermelon seeds and watching fireworks we will be bravely rafting down the Rio Tigre on our Dia de Canoas and then heading to BUENOS AIRES!

More soon and un beso enorme,

Karen, Matt, y Grupo Putney LLARG

Greetings from Lujan

Dear Parents and Friends,

Success! Grupo Putney Language Learning Argentina has touched down, and we are getting settled in our new home for the next two weeks, the lovely Villa Maristas en Lujan, about an hour outside Buenos Aires.

We´re still busting out our jackets and gearing up for Winter: the Sequel--right now the group is on a Busequeda de Tesoros (Scavenger Hunt) in the town, and we´ll be reuniting for our welcome dinner of delicious Argentine steaks and gnocchis in just a few minutes.

Tomorrow we´ll be splitting into groups of 4-5 and heading off to our community service sites for an orientation. We already tell this is going to be an outstanding group.

BESOS DESDE LUJAN!

Matt, Karen, y Grupo Putney Language Learning Argentina

The group has arrived

We've received word from the leaders that the group has arrived in Lujan.

Meet the Trip Leaders

2009 Argentina Leaders: Karen Russell and Matt Hollander

KAREN RUSSELL: Northwestern University, B.A., summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, English Literature & Spanish, Columbia University, M.F.A. While at Northwestern University, Karen studied abroad in Spain at the Universidad de Sevilla, where she was a member of the government-sponsored Solidarios volunteer program participating in leadership seminars in Jerez de la Frontera and Cádiz alongside dozens of Spanish teenagers. Karen currently teaches as an adjunct English professor at Williams College and Columbia University. She will be a Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library for 2009-10. Her story collection, "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," was published by Knopf in 2007 and was named a Best Book by the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Chicago Tribune. Her stories have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Conjunctions, Best American Short Stories, and the New York Times. Her novel, “Swamplandia!,” is forthcoming from Knopf/Random House. This will be Karen's fifth summer leading with Putney. She has led two Language Learning programs in Spain, a Cultural Exploration program in Australia, New Zealand, & Fiji, and Putney’s Creative Writing program in Cuba. Karen is fluent in Spanish.

MATT HOLLANDER: Vanderbilt University, B.A., Spanish, magna cum laude; Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, M.Ed., Special Education. While at Vanderbilt, Matt worked as a radio DJ and began an initiative mentoring young adults with Down syndrome. He also participated in his university’s Alternative Spring Break program, volunteering as a tutor on the Lakota Sioux reservation in South Dakota, and working with hurricane relief and advocacy for Haitian and Cuban refugees in Miami. He led a program in Dallas, TX, as a hippotherapist – enabling students with special needs to gain confidence and joy through working with horses. Matt studied abroad in Santiago, Chile, where he had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the country, helping local communities build homes while furthering his Spanish skills. After receiving his Masters degree, Matt moved to Montevideo, Uruguay, where he worked as the International Programs Coordinator for Un Techo Para Mi Pais to build 17 houses with over 150 university students from the U.S., Canada, France, Israel, Argentina, and Uruguay. After 14 months in Uruguay, Matt started a grassroots tutoring company in Nashville, TN, with a focus on cultural identity/diversity in urban schools. Matt is a published author in the Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences for his research on Hispanic acculturation in urban schools. Matt currently works at a middle school in Evanston, IL, as a bilingual special educator, where he also coaches boy’s basketball. He is a Putney Student Travel alumnus. As a high school student, Matt participated in a Putney Community Service Program in Costa Rica. He is fluent in Spanish.

Welcome!

In order to keep parents updated on the progress of their child's Putney program, from time to time over the course of the program, the trip leaders will post an update on this blog. We hope that the occasional updates will keep you informed about the activities, projects and successes of the summer, as well as comfort the usual worries in sending a son or daughter to a far-away place.

You should expect leaders to post blogs no more than once per week during the program. We feel strongly that the leaders' first priority is the students and the program. The reasons for infrequent updates will be the very busy schedules of our program leaders as well as inconsistent internet access at Putney's various destinations throughout the world. Please know that any important issues on the program will be discussed and resolved with leaders and parents by phone, not through the blog.

We suggest that you subscribe to the blog during your first visit so that you will receive e-mail notifications at the end of the day whenever a new update is posted. To subscribe, enter your email address under 'Subscribe via e-mail' on the right-hand column of the blog.

Have a fantastic summer!