Tienes un Mapa??

There are no maps to be found in the city of Copiapo! We went to the tourist office to get maps and all we got was a crappy small tourist map. I wanted more details so we went to every Liberea in town and discovered there are no detailed maps of Copiapo in Copiapo. What?? I need a map! I still got turned around in Champaign every once in a while. I think I’m just going to have to study google maps and learn the city by exploring and asking for direction when I get lost. It’s annoying though, I always end up having to ask at least four different people directions to get to the same place two blocks away. If I start running again that might help! They have two forms of public transportation, from what I’ve been informed of. Collectivos and Microbuses. Collectivos are like taxies except cheaper because they drive specific routes over and over again and you just have to know which one to get and where it stops. I have yet to figure that out. My ultimate goal would be to find a relatively cheap bike, but seeing as nobody rides a bike, they might be hard to come by. My host mom suggested raising the seat on my host sister’s bike. But I’m not sure if I understood her correctly, Monce is 10, so raising the seat on her bike may not work for me.

Idiot Gringas

Ok so I’m an idiot when it comes to catching planes. I’ve had so many close calls and yet I keep doing the same thing and not allowing myself those 2 hours they always say you need… Well my friend Erin (she’s also in Copiapo) and I decided to climb Cerro San Cristobal thinking the whole ordeal would take us about 2 hours. Well since it was a beautiful Sunday day, it was super crowded. It ended up taking us about 2 hours to climb to the top and thinking it would be quicker to take the funicular, or tram, down we ended up waiting in an hour line to get down the mountain. The hike up was worth it though, it was so beautiful and a great view of Santiago. At the top is this huge white statue of the Virgin Mary with her hands outstretched to the city, kinda City of God/Rio de Janero style. I’m not sure if the stress it causes us at the airport was worth it however.
We ended up leaving super late for our 5:55pm flight back to Copiapo. We got to the airport at 5:20pm and had a huge line to wait in at the check in. We get up to the front and we ask an attendant if we’ll still be able to make our flight and he makes a call into his phone/walkie talky and says we are very lucky. He lets us cut and sends us to the first open attendant. She puts in our info and finds that the flight is closed, like we were told earlier, but we told her “No! That guy just told us we were very lucky!” So we grab him he makes more calls and says he is very sorry the flight is closed and too full, there is nothing he can do, so he sends us to LAN ticket sales and says we’ll need to reschedule for tomorrow. So we go over there and they say it’s going to be $20 to switch our flight for tomorrow morning. Now we’re wondering what we should do because it would be cheaper to just hop on an overnight bus rather than having to find a place to stay an extra night. So we call up our coordinator and we tell him what’s up (we forget to mention that we showed up half an hour before our flight) and he’s pissed, he says we should demand that our accommodations be paid for.
So we go back to ticket sales and try and demand a hotel, going off the premise that they said they overbooked the flight anyway. They tell us to find the guy who said it was overbooked and it turns out he’s on break. Finally, a nice attendant notices we are obviously at a loss and clueless as to what to do. He asks if we have any problems and we explain how we missed our flight to Copiapo because it was overbooked and now we’re trying to get things straightened out. Erin drops Ministry of Education every third word hoping the government position will get us some respect and it seems to work. He says there’s room for one as the plane has been delayed over an hour and hasn’t taken off. We say “No! There are two of us; the ministry of Education bought us two tickets for this flight.” All of sudden, like magic, two seats open up. They were *messing (insert stronger word) with us the whole time! They write up hand written boarding passes and give us a personal escort through priority security and we arrive at our gate three minutes before the scheduled delay. We made it back to Copiapo, “Gracias Dio!!” Moral of the story, don’t be an idiot gringa, they will try and take advantage of you if you allow yourself to be taken advantage of. To them its fair game and it’s your fault you fell for it. It’s some sort of Chilean mentality dating back to colonial times when they were super oppressed and always trying to get a leg up on the Spaniards. Really the moral of the story is don’t arrive to your scheduled flight 30 minutes before takeoff. Give yourself at least an hour. Or two.

