Azul Service Experience

Azul, Buenos Aires Community Service Trip Experience

By: Leonardo Lin

This trip to Azul was simply magnificent, full of wonders and joy. It all started with a pleasant five hour ride, we sang the most superb pop tunes and had a bunch of rhythmic rappers show their talent, we all shared creamy chocolate and munched up a variety of biscuits. When we got to the town of Azul, a professional tour guide led us to the many highlights of the town, like the snow white Town Hall, the distinguished Cathedral “Nuestra Señora del Rosario” with phosphorescent stained glass and an outstanding gothic style. The climate was a bit windy and rainy, but the sorrowful sky did not affect our enthusiasm and desire to contribute to the community.

This is Manuela Pastor, Michelle Joos and I in front of the chalky Town Hall of Azul

We stayed at a local military camp for the whole week, we enjoyed crackers and toasts every morning with coffee or tea; finally it did get a little bit dull, so some of us ended up drinking salty noodle soup for breakfast. We had hot water most of the time in the shower, that could suddenly disappear if you had bad luck, it simply showed all of us how abundant our regular life is, and how lucky we are. After organizing the donations and sorting objects, we went to a little town south of Azul called Chillar. There we gave sport materials to the Physical Education teachers in a gym with extremely bad condition, and we taught the teenage students how to play sports such as Ultimate Frisbee, Kickball and Floor Hockey. We bonded with the local teenagers with teamwork and we shared a perfectly tender meat sandwich. In a hurry, we went to the only local elementary school and we shared art utensils and drew, made bracelets, played with glitter and clay etc., our leader Ms. Mariana Fernandez, conducted us to sing a warm-hearted cheerful chant.

This is two elementary kids and I, we made a little house with a garden and some airplanes with clay.

The third day in Azul we went to a center for retired people, we worked together weeding their garden, some of those spiky plants were bigger than a watermelon in surface area, we all shared shovels and we managed to throw out all the weeds without scraping away too much nutritious soil. Later we painted and whitewashed the whole building, some of us, were utilizing high step ladders to roll paint on surfaces meters high. We refreshed and repainted the logo, with vibrant sky blue, lively green, shiny yellow and bloody red. We also got to see the lovely old fellows dance “una danza folclórica” and talk to some of them, sharing amusing experiences.

This is some of the girls on our group, posing while weeding the garden

The next day, we visited a center for children with special needs. Because of waking up around 7 o’clock in the morning, some of us were complaining of being tired, but our mood suddenly mutated when we got there and the children all welcomed us with a energetic chorus, it gave us the spirit to carry out a whole day of labor. Together with the kids from the school, we painted the walls of their play ground; first painting them white and then added lovely murals. The children were the cutest and loveliest things ever, maybe they were low on resources and have their struggles, but they were the most gentle and tender-hearted people I ever met.  I love how little Gabriel painted with all confidence and how Agustina hugged me and brought me hot dogs! We all sang together, they sang “De Musica Ligera” by Soda Stereo and we returned “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons. They gave us little cups, for us to remember the moment, I was so moved that tears dropped out of my eyes as we left.

This is Michelle Joos and some teachers leading songs while others painted, we were on the local news on television

The next day we went to a small private school, to paint their windows, doors, and all the bars and handles. We had to cover the glass with tape to paint the borders with shiny pigment. After terminating a busy work day, we got to enjoy a pink-haired teenager perform a type of break-dance; later we ordered juicy and tasty empanadas. The following day, we went to a center of Equine-assisted therapy, which is a type of therapy that focuses on using horses to facilitate physical, occupational, and emotional growth, especially for people with ADHD. There we painted horse track railings in vivid black, and we accompanied some children and some adults with motor disabilities. In the end, we enjoyed it a lot, eating some very oleaginous barbecue and mouth-watering acidic salad, finally doing some horseback riding, with the soothing wind running in your face, and a cozy pleasant sunshine.

This is the back door we painted and decorated in CADRAL.

This is one of the murals we painted of Pikachu to reflect how these kids are innocent and kind like this adorable Pokémon by Micaela Fernandez Iglesias.

For the last day, we took a slopey roadtrip on to some flowering hills, before we knew it, we were in “Boca de las sierras”. We got off the bus and encountered an immense surrounding of green grass, and in front of us was several sculptures made of scraps, they were created for the purpose of reusing material and creating art. They all looked extremely realistic, and all the little facial expression made the image more authentic, huge armies of soldiers in ferocious but elegant horses. We climbed up a pike, a little nervous for the possibility of the appearance of a Yarará snake, but when we reached the top to gaze at the vast expanse of prairie on one corner, grayish black mountains on the other, and a dark brown bald forests at the horizon, all the worries and fatigue of working for a week washed away. Later we had a lovely time, walking to a little stream and visiting a peaceful Trappist monastery. We really loved Azul and we knew it would be the experience of a lifetime, but on the bus we were nostalgic, missing our beds, Netflix, our family and a hot cozy bath.

 

Manuela Pastor and Andrea Kim re-enacting a scene in Titanic at Boca de las Sierras

Personally I feel that by giving a hand and being better people, we can seriously improve the situation of every one of us in society. The most important part is to learn how to live in society, meet with strangers, relate to them and work with them to produce something beneficial to the community, either  painting wall or sharing art utensils or simply giving some companionship to each other. I realized that one of the best ways to learn is to get to work and not worry about other things, just purely wanting to do what is correct, making people happier, helping them become more sustainable or eco-friendly. In this experience our whole group learned to be more responsible, more friendly, more dedicated and we got to appreciate more what we were used to have everyday, and we became mindful that there are people out there that can use our help. We felt joy and friendship and nature and many other wonderful feelings.

The creative and inventive sculptures of soldiers, horses and wild animals