I have now been in Argentina for more than two weeks and it is hard to condense all that has occurred into one blog posting, but I will try. When last I wrote, I was on my way to Iguazu falls. Situated on the border of Brazil and Argentina, it is considered by many to be one of the most impressive natural wonders in the world. Most of the individual falls have drops between 269ft and 210ft. The largest one, known as la Garganta del Diablo (the Devil's Throat) is 490ft wide and 2300ft long. Clearly it is impossible to take a picture that captures the view, but I tried. I have also attached a video of the falls. Truly spectacular to be there! The falls give you an energy unlike anything I have ever experienced (except maybe some of the falls in Iceland). People kept telling me there wasn’t much water in them right now, and while there was sufficient, it did show that there has been a drought lately and they have not been getting a lot of rain.

I was unable to cross over to the Brazilian side because of visa issues, but I spent the next day sitting in a park outside the pueblo where a river differentiates the borders of Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina. It’s called “la triple frontera” because of the difficulty of monitoring the area, it has a reputation as a haven for organized crime and drug-running. I didn’t experience any of that, and instead enjoyed walking around the town, talking with some of the locals and resting before heading back to BA (Buenos Aires).


Before I had left for Paraguay, I had arranged to move into a studio apartment rented out by a local actress. The place was slightly run down, but the location was amazing, so I figured with a little cleaning and all of her stuff out, the place would be just fine. Wrong!
When I arrived at the apartment, she had not moved any of her stuff out, hadn’t cleaned and was just completely disorganized. After two days of dealing with this, while sleeping at Marissa’s house (3 blocks away!), she finally left. I am now settling into the apartment, but I don’t think I will stay more than a month because it just has a bad energy for me. Instead I will try to move in with a friend of ours, Kathrin, for the month of July. The apartment madness caused a lot of stress in my life, but I also learned a lot of lessons about moving to a new country and taking time to check out a lot of places before rushing into something because of pressure. To feel better, I got a haircut!

In terms of work, I have decided to work at two different organizations. With Mujeres en Igualdad, I am analyzing and comparing laws around gender violence and creating a report on best practices and methods to facilitate successful implementation. I have also started working at another organization called ACIJ (Asociacion Civil para la Igualdad y Justicia). With ACIJ, I will be evaluating their fundraising strategy (which is surprisingly exciting for me) and working in their Villas program, which works in neighborhoods that are very disadvantaged. I am excited about the variety of work I will be doing and the different energies from the two places. I have already had one week working full-time at both organizations, and next blog, I will post up some of my thoughts about each job.

As I write this, I was supposed to be on my way to Cordoba for a long weekend, but I was taken over by a brutal 7+ hour food poisoning episode. Never have I experienced such pain! I don’t know if it was the food (since others ate the same thing), but I have a fear that the milanesa I ate was actually meat. I guess I don’t really have a choice about being a vegetarian for life!

I hope you are all enjoying your summers and I look forward to hearing many stories!