My first week here, I had many expectations of what I was getting myself into in a new country with a new language (my Spanish that had been five years in the making was taken aback by the accent of Argentinians). I wanted to read as much as I could about the culture and experiences in Argentina so I would not be going into the country with a blanket of ignorance over me. I took notes over new grammatical structures because I thought if I knew how to structure the language, it would be easier to adapt. I read news reports on websites, articles on culture and social media pages about everyday living to better comprehend the socioeconomic state of the country I was entering.
Reflecting back on this, I think it is commendable to try and learn about life from a distance but if being here has taught me anything, it's that the most human part of living can’t be adequately understood or explained through articles and websites. Lived experiences are best told, best felt through the bodies and people that store those memories. I feel I have experienced this type of learning most naturally in the work I’ve done and the projects of Voluntario Global over the last five weeks.
As an intern, my primary responsibility has been volunteering to teach English at a school in a northern city of Buenos Aires. At this school, the learners and myself have had numerous conversations about language, cultural differences, the importance of fútbol, stereotypes, social media and more. From these talks, often taking place in Spanglish because there is no adequate translation for some emotions, events or experiences, my perspective on my own position here changes more and more.
The position I have as a volunteer is traditionally one where people expect to be a helping hand to a project larger than themselves but talking to the English learners showed me how there is always an intercambio of life when you are open to giving more than just your actions and your hands. When you give of your time and curiosity is when you are in the best position to receive understanding, and teaching English has put me in the position of learning about a new culture and history from my own old language.
After working at the school for a few weeks, winter vacation came so there would be no class for two weeks. We were given time to decide what we wanted to do and I knew without a doubt I wanted to contribute what I could to other projects. For the last two weeks I volunteered at el comedor, the soup kitchen Monday through Thursday and the ecological focused community center Milpa on Saturdays.
From the soup kitchen to the community center, two vastly different places in their function and their appearance, I felt welcomed from the heart. My Spanish, still trying to adapt to the “shhs” and “re’s” of the language, was accepted by everyone quickly. Questions were repeated as many times as I’d asked and even though the gaps in my language proficiency sometimes left me feeling like I missed something, the warm smiles always filled in the blank space easily.
I wanted to participate in every conversation but sometimes my vocabulary was just too small so listening intentionally was how I spent the majority of these initial interactions. In el comedor, stories of children’s birthday parties, family traditions and concerns about the election were passed around the table. At Milpa questions were raised about the resources and treatment provided to homeless people, the way stress and trauma is internalized in the body and how our privacy and humanity is a commodity through the lens of social media marketing.
In every space, from the school to el comedor to Milpa, I continue to find how much I have to learn from every person in every space I enter. Whether I enter as an educator, a foreigner or a volunteer, I first and foremost enter as a human and that will always, for me, serve as a basis for understanding.
My expectations of what I will have done and who I’ll be at the end of my internship has changed since my first days and it is the being in community with others that has made all the difference. What I can give to a people who have given everything by just being themselves, who have made me feel so welcomed and included in this living, dialogue and understanding is a hard question to answer.
I think back on what it means to exchange and how conversations are a form of reciprocity. I’m hopeful that in the second half of my internship, I’ll give back through my time, my lived experiences and my effort so that when the time for leaving comes, myself and the people I’ve come to know and understand will feel a little more connected to the world around us.
