ASB Argentina
We are a group of 20 Northwestern students planning to spend our spring break doing community service in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Schools from around the country are teaming up with Hillel Argentina to help improve the surrounding communities in Buenos Aires. We are dedicated to alleviating third world poverty and improving the plight of the international Jewish community. We will be working with both interfaith and Jewish community organizations on projects dealing with education, infant care, literacy and more. We will be partnering specifically with an under-resourced school to improve the quality of education for its students by painting murals in outdoor play areas, improving the music-education facility, and building a library so the students can access books and improve literacy. We will also volunteer in a childcare center that serves underprivileged families. By completing our service projects and spending time with the people of Buenos Aires we will prove to them that those facing the challenges of third-world poverty are not alone.

We have been fundraising so that we can make a donation to one of the causes that we will be working with (to be determined). If you are interested in making a donation, please contact Shauna Perelman at perlman.shauna@gmail.com. Please note that she will be out of contact while we are on the trip from March 20-28.

And don't forget to check out what our friends are doing on the ASB Cuba trip at http://asbcuba.tumblr.com!
March 22, 2009
24 hours later—Buenos Aires First Day

So after 24 hours of traveling for most of us we finally arrived in Buenos Aires airport. Let me tell you it was awesome. We took the bus that was waiting for us to the hotel and dropped our stuff off and went to the Tel Aviv Jewish Day School where we will be doing our Tzedek (community service project). The principle gave us a tour of the school where we saw students from ages 8 months to the tween years learning and playing. We witnessed an english class and a celebration of Shabbat in a classroom of 4th graders.

The school is the cheapest private Jewish primary and day care school in Buenos Aires so primarily serves the middle class, which was hit hardest by the economic crisis in 2001. We were able to see the courtyard we are painting for the next few days.

After the tour of the school, we changed and went to Shabbat services. The Synagogue was gorgeous. It looked like an outdoor Japanese tea garden with trees and stones and lights lining the pathway that led into the chapel. The service was nothing like most people had experienced before. It included 4 different kinds of instruments like bongos and clarinets and pianos. It was really uplifiting and spiritual. Everyone who was at the service was participating and enjoying it.

After we walked to Hillel and had a nice long Shabbat dinner with students from Trinity, Texas and Towson Universities.

Once it was over we got to experience Buenos Aires night life at club Kika. It was awesome.

If the first day is anything like how the rest of the trip will be, its going to be both enlightening and filled with fun.

Ciao,

Sophie Solomon

NU 2010