Saturday, September 1, 2007 Happy Birthday Trevor!

Saturday, September 1, 2007

After a quick breakfast, I walked about 25 minutes to the Nuestra Casa house for the Taller (workshop). I got there at about 10:26 and Daniel, one of the volunteers, gave me a surprised look and told me I was early! The taller was supposed to start around 10:30, so I didn’t think it was that big a deal. An hour when the workshop finally started, I understood! The workshop, titled Amor: Encuentro Verdadero (Love: a True Encounter) was two Saturdays and this was the second week. I was thinking it would be about loving all types of people, especially people who live on the streets and people who are difficult to love. Before starting, the facilitator Guillermo gave me a quick update of what I’d miss last week. He basically told me that love doesn’t exist, only the capacity to love. Although I wasn’t exactly sure if I agreed, I went with it. And although it didn’t really go with what I thought the workshop would be about, I figured the second week would tie it back into working with people in the streets.

The workshop started out talking about identity, relationships with others, and communication. When then started talking about intimacy and what interferes with intimacy. We split up into groups and I was with a volunteer worker from Viña del Mar (rich, touristy costal city) and three men who live on the streets. Two of the men have a pareja (basically a wive but they aren’t official married) who they live with on the streets and who were also at the workshop. The other man, Alejandro, used to be a bodyguard for the government and only recently started living on the streets. It was great to talk with them and I felt incredibly comfortable. They all helped me with the language and everyone had great things to share.

We all ate almuerzo together and in the afternoon the second half of the workshop started. Once again, I was expecting it to all tie in to working with people on the streets, but Guillermo opened up the afternoon discussion talking about sex! We amazingly spent the next 2 hours talking about sexuality vs. sensuality, the different perspectives between males and females, and how ultimately, it is all about love! I was definitely the youngest person in the room (the average age was probably about 45) and the only extranjera, but the afternoon was incredibly interesting, eye opening and not nearly as awkward as I’d feared. By the end of the day, I felt comfortable and connected with many of the people in the workshop and excited to keep working with Nuestra Casa. I also had some great notes and interesting things to think about!

I walked home around 5:30 and again realized how exhausted I was. The immensity of the Spanish and the experience was overwhelming. But of course, I talked to Calli and she told me about a Festivo de Vino that I couldn’t pass up. We met up around 8 in Providnecia, a swanky uptown comuna. We found the huge white tent, lights, music, and stylish looking people and marched right in. We paid about $8 for the wine glass and 5 tokens, which converted to 5 classes of wine. For the next 3 hours, we sat, ate appetizers, drank fancy wine, and talked with our friends that we ran into. I couldn’t finish all 5 glasses, so after the 2nd, I drank the first half and Calli finished off the second half for me. The wine was amazing and it was great talking to the people at the booths about how it’s made, where the grapes are from, everything.

Around 12:30 all the wine was gone and the group of gringos that had congregated headed out to get empanadas (the Chilean drunk food). I hadn’t had that much, but everyone was raving about this place they had found not too far away that we had to go to. So we got empanadas from the Iranian man and Peruvian woman who own the shop. They were both really nice and I could understand everything the Peruvian woman said, once again cursing Chileans and their horrible Spanish. I took the bus home around 1:30 (super early for a Saturday) and fell asleep. Trevor was at a camp out for his bible study so I didn’t get to wish him a happy birthday, but his birthday present is waiting for him at the UNL bookstore.