Today was a very full day starting at 8 am with an hour long bus ride to La Mantanza where we visited Hospital Paroissien. This hospital is a public hospital in the area and it is very worn down. All of the hospital’s pipes and plumbing are exposed in the ceiling and many windows are cracked and the entire building was cold due to no heat. It was very different from any private hospital we have visited and in desperate need of funding. There was so many people at the hospital showing the extremely high demand on the public system, but the funding to match the demand with a nice hospital was lacking. This was an example of one of the largest problems facing the public system with limited funding and a lot of demand. One of the weirdest things about this hospital was the fact that they had a prisoner unit right next to the orthopedic unit in the hospital which was an odd setup that no American hospital would ever have. There would be many more safety measures in place at an American hospital.
After our visit to the hospital, we went to the Universidad Nacional de la Matanza(UNLaM). This was a public college that serves the area of La Matanza and has many degree offerings. One of the coolest things about the public college system here is the fact that it is completely free to use for Argentinian students. The only thing that they have to do is take an entrance exam to get into the school and it has about a 60% acceptance rate. At the university we toured the campus which was very nice with many places to study and separate buildings for the departments like health, economics, and theatre. This school has 60,000 kids attending which seemed extremely high for the size of the campus being relatively small. During our visit, we received a lecture from a nursing school staff member who talked about the process of receiving a degree and become a nurse in Argentina. It is different than the US because once you receive your college degree in Argentina you are considered a nurse and do not have to take additional licensing exams.
Universidad Nacional de la Matanza in some ways was comparable to the University of Pittsburgh. They had separate buildings and departments for their different types of degrees showing their dedication to all students and their respective fields of study. They also had a place like a “rec center” where students could play basketball or volleyball and enjoy time together while playing sports. However, this center also served as the university’s “arena” for their basketball and volleyball team because college sports are not common in Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Matanza was one of the first colleges to offer collegiate sports and have dominated the leagues since they began. There has been 8 olympic style competitions between Argentine colleges and UNLaM has one all of them. One major difference between Pitt and Universidad Nacional de la Matanza is that no one lives on campus in Argentine colleges. All students live with their parents and choose their college based on what is closest to them in their hometowns. This is a very unique aspect of Argentine colleges compared to Pitt where the majority of students live on campus.
Finally, we finished the day with a graffiti tour in the neighborhood of Palermo. We walked around the neighborhood seeing all kinds of street art and graffiti representing Argentinian history and important figures. One of the coolest pieces we saw was a mural of Rodrigo De Paul holding the world cup trophy, showing the significance of that win to the country of Argentina. It was another great day exploring the schooling system, hospitals, and culture of Argentina.
