The beginning of this week started with a much dreaded trip to the Ezeiza international airport in Buenos Aires, where I had to say goodbye to my fiancee, who was starting her university masters course back in Scotland in a couple of days time. Even though I knew that the last two weeks I’d spend on my own in the city, the reality that awaited me on my bus back to the apartment was much harder than expected. The city that I knew to be special and unique seemed much grimmer and darker when I was looking through the window, observing grey buildings while being stuck in the traffic for nearly 3 hours. It is truly quite surprising how much one person can change your perception of a place, bringing light, colour and fun into your everyday life simply through their presence. One of the hardest moments I have danced during my project so far was definitely coming back to the apartment that was ours for over four weeks, which was now to be only mine for the rest of my time in Buenos Aires.

To distract myself from these quite difficult feelings, I decided to sign myself up for an intensive Spanish course, where I’d be spending four hours a day studying the grammar, vocabulary, and doing my best at speaking. I’m a firm believer that to truly get to know the place and its people it is necessary to know its language. It represents not only a collection of words and grammar rules, but also reflects the culture and the history, allowing the people to truly express themselves. Having had Spanish for two years in high school, I quickly rediscovered my love towards this language and learning languages in general, and these long hours in the Spanish Academy of Buenos Aires became one of my fondest memories from the city. I remember deciding to take a 20 minute walk to the school one morning, listening to an Argentinian podcast talking about the initiation of the movement Madres de Plaza del Mayo (Mothers of the Mayo Square). The mothers and grandmothers were organising weekly protests in the main square of the city, demanding the information and release of their children, abducted by the government. The movement has not only attracted international attention to the violations of human rights in Argentina, but also has been advocating for accountability of the military government for the crimes they have committed during the dictatorship. Amazingly, Madres del Plaza del Mayo have been continuing their work until this day (50 years from its initiation!), reuniting children of the abducted women with their families. The Madres have definitely become a symbol of true resilience for me, a reminder of the responsibility we all have when faced with injustice and suffering of the innocent. 

What made my stay even more memorable was the fact that I was passing Plaza del Mayo everyday on my way to my Spanish classes. I feel extremely lucky to spend so much time in a place where history was made, learning about it not only from the books and podcasts but also from my everyday experience in Buenos Aires.

After my classes, I had only an hour to run back to my apartment to grab a quick lunch before running out again to catch my train to the Pablo Nogues. It was definitely quite interesting to be on both sides of teaching, being a student trying to understand a language in the morning and turning into a person who explains the complexities of another language in the evening. It is also definitely quite touching to see the whole circle, from my time as a child trying to learn English in my evening school in Poland to being in the position of a teacher who helps others to learn the same thing.

One thing that I really enjoy in particular during my volunteering experience is the wide range of students I’m lucky to interact with everyday. As I have realised, explaining the same concept to 10-year-olds will be completely different from teaching teenagers and adults. I definitely had to think of some creative ways to convey the same message and work with the students themselves to find out what works for each person.

Lastly, one of the loveliest surprises came on Thursday afternoon, when while making myself a cup of tea before the class I started chatting to one of the new volunteers, Isabel. As it turned out, she and her friend Hazel are also Laidlaw scholars, who decided to conduct their LiA projects with Voluntario Global. It was definitely helpful to find someone going through the similar experience and find some familiarity in a place so far away from my normality. Isabel and I happened to teach the same class on Friday, which turned out to be one of the most fun classes I’ve had so far- the discussion on the Polish, Scottish and British cultures quickly turned into heated discussion on Grey’s anatomy, Violetta vs Soy Luna, Wallace and Gromit and much more! I was happy to see kids engaging with the language through fun conversations, jokes and laughter rather than just through doing (quite boring) grammar exercises from the student textbook.

As my adventure in Buenos Aires soon comes to an end, I’m more grateful than ever for the time I had here. It’s been such an important time of learning, expanding my horizons and reflection, and I can’t wait for my last week in this very special place.