Mente Argentina: Medical/Public Health Volunteer Program

Hi, my name is Matty Mouton Johnson, I go to Boston College and I’m here with the Mente Spanish program and am also volunteering in a hospital. My favorite part about Mente has just been the community I’ve had since I’ve been here, getting to know the administrators at Mente in addition to all the students and all of the people who come through Mente has been incredible, there are about two private activities every week and all of them are really fun, whether that’s this past week when we went to have a snack together at one of the famous cafés and last week we went to Fuerza Bruta, which is an incredible performance show. So I think the community has just been integral, having that here, being able to go back to my host family, having a wonderful host family – they’re so loving and they’ve really helped me with my Spanish. And then the other people that I’ve met here, and being able to travel around Argentina with them, feeling comfortable with that, having a lot of amazing adventures, and exploring the city, has all been great, so that’s been my favorite part about Mente.

I had a really good time in Buenos Aires for the month. The accommodation was perfect, Maria was so welcoming and friendly to live with. The Intensive Spanish lessons were good, however I would of preferred group lessons instead of private lessons. Marlene at the school was really helpful and organised my lessons around my schedule which was great. She also made sure i was with a teacher that suited me so that was really nice as well! My volunteer experience at Hospital de Clinicas was interesting however extremely disorganised. I often felt like my time was being wasted as Mercedes did not organise where we were meant to be going or what we were doing whilst I was there. At the orientation she mentioned that we would be moving around the different departments however it wasn't until we really pushed her and asked her multiple times that we got anywhere. For the first week I spent the entire time colouring in with children. The second week we spent a lot of time walking around, lost because we were given no direction as to where and what exactly we were meant to be going and doing. Towards the end I was able to meet some Medical students and really understand the structure of the hospital. The Medical students were really great to be with though, they all spoke perfect english and asked if i wanted to sit in on the ultrasounds they were doing for the Aortic Aneurism testing. Overall I had a great experience though. I really enjoyed all of the Mente events and it made it really easy to meet friends and integrate into the city easily.

I actually love Mente. If I can talk about my favorite things here, they were my home stay. If you have the opportunity to live with a home stay, definitely do because mine totally changed my live. My sisters felt like actual sisters and my host mom was like an actual mom. I got to work with her at the hospital volunteering twice a week. We actually meet and sit down with patient / doctor action and I also got to work with the kids. My second favorite thing about Mente was how awesome they are about the excursions and trips that you can go on, you get to hang out with this cool people and it was one of the best experiences of my life.

My name is Mitchell and I am from Chicago. I came here to volunteer in a hospital. What I enjoyed the most during my experience here were my Spanish classes, I really liked them. I had a really fun and energetic teacher, I really liked that they connected with students and I liked how I was able to connect the hospital with my Spanish classes . I really felt like I was utilizing what I was learning at Spanish in the hospital as no one spoke English there. That was a challenge in the beginning but I overcame it and I am really grateful for that. I’m also grateful for the organized events that Mente and I also loved my family,I had the best host mom and host sister, they were so funny and open. I definitely felt at home from the first day and I loved it here.

This is Angela, and I volunteered in pediatrics. I worked with kids, helped them with any other need or their parents. I had a great supervisor that answered all the questions that I had and while I was there, I also got to interview kids, parents, doctors, nurses about the health system here which was very interesting to compare it to the US system. They really helped me get a more worldly view of how health care is around other countries and since I’m applying to medical school, this was an awesome opportunity. My interview and writing the essay was easy having two systems to compare. In Buenos Aires there’s so much to do. There are bars and clubs but there are also like nice restaurants and tourist spots. I really recommend going to the Recoleta cemetery and the San Telmo on Sundays. If you have a chance go to Uruguay, really close and cheap so definitely go there! Try to go to the interior or Argentina so you can see the gaucho life, see a soccer game, a polo match. Try all the food and everything new, the pastries are amazing. Many people complimented my Spanish so I know I improved a lot. I had amazing roommates and my apartment was really nice. I lived close to other Mente participants. Some students were living in host families so it was great to invite people to my place. Advice for incoming new Mente participants, do something new every day, there’s so much to see!