Chaco - a brief overview

I'm a fanatic about noticing the little things. While I'll certainly overlook things every now and then, one may call it a momentary lapse of concentration, I decided to write down the cultural differences between Chaco and Córdoba (and the U.S.) that I noticed these last two weeks:

1. Argentina does not do breakfast. No more scrambled eggs or even toast (when it's hard to come by sliced bread!), no more cereal really.. Just some tea and.. um.. cake? During our camp week, we had pieces of bread on which one could add some peach spread or dulce de leche. But the line was longer for the tea than the food. Everyone had brought their own mug for the occasion!

2. Every evening we would shower before dinner. Not surprising. But every evening time was also dedicated to washing.. our shoes? The TOMS inspired shoes, especially the white version, are very popular. And so each camper made sure to use some detergent a scrub the day's grime off in the outside sink before supper time.

3. This observation comes with the help of Sarah's notation. The people don't seem to drink water here. During a hilarious representation of our team, two girls parodied Steph and Joy--our committed runners who always carry around a bottle of water with them. The "Steph" and "Joy" during this skit made sure to bring their Sparkletts-sized water jugs around while mimicking simple after-run exercises. They don't drink water, but they do drink perhaps gallons of tereré!

4. The NIV, or should I use the Spanish, NVI, of the Bible is just now making headway. Many are finding the KJV, or Reina Valera version, to be a little difficult to understand. Most of the students have this version, including myself, and find the wording to be very archaic. It works, but I'm thankful for the switch as it also translates better from the English version I use when preparing for talks or discussions.

5. Radio. I remember listening to Spanish radio in the States as a way to get used to the speed of Spanish. That was when I began praying for the ability to concentrate while listening to someone, because the "speed" is normal. We talk fast too, according to those learning our language.

Any way, I also remembered how strange it was at times. How there were times when the deejays would repeat a joke three times in a row, with the same laugh track and other strange sound effects. Or how people would interrupt songs to take a call and have a conversation about a broken relationship (or something). I didn't understand it then, and I'm not sure I understand it now. It's not a bad thing, just a cultural difference.

And at camp, we had the daily radio led by two or three campers at a time who would play music and take calls or text messages, tell jokes and use sound effects just like what I remembered listening to before. I really enjoyed this idea and if I lead a camp in the States ever again, I'm bringing it with me. But I still don't understand why you have to interrupt a perfectly good song to read yet another message about Mauro (one of the campers) being the coolest person at camp. jaja.

6. Another confirmation of Heather's observation about everyone in Argentina loving to act, and being good at it, came with a game we played during camp. I had collected a few Telenovela scenes, showed them on the big screen, and had three different groups complete one of the scenes however they wanted. Ahem, appropriately of course.

Not only are they so creative, but they are so great at convincing me they belong on the silver screen. They are fun to watch, and I wish that good writers and directors would pick more Argentinian actors.

7. One interesting conundrum. No matter how hard I try, it is next to impossible to explain games without showing them. Them being folks of Argentina-land. One game in particular comes to mind, but I could give an array of examples. The game was simply to be in a line, one person at a time from the line runs to a chair that has half of a piece of watermelon waiting. The person takes a bite of the watermelon without using their hands, returns to the end of their line, and repeats the process when they are at the front of the line until time runs out.

The game had to be explained over 8 times before they could begin.

I've yet to be able to play a great game of Screaming Ninja because of this, and that makes me cry on the inside just a little bit. I can't figure out if it's a language issue, or if in general it's hard to keep the attention of these kids. I mean, I know it takes time to explain games to my students in the US, but was it as difficult as it has been here? I don't remember...

8. Must be repeated. I never had to twist someone's arm to cook or clean at camp. Everyone knew their duty and did so. Some more than they were required. We US-ers need to better teach our kids these qualities. Period.

9. Last but not least. Chaco = 2 kisses, 1 on each cheek. Córdoba = 1 kiss. Today I made the mistake of going for the second kiss. Sometimes you get so used to things you don't even know what to do when it goes back to what you had before. I wonder how I'll cope without the kiss greeting in the US.

That is all for now. Next up, learning Truco :) Chau.