Category: Corrientes

Feeling thirsty, I head first back to my house. Here, under the kitchen bench, sits an old empty green glass bottle with “Sprite” written all over it. Without this bottle I will not be able to get another one. Oh, it is not the only way that the drinks come these days, but it certainly is the cheapest… or at least it was.

My time here in Argentina has been relatively short. It was only last year that I arrived here, just over 1 1/2 years ago. At that time I was paying only $1.50 for the 1.5 litre bottle which seemed very reasonable to me. However it was not to remain that way, and when I returned from my Christmas holidays I was shocked to discover that the price had suddenly climbed to $2.00 a bottle.

That was a massive jump that occurred very quickly. It was not the only thing that jumped in price however, as there were noticeable rises in prices in virtually all of the foodstuffs and some of the other commodities. It did not worry me too much at the time though, because I was still quite accustomed to the higher prices that I had been subjected to back in Australia and New Zealand.

The more time I spend in this country however, the more accustomed I am becoming to these prices. Now the prices that seemed cheap before are starting to look very normal. That is why today, when I stopped by the shop, I was somewhat shocked to hear that the prices are going up once again. As of tomorrow we will be paying $2.20 for that same bottle of softdrink.

How can they put the prices up already, when they already had risen so much only a few months ago? It seemed like highway robbery, and there was nothing that I could do about it. This is symptomatic of what is happening in many areas of this country. It is climbing in cost on a monthly basis. Something somewhere is going up in price. Peoples wages have not risen, but the cost of living certainly is.

So there I was, with my last bottle of $2.00 peso Sprite in hand, feeling shocked over a rise in the cost of my drink. Surprisingly though, I was not thinking too much in me. We work with a number of local families that are struggling even now to make ends meet. I was thinking about them, and how they would possibly connect those ends if the prices just keep rising as they are. I was thinking about the companies dictating the prices and how they could justify raising their prices once again when there has been no indication even of wages rising in this country.

But then I thought about some of the war experiences and how inflation was so high that the prices were rising by the hour. How they would carry notes in a wheelbarrow just to buy one loaf of bread. How so many people went through some serious hardship just trying to live. Then my $0.20 price rise on an optional food item did not seem too bad. Yes, it is not only this item that will increase in price. Yes, the cost of living is rising…

…but I think we will all make it. For now, anyway.

Well, I have just finished with a phone call that ends a four week search for a DVD movie of “The Italian Job” that was not a fake. My search was unsuccessful. It ended tonight with the guy telling me that this particular movie is not available in any part of Argentina.

It didn’t start here, but actually began with a search of the city for a place that would sell me something genuine. You see, there are lots of places here that are more than happy to sell you a copy of a movie. To buy something genuine is very difficult, probably because the cost is between three and ten times more than a fake.

In our neighborhood we have just started to see DVDs available for rent. All of them are fakes. Most downloaded by Internet I would guess. Some are filmed in the cinema and have people walking across the screen, while others are missing big chunks from the middle of the movie. It is all that is available here.

So after walking all over the city, searching for a place that actually sold DVDs and not just copies, I finally found a great little rental shop with a good collection of genuine movies for sale. It was a little out of the way, but since it had the first decent collection of real movies, I figured we had found the right place.

I guess it was the right place in most senses of the word. They did eventually find out that my ordered DVD was not available in Argentina. But it was the process that really amazed me.

When I first spoke with the guy, he told me that he would have it within a couple of days. I went away content that at last, after searching through this city of Corrientes, I had found a reliable place. But when those few days had passed and I found myself back at the shop, there was no DVD.

“No problems,” I was told, “it will arrive tomorrow. We don’t know why it didn’t arrive in the box today.” Well, a couple of days passed by before I was able to return. Full of confidence that they would have my DVD, I journeyed the 40minute bus trip into town to pick it up. After my first attempt, when I found the shop to be shut, I turned up and asked for my DVD. It was nowhere to be found.

Somewhat amazed, after searching through each of the six or so possible locations they may have put something like that, I was told that they did not have it. Well, that had become obvious by then. So I asked them how long it would be before I actually did get it.

They told me, again full of confidence, that they would know for sure by the Thursday coming. That was only several days away, but I was growing wary now. I gave them my phone number and asked them to call me with information. They never did. I called them on the Thursday and was told that they knew nothing and to call again that night (shops here open in the morning and evening and close during the afternoon).

That night I called again, and was told that they could not find my DVD in any part of Corrientes. It was now almost two weeks since I had first asked them to order it for me. It seemed that this was the end of the road for them. They offered me no other alternative, and spoke as though they had completed their obligation to me. I was not so content.

After some pushing, they eventually agreed to look a little further afield for my DVD. Three more times I called them to find out how things were progressing. Three more times they told me that they could not get it from such-and-such a place or that they simply still did not know. Each time I asked them where else they may be able to get it. So three more times I was told yet again that if I called back in a few days they would know when they could get my DVD. This was not to be so.

My final call was tonight. The guy once again told me that he did not know when they would get my DVD, and that it had not yet arrived. He was about to give me another time to call back, but suddenly told me to wait a moment. Then I heard the first piece of accurate information since starting this game. There was no such a movie on DVD available in Argentina.

I thanked the guy for this information and explained to him that I was very disappointed with their level of service. That it took this long to find out such basic information, that I never received a phone call during the entire four weeks even though they had my number, and that I had to basically push them to find out this much.

The guy agreed with me that it was bad business to have treated a customer in this way. He also explained that he was able to give me such accurate information because the Regional Representative that distributes all DVD movies in Northern Argentina just happened to walk in during my call.

Then he told me that there was a possibility that this movie may be available in August, so if I would like to call back in just two weeks they may know more……..

No thanks.

I bought myself a diary yesterday. One of those tasks that I always tend to leave until about half way through the year. It works out well that way anyway, as I often find a great discount now that the book is only half useful.

So wandering into the store, I was delighted to find just the thing I wanted. A lovely A4 leather-bound diary with one week to the two open pages. Everything about it was great, until I discovered why something this good had not already disappeared. It was for the year 2001.

Discounted from $25 to $10, it did not take away from the fact that this diary had been sitting around for four years on that same shelf. It seems that nothing goes to waste here. I have seen magazines from other eras still sitting on the shelves of newsagents. It is like going to the backorder store at times, where you can browse through every edition of a magazine for the last year or two. Cleptomaniac’s paradise.

So back to the diary. It was old, discounted, and very lovely. But old. Rather than go looking for one that was not old and was less lovely, I decided that I could use the dates in it anyway and went ahead and bought it. Thus I proved that hanging onto stuff for ridiculous amounts of time sometimes really does pay.

But I am happy, and they are happy, and we both got something near to what we wanted. I wanted a diary for 2005, and got one for 2001. They wanted to sell it for $25 but at least got $10 for it. A happy medium. Just like a garage sale, but more convenient. Very cool really.

Crowding Around
I saw the most horrible thing the other day. As I was walking along one of the main roads with my friend Chris, we saw a crowd of people up ahead. It seemed strange that such a crowd of people would have gathered around on the main road, but we are getting used to seeing such unusual things. I never once expected to see what we found however.

On getting closer, I could see that amongst the crowd there were both young and old, professionals and workers, locals and visitors. Yet not one of them moved. They all stood there standing around the center point of interest, not doing anything more than observing, and occasionally talking amongst themselves.
Continue reading “Left to Die!”