Juan acaba de irse. La cronica de su segunda semana en Villa Ana - Juan is left. His second week in Villa Ana

Juan acaba de irse. Despues de dos semanas llenas de actividades y sobre todo de humanidad, nuestro nuevo amigo de Korea terminó su recorrida argentina y volvió a su pais. La verdad es que fue una experiencia importante para el grupo, dos semanas que nos permitieron, por primera vez, de trabajar de una manera exclusiva con un solo voluntario. Sin duda esto se reveló en el mismo tiempo mas facil, por lo que fue la organizacion practica de las actividades, pero un poquito mas dificil por lo que concernió a la gestion de el tiempo. Saben, una cosa es compartir una experiencia de voluntariado con otros 10 chicos que llegan de todo el mundo, otra cosa es tratar de recrear esa misma energia de intercambio cultural tipica de un clasico campo de trabajo con una unica persona. Al final, el resultado fue entusiasta: Juan llegó en Villa Ana como extranjero, pero, en dos semanas, logramos de convertirlo en un nuevo miembro de Quebrachito, uno de nosotros, sin diferencias.
De todas formas, las palabras en estos casos siempre sobran; como con la pasada semana, quizas puede ser mas interesante leer la cronica directa de Juan sobre su ultimos siete dias en Villa Ana....

Time flies.
I really liked this place but a person who has to go should go.
This week was calmer for me because I could be accustomed to living a life I Villa Ana.
I did vegetable garden work more than last week and we can see the difference between the first and now. (actually, however hard I worked, I was definitely slower than my friends. )
This is my first week.





This is second week.
(to tell the truth, in the middle of our work, a tractor driver helped us. Haha!)

When we took a rest, I lay and slept under a beautiful sky and gorgeous sun with warm wind. That was one of my best time during each day. Hm..it’s not because I didn’t want to work, okay? Haha)

I attended one more Italian class which Mauro is a teacher for this village. It’s a Spanish class for me. For 2 weeks, I learned important verbs, practical sentences and basic structure how I could make sentences. I absolutely didn’t learn Spanish in Korea. Maybe I can say that I never heard Spanish in Korea or I don’t remember because I didn’t know about this language. Mauro told me that the more we learned languages, the easier to learn other languages. Well, it can be excuse but for engineering students, it’s hard to learn other languages except English. Yeah it’s excuse. Learning Spanish from Mauro was a very good chance so I’ll try not to loose this good chance after going back to Korea.

Pablo hyung is back. It’s same as in Korea that when a friend is back from a journey or business, we get together and drink. Pablo hyung prepared a special mint alcohol named Branca Menta which I tasted for the first time.

Luciano cooked another typical Villa Ana’s food again. The name of food was “Estofado de carpincho” which Mauro called ‘water pig.’ It was really good. He cooked it with pasta and he made another soup. The soup was made by potato, milk and special argentine pepper which is never spicy. I’ll try this soup afte r going back to Korea. It was really good. (well, sometimes my friends ask me “are you hungry?” maybe I eat a lot or always look for a food. haha.)

Oops, I tried to take pictures of foods which my friends made but I always forget to take a picture of foods that Mauro made. He is an amazing chef. Actually, he worked as a chef in Australia. Whenever he cooks, I’m happy. Haha.

Mauro and I went to Villa Ocampo to buy a direc t bus ticket from Villa Ocampo to Iguasu. We could find a bus ticket from Villa Ocampo to Iguasu in Villa Ana but it goes via 3 cities. That’s why we decide d to go to Villa Ocampo. (Actually, Mauro decided that we should go to Villa Ocampo to buy a direct bus ticket.) Somehow, we could buy a bus ticket.
And then what I really wanted to buy was a matte because I really loved matte in Argentina. I bought mate, yebra, bombilla. . Everybody told me that it’s expensive to buy a straw for 30 pesos but isn’t it really a good deal to have one in my life? Haha
Finally, we went to an internet café and I asked the manager whether I could connect internet with my laptop. So she answered that I should wait until she calls an engineer. So I waited and waited but nothing happened anymore. So Mauro confirmed again and what I understood was totally wrong. She had told me that I couldn’t do it because it is so late that engineer was gone. Yeah~ trying to do by myself was good but I wasted my time to access internet. What if Mauro didn’t confirm again? maybe I just waited thinking why the engineer was so late.

On Thursday, we went to Villa Guillelmina. First, we visited an office of the president of this village and we heard about the history of this village. Fortunately, I and Mauro could receive a flag of this village.

