Monday, 11/13/23: A rousing SERVAS finale in Mendoza

At the final morning of the SERVAS Latin America meeting in Mendoza, International President, Radha Radhakrishna, proposed an idea for a new youth scholarship program.  Every years, two students would be chosen from a worldwide pool of applicants.  They would get an expense-paid, one-month trip to South America and would be provided housing with a local SERVAS family.  During their visit, they would study Spanish and would write up and submit a report about their experiences to SERVAS upon returning to their home countries.

My guess is that Radha’s proposed scholarship program or something like it will happen.  SERVAS has done a great job carrying out programs like this and Radha’s enthusiasm and fresh ideas will no doubt prove fruitful.  I am impressed at how SERVAS is able to function so successfully as an all-volunteer-run organization.  As an American, my dues are only $33 per year and I suspect that membership is even cheaper in less-developed countries.  And get this – the 4-day conference fee was only $50 and that included most lunches, dinners, and transportation.  SERVAS International must have been subsidizing some of the costs.

I stayed six nights at the conference hotel:  $150 total for a shared room with private bath and breakfast.  Argentina seems very inexpensive these days and businesses like payment in U.S. dollars.  I was advised to bring greenbacks with me.  It’s not surprising given Argentina’s current problems with rampant inflation.  I’m no economist so it’s hard for me to understand why a country with a healthy tourist economy and a relatively skilled labor force which exports tons of beef, wheat, wine, and minerals has so many financial problems.  It was obvious to me that something was seriously wrong given the large discrepancy between the official and black market rate for the Argentine peso.  Officially, it was about 350 pesos to the dollar but I was getting 800 to 850 pesos when I changed money at the hotel.  Thankfully, I had plenty of American cash so I didn’t have to get screwed by the official rate at ATM machines!

Later in the morning, Francisco Luna, a computer whiz from Mexico, gave us a presentation on updates to the SERVAS website which, by the way, you can visit to learn more about the organization:  https://www.servas.org/.  As on previous days, Chilean organizer, Javier Heusserd, kept the group moving along with his whistle which he employed like a sports referee to get the attention of the conference’s talkative Latin participants.  I found it all very amusing!

Left:  Francisco Luna gives us an update on the SERVAS website.  Right:  SERVAS International President, Radha Rhadhakrishna, receives his certificate of conference participation from Javier Heusserd (Chile) and Ana Sánchez (Argentina).  Radha is originally from India but currently lives in Connecticut.  Photos courtesy of SERVAS.

 

The final event was presentation of certificates to each of participants.  Upon receipt of my certificate, I told the group “muchas gracias” for their patience with my poor Spanish comprehension.  I had the impression that they could understand my Spanish better than I could understand theirs!

Now that I was on my own for meals, I found an Asian fusion carryout joint less than a 10-minute walk from the hotel where I ordered a delicious and inexpensive veggie noodle dish.  In the evening, I encountered a vegan grocery store with carryout meals right along a main thoroughfare.  Any ideas I’d had that Argentina was a strictly carnivore country were quickly put to rest.   

Modern trolley cars transport Mendozans along the Avenida Belgrano where I grabbed dinner.