Day 4

We are now in Rafaela, brought here by Ernesto in his Chevrolet
 truck. There is a big Chevrolet factory in Brazil, one of the three big ones in the world with the US and Korea. It serves all of South America. There is small factory in Argentina, but only four models of cars, not trucks. Ford and Chevrolet are the choice for trucks, com black or white. It was pouring rain this morning, hards to see. The temperatures are higher than normal and the storms more violent. Last week they had 18 centimeters of rain in two hours. Ernesto attributes this to climate change.
He and his partner, Garcia,have been in the electrical business for 26 years, have a great reputation and do the installation for many big buildings. He was on the phone with a client who is opening a restaurant in a big building this weekend. Ernesto has been trying for two months to get the kitchen plan from them with no result. Today they called in a panic because they want to finish the tile work in the kitchen, but the electricity isn't in. Ernesto promised that they could complete the job tomorrow and by phone sent his right hand man to run two lines of conduit to the kitchen. Business with clients is the same everywhere. Their operation has 17 employees and they have to keep them on even during slow periods. Fortunately they have plenty of work.
Ernesto's parents came from Abruzio and we compared pesto recipes. He uses red and green peprichorns and walnuts in his recipie.  He also likes to make pasta, or at least his grandmother does. They never buy store pasta.
This part of Argentina was settled by Italians, "tanos", and Spanish from Galacia, "gaillegos".
As we left Humbolt and entered the area of Rafaela, we came into milk country. The fields are full of alfalfa with some corn. Alfalfa is the food for the dairy cows. Big dairy operation. This is the "milk fountain" of the country. Two of the three big milk production companies are here. We passed Milkout, one of the three. The milking operations are called "tambour". The trucks pull in daily and haul the milk to Milkout for processing.
This land, "pampas humidas", is the breadbasket of the country.  If you throw  out a seed it sprouts, but when it grows the politicians rob the fruit.
We got to Rafaela in good time and were met at the rotary club in their own building, which has a meeting room and a big patio for gathering, and also a library and computers and a teacher for secondary students to come and study after school, particularly English .  We are staying with Eduardo and Tuky, 44 years married. He is an OGBYN and she has a masters in teaching English as a foreign language. They host many students. She studied for one year at Davis and Elkins College in WVa as a young woman, while Eduardo was getting his degree here in Cordoba. One son and two grandchildren. She served us wonderful ravioli with sausage and good wine.
Stuart, Joe, and I came with Ernesto. Bekah and Pam are coming late because their woman driver doesn't like to drive in heavy rain and also the streets were blocked below their hotel, because the police surrounded and arrested a mafia related criminal in the next block.
Rafaela has the reputation of being a safe and clean city. They pride themselves on this. The main boulevard we drove past coming in was very beautiful. They have maintained cobblestone streets in the downtown area. There are very few tall buildings. The first 21 story building was wired by Garcia  and Ernesto. There is only one other building this tall in the city.
We went to the municipal museum on the main square. It is housed in the house of the businessman who owned the whole block including the big warehouse on the other end of the block that sold everything that the immigrants needed to make a life in the country, plows, tools, clothing, kitchen wares, everything. There is a very nice small collection of artifacts from various families, well displayed. One large glass case was from the perspective of the inside of an immigrant house/room with the interior walls and the door is open with a wonderful view of the field beyond. There was also an interesting collection of pre-Colombian pottery and some amazing shells and body parts of prehistoric creatures, very nicely done.
Then off to the University of Empresorian Sciences (UCES). Lili joined us, in fact, Lili drove us to the University. It was a very exciting ride and she only got lost once. The University has 900 students, 45% from the surrounding area, not from Rafaela. It has been in Rafaela for 16 years. Rafaela because of its incredible growth both agriculturally and industrially, particularly related to milk production has been a developmental model for the country and other countries. This university trains people to work in a variety of industries and is the fourth largest private university in the country. We had fruitful  discussion about higher education, the differences between our systems. They have very few services for people with disabilities. Most students work and classes are in the evening. There are no meal plans and nobody lives on campus. There are many opportories for internships and so students as rising seniors may work in a factory or business that then will hire them. We had a good visit.