Page 6: Exco comes to Argentina
From SI Exco News
Exco Meeting
Exco has one meeting each year. For 2003 we chose Buenos Aires. This time not because it was the cheapest place to go, which had been the motivation to meet in Den Dolder, The Netherlands and Heidelberg, Germany. We thought that it would be good for the contacts in that area and this gave us an opportunity to discuss Servas matters with the South American area coordinator. Also, in its entire history, Servas had never held an official meeting in South America. The meeting itself was very good and productive, communication being one of the main topics. After two years in office, we had done a lot of things to make communication better (making reports by Servas officers, all the new advantages of the Servasweb) and many things have improved. On the other hand, much depends on people. For that reason, we have made some ‘rules’ for communication: responsibilities of NS’s, AC’s and Exco. The background for this is that it must be a mutual responsibility to maintain ongoing contact. We can have country addresses like country@servas.org, but if a National Secretary or Area Coordinator does not tell anyone that he has a new e-mail address or that he is away for long time it is impossible to stay in contact.
Host list accuracy and distribution was another topic that was discussed. Much progress has been made, but much must still be done to reach the ideal situation we want - that all countries have an updated host list in 2004. We adopted a 1 year plan (14 items!) which was published on the web. We were very happy with the way Servas Argentina organised this meeting for us. All Exco members had their own host, and the meeting took place each day in the home of those hosts. We continued the tradition of each Exco member cooking a ‘national’ meal. The hosts joined Exco for these meals when they could, and they expressed their satisfaction.
One afternoon we had an outing: We met an Argentinean host and a professional guide, who took us to see some of the less commercial sights of Buenos Aires, pointing out many interesting cultural features. The tour was organised with pre-arranged meeting places and times, and many Buenos Aires hosts joined us at various places on the tour. The guide was impressed with the concept of Servas, and generously waived his fee.
After the guide left us, we drank coffee at the famous Tortoni coffee shop, and then received a tango lesson in the same building. We then moved on to an excellent performance by a guitarist and a tango singer at the society for Porteño culture. (Porteño = belonging to Buenos Aires) Exco’s thanks go to Servas Argentina for arranging this hospitality for us, and for giving us a further insight into Buenos Aires culture.
Frits Stuurman General Secretary
Hosts in Buenos Aires Open Doors to Exco From the national secretary: Frits has just told you about the Exco meeting. I would like to explain the importance of this event to our country’s members and myself.
Argentina is a big country and the people who live here have a huge heart as well. We make friends easily, love to meet people, share time with travellers, show them our city, talk about our country, invite them to a nice meal at home and share some time with our family. I would say, in a sense, every person in our country is Servas at heart. Argentina is also very far away at the south end of the map. 95% of us are second or third generation immigrants, mainly from Europe. Our grandparents were very welcome in those days and worked a lot to give their children a better life and future. Most of them fell in love with our country and never left it again. Maybe this is one reason why we strongly feel that travelling is a way to know a bit more about our past and we usually get the feeling that many things, places, people we get in touch with, are somewhat familiar to us.
Lots of sad things have happened in the last two years due to government corruption. Things that were taken for granted aren’t there any more. All this has, of course, also affected our Servas hosts’ lives. Everyday worries and fears have been keeping many of them from accepting travellers. Many others, due to economical problems, feel they can’t host travellers as they should.
We have been working hard to keep people together and their spirits high. At the same time, we kept working on our project to have SI Exco meet in our country. This, we knew, would be difficult to achieve - we are so far away from everywhere - but we couldn’t give up this unique chance for Servas in Argentina.
Our hosts worked, were moved and concerned. I had to coordinate many things and never had a ‘no’ for an answer, everybody helped. I met members I had never met before and got in touch again with people I hadn´t seen for a long time. Everybody was there, some who wouldn’t be in the city, left us the keys to their houses, just in case. Exco members, in spite of their intense agenda, found a way to share some time with us, everybody had the chance to contact them and learn about some aspects of their work, and they shared their vast experience on how individuals can work for peace. Amazing. Now we have some new hosts, more people interested in Servas and many members visiting the web site. I would say we are a team again, and feel optimistic in understanding that only people working with love can make this world a better place to live.
Thank you for the chance. In love and Peace.
Elena F. Otegui, efotegui@datafull.com
- From the peace secretary:
I would like to share my feelings of what has been an extraordinary event in a country (indeed a continent) that had never before been visited by Servas key-officers, an event which is now part of the history of Servas Argentina.
We would have liked to have the chance to spend even more hours discussing with them how we could help Servas achieve its aim, but they had to keep to a full agenda. Even so, it was an excellent opportunity to exchange some points of view. After their long-day meetings, they managed to get together with us and even cook us their traditional meals. A delicious Norwegian dinner was cooked by Roger, our president. On Saturday, 35 people enjoyed Bibendra’s Nepalese feast. How he managed to feed us all is still a mystery to me. He had not finished the first round when people were standing in line for a second plate. This was also a reunion of hosts and key-officers who had not been together for a long, long time, as well as some travellers. Servas is a hands-on, face-to-face organization, that is why all this is necessary. We are all sure that EXCO officers wouldn't be able to take decisions unless they got together whenever and wherever possible with the heart of our organization, that is we, the people.
It was completely necessary for me, as Argentina Peace Secretary, to spend some time with Marco, our international Peace Secretary.
I should ask them to forgive us for not leaving them some time for themselves. We couldn't help it; we needed every one of them, that's why they had one of us grabbing their arm at all times. THANK YOU EXCO, PLEASE COME BACK SOMETIME. I would like to extend my invitation to visit Argentina to all Servas members. Things have changed and now Argentina has become one of the cheapest countries in the world. It is a very enjoyable country, you won't regret it, and we will do our best so that you all have a great time here. Peace, Diana Estrin destrin@fibertel.com.ar Servas Argentina has 196 hosts. As in many countries, only hose in Buenos Aires City, near downtown, and in Patagonia receive many travellers.
