I had planned on writing this blog several days ago, however then my weekend became busy with spontaneous activities (planning is not a priority or forté here). And, yesterday I was sick all day with a nasty stomach virus. Thank goodness that has passed. Anyways, I wanted get some ideas down about Mendoza in specific and about the people here. From my three and a half weeks thus far of living here, I have been able to somewhat understand who the Mendozan people are.
First of all, the city of Mendoza is a peculiar place. It is only 2,497 ft in elevation and it is a very dry climate. Mendoza rarely sees rain, and according to my host family, had almost all of the trees not been planted by humans it would not see trees either. You must be wondering how the trees survive in such a dry climate with no rain. Well, throughout the entire city there is an irrigation system. In spanish they are called "esequias". Essentially along every street or walkway there are large (usually open) trenches that allow water to run underneath the city. This allows for trees to survive. On a side note, palm trees were also planted here long ago, and it is very strange for me to see palm trees with the Andes in the backdrop. Anyhow, the esequias are very dangerous as right next to the sidewalk (running parallel between the sidewalk and the road) there are large, and fairly deep, trenches. I, myself have already almost fallen in one. I was waiting for the bus one night when it was dark and I took a step backwards not realizing I was about to step right into an esequia. I managed to catch myself, although I must say it was a frightening experience. The esequias are full of trash and I would not want to know what kind of bacteria I would be faced with should I fall in one.
This brings me to my next observation regarding Mendoza. There is trash everywhere. It is horrible for the esthetics of the city, however I can somewhat understand it seeing as though I can walk for blocks and not encounter one trash can. I usually end up putting all my trash in my purse or backpack only to unload it at the end of the day. This, along with a discussion about recycling (or lack there of) with my host-sister was one of the first things which made me actually realize that I am in a third world country. The infrastructure is just not up to par with what we have in America (or what I have seen in Europe). I can imagine that this is why there are many issues with the communities of people who live in the "basureras" or dumps which I talked about in a previous post.
There are also stray dogs EVERYWHERE. I have never seen more stray dogs. Even in Morocco there were less stray dogs. In other countries I have seen many stray cats, but here it is dogs. Often they hang out in packs. It can be scary when I have to run by them in the park and they start barking. I am constantly afraid they are going to attack me. Interestingly, it is still very common here to have dogs as pets. I would have thought that with all the gross, imposing stray dogs all over the streets people would not want them in their homes. But this is not the case. I did ask someone once why more is not done about the stray dogs. The answer I got was that they don't care. However, I tend to think it is more that there is not enough money or concern to be focused on this issue. I have noticed that many people do not neuter their pet dogs which would be the first step to reducing the problem, which leads me to believe that either it is not of concern or people cannot afford the procedure. I could be completely wrong, however. These are just my observations.
The Mendozan language (as well as the Argentine language in general) is much different than the spanish I learned in school and in Spain. As many of you may already know, Argentine spanish was heavily influenced by Italian. Throughout the 19th century immigrants came to Buenos Aires, many of which were from Italy. These were also the people who were the creators of Tango. Nevertheless, Argentine spanish has more Italian inflections and accents than other types of spanish. They also use "vos" instead of "tu" (you). This took some time for me to get used to, as it seems very strange and nonsensical to me. It still does not make much sense to me why they decided to adopt this habit instead of using "tu" like the majority of other spanish speaking countries.
The Mendocinos in specific also have peculiar speech mannerisms. They like to add "ito" or "ita" onto the end of everything. The Menocinos also tend to drop the "s"on the ends of worse in speaking. This was difficult at first for understanding. They also often use words such as negro (black), blanco (white), gordo (fat), flaco (skinny) to refer to friends. These are used all the time to friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, husbands/wives, and they are not seen as offensive. I have also noticed more outward forms of racism here. For example, during the olympics I heard several people talking about the Chinese-Argentine ping pong player in a degrading way. People in general are much more blunt here - although that seems to be the case everywhere I have travelled. Once I had dinner with Will's host-family and we were talking about how Will loves food and will eat anything. His host-mom then said "Yeah, we saw Will's picture on his application and we thought he was going to be fat!". It was hilarious, but not something that would necessarily be considered acceptable in America.
That's enough for now! But, expect more soon. Much love from Argentina.
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