Literally translated the title of this blog means “Live Chile Shit.” Now wait, before you get your panties in a bunch, keep reading. Today was a great day! The reason it was a great day is because we finally got good news about a mining accident that took place in a mine here in Copiapó. 17 days ago there was an accident in the mine trapping 33 men. Rescue efforts were thwarted, however, when the conditions of the mine made it too dangerous to access entrance tunnels. There was a room with food and supplies to last about 3 days and that’s where they were hoping the miners had made it to. This has been a huge story because Chile is such a huge mining country and the world’s #1 exporter of copper. After a week with no success, I was convinced they were dead. They probably ran out of air anyway. But Chile persevered asking for help and expertise from around the world. The United States and Australia donated drilling machines, and they’ve been digging for days trying to make contact.
And today they finally did! They sent a camera down and saw signs of life. A miner had written on a piece of paper that the 33 of them are still alive, and showed it to the camera feed. Apparently, from what I understand, there’s a lot more space than was previously thought, and they actually have a little food and water. Apparently, some sort of vegetation grows down there? I’m not sure, the important thing is that they made contact. And with this news the town went nuts! I went for a run and saw random guys standing on the side of the road waving the Chilean flag and everyone honked for them in return! All the collectivos have things like “fuerza mineros” painted on their back windows, and I swear every 5th car had a flag waving out from the side of their window. I haven’t felt this kind of nationalism since 9/11. It’s really “bacan” (cool) how much this community cares about these 33 people.
Has this story even made it back to the States? I don’t know. I kind of doubt it as there’s usually only about 5 minutes devoted to international news. But it’s all they talk about on the news here, every day, all day. I was getting a little sick of it, because they were really killing the story. There wasn’t really any new news until today.
So back to the title, I heard them say enthusiastically on a newscast “VIVA CHILE MIERDA!!!” My host mom repeated it enthusiastically and chuckled as I crinkled up my nose and told her “no tiene sentido.” She explained it was a chilenismo that was used in situations like this to express a sort of national pride. So there you have it. They said “shit” on national TV and it was fine.
No comments:
Post a Comment