Tag Archives: Workaway

Learning Spanish, travel

Online school on the road: camperlife in South America

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Niles with a Monkey Puzzle tree in camp at Parque National Lanin, Argentina Patagonia

We are a Montana family on the road for a year, traveling South America in our two pickups with pop-up campers. We are staying in a combination of situations of camps, Airbnbs and Workaway stays.

Our son is 14 and attempting to complete highschool courses along the way because he has the goal of returning to his school in Butte, Montana with enough credits to be a Sophomore. He is currently a Freshman enrolled in BYU online courses.

Many miles in this position.
Niles with Argentinan friends his age practicing Spanish and coaching English, such a refreshing sight for me.
Products of Niles and Vivian’s work on the Uruti farm, Colonia Valdense, Uruguay

I would have chosen a free, non-religiously affiliated school like k12 if it was an option. If he hadn’t been interested in returning to Butte High, there would have been more options including more interactive schooling. We chose BYU which is, ironically, religiously affiliated  because it had some support the other option didn’t have. Plus the price was a little less.

On  Workaway stay in Uruguay, koifarm’s source of eggs and meat. We all can manage chickens now. Vivian raised an orphaned chick in their shared room which means Niles really got to know chick stages of development from day one to 30 days.

As we have more time traveling in the countries of South America I believe more strongly that his experiences in camps with Argentinan friends, buying snacks in stores in Spanish, pick up basketball with kids in Colombia, and problem solving travel issues, understanding other cultures politics and economies is his true education this year. Just as the majority of time in a traditional school is social, his time dedicated to curriculum is short compared to time he spends becoming himself in this place.  The anxiety for me of course is wondering if this is “enough” when entering back into the Montana education system.

The day he decided to get his hair cut 5 months since leaving Montana. We went next door to Javier’s place in Guernica where this young man did a favorite Argentinan soccer cut for Niles (Argentina just won the World Cup BTW, so proud!).
“Oldfish” of the Rio de la Plata region which we found on the shore of Rio Uruguay.
Eating out is a rare treat in our past 4 months. We are cooking most meals to stick to budget. Our kids are learning how to travel on $30/day operating budget for food, fuel, and camps for the whole family.
Harvesting Tilo leaves and flowers for Tilo te, a natural sedative for bedtime.
Online school position at the Uruti farm without device in hand. Are you doing school?
Moras we harvested together with the Uruti family
Harvesting fence posts
Birthday pie for Victoria made by Niles
Are you doing school?
The whole family learned what water dependence on a windmill is like over the months of November and December in Uruguay. The groundwater is abundant but you need windy days as well to have water here.
Niles cutting a thick plant the Uruti farm is not using. It can be used as a fiber but only when the plant is much bigger. The farm area here is being envisioned as a vineyard.
Are you doing school?
Exploring the Rambla in Montevideo, Uruguay with sister Vivian.
Are you doing school?
Favorite desert is Flan and Alfajores
Navigating Buenos Aires by train
With a dog

We enrolled Niles in 4 courses through BYU which align with requirements to re-enter Butte High, he is slowly picking through the coursework. The experience as a parent is that we can check his progress from our account but he is very protective against us being with him as he does school. He is in general not an enthusiastic student and missing his friends. When he applies himself, grades go up, when he doesn’t grades go down.

Making Arepas over the Solo fire beneath a Monkey Puzzle tree in camp with views of Lanin volcano and glacier.

In our family, education has been highly valued. We are engineers, attorneys, nurses, plumbers, electricians, gardeners, and adventure seekers. I don’t know of any relatives in our last 3 generations that didn’t finish a traditional highschool. However, I also see that our family situation is in a unique opportunity to give a global education which the Montana school curriculum cannot provide. So, pros and cons.

Today, Niles has a sunburn from sitting near the camp store doing school next to the camp’s internet connection. He is doing a weeks worth of school to catch up after we had days of travel from the Atlantic Coast of Argentina to the Andes of Argentinan Patagonia. Traveling days and internet strong enough to complete school assignments is an issue now that wasn’t an issue in the first 3 months of travel, Google Fi cut us off of our service at month three of international travel.

We continue to pay for Google Fi and may have a way for another phone on our service that is in use by Vivian’s friend to come down here and provide a hotspot for another three months.

Montanan kid in South America learning stuff.

