The final day
March 14, 2009
What a wonderful start to our last day in Buenos Aires, we got to actually sleep in…only until 9 that is!! We unhappily packed our bags and said goodbye to our home for the last week. Since our flight was not until later in the afternoon, we were able to spend the day on our own doing whatever we wanted. Most of us decided to spend the day shopping and touring around. Deena, Charles, Kevin, Rachel, and I decided to have an adventure and ventured onto the Subte (their subway) for the first time. We went to the market at Recoleta to get some last minute jewelry, gifts, and other very important things that we couldn’t leave Argentina without!!
Around lunchtime the whole group met up in Palermo to savor our last empanadas together and of course share some pizza. We reflected on the fantastic week we had shared together, laughed at all our inside jokes from the week, and basked in the sun. After lunch it was time to head back to the hotel to get our bags and board the bus to the airport. We hugged our friends from Virginia Tech and Kenyon College and sadly got on the bus, although I think secretly some of us were somewhat excited to have 10 hours on the plane to sleep since that was about as much sleep as we had gotten all week.
I think we all learned a lot this week about what it truly to means to give. We figured out that “when you give yourself, you receive more than you give” because we all grew and gained so much from this experience. Our conversations about poverty, tzedakah, and how this experience has changed us are hopefully just the beginning to how we can all make a difference in not only Argentina but also in our communities at home and others around the world. Although sometimes we felt like were just simply putting a “band-aid on a body that had been cut in half”, I believe we did more than that. We helped to give the people and kids at IERU a little bit of hope for the future especially knowing that they have our support in America.
–Bekah Shaw,
UNC-Chapel Hill, Class of 2011
Jillian and Victor sleeping in the airport
Silly picture by the water at Puerto ModeroNC Hillel group at Hillel Argentina
