Day 12

A neighbor across the street just came back to town. He and his wife are empty nesters and often host GSE members. They have a beautiful house and I met him snd his wife. He,Osvaldo, has been in Rotary for 47 years and president of his club three times.His wife, Susana, is still very active in the community. She spearheaded the campaign to improve the hospital here. They  were extremely gracious and we talked over coffee.
 SanJay and I talked about kids in university, he and Liliana have two boys. We walked into the small patio that is almost impassible because of a large Bougainvilla . He originally planted it for summer shade. The seasons are extreme here with the summer passing 110-115 F and the winter -5 C. They rxrhave ice in the winter and two years ago they had some snow. We walked over to the town museum. It is in the old train station. Every one who settled here came by train and the sign over the door into the station from the tracks says that through this door came everyone. San Jorge became a city in 1961 when the national census counted 10,066 in the population, 66 over the requirement to be a city. The railroad was the way all of this was settled. The equipment was British and very wide track, just one set of rails. The train would go one way to the end of the line and then come back the other direction. There are a few  historical exhibits in two of the rooms, one room is dedicated to those who "disappeared" under the dictatorships with painting by and 84 year old man whose son was "disappeared ", the other room is dedicated to the four local boys who died thirty years ago in the war over the Malvinas. The area across the tracks is a beautiful rose garden.
Back at the Rotary club building we did another interview with local tv and press. Then we raced out the the country to visit a ranch/farm the last one in the area with the old building still standing. It dates from 1900 with most of the original hacienda intact, the calving building, the large covered corral area. Most of the big farms were like this with a mix of beef and dairy cows, milk fed pig, chickens, sorghum, and pasture. The area around here is the "pampas secas" or the dry plains and so the farming operations had a variety of things going on so that irregular weather patterns wouldn't cause everything to fail. About 1000 kilometers to the south are the "pampas humidas" or the wet plains where monoculture is more common. As soybeans have replaced everything, all of the old buildings are gone. There used to be eight big milk operations in the area, but now all are gone.
Back at the Rotary building the students from the English academy were waiting to talk with us. I took a few moments to look in the kitchen. The club cooks asado, paella, and other dinners to raise money. They cook 80 kilos of paella in each huge pan. The paella pans are 48" in diameter and 6" deep. They make 35,000 pesos. The rice pans hold 50 L each.
 The night meeting had three clubs in attendance:San Jorge, El Trebol Solidario, and Piedmontes, Roberto Cuareno president. For the standard opening of the meeting, the flags are raised. Since they did not have an American flag, Roberto did the. Argentine flag and I the Rotary flag. There wer about 60 people in the crowd with lots of excited talking, it was a very noisy room. We ate, inducted a new member for San Jorge, their fourth woman. I sat at the head table with the presidents and Daniela, the incoming president and her sister who had been GSE to Nigeria. Daniela has only been a Rotarian for four months, but her grandfather started the club, her father was president more that once. And she came out of Interact and then was the prime mover in their Rotaract Club. We gave our presentation and exchanged banners and then they gave use gifts, mate and the cups and straws to drink it. As has happened before many people commented on how much they liked the presentation. They have never had a presentation where the whole team speaks in Spanish and often nobody on the visiting team speaks Spanish. One fellow who has been a GSE to ? said that the presentation was perfect, not too long, not too short, informative and expressive. Also everyone has been extremely complimentary about the team. They like the balance of personalities, the humor, and they willingness of everyone to accept new things. Compliments to the selection process. I've talked to people about next year's changes and some think it will be fine, others are sceptical.