Today there was a general strike, and in fear of everything being shut down our original itinerary was canceled. Instead we had a recap lecture with Grant. This was an opportunity for us to go over the complicated concepts we have been learning for the past few days. This was a large focus on the public sector. We discussed the vas amount of fragmentation, the difficultly of budgeting, and long term sustainability. We uncovered a lot of flaws to the system that leaves us wondering how low term this system will be in effect for. One of the major flaws is anyone, even people from out of the country can recieve free healthcare. This makes it almost impossible to predict budget. There is no set amount of the population and that makes it so difficult to alloate funds correctly. Then the conversation shifted more from Argentinian healthcare to an overall exploration of the state of the world. This conversation was one that sparked a lot of interest in a group of us. As our lecture wrapped up we decided what to do with the rest of our day.

During our tour of Buenos Aires on Day 1 we learned about the dirty war and how during the dictatorship thousands of people disappear and are assumed to have been kidnapped by the government. Ever since the grandmothers and families have marched around Plaza de Mayo looking for answers. This was very special to see in person. For over 40 years these women have gathered every thursday at 3:30pm to march around the circle seeking answers. This moment was one I don’t think I will ever forget and it says a lot about the argentinian culture.

An over arching theme is there is no sense of urgency. These women will take the time out of every thursday to congregate here and march. That is something so special that in the US I don’t think would have continued for as long as this has. We spent the rest of our day exploring San Telmo and seeing all the interesting buildings and cool shops. Surprisingly nothing was closed. This strike was supposed to be one of the largest demonstrations to date. All the unions banded together to strike in protest of President Milei. But had we not have been warned we would have had no idea that a strike was happening. While I was sad our day got canceled it ended up being a very special and memorable day.