El Delta

A flower growing in the mud

Yesterday I went to an island called Las Rosas, which is in the delta of the Rio de la Plata. To get there I hopped on the train (six blocks from my house) to the opposite end of the line from downtown, then I took a boat about 45 minutes, then walked through mud barefoot to my destination. Why barefoot? Well, this area gets flooded frequently, sometimes every few days, and therefore the houses are all on stilts. Two days before my arrival the water was up to the level of the third step of the houses, and so the day I went the ground was still muddy. Okay, but still, why barefoot? Well, I didn't have rubber boots like my companions, and my flip-flops kept getting stuck in the mud. So barefoot was the method suggested to me, and it turned out to be much easier and rather fun! (And yes, I know that in some parts of the world this is the perfect way to get some fun parasites, but I was assured it is not so in this area.)
Besides, for the most part the kids we met there go barefoot. Here's some proof -- my feet and a boy's foot and an adorable kitten:


A church in the La Lucila neighborhood of Buenos Aires has been coming to this area for years. One of the church members came to our training (TOT1) last September, and since has become one of the pastors of the church. The entire church is now talking about changing to their work in the Delta from relief and "betterment" to development. They currently do mostly relief work, providing lunch for the children of the surrounding area:
They provide milk and an afternoon snack:
They also do some betterment work, such as tutoring. Yesterday there was no tutoring since the kids are still on summer break, but a youth group had come out and taught a Bible story (Joseph, his dreams, and his family difficulties) and had the kids do a project.
They tell me that the children are promoted from grade to grade regardless of performance, and many of them cannot read well. Similar to Baradero, this area has a lot of family violence (I got to hear some) and alcoholism. Below you can see the building that the church constructed four years ago to be the church on Thursday nights and the tutoring and feeding center on Saturdays. In the front you can see the creek, or canal, which is what floods. It is so skinny that you are seeing the width of it in that photo. Nonetheless, boats use the canal when there is adequate water and so all bridges built must be very tall. There are significant problems with people getting around in the area as there are very few bridges.
I can't remember the name of the boy below since we only talked briefly. I do remember two of his sisters, Laura and Mariela (just to prove that I do remember some!) quite well since we worked on an alphabet project together. He brought these two puppies out to show me. His neighbor's dog had six puppies in all, three dark and three light.
Below is the family I went with, Pastor Daniel, his wife Monica, and their youngest son Mateo. Monica is a kindergarten teacher and is thus very skilled to lead the tutoring. They go out to El Delta every week, and Daniel often goes on Thursdays to lead the church service. They are also responsible for organizing the other volunteers who come once or twice a month, and every-other-month special events like the youth group that came yesterday. Amazing.