And then we went to a school which was the most important thing on that day. The situation was totally different from when we went to Tartagal last week. On last week, because we interrupted their class, they were very pleased and they wanted to listen to us more. But this time, because we interrupted their import ant basketball and handball match, I could feel that many of them wanted me to stop talking, I spoke all what I wanted though. After finishing our presentation, I was going out of the school but my friends called me. The studen ts asked me something including what music I liked. I said reggaeton which was absolutely my mistake. Suddenly, they were excited very much and they wanted me to dance. Well, I waited for the music to be changed because I really cannot dance with cumbia. Anyhow, I danced with some of them which I really enjoyed. Haha!
After that, we went to visit an institution which encourages students from different village to come here and give them an experience of staying out of their home. It’s purpose is similar to Quebrachitos but more improved one. Because of Quebrachitos’ international exchange style, they could think that they wanted to absorb this group, I thought. Well, I hope it would not happen. I want to see how Quebrachitos develop by its own way not by other bigger groups because I want Quebrachitos to maintains its own way.

After that, we went to someplace. It was full of peace. After having a lunch, we walked this peaceful place which just looked like a natural park interviewing with Mauro for each person. With these guys, anything is funny and anything is special.
At night, I could join a BBQ party. Wow!! It’s not common to have this kind of atmosphere in K orea because I live in Seoul. We go to MT about twice or three times a year and only on those days I can f eel this atmosphere. Even though I cannot speak Spanish, I could enjoy very much. Hm..because most time, Mauro translated for me. The sky was so beautiful. Oh, I should leave here.. I watched stars in the sky for a long time after finishing the party.
Lastly, I want to put one picture of Mauro’s meals. Every time when he cooked, I felt like bei ng in a restaurant. This is just his normal cooking.

In two weeks, I was very happy. They gave me a real friendship. I really enjoyed.
But it doesn’t mean that I didn’t do what I should do. Whatever my Quebrachitos friends say, I did a good job. Haha! Well, I slept very much…colgado!!

I’m not a cool guy so whenever I say goodbye I feel very sad. Surely, it’s not easy to come to Argentina from Korea even though I want very mu ch. But, I’ll be back. I wanna see my friends again. I don’t know when I can come here again PERO, Ya Vuelvo.

La primera semana de Juan en Villa Ana - The first week of Juan in Villa Ana

Primera semana en Villa Ana para KyeongWeon Park, Juanito para todos aca en Argentina, el voluntario de Korea del Sur que hasta el proximo domingo colaborará con nuestra organización...
Fueron muchas las actividades de estos 7 dias, y nosotros fuimos pensando que no habia cosa mejor que dejar el teclado propio a Juan, que asi aqui abajo explica, en ingles, su experiencia con Quebrachito en esta semana.


I’m not a guest here but a friend and also a member of family, Quebrachitos.
I didn’t know well about Quebrachitos before coming here. I even expected that I would do a volunteering as a teacher or assistant at schools. But when I listened to the explanation about Quebrachitos and things I’d do here, I realized the reason I came here. That’s an exchange. Okay. It would be good for the youths to know about Korea not because our country is a very important one for Argentina but knowing about Asian country could be a good chance for them to have a sense of international affairs because my country is located in almost opposite side of Argentina.
On my first day, my work started with a great friendly hospitality.
I could eat CHORIPAN, typical food in Villa Ana. I heard that Argentine beef is one of the best in the world. Wow!! I could eat the one on my first day with a great hospitality!
After that, we went to Villa Ocampo with Mauro, roommate for 2 weeks, and Pablo hyung.(hyung is the world that we call elder brother in Korea which is very friendly.) After looking around in Villa Ocampo, we watched a football match which Luciano, a very good football player, played. Argentine football is really good.

Next day, I attended Italian class which Mauro is a teacher for all youths in Villa Ana and I could learn some Spanish from him. If I can start studying Spanish in Korea, it is absolutely thanks to Mauro. At night, Pablo hyung invited me to his house for dinner. The name of food was GUISO. It was really delicious. We also have similar food in Korea but the main difference is that they never use spicy sauce for food in Argentina which is the reason I had a hard time finding any way to cook Korean food here.

On Wednesday, we went to Tartagal which is a little bit smaller than Villa Ana. We could have a chance to inform our group in front of whole students in a school thanks to our group’s persuasion of teachers in that school. Fortunately, they were interested in our group and they asked us many questions. I really hope that our visit could help them have a motive to know about the world more and to have a dream to go abroad.