English Winter Camp in Vina del Mar

I spent the last week in Vina del Mar about two hours away from Santiago conducting an English winter camp sponsored by the EOD program. Vina was really nice although it did rain a couple of days and it got really cold sometimes because the classrooms weren’t heated. But other than that Vina is a beautiful beach town with great floral landscaping. There’s a lot of money in this town because it’s a popular summer vacation spot for those Santiagoans who can afford it.
The camp went pretty smoothly, for Chilean standards. Students here don’t get as high a quality education as back in the States and it’s because they don’t hold academic standards as high. For instance, it’s common for students to answer their phones in class, or step outside to take a call. Even teachers answer their phones while teaching! One difference I did notice that was kinda cool is that they were all very artistic. Many of them played guitar and they played really well! The only problem was that some students would bring their guitars and play during class. It was nice to have some music when everyone was working in groups but it got a little annoying when we had to constantly ask them to stop playing when we were trying to give instructions. Where they lack in the traditional academics they make up in the arts which in the United States is falling behind as art classes are the first to be cut during a budget crisis. But all in all the camps were a very positive experience, because for the most part, they all spoke English very well and had to apply to do this program. They gave up one week of their winter vacation to participate and one of the application requirements was a certain level of English.
At the camp we did various activities with them, we had them produce skits, posters and poems in English. I was surprised at how great some of the posters came out because again, they really do excel in the arts. One of the volunteers brought a football and they were all super excited to learn “American Football” even the girls! Towards the end of the camp we did more fun stuff, like Karaoke and a talent show. I’d be lying if I said Karaoke was easy to sit through…it wasn’t. They were all into rock and heavy metal that was popular 5 to 10 years ago and none of the songs were great Karaoke songs… The talent show was pretty good a lot of people got up and sang some of their favorite English songs, I kept wondering if they knew what they were singing about and I gasped when they sang the curse word in Alanis Morissettes’ “You Oughta Know.”
So even though the students were a little reluctant at first, they really did warm up to us by the end of the program. I must of posed for at least 50 pictures with them all! And they all immediately friended me on facebook. On the last day a big group wanted to get lunch with us, and two others decided they wanted to walk us to the bus station to see us off to Santiago where we would be catching our flights home to our regions in the north. It was actually really helpful that they were there with us because we needed to switch our bus tickets and they were able to communicate with the bus company to help us out (EOD once again didn’t plan very well because our bus ticket for Santiago was the next morning, yet we were booked to spend our last night in a hostel in Santiago). It was so sweet; they ran after our bus even as it was pulling out holding signs that said “don’t forget we love you!” I couldn’t believe how much they had warmed up to us after one week! I wonder what it’s going to be like when I have to say goodbye to my full time students.

