Pro Dada
Squating in Mar del Plata!, Argentina - October 26, 2005
Date: November 6th 2005
View archives of past emails here: http://www.songseek.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi/list/jamie
Photos here: http://www.pbase.com/stevegallagher/jamie
Hey everyone,
Things are still going very very well, and we are having a great time. The anarchists we met on our first night here in Mar del Plata hooked us up with another anarchist group about 3 miles outside of Mar del Plata centro. We are currently staying in a squat that this group opened as a community center a year ago. I am learning a lot about how activism works here and it is truly amazing! Sometime in the '90's the building we are staying in closed as a church, and was vacant for 7 years. The community decided that it should be used as a Community Center, so they went in and occupied the building. Some old church goers came with the police but since they had no desire or ability to use it again in the near future, the stand off didn't last too long. It sounds as if the fight was intense for a while, and they truly had to defend the building. However after a few months the police gave up and the community declared victory. Over time they went to the utility companies a nd the governent and said we won, it's ours now. Since my Spanish is still thin, I haven't quite figured it out but that was one or two years ago. Now they pay the taxes and utilities, and operate the building as a library and community center. We are going to try to send them some children's books in English when we get home, for helping kids learn how to read. The same people who run it also get lots of food donated from the government (they had to occupy government buildings for long periods of time to get this!), which they distribute throughout the city. It is very refreshing to see examples of projects similar to the ones I am working on and would like to work on in Washington, DC, which are so incredibly successful here. It makes me wish there were more people to work on these issues back home who were as dedicated these folks.
The other day we went to visit the fishing harbor, which was incredibly cool. The fishing boats are all slightly larger than the ones in PEI, Canada, and all bright orange! There is a giant group of sea lions that follow the fishing boats out for the day, so in the afternoons you can find them sunning themselves on the bud banks above the harbor. They are similar to the seals we saw years ago in PEI, though much larger, louder, smellier, and overall even more disgusting! They climb all over each other farting, belching, and pooping, peeing, and sneezing large quantities of slime all over each other! They are amazing animals though, watching them swim is beautiful as they are very graceful in the water. It is really interesting to watch the males fight over the best places to lay in the sun, and showing off for the slightly smaller females. We took lots of pictures and took turns climbing over the fence to pose with the closest sleeping sea lions! (we saw locals doing th e same and had to join them!).
Steve...if you want to send me that information about how to upload pictures from my camera to the internet I will try to do that. Internet is fast and cheap here so it should not be a problem finding a place to upload photos. There are also places that will make you a CD from your camera for a buck or two which I may do eventually if I run low on space on my memory card, but for now I have plenty.
Overall things are going very well and I am learning a lot. Next week will be intense, we've been warned that the streets will burn! The entire city is scheduled to be shut down, all trains and buses in and out of the city will not be running for the days of the summit (the 2nd through the 6th or so). It will be intense but also wonderful, we are asking a lot of questions of different people in order to be as prepared as we can be in order to stay totally safe, it is great having a free (though we'll make a donation) place to stay outside of the city so we will have a safe place to escape to anytime we need some quiet!
Everywhere we go we meet incredibly nice people and are invited in for matte and often dinner! Every time I travel I am reminded how kind people are all over the world and seeing this culture of resistance and dedication renew hope in a better future!
Hope all is well at home, keep me up to date on anything going on;)
much love,
Jamie
Photos here: http://www.pbase.com/stevegallagher/jamie
Hey everyone,
Things are still going very very well, and we are having a great time. The anarchists we met on our first night here in Mar del Plata hooked us up with another anarchist group about 3 miles outside of Mar del Plata centro. We are currently staying in a squat that this group opened as a community center a year ago. I am learning a lot about how activism works here and it is truly amazing! Sometime in the '90's the building we are staying in closed as a church, and was vacant for 7 years. The community decided that it should be used as a Community Center, so they went in and occupied the building. Some old church goers came with the police but since they had no desire or ability to use it again in the near future, the stand off didn't last too long. It sounds as if the fight was intense for a while, and they truly had to defend the building. However after a few months the police gave up and the community declared victory. Over time they went to the utility companies a nd the governent and said we won, it's ours now. Since my Spanish is still thin, I haven't quite figured it out but that was one or two years ago. Now they pay the taxes and utilities, and operate the building as a library and community center. We are going to try to send them some children's books in English when we get home, for helping kids learn how to read. The same people who run it also get lots of food donated from the government (they had to occupy government buildings for long periods of time to get this!), which they distribute throughout the city. It is very refreshing to see examples of projects similar to the ones I am working on and would like to work on in Washington, DC, which are so incredibly successful here. It makes me wish there were more people to work on these issues back home who were as dedicated these folks.
The other day we went to visit the fishing harbor, which was incredibly cool. The fishing boats are all slightly larger than the ones in PEI, Canada, and all bright orange! There is a giant group of sea lions that follow the fishing boats out for the day, so in the afternoons you can find them sunning themselves on the bud banks above the harbor. They are similar to the seals we saw years ago in PEI, though much larger, louder, smellier, and overall even more disgusting! They climb all over each other farting, belching, and pooping, peeing, and sneezing large quantities of slime all over each other! They are amazing animals though, watching them swim is beautiful as they are very graceful in the water. It is really interesting to watch the males fight over the best places to lay in the sun, and showing off for the slightly smaller females. We took lots of pictures and took turns climbing over the fence to pose with the closest sleeping sea lions! (we saw locals doing th e same and had to join them!).
Steve...if you want to send me that information about how to upload pictures from my camera to the internet I will try to do that. Internet is fast and cheap here so it should not be a problem finding a place to upload photos. There are also places that will make you a CD from your camera for a buck or two which I may do eventually if I run low on space on my memory card, but for now I have plenty.
Overall things are going very well and I am learning a lot. Next week will be intense, we've been warned that the streets will burn! The entire city is scheduled to be shut down, all trains and buses in and out of the city will not be running for the days of the summit (the 2nd through the 6th or so). It will be intense but also wonderful, we are asking a lot of questions of different people in order to be as prepared as we can be in order to stay totally safe, it is great having a free (though we'll make a donation) place to stay outside of the city so we will have a safe place to escape to anytime we need some quiet!
Everywhere we go we meet incredibly nice people and are invited in for matte and often dinner! Every time I travel I am reminded how kind people are all over the world and seeing this culture of resistance and dedication renew hope in a better future!
Hope all is well at home, keep me up to date on anything going on;)
much love,
Jamie
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