Wednesday, September 5, 2007 Goodbye Hi Ho Silver...

Wednesday, September 5, 2007 Goodbye Hi Ho Silver…

Thank goodness, but I got a good night sleep last night and woke up feeling still a little sick but much better than yesterday. My Doctrina Social class was canceled since we had the test Monday, so I slept in and went to campus around 12:30. I laid outside in the sun (yeah, its getting warm!!!) and read for my Education class, then went to mass at 1. In my Education class the professor said she hasn’t been very happy about the test results so far and then went on to say that 70% of test results depend on the teacher, so I guess that is one benefit of an Education professor! After class I had lunch with Christian then we printed off my essay, which he had corrected. He told me that my writing and grammar is getting much better and that he was quite impressed. I still mess up the gender a lot, which is understandable because there is no gender in English!

(Gender as in el (masculine) versus la (feminine) for every object or idea. Ex: el gato – the cat. Cat is masculine, so it needs el. If you say la gato, it’s incorrect. There is your mini Spanish lesson for today.)

After Biblia class, I took the bus home. On the way I made a stop and re-charged my pay as you go cell phone. Grrr…its getting expensive! I was home for just a bit and I had to convince Olga to only feed me a little bit because I wasn’t that hungry. At 7:45 I met Tom in the metro and we walked to Nuestra Casa for our volunteer Induction. When we got to the house we were greeted by Guillermo, Daniel, and Renaldo, three of the full time volunteers/workers who I’d met on Saturday. I really enjoyed greeting people I knew instead of being introduced. The feeling of familiarity is something I hadn’t noticed, but really missed! We met the other new volunteers: two University freshman who are studying social work and a Chilean woman. The Chilean woman spoke to us in absolutely perfect English with literally no accent. I of course asked her how she spoke English so well and told me that moved to the United States when she was 3 and lived there for 20 years! That explains it! She was gracious enough to talk to me in Spanish and I noticed that she was easier to understand than other Chileans. She told me that she doesn’t have an accent in English but since she spent so much time out of Chile, she now has an accent in Chilean. I told her not to worry because I could understand her much better.

Later 3 high school girls, a nun and a teacher showed up. I had met all the girls on Thursday when I went with them to bring coffee and bread to the homeless people, so again the feeling of familiarity was wonderful! Anyway, the induction was fun and we got to know each other really well. They did a great job of explaining more about the organization and talking about bringing down the social barriers. After lots of laughing and bonding, we headed out. Everyone there is so wonderful and I look forward to every opportunity I have to be there. I don’t feel like I’m volunteering, more like I’m hanging out!

A bunch of us walked back to the metro together and I talked to the Chilean woman who had lived in the States. She told me that her family moved to the States because in 1973, when Pinochet (and the US) killed Allende and took over the Chilean government, her family was exiled because her father was Communist. Her father was a Physics professor and her mother studied Political Science, so they moved to Indiana and they worked and studied at Purdue. She lived in the States until 1993 when she moved back to Chile. I am still amazed to hear these stories and to think how recent and alive the history is in this country.

I got home around 10:30 and called Jamie to wish her an early Happy Birthday. I woke her up but we talked for a while. She seemed to be doing great and I was about to tell her I was going to go to bed (I was exhausted and still felt a little sick and had to wake up super early to go volunteer at the high school) when she told me she needed to tell me something. To make a long, dramatic, painful, yet somewhat funny story short, she was driving my car to school and a friend of hers rear ended her. Really hard. And my car died.

Thank God Jamie and her other friend who was in the car with her were ok (despite being sore and quite shaken up). But they were hit so hard that she hit the truck in front of her. I told Jamie not to worry about it because it was absolutely not her fault, but she still felt really bad. I kind of feel like I lost a friend; I firmly believe that there is a special bond between you and your first car. But everything will be fine and it was only a car. But today will always be remember as the day Hi Ho Silver met its match.

So I tearfully say,

Thank You Silver, it’s been a good ride.
I’ll miss you and all the fun times we’ve had.
You were a kind and faithful friend and I’ll never forget you…

…excuse me while I wipe away a tear…

Goodbye Hi Ho Silver.
May you rest in piece(s).