Monday, September 24, 2007 Back to the real world (kind of)
Today officially marked the end of my 11 days of vacation. I actually had to wake up and work. Boo… After breakfast I worked on my essay and finished it just in the nick of time. Actually I left late and walked into class 10 minutes into the lecture. But the professor just smiled (I think because he likes gringos). After class my two gringo friends and I talked with him about our “alternative” assignment. The offer stands: Group essay, in English, over articles in English, about the US. I can’t really complain.
Next I went to mass, then my educacion class. After class my Chilean friend Silvia (she speaks English and German, so she is a huge help) edited my Biblia essay and I rushed to the library to print it off. Again, I was late to class, but it wasn’t a big deal. But for some reason today in my Biblia class the professor seemed upset with us because we weren’t really talking or asking questions, so he let us out about half an hour early. I felt bad because he seemed mad, but I definitely didn’t mind leaving early! I walked home from class and on the way I stopped by the adoration chapel to pray. When I got home I had dinner with Olga then met up with Tom and went to the Consejo, the weekly meeting of all the residents that live in the Residency of Nuestra Casa. It was really interesting. Before hand, we met the executive director of the organization, Francisco, and we talked to him about how we can volunteer. He gave us some great ideas and liked my proposal do to a 4 session workshop on health. I think I’m going to talk about 4 important themes in the health of homeless people: 1. Tuberculosis 2. HIV/AIDS 3. First Aid 4. Drugs and Alcohol.
During the Consejo the men discussed the different projects going on in the house, different issues such as paying on time, etc. At the end of the meeting some of the men who seemed to have lived there longer then the others (they were well dressed and obviously had good jobs) started voicing (quite strongly) some of their issues with the administration. For the next half hour or more, the men expressed some of the problems they’ve been having for what seems like quite a while. Francisco listened and tried to offer explanations but after a while they all decided that it wasn’t the time or place to address the deep rooted issues and set a date for a sit down meeting with the administrators and representatives for the men and the Chaplin to act as mediator. Luckily at the end Leslie, the social work in charge of the house spoke up and reminded the men that the arguments they are having don’t mean the organization of Nuestra Casa is a horrible organization, rather that it has problems, like everything, and that these issues are an opportunity to grow. That goodness for a reasonable woman.
As Tom and I walked home we discussed what we’d just witnessed:
1. It was amazing how much we understood. When people have something important to say, they speak clearly, slowly, and loudly, which really helps the gringos understand!
2. Despite the fact I’ve never worked in an organization with homeless people, all the complaints of the men about the administration were the same in every other organization I’ve ever worked in.
3. All the justifications by the administration were the same as every other organization I’ve ever been an administrator.
4. Bottom line, all organizations, government, companies, schools, families, basically all social groups have the same issues, only expressed in different forms. Its always communication, freedom of the participants to make decisions, difficulties of the administration to set rules and standards and then stick to them despite individual circumstances that merit a bending of the rules etc. Basically I learned a really good lesson: that it’s never easy to lead or be in an organization, the challenges will always be there, and we all have to be willing to reasonably, objectively, and maturely address the challenges.
Monday, October 1, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007 Home sweet home (sort of)
Sunday, September 23, 2007 Home sweet home (sort of)
We woke up around 10:00 and had only a few hours before we caught our 1:45 bus back to Santiago. We set out looking for a place to have breakfast, but EVERYTHING was closed. It was amazing. So to kill time we went to a beautiful Japanese garden right outside downtown. Around 11:30 we began round two of the search for breakfast but most everything was still closed. We finally found an overpriced café, but it was better than nothing.
After our way slow breakfast/lunch, we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and walked to the bus station. We jumped on the bus and I ended up sitting next to a very nice Chilean woman and we talked for almost 2 hours while looking out the window and enjoying the scenery. I’ve been living in Chile for over 2.5 months, but the fact that it is pure coastline on one side and huge mountains on the other for over 1000 miles is hard to grasp.
We got in on Sunday evening around 8ish. I headed home, showered and glued myself to my computer until I finished my Biblia essay. I fell asleep typing with ¾ of the paper done.
We woke up around 10:00 and had only a few hours before we caught our 1:45 bus back to Santiago. We set out looking for a place to have breakfast, but EVERYTHING was closed. It was amazing. So to kill time we went to a beautiful Japanese garden right outside downtown. Around 11:30 we began round two of the search for breakfast but most everything was still closed. We finally found an overpriced café, but it was better than nothing.
