Hi all, back again with another day in the life in Buenos Aires. Today was definitely not planned as there was a general strike against Milei reforms, shutting down shops and our plans for the day. This is the second nationwide union strike since Milei came to power last December, laying off government workers and also freezing all public works projects in a bid to rescue Argentina from its financial crisis. However, we still made the most of the day we had! We started the day at IES with a little overview of what we learned so far about the Health System here as well as how we can take that information and use it within our final presentations with our groups. After this, I took a little stroll to some of the outdoors parks and areas (unfortunately did not last as long as planned due to the large amounts of mosquitos and fear of dengue fever). After this quite short adventure, we watched the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo March. This was a very interesting movement that started in 1977 in Buenos Aires, demanding justice for their children who disappeared during military rule. The government of the self-proclaimed “Proceso de Reorganizacion Nacional” implemented a plan to illegally kill thousands of citizens through kidnapping, torture, arbitrary executions, enforced disappearance, carrying out a state terror policy. The “disappearance” modality became tragically systematic. Thousands of people were kidnapped at their homes, places of work or on the street, and subsequently became victims of enforced disappearance. The movement was centered around the Plaza de Mayo square and occurs every Thursday at 3:30 pm rain or sunshine with white head scarfs to identify one another. The women continue to preserve the memory of what happened during the last Argentine military dictatorship. 

From the Plaza de Mayo, a few of us took a trip to San Telmo visiting many shops and exploring the city some more. I learned that this was one of the oldest neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. We visited the public square explored some of antique stores, vintage items, collectibles and the unique treasures that they had to offer and of course had to get one of the best empanadas! Now, the night is most definitely coming to a close with dinner soon and lots of rest for tomorrow’s adventures. Until then…signing off