“All the hotels I stayed in had B&W TV that worked only
when you inserted pocket change into a slot” I remember her saying when we
first met. “This hotel you are staying in looks like a palace.”
It was in 1996, two years before Argentina’s financial
crisis when I got involved in a public health project in Buenos Aires.
Over the next two years I learned about a pace of life that
I once knew, had forgotten, but did not recall how sweet it was. It was also a pace of life that could not
keep step with global trends. Yet, when I look back two decades, I recall
moments when I felt as if time had stopped and all my senses were at their zenith.
“You know about our Tango and wines, but you have to learn
about the kids drifting on Rio Paraguay hoping for a better life in Argentina.
You cannot understand our public health needs unless you ride in a pirogue on
that river.”
Which I did, for a short distance, to learn more about
parasitic diseases, tuberculosis, and orphans. Then it was the ride back to
Buenos Aires and all the glamour of Paris and Prague that it offered.
In 1998 the financial crisis started in Argentina and the
project was halted.
… It is raining and cold today in the high desert of
Arizona. I looked at my computer screen for a long while wondering what
feelings this day relates to memories of other places. And for a strange
reason, I found myself in Buenos Aires, Café Tortoni, Av de Mayo, having lunch.
“200 grams of meat, red wine and a Cuban Partagas. That is
the luxury I have” she had told me.
And on this rainy day, I wonder if she stayed at the Ministry
of Health, continued the project, and took care of the orphans crossing the Rio
Paraguay.
About the photograph:
It was taken during a field trip to Peru and Argentina circa 1997.
January 5, 2016
© Vahé A. Kazandjian, 2016
No comments:
Post a Comment