There was a good day of hard rain on Friday of last week. Drainage around Buenos Aires is not good at the best of times, particularly in the poorer areas. We had to trudge through Gonett in ankle deep water to get to the venue. When we arrived at the venue it was showing signs of taking on water. So Ellie (sadly it was her last day with us) and Cristina got cooking, and Valeria, Alejandro (80 year old man who lives on site) and I started bailing water. We protected the low lying areas with small walls of sand and started to bail water where it had began to pool.

It was constantly raining with periods of torrential downpour (the heavens were opening type stuff). After an hour or so of bailing water and maintaining our dam walls, it became evident that our attempts to stop the ship from sinking were fruitless. At this point we gave up our buckets for cups of tea. I’m sure I could hear the string band from the Titanic playing in the background. So in came the water!

Not long after we had to head out and collect the kids. We waded through the rivers (streets) and gathered our troops. It was a surreal feeling collecting children where the water level was the same inside the house as outside. Back to the venue we marched with water splashing around our knees. In all honesty it was quite fun and the kids enjoyed it. I just feel sorry for them when they had to go home and sleep with water half way up the legs of their beds.

The day pretty much passed as normal, just in 6 inches of water. Here are a couple of photos.