Descalzada

Ok, finally getting caught up to more current stuffs: Iguazu. We went as a field trip with the Commission, which means it was the 6 of us, Bettina, our organizer, and Gisela, our professor. It was all for a class we finished a while back about the indigenous populations in Argentina, their rights, and their relationship with the environment. Iguazu is pretty much the perfect place to study this. Puerto Iguazu is the very northern tip of the province of Misiones, in the northeast corner of the country. Because of its location between Paraguay and Brasil, there's a sizable Guarani population. (The Guarani are a native pueblo - what we'd call a tribe back home.) Their influence in Paraguay is large enough that eighty percent of the population is bilingual. Apparently their known for being among the more friendly and welcoming pueblos, as versus the Mapuche in Patagonia.
Anyway, so we're lucky enough to have some very good connections in the area, so we get to attend a talk with a local big-wig, Angela (no idea what her last name is). Because she's Paraguaya, she speaks Guarani, and has a strong belief in the rights of the communities. The UN has published a series of indigenous rights, one of which is the availability of bilingual schools (as versus education solely in the imperialistic language, in this case Spanish). Because there's a lack of teachers, bilingual schools are fairly rare. Angela set about righting this in the Puerto Iguazu area, and about 12 years ago created the first. At first, the people were wary of yet another white person trying to 'help,' but eventually accepted Angela. The day after we met with Angela, we headed out to see the school and visit the community. The kids were putting on their bicentennial ceremony, so we watched a few dances. (May 25 celebrated Argentina's 200th anniversary.)
After the school production, we headed a few minutes away to the village, all crammed in the back of some pick up trucks with a bunch on the kids. Once we got there, we watched some guys just kicking around the football, waiting for lunch. After a while, we started a game ourselves. The women have a set team, but they lent us two of their players to make the numbers even. We failed. 3-0. Oh well. The field used to be grass, but has long since turned into dirt, and because it had rained pretty hard a few days ago, it was a fantastic mud pie. Finally! I could run through the mud barefoot again! (La Plata does not lend itself to going barefoot.) I learned later that I gained a good deal of respect for playing barefoot, the Guarani way. I also garnered a fan club of the younger guys. When I got the ball, they'd start chanting 'Emily, Emily, es la chica para mi.' (Emily's the girl for me.) While I enjoyed the barefoot time, I'm not used to it, and my feet presented me with 4 wonderful quarter-sized blood blisters that made walking around that night and the next day not so fun.
We had a fantastic time, and all got a little jealous of Michelle, who has a job lined up for January, in a similar place in Guatemala. While we greatly enjoyed the huge privilege of visiting the Guarani, it was not completely carefree. We talked with a few of the village voices about the problems their community faces, many of which come from their contact with the nearby white populations.
So I dunno if there are any pics of the girls playing soccer, but here's what I can find: