Teaching in Chile

I am volunteering through a church program to work in an agricultural school in rural Chile for two semesters where I supervise a computer lab. The students are Mapuche Indians aged 12-18. I plan to be here from February to December 21 (2004).

Is it fun? No, you must have never seen teenagers in a computer lab before. But it’s a rewarding look at a different culture and it’s work for a good cause.

Prologue

I’ve wanted for a while to volunteer abroad and picked out a position from Volunteers in Mission at http://gbgm-umc.org/vim/indvol/urgent.htm :

CHILE
1. "El Vergel" agricultural school, Angol, invites volunteers in the fields of agriculture, sports, music, computers, and English.

I applied there, but my application was accepted by a similar school first. Why didn’t I get into the school in Angol? Aliens. When I would Google its location – “angol chile” – the number one hit was www.demonhunter.btinternet.co.uk/ufosightings1.htm

THREE ALIENS APPEAR IN ANGOL, CHILE

Three aliens, humanoid in appearance and two meters (6 feet, 6 inches tall) appeared to a group of five people in the roadside park of Las Pinas, overlooking the city of Angol, Chile, in March 2001.

The aliens, "two meters tall and with red lights on their hands, were seen March 16 by five people from Concepcion, at the Las Pinas scenic overlook," located one kilometer (0.6 miles) southeast of Angol, "a place which has become a favorite for extraterrestrial visitors."

I’m not sure why the aliens preferred I go to the other school, but one shouldn’t argue with them. For more about the school, see the blog entry on Sept. 11.

But this school is just as good. Well, the climate is a little more wet and cold but I don’t think it’s anything like Seattle or anything.

Here is the location of the school (click for larger image)

Here is the information I have about my position at the school

FROM: Walt and Betty Whitehurst

TO: Steve Paylor

COPY: Don White

DATE: January 17, 2004

Dear Steve:

We are happy to report that we received an invitation for you to serve at La Granja, located just outside of Nueva Imperial (near the city of Temuco). It was faxed to us yesterday by Daniel Martínez, director of the school. We talked with Daniel while we were there earlier this week. We also gave your name to Nelly Marchant at the Colegio Inglés in Iquique, and you may possibly be contacted by either Nelly or by Becky Harrell, an individual volunteer who is the librarian at the Colegio Inglés, if they are interested in your volunteering there. We did not get to see anyone from the El Vergel Agricultural School.

However, it is our opinion that La Granja would be the ideal place for you in Chile. They serve children from poor families, mostly from the indigenous Mapuche communities surrounding Nueva Imperial. They have a computer room with 30 computers, but except for the time the computer instructor is in the classroom teaching the scheduled classes there is no one there to help the students use the computers. That is what they would like for you to do, and it is something you could probably manage okay with only a little Spanish. (You would have to learn the computer words so you would know how to show the students which things to click on.)

Daniel Martínez asked us to find out whether you know how to repair computers, and whether you do computer programming. Neither is essential, but both would apparently be helpful.

You would share a 3-bedroom house with Don White, another individual volunteer with whom we understand you have already had some communication via email.

Your housing and meals would be provided by the school free of charge. You would undoubtedly be asked to do other things in addition to being in the computer room, depending on your interests and the time you might have available. (Don White might even teach you to do wood sculptures.)

Here is a summary of the invitation form, which came to us in Spanish:

Name of project: Methodist Rural Work

Location: Nueva Imperial, Chile

Description of work: Monitor the computer room at the "La Granja" Methodist Agricultural School

Preferred date of arrival: March 2004

Preferred date of departure: December 2004

I plan to commit for one semester and stay for two if things go well.

I haven’t decided yet about language instruction. There’s a highly recommended school in Guatemala called Tecún Umán and I’d like to go for a month, but I haven’t the time. If I can get instruction in Temuco I think I’ll do that instead.

January 29, 2004

There’s nothing like getting laid off to speed up one’s plans. I’m shooting for a departure date of about February 4th. I’ve been introduced to two teachers in Temuco who are willing and able to teach me Spanish, and in the meantime I’ll try to scare up a cassette player for these Spanish tapes I’ve borrowed from the library.

By the way, here is the write up for the school from the VIM site. The mention of a need for veterinarians means to me that I might be able to adopt a cat.

2. "La Granja" agricultural school, Nueva Imperial, needs volunteers for health care, agricultural experts, veterinarians, teachers of music and English, and a dentist.

Looking at this from the perspective of October 18, 2004: health care? dentist? veterinarian? I have had no idea that they wanted someone with these skills. I should ask about this.

Temuco: Immersion in Spanish

The plan for Temuco is to spend nearly a month learning Spanish in the immersion environment. Here I am staying with a local Metodista familla and that is an experience in itself. It’s great to spend time with people from a different culture and discuss the differences, such as the American practice of a male moving away from home pretty much as soon as he can. In Chile, and perhaps other Latin countries, he stays at home until he gets married. It’s more economical, to be sure, and maybe the sign of a stronger family?

I feel a little like an anthropologist writing about the family life here. I’ve named the Silverback “Carlos”... It’s much like a family might be in the United States. The kitchen is the center, the TV is usually on, and the channels get flipped frequently, unless there’s an exciting soccer match on. Tennis is the #2 sport here. Most of the channels are in Spanish, but there are also US, French, Italian and German channels for a broader perspective.

Elias has named his family after Simpsons characters, and the analogy is a little interesting. His father is Homer, and that fits a bit. His father is short and stocky, a working man not afraid to imitate Chinese speech or pop out his false teeth for comedic affect. His mother would be Marge, the homemaker. She keeps quite busy with the housework, baking her own bread from scratch for example. His sister, Cecilia, is intelligent, an accountant for a local university. Elias calls himself Bart, and he is a little troublemaker with the Spanish-English dictionary, calling his sister names from it.

So far a typical day here is me sleeping late and then wandering downstairs for a very light breakfast of tea and sometimes bread. Lunch might be served at 1 pm or as late as 2 pm and it’s a big meal, maybe soup, a main course and then melon for dessert. Usually a drink made from a powdered mix. Dinner might be served around 8 pm or as late as ten. It’s not unusual to sit around the kitchen table until midnight talking, with a phrasebook and Spanish-English dictionary getting lots of use. Elias will practice his English as well as me my Spanish.

The neighborhood is residential, with markets and barbershops in people’s homes. The father did not have to take public transit to buy copper pipe when installing the hot water heater, and buying soda is just a walk around the corner. Many families have a dog, and that might be for protection. Most homes are walled up with black iron fencing or cement walls as if security is tight. For instance, their gate here at the house is locked, bolted, braced with wood and then guarded by their 70 kg rottweiler. Even so the car is locked at night.

The downtown section of Temuco is either a 45 minute walk, or a fifty cent fare in either a bus or a colectivo (a taxi that follows a set route, runs more frequently than the buses and just a little more expensive). It’s a city of about a quarter million inhabitants and has both regular department stores and colorful Mapuche street markets. You can find the latest European cars, though nothing as fancy as what I would see back home, and horse-drawn carts are still seen as well.

And milk is delivered by cart. It’s a bicycle-driven cart and the driver has an electronic device which makes a noise vaguely like a cow. He rides through the streets announcing his presence and if you want to buy some milk, you come a-running. One day I saw a horse and cart unloading some wood to the neighbor’s house.

A shame they can’t harness up these stray dogs. There aren’t as many as Kathmandu, but still enough of them to keep the sidewalks clean. Their fights are more fun than the kids’ football games.

Well, I feel I have to mention the shoes. The family dog ate one of my sandals. I found out then that Chile only stocks shoes as big as size 11 and it costs $30 to have a pair of sandals shipped over from REI. Shoes here are easily found for half the price of the ones back home, but it’s no bargain when it’s two sizes too small.

I’m glad that school is starting. I feel like I’ve exhausted most of the entertainment options here. I think perhaps the language barrier is a limitation; also the kids in the house are back to work. I’m watching more television than I’d like to admit. You know you’re bored when you’re watching Waterworld. I’m tempted to travel (but what to do there?) or to visit the new friends in Imperial, but I think I will stick it out here for the last day or two, since I will have a lot of time to spend in Imperial in the coming months.

I went to a football (soccer) game between the local Temuco team and the Catholic University. Temuco won, 1-0, but I almost saw the game to be a tie. I thought it was interesting that the umpires were escorted off the field by shield-toting police in riot gear, but there were no problems. The other thing I thought was interesting was that the time left in the game wasn’t shown on the scoreboard, so we had to look to our watches for that.

From visiting other households in Temuco, I enjoyed the “onces” meal of tea and snacks in the afternoon. Meals here seem to be more of an affair than back home, with more plates and silverware than I’m used to. It’s lends a formal manner to the meals, as does relaxing with a cup of tea after the meal instead of getting right up.

