Unfortunately, it was rainy again today for our seventh day. Fortunately, we had a much shorter day and we’re able to finally catch up on sleep. We began our morning with a lecture from Gabriel Novack at the IES abroad center. Gabriel Novack was the former Minister of Health, and he currently directs one of the country’s leading private healthcare providers, known as Swiss Medical. He was able to give us a much-needed recap on the information we have learned throughout the week. He spoke candidly about the challenges he noticed during his time in government, gave us a brief history on how Argentina’s complicated healthcare coverage model, and put into perspective the changes the current President is making to the healthcare system. Gabriel was also able to answer a lot of the questions that some students didn’t have a chance to ask earlier in the week, which was very helpful as we began to prepare our final presentations.
We were then able to meet with our presentation groups to put our heads together and begin to prepare for our final presentations. The last time we worked on our presentations was prior to the trip, and we have certainly learned a boatload of information since then. It was very beneficial to have time to meet with our groups and everyone sounded deeply invested and involved in conversation!
After a quick break back at the hotel, we headed to lunch at the restaurant of Museo Evita! We had a delicious lunch before we began our tour of the museum dedicated to the life and long-lasting legacy of Evita Perón. Evita was an iconic historical figure of the early 20th century as well as the First lady of former President Juan Perón. The museum was once a building of shelter for single mothers; an important cause Evita was very famous to fight for. We also learned of the other causes Evita fought strongly for, such as the right for woman to vote and the ability for children to play sports. Her foundation created a sports tournament where children were able to gain free medical examinations. During this guided tour, we were given a powerful glimpse into her life, from her unique upbringing to her role as a champion of social justice. The exhibits displayed personal belongings, historical documents, photographs, and videos to paint us a well-rounded picture of her legacy. The tour was very interesting, as the information was densely compacted into 33 short years of her life!
Pro Tip: Always remember to stay flexible and patient! Today we were meant to go on a walking tour this morning, but because of the lousy weather again we had to move around a lot of our scheduled activities.