After our way slow breakfast/lunch, we headed back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, and walked to the bus station. We jumped on the bus and I ended up sitting next to a very nice Chilean woman and we talked for almost 2 hours while looking out the window and enjoying the scenery. I’ve been living in Chile for over 2.5 months, but the fact that it is pure coastline on one side and huge mountains on the other for over 1000 miles is hard to grasp.
We got in on Sunday evening around 8ish. I headed home, showered and glued myself to my computer until I finished my Biblia essay. I fell asleep typing with ¾ of the paper done.
Saturday, September 21, 2007 La Serena: Literally, The Calm
Saturday, September 21, 2007 La Serena: Literally, The Calm
Despite the fact that we went to bed at 12:30 last night, we didn’t wake up till almost noon! We obviously needed the rest and didn’t really mind missing the morning since it was another cloudy day. We got ready quickly and headed out to explore the town. First we wondered our way to the Plaza de Armas, stopping at pretty churches and other points of interest along the way. We went to the Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas and then made our way through an artesian fair set up on the other side of the Plaza. While we were sitting in the plaza discussing the issue of men Cat Calling me but not Calli or Sam (because they look Chilean) when we walk down the street, two women came up and try to tell us our fortunes. I had to persistently decline and when they asked us where we were from and they were surprised when I said the US because they said Calli and Sam look like Chileans. It was ironic and we had a good laugh.
Next we went to La Recova, a huge, well known market in La Serena. The place is full of papaya in every form you could image (marmalade, syrup, dried, candied, nugget, and all kinds of other random treats. Everything except fresh, strangely enough) and other goodies. I splurged and bought myself a Lapis Lazuli silver ring. I’d been looking for one and I could never find one small enough for my tiny fingers. But I finally found a great silver ring that is slightly adjustable because of its design. My usual buying anxiety came into play (even though it was only about $15) but I’ve been wearing over a week and I love it. I also bought a purse/bag to replace the overly touristy Tulane one I’ve been carrying around. It slings across my shoulder and has a zipper, so don’t worry!!
We ate a great fresh fish lunch in the market and then walked to the beach. La Serena has 8 km of beaches but unfortunately it was still cloudy and not too warm, so we sat in our winter coats on the sand and chatted. We headed out before the sun went down because it was getting cold and we didn’t want to walk back from the beach in the dark. When we found out that the observatory trip was canceled again because of the clouds, we decided to find a chill restaurant/bar for once. We found a great little place and ended up staying there for over 2 hours sitting and chatting. The end of Harry Potter 4 was on and X Men came on after, so much of our conversation revolved around what we would do if we had super powers. It was deep.
After once we headed back to the hostel to decide what to do next. La Serena is known to have a decent night life and Calli and Sam wanted to check it out. But we got back, sat on our beds and kept talking. The next thing we knew it was 11:30 and we were relaxed, so again we had a chill night girl talking and laughing.
Despite the fact that we went to bed at 12:30 last night, we didn’t wake up till almost noon! We obviously needed the rest and didn’t really mind missing the morning since it was another cloudy day. We got ready quickly and headed out to explore the town. First we wondered our way to the Plaza de Armas, stopping at pretty churches and other points of interest along the way. We went to the Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas and then made our way through an artesian fair set up on the other side of the Plaza. While we were sitting in the plaza discussing the issue of men Cat Calling me but not Calli or Sam (because they look Chilean) when we walk down the street, two women came up and try to tell us our fortunes. I had to persistently decline and when they asked us where we were from and they were surprised when I said the US because they said Calli and Sam look like Chileans. It was ironic and we had a good laugh.
Next we went to La Recova, a huge, well known market in La Serena. The place is full of papaya in every form you could image (marmalade, syrup, dried, candied, nugget, and all kinds of other random treats. Everything except fresh, strangely enough) and other goodies. I splurged and bought myself a Lapis Lazuli silver ring. I’d been looking for one and I could never find one small enough for my tiny fingers. But I finally found a great silver ring that is slightly adjustable because of its design. My usual buying anxiety came into play (even though it was only about $15) but I’ve been wearing over a week and I love it. I also bought a purse/bag to replace the overly touristy Tulane one I’ve been carrying around. It slings across my shoulder and has a zipper, so don’t worry!!
We ate a great fresh fish lunch in the market and then walked to the beach. La Serena has 8 km of beaches but unfortunately it was still cloudy and not too warm, so we sat in our winter coats on the sand and chatted. We headed out before the sun went down because it was getting cold and we didn’t want to walk back from the beach in the dark. When we found out that the observatory trip was canceled again because of the clouds, we decided to find a chill restaurant/bar for once. We found a great little place and ended up staying there for over 2 hours sitting and chatting. The end of Harry Potter 4 was on and X Men came on after, so much of our conversation revolved around what we would do if we had super powers. It was deep.