We welcome comments and ideas that may help us make this Freshmen year even better for this guy. Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

travel

Ferias of Uruguayan Rio de la Plata

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For the months of November and most of December 2022,  we found a Workaway stay in Uruguay where we could stay in exchange for language exchange, gardening, shared cooking and general company out on an organic farm with an inspirational family. In our spare time we communicate with customs regarding our vehicles in Buenos Aires and go to “Ferias”, outdoor markets and find conversational Spanish.

On hit days, everyone dipped in the pool.
The river beach
The windmill which pumped water for the gardens, domestic water for use and drinking.
Alfajores de Liber, El mejores del Ferias!!
Cars we liked
Favorite camper in Valdense
The old vehicles restored to brilliance in Colonia Valdense

Uruguay is bordered on the west by the Uruguay River which flows into the Atlantic Ocean at it’s wide mouth it passes Buenos Aires, Argentina and Montevideo, Uruguay in the “Rio de la Plata” area. Culturally, the people are distinct from the rest of South America. When I asked a Colombian man what he knew about Rio de la Plata culture in he said, “Well, they are not like the rest of the brother countries like Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Chile etc”.

The native people of Uruguay were masacred to allow the immigrant cultures from Europe to develop. (Sound familiar those reading in the US?) Looking around, the first impression of Colonia Sacramento and Colonia Valdense where we stayed was that the people look Italian, Spanish and Suisse with only a few people having the physical characteristics of people native to South America. Also, the accent and vocabulary is very different than the rest of South America.

Harvesting bamboo to make tomato structures
The dulces (sweet jams, jellies and chutneys) at the Feria in Nueva Helvecia, Uruguay

We have been here long enough (6 weeks) that the accent sounds familiar. Being delayed on our intended trip has given us lots of time to fill. We are lucky we landed where we did in this Workaway. Now, we have a good understanding of the small artesianal markets which pop up in the towns of the  Department of Colonia: Valdense, Nueva Helveca, Rosario, Los Pinos, and Fomento. Our host family attends them all as vendors of juices, jams, jellies, herbs, and jewelry.

Niles and Viv with seedlings of lettuce and basil ready to plant.

Since we are without vehicles and our budget for the trip accounted that we would be living in and driving our campers, we don’t have a budget for hoteling and a rental car. We depend on our host family for rides to these small towns. They go to make some money and visit with friends, we go for some diversion, festival food, and music. I’ve loved having the perspective of the vendor at these festivals.

Gaston and Victoria’s car which got them through 7 years of traveling South America was our transport to town and Ferias. The car had many quirks and was at the shop for 2 weeks to prepare it for another trip to Chile in February. We walked miles into town and back after dark to shop and take care of business when the car wasn’t available for an errand.
Nueva Helvecia royalty of the Feria.

Uruguay is an agricultural economy, especially in Colonia, and there is a strong culture of reuse of materials. The garage bins in rural areas are called “shopping”. Our host family picked up and dropped off items during our stay at the “shopping” that most Americans would not consider valuable. But, because Uruguay is hugely agricultural and importing things they don’t make themselves, the people value old cars, old furniture, old building materials and use everything multiple times.

Now, I’m sitting at the Feria in Nueva Helica and the scene is ripe. Christmas music is playing, people have that hungry look for stuff. And they are buying from the vendors we have gotten to know over the past weeks. I’m so happy to see this.

Over these weeks, I’ve held myself back from asking what the value is to the family to attend these markets. It’s not for the money. Tonight’s market is answering some of those questions. The vendors all know each other well now. They know each other and their products well. They share resources, transportation, tables, lights. Most of the vendors live on farms. Some are part of a rural women’s network. These Ferias (Markets) are the social outlet of the farm. Now they are making their money, but first all the networking happened.

Last night a new Feria was held at Fomento, a beach town. The Feria was to celebrate the first day of summer. The wind blew and it was cold near the beach. Very few people showed up even though there was good live music that would have been great to dance to. The tourism government officials stayed in a white tent consuming free food and drinks while the vendors of food and drinks outside watched. There were some hard feelings among the vendors who worked hard to travel and set up  for this flop of a Feria.

On the up side, Niles and I watched kite boarders on the river tear out and back doing jumps and floating turns. Inspired me to do yoga on the beach even with the sand stinging my legs. Niles really liked our time out and off the farm. He also bought a hand crafted silver bracelet from Pablo, a friend of the family.