Does anything work as planned? Luis Alvide, one of the parents at the new La Providencia Waldorf school at Nueva Argentina, where I’ll build one of the gardens, offered to make arrangements with the director so I could start work on arrival. I’d hoped for a few photos and a map in advance, if possible, and a scheduled meeting to coordinate plans with teachers, administrators and interested parents.

 

I’ve done enough projects of this kind to know nothing ever goes that smoothly. So it wasn’t a great surprise to learn last night that Luis hadn’t spoken to anyone at the school yet, and that they weren’t expecting me until February. But he promised to set things right and take me to the school first thing tomorrow to meet the director’s sister.

 

I’m not sure where this leaves me. My greatest concern is that my exceptionally generous hosts, Vicky and Pablo Sigwald, will somehow wind up picking up the pieces. They’re the kind of people everyone turns to in order to get things done. It was thanks to Vicky’s contacts and enthusiasm that I came to Argentina in the first place, and I’m staying tonight in a room next to her papermaking studio. I want to avoid asking more of them if possible, and draw on other support from the community.

 

This morning Vicky, Pablo and I met with teachers and parents at the San Miguel Arcangel school, another Waldorf school under construction near their home. Located in a much wealthier neighborhood than La Providencia, this school already has landscape and architectural plans, and construction on the buildings is underway. My plan is to focus energy on La Providencia, where my help is needed more, but to use the workshop at San Miguel to build furniture for both projects, and to pitch in there whenever possible.

 

The meeting over, we drove into Buenos Aires. If the past few days are any guide, here’s how afternoons flow into evenings in Argentina. We drove downtown at 2 for panini and coffee, then stopped for a brief visit with family and friends on the way home. That must have been around 4, and the plan at that moment was to stay for a couple of hours, then go back to the house to change before returning for dinner. I could have used a shower after walking around town in temperatures close to 100 degrees, but that could wait.

 

Instead Vicky and I walked to a corner shop to buy food, and by 9 began cooking in her sister’s kitchen. I roasted a Marina di Chioggia squash, an Italian variety I grow and love but was surprised to see for sale. I also made a salad from dandelion greens and anything I could find in the refrigerator, including a round cousin of the zucchini called zapallito. At 10:30 Vicky began cooking the trout caught by her sister Raquel, and by 11 we sat down to dinner with a dozen guests. So this is how I wound up cooking for Raquel’s daughter, her fiance, and his parents (who had never before eaten with the family). None of whom I’d ever met before. Thankfully the dinner turned out well, and at 2 am I went for a swim in a light rain that had broken the intense heat. Soon after we returned home for the night.

 

But at 4:30 I’m still awake. Thanks to the swim, or the yerba mate, or the exceptionally warm and welcoming company, I’m sitting at my desk thinking about how to advance the La Providencia project. Luis changed his mind this afternoon and told Vicky he won’t be available to take me to the school until Monday, five days from now. So I need to find a way to do this without him. At dinner tonight one of the guests, Anna, arranged to send me there with her brother, who speaks good English and can make the 40 minute round trip drive tomorrow at 5. The question on my mind now is who will be there to meet me, given that summer vacation break started last week, and whether the school is at all ready as promised to build this garden.