Yes, its in Argentina,
South of the Province of Buenos Aires
The beginning of the Grand Region
Patagonia, a name of fame and wealth
Bahia Blanca: To me rhymes
With Maru Donkara, Ammia Mannu
Places far away in northern parts
Of a thickly populated Green lushy
Cash crops filled tropical foothills
Wherefrom the dreams of lands distant
Traversed in aspirations created
by a literature of Salesian lore
Commenced five decades ago.
Today, visited one such place of memory
The Sanctuary of Laura Vicuna
In the School of Maria Auxiladora
Adjacent to Don Bosco, a school of fame
Both today have boys and girls though
Once upon a time, there were gender
Distinctions well marked.
How do they choose, I wonder
The parents of today between the options
Just across the streets of a school system
of similar origins. It’s not all
The Unisal is also next door,
Once the Institute of John XXIII
Making its way to Salesian University
The gentle and warm welcome,
The eager and expectant student faces
The cordial and intense queries
Expectant and grateful listeners
Warm and appreciative of a presence
of someone not strange and yet from
Far away. A priest and Salesian
But nurtured in climes and culture
Quite different from Latin America
And that too, Argentina.
Bahia Blanca is not too big
Buenos Aires Yes, is Big
One wonders about many
Notions and Trajectories of Growth
Disparity and Models
of Education, Employment,
Opportunities and ways in which
People accommodate, condone
Live through what they have at hand
Prejudices of places and information
On what is on offer and how people are
Shared constantly, are, created, concocted
Especially in an age of social media.
This is also a time of constant search
For new ways and modes of being a person,
A student, a citizen, is being shaped in the minds
Of Students in need of caring Hearts at hand
Felt grateful for the opportunity to connect with some
Their thoughts and aspirations, happy coincidences
Wishing farewell, in affection, wanting to hold them
In embrace with a hug, that is so spontaneous
Natural to this culture lingering within surfaced to find
expression verbally, as I bid Goodbye.