Yerba Mate and other thoughts

Something that I did not know about yerb mate (and really, I didn´t know much about it before coming here) is that Argentinians only drink this with family and close friends. The other day as Diana was making her mate, filled her little ceramic pot with it the leaves, stuck in her silver straw, and poured boiling water over it, I asked if I could try it. When she pointed the silver straw in my direction, I said I thought I was coming down with a cold and didn´t want to give her my germs. Then she said that is good because she only drinks mate with family. I´ve seen S. Americans around town with a mug and straw, and she said these are not Argentinians, that Argentinians only drink mate at home. I read in my lonely planet guidebook that a group all drinks out of the same cup, from the same straw, passing it around in a circle. This reminds me a little bit of the Japanese tea ceremony where you would pass the tea bowl around in an intimate setting and everyone would drink from the same bowl - that bowl only to be cleaned later with a good rinsing of cold water.

I´m also feeling a bit bad that I´ve been rather harsh with my first impressions. I need to take into consideration that this is an impoverished country and that I´ve come from a city with an extremely high standard of living. It is sad to think it was once one of the wealthiest countries in the world 100 years ago. I´ve been noticing some of the faded granduer with old buildings in the perhaps not-so-nice neighborhoods, spray-painted with graffiti and blackened from pollution. And then out from these buildings come extremely well-dressed Argentinians. It´s an interesting contradiction.

And I don´t want to go around thinking everything is so cheap because I have American dollars and that´s so great. That helps with containing some of my feelings of overwhelmnent (is that a word?), but overall I think that is an arrogant attitude to take on. These people are working hard and they have so little. I guess I´m realizing that this is a whole new concept for me to experience.