Quilmes

Today we woke to a very relaxing morning of regaining lost sleep and shopping for the girls with cards and steak sandwiches for the boys. It was a very valuable morning of unwinding after long flights and hard work.

However, this did not last long. After a train and a bus we arrived at the enormous estate being used by the salvation army to house street kids and provide a safe space for them to come together. While we knew this was a poorer area of the city there were still some large buildings nearby and it had a bit of a nice suburb feel, despite the glass and barbed wire on the fences. However, when Innes (the Salvo's officer looking after the house) took us for a walk down the road we encountered a level of poverty that none of us had experienced before.

Within walking distance of these estates and skyrise buildings we entered the slums at Quilmes, the mud roads were littered with piles of rubbish that local children would sort through to find useful materials that could be sold. Dogs and chickens wandered freely throughout the area. The people lived in mudbrick and corrugated iron. the whole area smelt of the piles of burning rubbish that had already been sorted through. I know I felt quite overwhelmed as I first began to experience the slum, I didnt know how i would be able to relate to these kids who had lived entirely different lives to me and spoke a very different language.

When we returned to the Salvo's building we found many of the kids we had spoken to in the slum had already made their way there. Playing soccer and volleyball or climbing through the playground they seemed just like any other group of kids that you could find. When we went to join them they seemed reluctant to let us join, the boys playing soccer in particular seemed very against us joining the game, untill corrine's translating let us know that we simply had to wait untill the next game, meanwhile it was discovered that the smaller kids were more than happy to be your best friend at the small price of a piggy back ride to the fence.

Finally the boys were allowed into the soccer game. we were ushered all to one side and given one local to join our time against all of them. Despite losing the first game 3-1 we put up a fight against the argentinians and proved that Aussies had their worth. Despite not being able to say more than Si throughout the game we emerged as amigo's and shook hands with the whole team with big grins all around.

We discovered that despite the circumstances the kids are full of joy and great people, all it takes is for people to reach out to them. It will be a long time before i forget these kids and i hope they will not forget us.

A big thanks to Corrine who was the only translater for the whole day and did an absolutely fantastic job of it as well.

Ben B