After once we headed back to the hostel to decide what to do next. La Serena is known to have a decent night life and Calli and Sam wanted to check it out. But we got back, sat on our beds and kept talking. The next thing we knew it was 11:30 and we were relaxed, so again we had a chill night girl talking and laughing.
Friday, September 21, 2007 La Serena y Valle de Elqui
Friday, September 21, 2007 La Serena y Valle de Elqui
Around 6:15 I awoke to the news that we were already in La Serena. The trip had been really fast and I’d slept the entire time. I felt much better, not perfect, but better and was thrilled to already be there. We got off the bus and while we were trying to figure out how to get to our hostel, a sweet old man approached us and asked us if we were the three North American girls staying in Hostel Jofre. We were quite surprised by this, but he was carrying a binder with the Hostel’s name and picture and introduced himself as the owner. Calli had talked to him to make the reservations, so when he told us he had come to pick us up, we jumped in a taxi with him to the hostel. Before hand we’d arranged to go on an all day tour of Elqui Valley, the beautiful, well known valley about 30 miles east of La Serena and the owner told us it left around 8:45. So we climbed into bed in our lovely hostel room and slept for almost another two hours.
Around 8:30 the owner knocked on our door and told us our breakfast was ready (surprise!) so we ate quickly (I managed to drink some tea and toast, the first food since my food sickness last night) and then jumped into the mini bus for the tour which had come to pick us up!
I’ll just give you a quick run down of the tour. It was all day and we did a lot. So here is the summary:
1. Papaya and chiramoya (Custard Apple) orchard. A cold front had come in and killed the entire crop in the north, so no papayas this year. It was depressing.
2. Huge Dam. They built it 10 years ago to assure there would be enough water to save the crops for 5 years of drought. Quite impressive and amazingly beautiful.
3. Ruta Norte Pisqueria. Where they make pisco. It was a little too touristy and I don’t really like pisco, but it was still interesting. It’s at an old Jesuit monastery and was a beautiful facility.
4. Vicuna. The biggest town in Valle de Elqui. We went into the Cabilido and walked around their main square (the Plaza de Armas). They had a cute market set up for the Fiestas Patrias and I bought a notebook.
5. Almuerzo. We ate at a restaurant outside of Vicuna that uses solar power to cook all their food. They have large, aluminum rimmed boxes that directs the sunlight, converts it into heat to cook the food. It was delicious and everything was surprisingly hot.
6. Montegrande. Birthplace and childhood home of famous Chilean poet Gabriel Mistral. We also visited the beautiful old church. Calli bought a huge bag of raisins from a woman outside. They were literally the best, biggest raisins I’ve ever eaten.
7. Pisco Elqui. The birthplace of Pisco. (That fact is still under debate; Peru claims to have invented it. We’ll leave them to argue.) We visited Los Nichos (The niches) which is what they call their above ground grave sites, but it’s the nickname for where they stored all the bottles of wine and pisco.
Wow, we did a lot! We got back to La Serena around 5:30 and took a 30 minute stroll down the main street in La Serena to see more of the town. When we got back we asked our hostel owner if we would be able to go on the observatory tour. He told us that the tour had been canceled because it was too cloudy. So instead he told us how to take a bus to the next town down the beach Coquimbo to go to the Pampilla. Calli had heard about it and told us it was the biggest and longest running (as in all the way until the weekend afterwards, lucky for us!) Fiestas Patrias festival in all of Chile. So we jumped on a bus and headed over.
I thought the Fonda in Parque O’Higgins was crazy. That’s because I hadn’t seen the Pampilla! The event was huge, packed and bustling. There were all kinds of vendors selling everything (clothes, shoes, kitchen supplies, toys, etc. I felt like I was walking through a mall), of course the many food stops, and one of the biggest stages (and crowds) I’ve ever seen in my life. We walked around, ate yummy treats, and wound our way to the huge event at the stage. We watch the M.C.s joke around, sing, and dance for about 25 minutes until they started the “swimsuit competition” for some contest that was going on. We had no idea what it was about, but the huge crowd seemed quite pleased. After 5 stick skinny models strutted around on stage half naked while being projected on many huge jumbo-trons, we decided to head out and check out more of the Pampilla. What we didn’t realize was that they were only about 1 hour from crowning the queen of the Pampilla, which is apparently a huge deal in all of Chile. The queen is always super famous that year and all over the magazines etc. So that explains the huge huge crowd and why everyone was so excited. And we missed it by about one hour!
