On wild goose hunts--

The last two Wednesdays, I've gone to this meeting of 35 organizations at the Buenos Aires Legislature building trying to hunt down this woman who is the director of an organization whose publications really inspired the angle I am taking on my research. I learned about this weekly meeting from the woman who has been my number one contact here, who also hasn't been able to reach the organization on my behalf, apparently they're busy? I haven't been able to get a response by email from anyone there, so I decided I was going to have to get a little more aggressive to get to the bottom of this.

The first week, the Legislature meeting was cancelled at the last minute because of the big truckers union strike, so she obviously didn't come.

The second week, I arrived at 10:45 for a meeting that was scheduled for 11:00 but didn't start till 11:30 and then lasted for two hours. I stayed for the whole thing, hoping this impossible-to-track-down woman might show up...she didn't even come in late. Sigh.

Today, I ventured across town to find the organization's office. I had found the street address online, so when I finally found the number posted on the side of a tiny, unmarked wooden door on a busy street filled with shops, cafes, and approximately a billion Argentines hustling in either direction, I wasn't sure what to think. I rang the bell, I knocked, I tried shaking the door to see if it would open. I looked into the stores on either side of the door, looking for some obvious sign with flashing lights, then finally the man at the newspaper stand right out front, who I'm sure was amused by the scene I was making trying to get into this door that I'm sure goes unnoticed more often than not, came over and told me they usually don't come till about 3pm each day. This at least explained why they hadn't answered calls in the morning and early afternoon hours!

He pointed me away from the overpriced cafes on the main street and suggested a cafe that wouldn't be overpriced about a block and a half down a side-street. So I sat and sipped a cafe con leche trying to kill some time. I walked back up to the main road right at 3:00, and the newspaper stand was GONE -- thank you mystery man, I would have given up AND paid too much for a cup of coffee if it weren't for you!!

When I rang the doorbell this time, the woman I'd been trying to hunt down for 2 1/2 weeks opened the door and didn't even let me introduce myself or explain what I was doing before she started leading me up the stairs to the makeshift office and rattling off the answers to all the questions I had ever wanted to ask her! She was incredibly nice and helpful, and after our 45 minute chat, she kept thanking me for being interested in their work and wanted me to know that she'd be happy to help out with anything I needed for the rest of my project....sooo strange how things like this keep happening, but I'm getting so so much helpful information, that I really can't complain. Apparently persistence pays off!