Wheelchairs and a Cathedral in La Plata

Fun to see our Church logo
on the backs of the chairs

We had the opportunity on Friday November 8 to go on our first excursion out of the city. We checked out a car from the carpool in the area office and drove about an hour south to the city of La Plata. The drive was interesting, beginning to see more of the country outside the big city. (Most of eastern Argentina is flat as a board; where are the mountains???)

The purpose of our visit was to experience a "wheelchair delivery" with our partner organization CILSA. We enjoyed the experience. There were about 10 chairs shared with people with various physical challenges, including two adult amputees, several young children with serious muscular disabilities, and others with less obvious challenges. It was fun to see and hear the joy in each one as they experienced the new chairs. One mother expressed how her life will change now. She had mostly carried her child (who appeared to have cerebral palsy) everywhere, but the child was now too large and the wheelchair would allow her to have so much more freedom. Others had similar reactions of joy and gratitude.

When the wheelchairs are given to the recipients, they have a group training session where they talk about a variety of topics, including care and maintenance of the chair, safety warnings about its use, and sharing awareness of the laws that relate to accessibility issues.

We were impressed that the discussion about accessiblity awareness and legal issues was led by a CILSA employee who herself is blind. As an organization they truly believe in facilitating opportunities for individuals with handicaps! She did a wonderful job.

Everyone gathered outside for a celebratory photo.

Two of the precious children who were blessed by this donation.

While we were already in La Plata, we took advantage of the chance to visit the Catholic cathedral there. It's a beautiful, classical neo-Gothic structure. Construction started in 1884 and was halted in the 1930s when it was feared the foundation was not strong enough to support the projected structure. It wasn't until the 1990s that renovations began and the beautiful towers were finally added. You can ride up to near the top in an elevator.

The spires reach a height of 367 feet.

The massive nave. The largest cathedral in the world, St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, has markers on its floor listing the other largest churches in the world to show how much smaller they are. This La Plata cathedral is #17 on that list—so pretty high among the largest churches in the world. Click here to see the list.

 

Beautiful wood carvings in this church, and of course, LOTS of stained glass that is always so breathtaking.

Three other observations about this trip. Our group (those working in the Welfare areas) in the Area Office generally use this pickup truck for most of our travel, since we often have to haul materials as part of the work we do:

So these comments about the truck and driving:

1. The alert observer will note from the symbol on the front fender, it's a Toyota! That was kind of a fun connection for me, since I've been driving a Toyota Tundra pickup for the past 15 years. This one is a model that doesn't exist in the USA.
   
2. The truck has a manual transmission! I guess that's still pretty common down here, though they have almost disappeared (it seems) in the USA. I drove a stick shift for roughly my first 25 years of driving, but in the two decades since then, I can think of only one occasion when I had that experience—and that was in England in 2010 (with the added complication of driving on the wrong side of the road, and having to shift with my left hand!). So it's been a LONG time since I've worked a clutch. But it's amazing how easily the "skill" reappears. I didn't stall the engine once, didn't grind the gears, and actually fell right back into the pattern with very little conscious effort. Deeply ingrained "muscle memory" I guess.
   
3. The truck is relatively large compared to the majority of cars on the roads here. And I was pretty tentative in my driving, certainly not wanting to deal with having an accident on my first experience on the road! Argentina drivers in general tend to be pretty aggressive, especially in the many corners where there are no stop signs or street lights and you just have to "push" your way through. It was not easy for me to get comfortable with that. I think I would have done better in a smaller, more "agile" car.