The Star of the Show:



Here's a little picture of Maya (my niece) cutting her eyes back at the camera.

In Economic News
The Campo "accord" is coming to an end...gradually. After weeks of striking a month long accord was arranged that was actually supposed to have ended this past Friday. Reports stated that headway had been made but that both sides needed more time so they pushed the end date back to this Tuesday (May 6th, 2008). In a show of strength, many of the campo workers went back out onto the highways preparing for more "cortos" (roadblocks) in case things turn south today. Things have cooled off a bit in comparison to a month ago when people took to the streets with pots and pans, but in general I think both sides have lost. People have become less empathetic with the campo and are beginning to get frustrated and the same holds true for the government. No matter the results, I really think both sides are going to lose in the public eye.

Food Rationing has finally hit Argentina! I have to admit I was a bit shocked to read news articles about limitations on commodity purchases in various areas throughout the country. Not surprisingly, the effect has finally trickled down to Argentina as I saw a sign at the local grocer stating "purchase of canola oil was limited to three bottles." One could point to three reasons for this lag: 1) everything happens a little bit slower here in Argentina (which will be a recurring theme throughout this blog), 2) Argentina is an agricultural society, and 3) most of the people buying groceries can't afford to "over-stock." It's more than likely that the real cause is a combination of the three, though I could probably say the later has the largest influence. Despite the fact that Argentina is an agricultural society, corn really isn't one of the big products like soy and beef.

The International Book Fair
The "Feria de Libro" is supposed to be the biggest one in all of South America and it didn't disappoint. Imagine a large city's convention center filled wall to wall with book of all shapes and sizes: kids, adult, university, comics, and books in a whole assortment of languages. Although I went more for the experience I did end up purchasing one book: The Black History of Football, which traces the violence of soccer fans here in Argentina throughout history. In general, most of the books were over-priced and I got the sense that most of the people there were "window shoppers" instead of book-nerds like yours truly, but then again it was my first book fair so perhaps that's how those things go. Adding to the confusion is a title of an article from one of the local newspapers stating that "El 58% de la gente no leyó ningún libro en el último año," (58% percent of the people haven't read a single book in the past year). To counter this argument, however, it's widely known that Argentina has a 97% literacy rate, one of the highest in South America.



Rotary Update
I attending my third meeting at my host club Alto de Palermo and it was the best up until that point. My first meeting I was a bit nervous and still didn't have a good command of the language (though it was probably the dialect that was throwing me off) and the second meeting was the anniversary celebration so it was hard to have more than a superficial conversation. This third meeting, however, was a normal meeting and I had become acclimated to the dialect, so I took it as an opportunity to share a little bit more about my home state. My mother was kind enough to tuck some Virginia goods in with a package containing my formal clothes and I was able to share peanuts, potato chips, and various other home-grown goods with the club members. Argentines are pretty big smokers so the tobacco issue was obviously addressed, funny side note: Phillip Morris is actually a brand here, like Camel of Malboro. Due to shipping costs I wasn't able to import any Smithfield ham but explained it in full detail and likened it to their Jamon Crudo (Cured Ham), a ham made popular in Spain that is also a bit of a delicacy here. The club members seemed to really enjoy it and were complementing me on how much my Spanish has improved.



Last night I was a guest at the Villa Devoto club. This club was actually the "padrino" of my host club in that they helped them get off the ground four years ago. Not only did I meet a whole slew of new people, but I also recognized and talked to some of the people that I had met at the district conference. The conversation this evening focused more on Los Angeles as there were a few members there that will be attending the International Convention and they wanted to pick my brain. All in all a stellar evening.