December is always one of my favorite months in Buenos Aires and the last couple of days in La Matanza reminded me why -- hours of fairly repetitive (yet fun) work of painting boxes or pasting stickers on boxes or equally exciting tasks are always interrupted by parties and sidra!!
Tuesday was the birthday of 3 compañero/as -- Walter, Sara and Mariel so logically we all stopped working around 6 to eat cake and toast to the cumpleañeros. The break from painting boxes for pan dulces was definitely appreciated.
Wednesday was the graduation ceremony for the kindergarten where we handed out diplomas to all the graduating students and gifts to everyone (all the kids, their parents, the teachers, all the folks who help in the cooperative) and toasted to a successful year with (guess what!) more sidra!
And now it's back to pan dulces a ful. The project is a continuation of a project that started last year with the chef Maru Botanu (she's famous -- has her own TV show!) who gave the MTD her pan dulce recipe and some extra publicity. The pan dulces are made in the panadería there in La Juanita, under the watchful eye of the head chef Abel, by young men (most are about 18-19 years old) many of whom have been in trouble with drugs and alcohol in the past. So besides making delicious pan dulces, the project helps get these kids involved in something positive and hopefully teaches them useful skills. Folks at the cooperative are really strict about keeping an eye on these kids and making sure they don't abuse drugs/alcohol while they're working there and so far it seems to be having an effect... (and did I mention the pan dulces are delicious!)
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario