Hola Argentina!

Well, we've made it safely to Argentina and are happily settled in our home for the next couple of weeks, the bustling Buenos Aires. I´ve enrolled in a Spanish school, and Andy is organising to do some volunteer work with disadvantaged people.

Some great things have happened since we arrived. Firstly, after struggling through a teach-yourself Spanish book through Europe, the other night, I became truly motivated to learn the language. On Sunday evening, after drinking beer on the grass at the sunny Recoleta markets (think Bangalow with a Latin American soundtrack), we headed to San Telmo for a change of scene.

What a blast! The cobblestone street had been closed to cars by a bunch of buskers playing the fattest latin tunes blasted out on string, brass and percussion. This time think a mix of Newtown/Brunswick and Woodford, within a circle of clapping, salsa-ing city kids. We were only too happy to be a part of it!

As the band packed up, we sat on the curb with a longneck and got talking with Diego, sitting next to us. He told us part of his story - how he was affected by the Argentine economic crisis of 2002.

'The sky from my world came completely down around me'.

For five whole days he (and many around him) had literally nothing to eat. Afterwards, there was no thought or prospect of going back to his old life, and so he took his hands and began making leather goods to sell at markets.

He also spoke of the internal revolution that he experienced. This is the sort of thing that cannot be easily translated (even by someone as practiced as Andy), and as I watched and listened, I realised just how valuable it would be to be able to speak this language, and to be able to properly understand people's stories.

I am glad to report I am now taking to my Spanish homework with vigour :)

Perhaps I am as yet imagining it, but the beat of this continent may be felt, even through the cobblestone and the concrete. It's with growing excitment that I am looking forward to the adventures ahead of us! :))