After walking around just a bit more, we decided we’d seen and eaten enough. We’d only been there two hours, but we were all ready to head back. We took a bus back and when we got to the hostel decided we were ready for bed. We ended up girl talking for a long time and then we watched V for Vendetta with Spanish subtitles till we fell asleep around 12:30!
Around 6:15 I awoke to the news that we were already in La Serena. The trip had been really fast and I’d slept the entire time. I felt much better, not perfect, but better and was thrilled to already be there. We got off the bus and while we were trying to figure out how to get to our hostel, a sweet old man approached us and asked us if we were the three North American girls staying in Hostel Jofre. We were quite surprised by this, but he was carrying a binder with the Hostel’s name and picture and introduced himself as the owner. Calli had talked to him to make the reservations, so when he told us he had come to pick us up, we jumped in a taxi with him to the hostel. Before hand we’d arranged to go on an all day tour of Elqui Valley, the beautiful, well known valley about 30 miles east of La Serena and the owner told us it left around 8:45. So we climbed into bed in our lovely hostel room and slept for almost another two hours.
Around 8:30 the owner knocked on our door and told us our breakfast was ready (surprise!) so we ate quickly (I managed to drink some tea and toast, the first food since my food sickness last night) and then jumped into the mini bus for the tour which had come to pick us up!
I’ll just give you a quick run down of the tour. It was all day and we did a lot. So here is the summary:
1. Papaya and chiramoya (Custard Apple) orchard. A cold front had come in and killed the entire crop in the north, so no papayas this year. It was depressing.
2. Huge Dam. They built it 10 years ago to assure there would be enough water to save the crops for 5 years of drought. Quite impressive and amazingly beautiful.
3. Ruta Norte Pisqueria. Where they make pisco. It was a little too touristy and I don’t really like pisco, but it was still interesting. It’s at an old Jesuit monastery and was a beautiful facility.
4. Vicuna. The biggest town in Valle de Elqui. We went into the Cabilido and walked around their main square (the Plaza de Armas). They had a cute market set up for the Fiestas Patrias and I bought a notebook.
5. Almuerzo. We ate at a restaurant outside of Vicuna that uses solar power to cook all their food. They have large, aluminum rimmed boxes that directs the sunlight, converts it into heat to cook the food. It was delicious and everything was surprisingly hot.
6. Montegrande. Birthplace and childhood home of famous Chilean poet Gabriel Mistral. We also visited the beautiful old church. Calli bought a huge bag of raisins from a woman outside. They were literally the best, biggest raisins I’ve ever eaten.
7. Pisco Elqui. The birthplace of Pisco. (That fact is still under debate; Peru claims to have invented it. We’ll leave them to argue.) We visited Los Nichos (The niches) which is what they call their above ground grave sites, but it’s the nickname for where they stored all the bottles of wine and pisco.
Wow, we did a lot! We got back to La Serena around 5:30 and took a 30 minute stroll down the main street in La Serena to see more of the town. When we got back we asked our hostel owner if we would be able to go on the observatory tour. He told us that the tour had been canceled because it was too cloudy. So instead he told us how to take a bus to the next town down the beach Coquimbo to go to the Pampilla. Calli had heard about it and told us it was the biggest and longest running (as in all the way until the weekend afterwards, lucky for us!) Fiestas Patrias festival in all of Chile. So we jumped on a bus and headed over.
I thought the Fonda in Parque O’Higgins was crazy. That’s because I hadn’t seen the Pampilla! The event was huge, packed and bustling. There were all kinds of vendors selling everything (clothes, shoes, kitchen supplies, toys, etc. I felt like I was walking through a mall), of course the many food stops, and one of the biggest stages (and crowds) I’ve ever seen in my life. We walked around, ate yummy treats, and wound our way to the huge event at the stage. We watch the M.C.s joke around, sing, and dance for about 25 minutes until they started the “swimsuit competition” for some contest that was going on. We had no idea what it was about, but the huge crowd seemed quite pleased. After 5 stick skinny models strutted around on stage half naked while being projected on many huge jumbo-trons, we decided to head out and check out more of the Pampilla. What we didn’t realize was that they were only about 1 hour from crowning the queen of the Pampilla, which is apparently a huge deal in all of Chile. The queen is always super famous that year and all over the magazines etc. So that explains the huge huge crowd and why everyone was so excited. And we missed it by about one hour!
After walking around just a bit more, we decided we’d seen and eaten enough. We’d only been there two hours, but we were all ready to head back. We took a bus back and when we got to the hostel decided we were ready for bed. We ended up girl talking for a long time and then we watched V for Vendetta with Spanish subtitles till we fell asleep around 12:30!
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