Today, Argentina was partially shut down due to a general strike, so our scheduled events were cancelled. Although missing the boat tour of the city was unfortunate, we made the best of the day regardless! In the morning, we had a discussion about what we had noticed about the Argentine health system so far. This was really helpful to pull together some of the big ideas that permeated every sector of the system such as fragmentation, solidarity, and the difficulty of budgeting. The discussion about solidarity was particularly interesting because that is one big cultural difference between Argentina and the US. In the US, we have a very individualistic meritocracy, whereas in Argentina, people feel more of an obligation to the collective good. This can be seen in the public sector, where conditions and pay are worse than the public sector, but many physicians, nurses, and other professionals work there regardless because they feel the need to help those that most need it.

After our discussion, we visited the Japanese Garden and Chinatown (or Barrio Chino). The garden was absolutely stunning, an amazing escape into nature right in the city. There were koi fish, Japanese flowers, and lots of really interesting structures and buildings. Chinatown was a vibrant area filled with restaurants and stores. We ate dinner at a hot pot restaurant and then shopped around the various convenience and gift stores. It was really amazing to see such a blending of cultures. I was interested in learning more about the Chinese population in Argentina, as it seemed to be a very strong community within Buenos Aires. After some research, I found that Chinese immigration to Argentina occurred in four waves. The first wave was in the early twentieth century when immigrants came from small coastal towns. The second wave came from Taiwan in the 1980s, and the third in the 1990s, mostly from the Chinese province of Fujian. The fourth wave is more recent and consists of many middle class professionals looking for work in Argentina. Sometimes it is easy to forget that immigration isn’t exclusive to the US, and it was very enlightening to see how that plays out in a different country such as Argentina.