May 2009 Archives

After 14 months in Malawi, arriving in Buenos Aires was a bit of a shock. Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America, built by European immigrants who wanted a capital that reminded them of their home countries. As duty called, unfortunately, I could only stay two days. Just enough to get a taste of this huge city- where a third of the total population of Argentina lives.

A statute of Christopher Columbus in central Buenos Aires.

A twenty hour bus trip (luckily buses and roads are of better quality here than in Malawi) took me to San Salvador de Jujuy in the province of Jujuy, on the border with Chile and Bolivia. It is in San Salvador where I will work and live for the coming months.

In Jujuy I met with Raúl LLóbeta, consultant for Avina, our South American partner organisation which will assist SolarAid in the management of the solar project. Raúl had a surprise for me. He had arranged for me to visit all the local organisations interested to get involved in SolarAid's first solar project here in South America.

Meet Rául Llobeta, my collegue from Avina Foundation.

Two days later I got back on the bus to start a tour that would take me 2500km south into Patagonia and later 500km north of San Salvador de Jujuy into Bolivia. The first stop on my tour: the city Mendoza. That's for my next blog...

Ciao,
Carl

One of SolarAid's star volunteers Carl van Zand, is on his way to Jujuy in northern Argentina to set up SolarAid operations out there.

Carl has spent the last 14 months in Mzuzu, as a key member of the SolarAid Malawi team. He spent a few days in the London office- catching up with the team here before heading to Buenos Aires!

It's an exciting next step for Carl and for SolarAid.

From Malawi to South America. Carl van Zand moves to Argentina to establish SolarAid's operations in the region.

More news once Carl has arrived in Argentina, so watch this space!