José Manuel Buyatti AFS Reconquista volunteer, having mates with aborigine people from the Emberá community at Río Chagres National Park in the Panamanian jungle. AFS in Reconquista

E-mail: rl.reconquista@afs.org 1544-4471

SPECIAL EDITION Number 12, December 2011

“The World is in the hands of those who have the courage to dream and risk everything to live their dreams" Pablo Coelho

Digital News AFS Reconquista Local Chapter

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

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International Volunteer‟s Day

December 5th

International Volunteer‟s Day was

established by the United Nations General Assembly on December 17th, 1985 with decree 40/212. Since then, governmental bodies, the United Nations and civil organizations have successfully gathered volunteers from all over the world to celebrate the 5th of December as their special day. Joining the celebration of this day give many people the chance to know about the volunteer work many other people in the world believe in. It is the best way to recognise the altruist and volunteer work they carry out to make their surroundings better in one or many ways. More than 300.000 AFS volunteers around the world give their time, knowledge and energies to

the organisation in order to generate solidary conscience, which in turn allows the involvement of all its participants (students, families and schools). All volunteers and participants then involve ourselves in the quest for solutions to several problems such as racism, discrimination, intolerance, segregation and violence, among others.

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

Your own family can live an intercultural experience without leaving home!

AFS asks host families the following: 1) To share their lives with a teenager from another culture; 2) To provide this teenager with affection and guidance, just as they would do

with their own child; 3) To give this person a place to sleep in and the daily meals; 4) To ensure a safe family surrounding to continue growing into an adult.

AFS Reconquista Contacts: Virginia Loza 1540-6202 - Claudia Lanteri 424507 Ma. Elena Landi 421350 E-mail: rl.reconquista@afs.org www.afs.org.ar

Year Programme, From February 2012 to January 2013

The AFS students have medical and life insurance, and AFS is responsible

for his/her well-being during the whole exchange experience.

AFS is looking for a permanent family for a young boy from Salvador de Bahía, who is at this moment

dreaming of having his year exchange experience in our community. Your family can be his host Argentinian family, and together, he will be able to discover our values, our customs – just as he teaches you about his own. Contact us soon to know more about the programme and to start dreaming with him.

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All AFS Students come into our country with a Student

Visa, and must therefore attend school as regular

students, with all duties and responsibilities a regular

Argentinian student would have.

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

December came, and also did our students‟ graduations

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Two exchange students from our Local Chapter had their deserved graduation, after an intense academic year, full of challenges which they had to overcome just as 2011 lasted. They are Álfur Bjarnason (AFS Iceland) and Siripattara “Mook” Lumpowpong (AFS Thailand). Both arrived to our country at the

end of February 2011, and after 10 months of their arrival, they have finished a very important and crucial part of their exchange experience. During these 10 months attending school (all AFS students have a Student Visa in Argentina), they had to adapt to a new school system and a different school structure, to learn not just a new language but also to copy from the board, take notes when teachers talked in class, study this new language and practise reading comprehension. Many times they

effort at school is not valued, and that is why the AFS volunteers from Reconquista Local Chapter want to congratulate Alfur and Mook for having overcome this difficult challenge from the intercultural learning exchange experience – the AFS Experience. We want to thank all the Heads and faculty from the different schools where Alfur and Mook attended, because they have valued the importance of respecting diversity in the classroom, have led to the classroom adaptation and integration, as well as opening their minds by interacting with the ‘different and strange’, thus enriching their classrooms and the AFS students’ lives.

Álfur, with some of his classmates from EDEM 203 “Juan Baustista Alberdi” School

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

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Siripattara Lumpowpong – or ‘Mook’ as everybody

calls her in Malabrigo, her host community – finished secondary school at Escuela de Enseñanza Media Nº 9232 “Martín Miguel de Güemes” in the Humanities area. Her graduation was in December, 6th and her graduation party was next Saturday, 10th 2011. She entered both events accompanied by José Luis Rambaldo, her Argentinian father. Álfur Bjarnason finished the 5th year of Secondary

School at Escuela de Enseñanza Media nº 203 “Juan Baustista Alberdi”, from Reconquista in the Economy area. His graduation was in December, 2nd where he walked the aisle with his younger host sister, Laila Moschen. His graduation party was on Wednesday, 7th and his Argentinian mother, Rosana Vogel, accompanied him this time. Finally, Maxwell Collins who lived in Reconquista for

almost a year in 2010 with the Buyatti family, came back from New Zealand to be with his friends and classmates graduates from Escuela de Enseñanza Media N° 203 “Juan Bautista Alberdi” at the graduation party. He made his way next to his host mother, Gabriela Zamer.

CONGRATULATIONS to all of you!

Álfur and his host family at his graduation party

Siripattara (6th from left) and her friends from school at her party

Maxwell and his host mum, Gabriela dancing the waltz at his party

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

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Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures reads the AFS motto, and that

is what these pictures represent.

Two families, unknown to each other, share a son, a

daughter – and in time of the end-of-year festivities, the

distance is much wider.

This is how both families – our Local Chapter exchange students’ natural and

host families – lived this time of the year.

