With the anniversary always comes the
time to renovate our visa and our local ID. Luckily, we don’t have to undertake
this red tape nightmare alone but can count on Juli. Her official job title
would be gestora which translates into “facilitator”. But for us she will
always be our own private guardian angel who has made it her profession to
organize all those bureaucratic tasks that are necessary to get foreigners into
the country, allow them to stay and work, and basically make their lives a hell
lot easier.
We usually meet her at one agency or the
other where she has already fixed an appointment. She then whisks us from one
counter to the next, telling us what to do and say, pushing papers at us that
she has magically prepared, with a “please sign here and there”, and then
finally leaving us free to go back to the office while she takes care of the
rest.
We are extra good customers because
the husband had his wallet stolen last year in August so we had to do almost
everything all over again. And since the officials somehow misplaced the new ID,
Juli even had to apply for the replacement twice. It almost took them 1 year to
finalize the new ID and we received it this August - just in time to start the
extension process for the 2012-2013 period. But that is perhaps another story.
Juli must have the patience of a saint
to have picked this profession, and she is usually very calm and collected. But
when we me met her the other day she seemed slightly frazzled. She explained
that she was a bit stressed out because she is handling all the paper work for
a truckload of Chinese who flock into the country to work for the Standard Bank
at the moment – even better customers than we are, mind you, since they come
over with the whole family, including grandmothers and in-laws. But when we
started chatting about the momentary situation in Argentina while waiting for
our turn I got the sneaking suspicion that the political and economical direction
this country is taking right now could be the true reason for her state of
mind.
The usually very discreet and cautious
Juli almost started venting, and the expression esa abogada - "this lawyer" - was
meant neither as a simple job title nor as a term of endearment. No, Juli would
definitely not vote for Christina Fernandez de Kirchner should she really
change the constitution (as rumour has it at the moment) so that she can run a third time for president. Our gestora is pretty fed up with what the
government has been pulling off recently, and I thought I saw her tearing up
when the subject of the Frigate Libertad came up that is being impounded in
Ghana until the Argentineans pay their debts to their creditors.
But what really got to me was when Juli
said that she intended to go to the next big protest – that she was a bit
scared of police violence but that she would go nevertheless. You had to voice
your opinion, right!? And I realized that although we are living in the same
country at the moment we are really worlds apart. I am here for a certain time
only. I am a guest with privileges, a big international company behind me,
and I know that my time here in Argentina has an expiry date. I can laugh about
things, shake my head in disbelief and get angry and upset and frustrated, but
I will be going home or to some other place at a foreseeable time. I don’t have
any stakes in this.
Juli on the other hand belongs here.
Argentina is her home. And she has children she is worried about and whose
future is very much affected by what is going on at the moment. What advice
should she give them? To stick it out and wait until the next crisis has
passed? To leave and build a home somewhere else? And how will Juli’s future
look like?
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