crackers without salt, tea without sugar

The past couple of days here have been a bit uneventful. Grace has fallen ill to a terrible virus which has left her either in bed or on the couch. She is now well on the road to recovery however a couple of nights were spent up with high fevers and under ice packs. My uncle Julio, a great doctor, has been visiting and calling regularly, regardless of the hour, and now has her on a pretty strict diet of crackers without salt and tea without sugar. This has given us some time to read up on this wonderful country we are in and talk to friends and family about Argentina. Some of the things we are learning are very interesting and even new to me. We wanted to share some of the more interesting and informative things about Argentina with all of you. Here we go!

More than one-third of the country's population lives here in Buenos Aires, about 12 million people. There are two other major cities in Argentina but neither one has more than one and a half million inhabitants. It's indigenous population is low compared to other South American countries. Argentina was built more on Italian and Spanish immigrants than indigenous or African slavery. Today, about 97% of the population claims European descent but the list of countries which has influenced the Argentine culture and still has communities throughout the country is as varied as at home - Syrians, Bavarians, Welsh, Croatians, Germans, English, and Jewish, and more recently Japanese and Koreans, to name a few. There are still strong indigenous communities in the northern Andean provinces as well as in Patagonia.

Things are very different between Buenos Aires and the rest of the country in many respects - socially and economically - and in some instances very different from home. Some examples of the differences between Argentina and the US are the free social services offered to anyone, including ourselves: emergency and non-emergency healthcare is offered to anyone free of charge, this includes doctor’s visits, treatments, medicines, even surgeries; education, both at lower levels and even university and master programs are free (doctorate programs included).

Although in the past the government has been a bit shaky and shady, usually due to radical ideas by presidents - like keeping the peso equal to the US dollar, which is one of the things that sent the country into economic turmoil in 2001 - it is progressive in it's political ideology. Women occupy about 30% of congressional seats (compared with about 12% in the US) and in Buenos Aires gay civil unions are allowed, a Latin American first.

In Argentina, private life insurance is almost unheard of. This is in part due to the fact that almost no one here as debt accumulated. Homes and cars are purchased in cash and in full, no loans, and almost all transactions are paid for in cash, no credit cards. Also, here in Argentina every job is respected and appreciated. Even menial jobs are taken very seriously, like being a waiter or dog walker - which really is a sight to see. Many people in the city have large dogs and some one is hired to walk them. A dog walker may have 10 leashed dogs with them walking down the side walks or in the parks, and you should see the control they have over the dogs, it's incredible.

Here is Buenos Aires the lifestyle is a lot like one of New York or Paris. Most people live in apartments and rely on walking or public transportation, subway and bus, to get from here to there. Every one is socially active through their entire life. People are always eating out or just getting together with friends at cafes or parks almost every day. Throughout Argentina, family is very important to everyone. Kids live at home much longer than in the US and almost every weekend entire families get together for a day long asado (bar-b-que).

This weekend Grace and I have a trip planned out to the countryside for an asado with the family of a friend of my moms, which we are looking forward to very much. This week we'll be taking it easy but hopefully we will still get our fill of social activities meeting friends for coffee in the afternoons or a delicious Italian dinner one night.

We love hearing from all of you in the messages you post and the emails and phone calls. We hope every one is healthy and happy, and you are all in our thoughts.