To all of you, HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Merry Christmas and Happy 2012

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Siripattara Lumpowpong‟s Thai family

Family Rambaldo, Siripattara Lumpowpong‟s

(Thailand) Argentinian family

Family Pellegrinia, Bára Kjærbæk‟s (Faroe Islands) Argentinian family

Bára Kjærbæk‟s Faroese family

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

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Family Stechina, Anne Wolff‟s (Germany) Argentinian family

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Anne Wolff‟s German family Ronja Fischer‟s German family

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

a

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Augusta Kirkeby‟s Danish family

Family Sosa, Augusta Kirkeby‟s (Denmark) Argentinian family

A Danish Christmas (originally written in Spanish)

I am Augusta from Denmark, and I have been in Argentina since August 2011 and I will be here for almost a year until July

2012. Since I am in Avellaneda, I have met and learned many different things to those in Denmark, for example Christmas.

In my country, Christmas time starts in December, 1st and finishes on the eve of the 24th. The first days people decorate

their homes with Christmas decorations, for example with Santa Claus and his little helpers, different colourful lights and

green and red candles. For children, December 1st is very important because Santa Claus brings them a gift every day.

There are different ways to receive the presents: in my house ‘Santa Claus’ hides the presents in the morning and my

brothers and I have to find them before going to school. We have a different candle enumerated from 1 to 24 and we light

them according to the day we are in. We also have a Advent Crown with 4 candles which we light every Sunday. In

December 13th, Saint Lucy’s Day, children from my school aged 12 walk in two rows dressed in long white dresses, singing and

chanting. Sometimes they also wear a wreath on their heads and a veil. The first in the lines is a girl and wears a wreath

with candles on top of it. The most important day is the 24th and we spend it with our

families. In my house we eat turkey with potatoes, sweet potatoes, red cabbage and different salads. After that we eat something sweet such as chocolate or “Ris a l'amanda” (rice

pudding with almonds). When we finish eating, we dance and sing songs to Jesus. Then, we open our presents. In my family,

the youngest picks up a present and reads who it is for and hands it in, then that person opens it, takes another gift from the Christmas tree and gives it to its owner, and so on. That is

how Christmas is celebrated in Denmark.

Augusta Lindemark Kirkeby

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

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Jóhanna Jóhannesdottir‟s Icelandic family

Familia Moschen, Álfur Bjarnason‟s (Iceland) Argentinian family

Álfur Bjarnason‟s Icelandic family

Family Redigonda, Jóhanna Jóhannesdottir‟s (Iceland) Argentinian

family

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

Family Scalini, Maria Grazia Grieco‟s (Italy) Argentinian family

Carlo Mazzoleni‟s Italian family Page 10

Maria Grazia Grieco‟s Italian Family

Family Regonat, Carlo Mazzoleni‟s (Italy) Argentinian family

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

Página 6 Family Ortolani, Timothy Scollay‟s

(Australia) Argentinian family

Timothy Scollay‟s Australian family

Laurin Trampert‟s Austrian family

Family Tomadín, Laurin Trampert‟s (Austria) Argentinian family

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Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

destrezas necesarias

María Laura Buyatti and Franco Lorenzini, both from Reconquista, have been

living their year exchange experience since August 2011 in Germany and Finland respectively,

and they have sent us these pictures to share with you !

Hyvää Joulua

Christmas from Finland and Germany

Franco Lorenzini and his Finnish family: From left

to right: Henna (sister), Vesa (dad), Roope (brother), Heidi (sister), Franco, Sari (mum) and on his knees Jesse(brother)

María Laura Buyatti, with Saint Nicholas, in Germany

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Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

Back home for Christmas & New Year Three former AFS students came back to their Argentinian families during December. They are Melanie Rohlfs (Germany), David Etienne (Switzerland) and Jacob Sand (Sweden). Melanie, lived for a year with family Schreiber in Malabrigo in 2004. David, on the other hand, lived for six months in 2008 with family Mina in Reconquista, and finally Jacob who lived for a year in 2009/10 with family Paterno in Romang. Hildür Sveinsdottir (Iceland) lived her year experience with family Tortul in 2006. She has been here since October

2011 and she is staying in Rosario for a couple of months with her host sister, where she attending a Spanish course.

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We want to greet and congratulate you for having come back to your families during this special time of the year. Also for helping maintain the „family bond‟ AFS gave you years ago alive. You were able to strengthen that bond despite the time and distance. This is just another proof that the AFS experience does not finish when the AFS student goes back to his native country, but proves that the

AFS experience is a life experience, and for all your life.

David Etienne

Hildür Sveinsdottir Jacob Sand

Melanie Rohlfs

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

The AFS mate in Panamá In the front page of this edition we can see José Manuel

Buyatti sharing some mates with two members of the Emberá aborigine community in the Panamanian jungle. They

name means „corn people‟ in their native language.

In this page, we can see him having ‘sugarless’ mates at the

Miraflores Locks in the Panama Canal. From

the technical point of view, the Panama Canal is one of the mayor modern engineering accomplishments. It is 80 kilometres long

from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans, it is 12.8 metres deep in the Atlantic ocean and 13.7 metres deep in the Pacific ocean, and it is

from 91 to 300 metres wide. It has to main ports, one in each ocean; three pair of twin locks: Miraflores, Gatún y Pedro Miguel,

and one of the biggest artificial lakes in the world, the Gatún, which is 425 square kilometres and which was formed thanks to a

natural-earth dam in the Chagres River.

José Manuel having mates with the Miraflores Locks in the background, gateway to the Pacific Ocean.

Connecting lives, Sharing Cultures

AFS Reconquista Contacts José Manuel Buyatti 1544-4471 María Elena Landi 421350 Claudia Lanteri 424507 Sergio Sanchez 1545-7527 E-mail: rl.reconquista@afs.org www.afs.org.ar AFS RL RECONQUISTA