Final classes, a final month

School’s out! I walked outside of CEDES, the place where we take classes, with my notebook in hand, and threw my Spanglish-infested notes into the air. Clase de Derechos Humanos y Movimientos Sociales was done forever and I was a new woman, ready to walk the streets of Buenos Aires, lecture-free. Just kidding, I did none of that but I am excited to be on to the next phase of my study abroad experience. The ISP—independent study project. For the last month of my program, we are all given the assignment to pick a topic, of our choosing, to study and research through the final days of our program. We must write a 20-40 page paper in Spanish and give a presentation on it at the end. I will admit that the progression of my stress over the past two weeks had escalated greatly due to the oncoming nature of this project, but now that I have figured some more things out, the stress is slowly diminishing. Anyway, the past few weeks have involved many emails to local organizations, trying to coordinate interviews, meetings with my advisors and un poco research. My topic is on the lack of access to water and problems with water contamination in the area of Claypole, part of the province outside of Buenos Aires. There is a trash dump very near this neighborhood in which trash seeps into the groundwater, contaminating it. Since many people in this community don’t have access to water networks, many of them dig deep holes in the ground to get their water, which due to the contamination has lead to many health problems. There is a social organization and group of University of BA students called Taller de Aguas, who work with the community to improve the water situation, which I am interviewing on Wednesday, along with community members. I am excited to begin working on this and I shall let you know how it goes over the course of the next three weeks.

In the meantime, here is summary of the last eventful days of class.