A few blogs back I mentioned the price rise in transport. About a month ago there was another one. Just before Christmas a subway ticket was $2.50. Now it is $4.50. If you aren’t that good with numbers, that is almost double. That hurts for someone who uses the subway.

Lucky for us we don’t use the subway that much but we are still looking at ways of cutting costs. One of those is to begin buying fruit and veg in bulk. We already do a monthly trip to a suburb called liniers to buy all of our dry goods in bulk. Which helps us save some $$. In the early hours of Friday morning we drove to a large central market for a bulk fruit and veg shop. We don’t have a car so a good friend of ours, Carlos, who was wanting to begin a bulk buy for a load of people took us in his van.

This place is massive. There are approximately 8 really large sheds, about 100 meters long filled with fruit, veg, and action! Potatoes, onions, carrots, oranges, mandarins, spinach, rocket, to name a few of our purchases. It took us the morning to purchase, travel, divide stock and deliver. I haven’t looked in great detail at the numbers but it seems like we have saved quite a bit of money, and we have a full storeroom.

Other news, we are looking into creating a garden. It would be great for us to grow some of our own food and also a rich learning activity for kids too! If we can do a few activities with the kids in the garden and give them the opportunity to actually have a hand in growing some food that they will eat, they will be much the wiser from this beautiful learning experience! It is just an idea in the planning at the moment but I think we have a real chance of getting it done. We have asked about an old garden that needs some love and we have been given permission to have a crack at it. Watch this space.

We have introduced a school work support day on Tuesdays where the kids bring in their schoolwork and we assist them with it. We trialled it last week and it seemed to work well. We are trying it again tomorrow.

Our new staff member, Justine, is a huge asset to the team. Her wage is being sponsored by the fantastic folk from Top Paddock cafe in Melbourne. This is an amazing gesture from them and we can’t express how grateful we are. This means we have another head at the planning table and an improved efficiency in achieving our goals as an organisation. She is taking classes with the 3-7 year olds which we didn’t have the capacity to do before. She is also extremely keen and proactive about improving not only every aspect of her role in SOG but also our ability to deliver quality support to a community in need.

We also have a new manager in The Final Step cafe (the motor that drives our project here in Buenos Aires). Aidan is adding some good experience, extensive coffee knowledge and all round good vibes to the cafe. He is sparking a few changes and even talking about adding a filter coffee to the menu. He is also being closely supported by SOG’s very own entrepreneur and business adviser, Jason Williams, who controls all money aspects of TFS and SOG. Another unsung SOG hero is Leanne Sette who is managing the great volunteers of the cafe. I think she even managed to roster my mum in for a shift!

To sound like a broken record, I am working harder than I have ever worked in my life, I am happier than I have ever been in my life and I have thousands of fabulous people to thank for making this experience possible. You all know who you are, so a massive THANK YOU. Your support means that we can offer our support (and I’m seeing results that suggest we are succeeding) in creating a sustainable social change. You all rock!

I won’t get too ahead of myself yet because we have a long way to go, but looking back and seeing how far we have come truly excites me about road ahead.