Porto Fino/Chanaral

So we get to the Copiapo bus terminal on Monday morning, with no word from our regional coordinator. No one was there to greet us, so we don’t exactly know what to do with ourselves. We were three gringas who stick out like a sore thumb with a bunch of luggage and nowhere to go. So we called every number we had, and realized that all the work numbers we had were wrong because they were switching offices, go figure…Finally I resort to the EOD (English Open Doors) emergency number when these two men walk up to us and introduce themselves as our regional coordinators. They take us to the EOD office in Copiapo and they have this huge table of food set up, but nobody takes anything so it’s just this really awkward waiting period where nobody is really talking because nobody can understand each other. Finally a teacher from my school comes, she understands some English, and she seems sweet. My Co teacher shows up and I get the feeling the other teacher knows English better than her, so working with her might be pretty interesting. I hope we don’t have too much of a communication gap. Finally, my mom, her sister, Ana, and daughter show up, as well as, the family of a fellow volunteer and we all sit around the table and finally start eating all the food they had set up!
My mom takes me home and tells me to unpack, then we go grocery shopping, have lunch, and I find out I need to pack a bag for a week-long vacation at the beach. They tell me to bring warm clothes though so I know this isn’t going to be a typical beach vacation. Little did I know there was no electricity or running water either!
Porto Fino is about two hours north of Copiapo just south of Chanaral. On the way there we passed a part of the desert that had received rain and little green, white and purple flowers covered the desolate hills. They told me to take pictures (I didn’t think it was that pretty) but they were pretty excited about it so I took pictures. I later found out it’s a rarity that you see any green, it only happens every 10 years or so. I tried looking up Porto Fino in my Chile guidebook, but they didn’t have it on the map. It’s a really tiny town, used only in the summer for vacation. It basically consisted of 50 or so little shakes and a beach, a beautiful beach tho!
The first night we did everything by candle light, it wasn’t as bad as you would think. There was a toilet and sink but no hot water. The first thing I learned was that you are not allowed to throw toilet paper in any of the toilets here, the plumbing sucks. The next day we went into Chanaral where Ana and Gloria grew up and where they still have a mom and sister. That is where Flavio is from and where we picked him up to come back to Porto Fino with us. We picked up a generator and charged all our things that needed charging at their house and drove back. The generator I found out gives us light electricity at night!!! I kept wanted to translate that verse from Genesis “And God said, Let there be light, and there was light!” But they didn’t know what I was talking about…they aren’t very religious, that must have been the reason why, haha. Having the light at night was so much nicer! And I found out they run their refrigerator on gas. So they have somewhat of a modern little set up that’s much cheaper than keeping utilities, I’m not even sure they have utilities in what looks to be a tiny little shanty town if your just driving by.
It’s a nice little community though because at first it seems like its deserted, but then you see signs of life and you find out everyone knows everyone because they all come to live there each summer. Surfing or “Body” is a popular sport practiced by almost every chico from the age of 10 to 30. But it’s boogie boarding not Surfing. Surfistas son maraco, or surfers are gay. And the body boarders son el reyes de las olas! (the kings of the waves). They are pretty hard core though, they were out surfing in the middle of the winter when the hottest it got during the day is about 65, I swear the water was probably only about 40 degrees. I went for a swim, my “brother” Flavio convinced me the water was mucho mucho calor…mentiroso! It was fridgid! But I think it was the shock my body needed because I wasn’t as cold thereafter. Another thing I couldn’t figure out, it gets really cold at night, like 30 and they don’t have heat and they have this strange habit of leaving the door open…I don’t know why? Well, I was pretty much in a constant state of frozen, accept during the middle of the day if the sun came out, but others seemed fine in t-shirts! My hands and feet particularly were always frozen, once I touched Flavio’s bare arm to show how cold I was and was shocked to feel he was warm in a t-shirt! Maybe that’s why he doesn’t have a problem surfing in frigid waters.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t bored at times, it was just so repetitive and of course I can’t speak/understand a lot so I was left out of a lot of conversation. Here’s a typical day. We wake up around 9, have breakfast, work on some mosaics (we made a bunch of mosaics because Ana is really into art so she had all the supplies) eat lunch, work on mosaics again until it gets dark, then eat dinner. We would then would make a fire or fogata outside, and then come in and play cards until midnight or so. If we went into town we would do that in the morning, other than that we pretty much did the same thing every day. I like cards, but I think they only knew one game, and we played that one game every night. In the summer they have a club that gets together and does tournaments of this particular game (Karaoke I think it’s called), they even get certificates, and Gloria had a bunch framed and proudly displayed. I was pretty excited to get back to Copiapo and take a hot shower. I forgot to mention there was no cell phone service out there in the middle of the desert.
So when I wanted to use my phone I had to do it in Chanaral. It was quite bothersome actually, because I ended missing a flight for this reason exactly. So EOD isn’t the most organized, or if they are they like to wait until the last minute to give their volunteers any information. They kept going back and forth about these winter camps we were supposed to work. They’re on, now they’re not, now their back on. On Thursday, I had my host mom call my regional coordinator to confirm that we didn’t need to be back early for camps and he said yes there were no camps in our region. I go into Chanaral on Saturday and find I have 8 missed calls from my friend Erin who is volunteering in Copiapo also. She knew I was cut off from modern society and was going to relay whatever info we got via email. Well, it turns out they arranged a flight from Copiapo to Santiago and a bus to Vina Del Mar on Saturday and they gave us this info on Friday. So I missed my flight, and now I’m taking an overnight bus to Vina Del Mar tonight to arrive a day late to the camp. I still have yet to see Copaipo! I guess it will have to wait one more week!

My New Family

So I’ve finally met my new family! Mi madre is Gloria, she’s a single mom with an 11 year old little girl, Montserat, or Monce for short. We also live with their 19 year old nephew, Flavio, who attends University in Copiapo, but lives in Chanaral. They are all very nice and very welcoming. They don’t know English, but they are very patient with me when they speak, making sure to speak slowly and simply and using lots of gestures.
Whoever said communication is 50% body language was right! I couldn’t understand most of what they were saying in the beginning, but I got the gist of what was going on just by watching the way they expressed themselves. I still don’t know what they are saying half the time, but I think I have a pretty good idea of what’s going on. I learn a little more each day, although speaking for me is still really difficult because I’ve never been put in a situation where I’m the only one who understands English, and speaking in English doesn’t do any good to help me communicate what I’m trying to get across. In Rome, I could speak a little Italian and a little English and just about everyone would understand me. Here it’s a little different, but they are patient, which is really helpful!
I’ve met a few of my host mom’s friend’s who have babies, and I realized I have a lot in common with the babies! We’re both in the same situation where we can’t speak yet and I realized that the way they spoke to the baby was really easy for me to understand. I tell people now to speak to me like a 2 year old, I’m sure what comes out of my mouth half the time is gibberish and made up words anyway.

Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar

During the last weekend we had in Santiago I took a day trip to Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar, which is about an hour and a half away from Santiago. I think Valparaiso is the San Francisco of Chile. There were lots of rolling hills and colorful houses stacked on top of each other so that the entire mountainside was covered in homes. Valparaiso/Vina Del Mar is a popular vacation spot for tourists in the summer, I wish it was summer here. I’m tired of being cold!
We took a bus from Santiago and as soon as we arrive into the station we are flagged down by a tour group that entices us with a free map of the two towns. I never do tours because I hate having to stick to a schedule, so I was pretty sure I’d say no, but they did a good job selling us on it because we decided to take it. For $25 we got a guided tour “in English” of the two cities, and stopped at several different places. I put English in quotes because we soon found out after one stop we would be joining a bigger Spanish speaking tour group and our tour guide did her best to translate everything, but I think she got a little tired towards the end, so I missed some stuff.
We saw one of the Easter Island statues that they had transported, a music venue where they hold a huge festival each summer, one of Pablo Neruda’s three homes, a big clock made out of flowers, a big casino, and we went up a hill in this elevator like thing on a side of mountain and got a spectacular view of Valparaiso. It was a good tour regardless of it being mostly in Spanish, a good day trip too! Including bus fair, lunch, and the tour we only spent about $50, not too shabby.

Life is Good

Actually Life is GREAT!!! I just got my luggage which I was sure might have been lost forever in the abyss that is our flight system. Plus I’m in Santiago! Everywhere I go, snowcapped Andes are a beautiful backdrop to the landscape. All the volunteers here are super nice and we’ve been running around and exploring the city together. Today (my second day) we went to the Pre Columbian Art museum. It was full of great pieces and here’s an interesting little tidbit, apparently, hallucinogens were used frequently by many of the ancient civilizations in South America. A lot of the works of art had been inspired while under the influence or commemorated the use of hallucinogens. Next, we took a stroll thru the Mercado central (central market) for lunch and over the bridge to a produce market. There were fresh fruits and vegetables as well as a meat market (the smell there was awful!). You could get a kilo of clementines (about 12 of them) for 300 pesos, which is roughly 60 cents. One thing I did notice though, was that chocolate tends to be a bit more pricey, at about two dollars a bar.

Next we went looking for this cemetery where Salvador Allende was buried. Salvador Allende was the president when the coup of September 11, 1973 happened and Pinochet took over. It’s a touchy subject here because during his regime it’s estimated some 3,000 died and over 80,000 were incarcerated without trial and about 30,000 tortured. But Pinochet is also credited with economic reforms that have made Chile the most economically successful country in Latin America. And the United States and C.I.A. were active supporters of the Pinochet regime….probably because we’re so afraid of socialism, but I don’t think brutality in favor of any form of government is just. That’s just my opinion. There was also a memorial for all the people who disappeared and a wall full of every person who died in opposition.

Yesterday, I started the day exploring the city on foot. We found the equivalent to the White House, which was cool. I tried some paila marina in the Mercado central. I’m typically not a big fan of seafood; I like my fish fillets and sushi. But I knew the seafood is great here so I took a local’s advice and tried the paila marina. It was this broth soup full of funky looking seafood I had never seen before in my life! Seriously, it looked like it came straight from the sea with mouths and other organs intact. I might just stick to fish from now on. Next, we hiked up Santa Lucia which is I guess a church?? I’m not really sure it just had a bunch of steps and once you get to the top you get amazing views of Santiago.

After dinner I tried my pisco sour. Pisco is the national drink here and it’s distilled from these grapes and it’s kinda like a brandy I guess. For those of you who know me I’m not a big fan of sour and after my pisco sour, I still was not a big fan of sour. But it is the national drink so I’m probably going to be consuming a lot of it over the next five months. I tried it on the rocks and it is potent! Whoooweee! I could get used to that. Actually next time I order it I’m going to try it with coke, they mix it with coke or sprite so maybe I’ll like that better.

Tomorrow starts our orientation so I’ve got an early day. I’m just so happy I have my luggage. You don’t know how excited I am about that. Ok it’s really cold, I need to get up and walk around. O yah it’s winter here, so it gets down to the 30s at night and it briefly reaches 60 during mid afternoon. Regardless, the hostel I’m staying doesn’t have heat so I’m constantly freezing and looking forward to my desert more and more each day! I forgot to mention I’m going to the Atacama region which is the start of the Atacama Desert which is the driest place in the world with no recordable rainfall. But! There are great beaches and all the locals I’ve told say it’s a very beautiful place!!! I just gotta watch out for these poisonous spiders which are only dangerous to a small percentage of the population….

I'm Leaving On a Jet Plane!

I leave for Santiago, Chile tomorrow to teach English for the next 5 months. I don't have an address, I don't have a phone number, I'm not sure when I'll have internet access. So basically, I'm a little cut off until I get settled in. I should have an address and phone number by next week, so fear not, I will soon be contactable. I'm in Santiago for a week long orientation then I get transported to the Atacama region where I'll meet my host family. I'll have two weeks off before I start working, so I'm going to try and travel a bit with another volunteer in my region.
My Spanish could use some improvement, so this will be quite the experience. I don't know how many people speak English, but I have a feeling not too many do... Well, hopefully, that forces me to learn Spanish!