More of BsAs by Zakiya Sullivan

Well we are almost finished with our second week! Time is flying.... We are having so much fun out here.

Last week we visited a few museums - Auto, photo, music - and learned a lot about the history of automobiles, cameras, and musical instruments. We also got to visit the Japanese Garden. I truly enjoyed this visit. I definitely felt like I was in Japan. Our tour guide did a wonderful job of giving us the history of the garden and a little about the Japanese culture. I think my favorite was the ¨zig zag¨ bridge. The meaning behind the zig zag bridge is that in life we have to make decisions, we have to decide which way we are going to go - to the left or right - this decision or that decision...So in Japan people would come to the bridge to think about decisions in life.

This week we have gone to 2 different hospitals, a school for the deaf and blind, 3 schools and I went to the YMCA and CHARTS. My heart was touched when we visited the school for the deaf and blind. We had an opportunity to go into the class and meet some of the kids and allow them to ask us questions. They all wanted to know where we were from and had us point it out on the globe. One kids wanted to show us that he knew how to spell ¨dog¨ in English, so he wrote it on the board...It was cute!

At the YMCA, I got to meet with the Execute and was able to talk to him about what I do at my YMCA and hear a little about what their Y offers. I took a tour and next week I am going to go to some of the schools were they have After School programs, their camp site, and visit with their program director.

Later that night we had tango lessons....much fun! We had an excellent teacher who taught us a few tango routines. It was fun watching my other GSE mates dance...especially Mike our team leaders. Denise said she has two left feet...but not that night! She was moving and grooving...so was Laure and Kenny. I think I would like to take tango lessons when I return to the states.

Yesterday we visited 2 primary schools- which is our Elementary school - and one private school - primary to secondary - our elementary and high school. At the private school we had the opportunity to talk to one Jr. and one Sr. class. This school is a bilingual school and the students are fluent in English and Spanish, so we were able to talk to them in English. After we introduced ourselves and told them a little about our life, they had the opportunity to ask us questions. A few were interested in our opinion of our President and what we thought about foreign affairs and the war. We were very impressed with their questions.

It was very interesting to learn about the different school system. Some schools here are all day schools. The students arrive at 8am and finish at 4pm. They do however get 1hr. 3o mins. lunch break where they have the opportunity to go home and have lunch. We also learned the many people from other countries come to BsAs because the schools are free and the education is good. After students finish High School, they go to a university and college. The univ. is like a prepping for college. The univ. is free for them.

What´s different about the culture- definitely the driving. They have lanes, but they do not mean anything...It is very funny actually...Last week we drove with one of the Rotarians to the Rotary meeting and we could not stop laughing at they way he was driving. When he asked what was so funny, we explained to him how the driving is much different in the U.S. As we were telling him, a car cut him off and literally drove right in front of him. His comment was, ¨In the states, if someone does this you may yell at them...but out here...NO, he´s my friend!¨ It´s normal to drive like this.

Also what´s different is the way Argentines pronounce words with ¨ll¨ They are pronounced with the ¨s¨ sound vs. the ¨y¨ sound. If your ear is not trained to it, this is a big difference. It was not until late last week that I realized when someone would say ¨Ella, which is she in Spanish- pronounced A-yah, but here pronounced A-sha¨ they were saying ¨she¨ I thought that was the name of someone...even more when they would one of my GSE mates ella, I thought they either forgot their names, or thought their name was ella.

So are it has been a true blessings to learn about the culture of BsAs, how Rotary is involved in many service projects here, and getting to know my teammates and Mike more.