prepping for perú

i tell people i'm leaving buenos aires at the end of may and nobody really understands why. i do, but at the same time, i don't really want to leave. i mean, i want to go but at the same time i want to stay. i know what i'm going to do there is going to be life-changing (or at least i hope so) and i'm excited. but at the same time, i've found some really awesome people here and it's going to be tough to go.

i remember coming back to buenos aires in february. when i was in cayman, and israel, and in the us, all i wanted was to be back here. the day i got to buenos aires was the day before a really good friend of mine left for a month. it was strange to be back. with my friend danny leaving and my friend arielle back in dc, i remember that first friday night staying home all confused. that night, two of my friends in buenos aires had made plans with each other and some other people (tipo date) and i was alone. and it felt strange. i look at my life right now and i love it. i've made some great friends and i don't want to go. transitions suck -- i think everyone can agree on that.

a few days ago i was walking on the street thinking about transitions and about how many times i've changed my life from going from emory to texas to chicago to buenos aires. and i've realized that it takes a lot of effort and the beginning isn't always easy. here's to hoping that transitioning to life in perú won't be too difficult...even though it's going to be...

a little bit about the foundation and my role

i've had some people ask me about what i'm doing with the foundation, what is does, etc.  i thought it'd be nice to share a little bit about what we do and a little bit about my role here.

i think it makes sense to start with where the foundation works.  we work in the provincia of buenos aires about 50 minutes drive to the west from the city center in a place called moreno.  in moreno, they lack a lot of the infrastructure we take for granted in the united states -- clean water, paved roads, street signs, street names, natural gas, etc.  these are things few people think about in the united states and few people think about in the capital of buenos aires because we take them for granted -- they're more or less a given.

the foundation works to bring these infrastructural conveniences to the people of moreno by way of community organization.  the government in argentina and in buenos aires does little to help these people and so the reasoning goes that if no one will help them, they need to help themselves.  that's where the foundation comes in.  after conducting surveys/studies/etc. to determine what the area needs most, the foundation decided to focus on natural gas.  the natural gas project is what the foundation hopes will be a mobilizing event, or an event that, given its success, will hopefully gateway into other infrastructure-focused projects in the future.

two weeks ago, the foundation signed a contract with the inter-american development bank and a local argentine bank for a pair of loans totaling us$6,000,000 (to be used for the construction of the physical gas network), with the inter-american development bank donating us$689,267 for expenses to be incurred during the course of the project.  Having secured two other donations, amounting to us$167,400, the foundation is lacking a total of us$527,150 that will be neccessary to complete the project.  what i do is write grant proposals/requests that will hopefully go a ways to filling this hole.

additionally, i've been working with the inter-american development bank multilateral investment fund group within the foundation.  this group takes care of all of the administrative tasks the foundation must comply with to be able to access the funds its been promised by the idb.  needless to say, this experience has been extremely rewarding and a nice education to how an ngo works and how a project of this nature works.  it'll hopefully serve me well in peru and beyond.

rock stars

flaming lips playing lollapalooza in santiago de chile. april 3, 2011.

quick story. last weekend, i was coming back from santiago de chile after having gone to the first lollapalooza held in latin america. i had just arrived at the airport with a friend of mine when i saw on line at the air canada counter none other than wayne coyne, lead singer of the flaming lips. got a picture with him, struck up a conversation, and he ended up inviting my friend and i to his show in buenos aires. he took down our information and said there shouldn't be a problem but if there was, he'd call me.

two days later, we arrived at the venue, next to los bosques de palermo, only to find out that we were not on the list. i pleaded with the woman at will-call, telling her we had met the lead singer and that he had personally invited us to the show. she said there was nothing she could do. my friend and i were about to go when a woman at the next window said to come here. she asked us what happened, where we were from, etc. and then gave us two free tickets to the show. this woman didn't know us and had absolutely nothing to benefit from in giving us the tickets.

in the end, i learned two things: (1) don't trust rock stars no matter how nice they appear to be and (2) sometimes people do good things just because of the mere fact that they are good people.

here are some other shots from the weekend:

wayne coyne y yo en el aeropuerto de santiago de chile. el 4 de abril de 2011.

yo, pedro, anna y jorge. lollapalooza day 1. el 2 de abril de 2011.

la casa del escritor pablo neruda en santiago de chile, la chascona. el 3 de abril de 2011.