On Thursday and Friday, I could learn how to do farm work to make a vegetable garden. Our purpose is to grow vegetables and to use them to make food for the people don’t have enough money to eat. Sometimes people want to see visible result. To develop our group, we need more concerns of people. This would be one of visible results which can attract more people.

I was invited to Cata’s house and Luciano’s house for lunch. I was very happy thanks to their great hospitality. Amazingly, I felt really comfortable when I had meal with them in their houses. Why amazingly? I usually feel uncomfortable when I have a meal at somebody’s house because I just try to keep good manner. I think the reason I felt as if I had been at my home when I was Luciano’s and Cata’s house is because of humanity. The people in Quebrachitos have humanity.

(it’s really pity that I always forget to take camera when going to Cata’s house. That’s why I don’t have pictures of great food, MARINERA, TORTA FRITA and GUISO DE ARROZ. Also I couldn’t take a picture of Cata’s campo.)

On Saturday, we played soccer which let me know how Argentine football is good again.

In the morning, we had a radio program. I could be a guest in a small section and I talked about the situation of South Korea between North Korea with Mauro. Even though I didn’t speak well, my being guest might be a kind of attraction or motive for listeners. Well, I was surprised to know the fact that Quebrachitos had organized radio program. I’m sure that this village is developing thanks to this group and if people have more interests and participate more, we’d see big differences in here. They have ability and enthusiasm to bring their faiths to as many cities as they want. Also cities can be countries. Who knows? I’m also wondering about the future.

It was also Cecilio’s birthday. We had a small party for lunch and we organized a surprising party at night which was really sweet. Surely there was neither fancy food nor beautiful cake. But I could feel a hidden humanity from the party.

After that, we went to discotheque. I was really wondering what’d happen in a discotheque in Villa Ana. Well, at first I just had to see people dancing because music was cumbia and I didn’t know how to dance with a girl following the music. But it was fun to see people dancing because I never see this situation in Korea. Fortunately, music changed after waiting 2 or 3 hours, and I could dance because the music was reggaeton and I can dance alone with this music. I became crazy and I danced in a vigorous way. 3 girls approached me but they were gone after several minutes because I totally didn’t understand what they said. Shame on me!!

On Sunday, I was invited to Cata’s house and we had GUISO DE AROZ which was really great. After then, I and Cata couple went to Cata’s farm.(I was worried if I were interrupting their date.) It was so peaceful in their farm. Riding a bicycle along the way between farms made me full of peace which I rarely experienced recently.

Only 7 days have passed. I’m very happy with this life in Villa Ana. I’m with friendly friends here, I can eat Mauro’s really great Italian food everyday, Cecilio always takes responsibility of preparing mate and I also can see beautiful stars at night with amazingly clean air.

I’m very wondering what will happen more in another week. But one thing is sure. Whatever happens, I’ll enjoy with my friends Quebrachitos.

Nuevo proyecto para Quebrachito

Siguiendo en la relación de amistad y trabajo que Quebrachito tiene hace años con la organizacion Subir al Sur, mañana llegara a Villa Ana un voluntario internacional de Korea del Sur, que por un tiempo de dos semanas colaborará en las actividades de la organización.
Luego de el campo de trabajo internacional terminado el 17 de agosto,se presenta otra importante ocasión de crecimiento y cambio cultural para Quebrachito y para el conjunto del pueblo.
El campo de agosto (es el tercero que organizamos junto a Subir al Sur) tuvo un exito muy importante. Gracias al compromiso de 10 voluntarios provenientes de Alemania, Francia, Korea de Sur, España y Argentina y logicamente de muchisima gente de la comunidad de Villa Ana, logramos el objetivo de arreglar el playon de la escuela 686 Juan Manuel Belgrano, ademas de conseguir el mas profundo y interesante resultado de una esplendida integracion entre los voluntarios y los niños de la escuela.
Durante las dos semanas de proyecto los chicos compartieron juegos, comida, cantos, bailes, lecciones y hasta descansos con la institucion educativa.
Entre las iniciativas promovidas durante la experiencia de trabajo es importante tambien mencionar la noche de cinedebate abierto y gratuito para todo el pueblo el sabado 9 agosto, cuando fue proyectada la pelicula Buena Vida Delivery y el almuerzo del domingo 10 agosto, donde los voluntarios internacionales y los Quebrachitos compartieron junto a los niños del comedor San José, unas riquisimas pizzas al mejor estilo italiano, preparada por dos integrantes de la organizacion local.
Ahora, en las proximas dos semanas, otros compromisos nos esperan, siempre en el camino de la integracion y el cambio cultural, como venimos siguiendo hace años.