“What do you want for your birthday, golden oldie?”, an overseas friend asked. I thought about it… for a while. For sure no ‘stuff’, how the hell am I going to carry all of those meaningless things along on my travels? They don’t even fit in my backpack. So what do I want? I went down the mental list:
- Happy - check
- In good health - check
- Enjoying life because I am doing what I want - check
- A bunch of people that love me in different places in the world - check
… You know what, I don’t need anything. I am satisfied.
The exact moment this thought manifested itself clearly into my consciousness I passed a woman on the street of Buenos Aires, breastfeeding her newborn. All of a sudden I knew exactly what I wanted. I want this woman to be able to think the same, some day.
An utopian mission perhaps… I might be a dreamer. But then again, if I keep on thinking about such things as being ‘too big’ and individuals having no power whatsoever to change large-scale phenomena, indeed nothing ever happens. Start narrowing it down and look inwards to see how you can be the change you want to see in the world.
That’s how I found Fundación Sí,
an organization focused on helping the socially deprived, like the many homeless people on the streets of Argentina. Whereas in my native country most homeless people are in this position because of a drug addiction, in Argentina it’s mainly because the costs of life are way too high and the wages are too low… if you can find a job to start with, because there aren’t too many. Prices rise every week. While being here I noticed the average pay is about ¼ of Western European salaries and right now basic things like food and especially clothing are more than double. There is no government aid, no social security. If you drown in the costs you have no one to count on… almost no one. A situation like this luckily also causes people to join forces to help the most needy.
So instead of receiving gifts, I asked my friends and family to make a donation to support this admirable work.
On my birthday morning I arrived at their headquarters, my own donation of converted steem dollars clenched in my fist. Your donation.
Monetary support makes a big difference, but actual going out there to help in person was another contribution I felt was necessary to make. Amidst the vibrant activity of all kind of helpers a friendly guy explained to me they were working on a project restoring and re-painting wooden toys, meant to be handed out to homeless children. Did I have any artistic skills? A little flashback stormed through my brain, reminding me of that one time I accidentally painted a considerable part of the university campus blue after I dropped 15 liters of paint out of my clumsy hands… and those 6 years of highschool art classes in which my compassionate teacher rewarded my pathetic artwork with a just sufficient 6/10 because “I tried so hard”… “Yeah sure, bring it on!”, I shouted.
Now I’m not sure I honored my country’s masters with my painting that day, but maybe Van Gogh, Vermeer and Rembrandt could give me a modest thumbs up for making the toys look happy and ‘playworthy´ again
8PM, ready to meet up for the nightwalks! Another project Fundación Sí is organizing are nightly strolls around town to take care of the homeless, both in a material and social manner. An incredible amount of volunteers had gathered together, after which one passionate coordinator divided them in groups of 3-4, each with a trolley full of hot soup, food, clothes and warm blankets.
Every group (about 15) were covering a different area where many homeless are known to have found their spot. While driving to our area I repeated the words of Jesu, the leader of the project, in my head: No photos (obviously), don’t just drop off the food and leave (start a conversation!) and don’t talk to them standing up while they are sitting down… we are all humans, we are equal… by looking down on someone, even when you’re helping him, you establish an inequality and disturbed balance of power. The first group of people we met were four old ladies, settled down in big plastic bags alongside the hospital. The fire in their eyes lit up when they saw my fellow senior-volunteers arriving and they immediately approached giving hugs and kisses.
[That’s right, I forgot about that. In Argentina people give each other 2 kisses as a general greeting, no matter the gender. I was surprised to find my doctor kissing me after a check-up in the hospital, as well as the woman I bought bananas from. Well, I was about to be kissed all over that night, because I spent the entire night baking a ridiculous amount of cupcakes (see opening pic), hoping the people on the streets of Buenos Aires would enjoy a little treat… They did. I even got some true birthday serenades for the occasion.]
In total we spent a considerable amount of time with about 15 homeless people, actually sitting on the ground to hang out with every single one of them… eating, drinking, exchanging conversations, sharing a laugh... Instead of throwing some food or money in front of their feet and taking off we bonded as fellow human-beings, as friends. One of them grabbed my hand and said it had been weeks since someone asked him how he was doing, or even looked him in the eyes.
This was by far the best birthday party I ever experienced, full of beautiful people and overwhelming life stories. To hear the success stories of this organization, motivating some of these people to eventually build confidence and help them crawl out of this situation by providing them the right tools, restored my faith in humanity, if only a little bit.
Without realizing it, you already helped this organization by upvoting my previous posts and enabling me to give a donation.
But if you want to donate directly as well, click this link and be awesome:
http://www.fundacionsi.org.ar/comoayudar (select ‘donar’)
If you just want to make those damn cupcakes, that’s fine too. Here you go:
- Heat oven on 190 degrees (US friends, this must be about 374 Fahrenheit).
- Mash 3 ripe bananas with a fork.
- Grab a bowl and mix the bananas with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 0.5 cup of vegetable (could be coconut-) oil and 0.5 cup of cane sugar. You can add 0.5 cup of raisins, cranberry’s or walnuts if you like, but I was too lazy to go and buy them.
- Mix in another bowl 1.5 cup of all-purpose flour, 0.5 cup of oat flakes, 0.5 teaspoon salt, 0.5 teaspoon baking powder and 0.5 teaspoon baking soda.
- Mingle it all together, throw it all in cupcake holders and put it in the oven for like half an hour.
- Let it cool down a bit if they’re still STEEMing.
Woohoo, you actually baked something! (and vegan too, ssshht no one needs to know)
Thanks for reading.