How did immersion in Spanish go? That depends on who you ask. I’ve certainly improved since I first came to Chile, but I’ve been told by experienced missionaries here that because my structured classes didn’t appear that I will never grasp grammar and that if I wait too long for real instruction I will have to unlearn what I know so far. I think that’s correct; it’s hard to learn correct syntax from phrases and I’m not going to wake up one day fluent from immersion alone. I decided not to postpone starting at the school for a month to go to school however and I am going to get books instead and try to learn from them. Learning Spanish would be nice, and in hindsight I should have gone to the school in Guatemala instead of the classes here, but I really only need enough Spanish to get by at the school and I don’t want to delay my start a month just for more instruction.

La Granja Agricultural School

Students

This is a boarding school with just over two hundred students. The girls live in town in a dormitory there. The students are aged 12-18. They are taught typical high school courses and agriculture as well. Most of the students live in the countryside outside of town and it can take hours from them to reach the school from home. A few stay each weekend because of this difficulty.

I am curious as to what happens to the kids after school. From what I’ve gathered, only about 1 in 30 of them will pass the entrance exam and continue their education. The graduating class appears to be about thirty.

The others will largely move to Santiago and find manual work there. The girls will work as housekeepers and the boys in construction. Not many will want to return home to work in subsistence farming. I assumed they would get married soon after graduation, but not until their 20s.

I hear something about mandatory military service for the boys for a year, but despite that most don’t go for some of an excuse, whether it’s because they are continuing their studies or for a medical reason.

There is also turnover in the students. New ones come in and others leave. I’m not sure what happens to the kids that leave or enter. I’m told it could be a financial situation or the family moving.

In the classroom it seems a bit different from the US. I’ve seen what happens in West Philly when fourth-graders have a substitute teacher and it’s not like that, but the practice of raising one’s hand is not practiced here at all. The students call out profe or the younger students use tia (“aunt”), repeatedly until they are answered. That can get annoying when it’s obvious that you are busy helping someone else and someone keeps calling out your name by the way. I am waiting to get promoted to tio; right now I am just “esteef.” That initial ‘e’ makes it sounds like “eh, steef” at first. Chairs don’t get pushed in, now I know why the chairs are integrated with the desks back in the States.

More students have cell phones than I expected, being told they were rural poor. It is kind of funny with a girl tries to look adult with the cell phone, makeup and cigarettes, that’s only one of them though. There is a school uniform, but the kids wear regular clothes often enough. I’ve been meaning to ask about that. (Aug 31) I was told later that uniform standards get relaxed in a rural boarding school because the students aren’t out in public and also I think out of consideration that the kids probably only have one set.

There is a lot of mixing between the students as you might expect with this age. Add in that they live in homes that are pretty remote. The boys seem to fight a lot as a game. More charming is the little kids who fashioned paddles in class to play ping pong outside. A couple weeks ago they just had pieces of wood.

I’m treated pretty fairly by the students I think. I was warned about the girls by P.G. Wodehouse. Mostly the younger ones are dared by their friends to flirt with me. I hear a lot of kissy noises, declarations of love, and the most fun part is the love notes, one written on a leaf. It doesn’t take too much to get them to shriek in unison. Ride with them into town on the school bus and you might want for earplugs. I’m not sure how to describe the boys. I was concerned that my role as a disciplinarian in the computer lab would poison any relationships, but only one seems to have held a grudge. I’m welcome at soccer games and although I’m sure they make fun of me, there is still a lot of curiosity. I’m glad things aren’t too bad because I can time my lunches to eat with the other professors but at dinner I sit at a table with just the kids.

In my last few days here I talked with the custodian while he was cleaning the bathroom. I knew the kids would often ‘forget’ to turn off the water, turns out they also have trouble remembering to flush or to aim while urinating in the stalls (instead of the trough). Disgusting of course; he said the girls were actually worse. I was just happen that Dario excused me from shaking his hand as I left.

Many of the students have nicknames. Some are just beyond translation, apparently bird noises like tick-tick, mimi or tok-tok (two different kids who don’t hang out together). Any trace of red in your hair earns you a name like carrot, raspberry or the twins Bilz & Pap (reddish soft drinks sold here). There was also hare, fox, monkey, cannon and the two least desirable ones, urinal and diarrhea. I was told that urinal got his name from the shape of his haircut which was a relief.

Technical notes of the computer lab

There are about eighteen computers in the lab, ranging from classic Pentiums to couple-year-old AMD processors. They run different operating systems, from Windows 95 to Windows XP. They are networked, but apparently in two different networks. Currently (March 8), none has Internet access. Later this month (March) the lab is supposed to get broadband access and does have ISDN equipment, but it doesn’t work right now. There is one printer that works and a few without toner. There is at least one scanner that works. I found a digital camera; it works but is very cheap, maybe half of a megapixel.

So far the students come in to play games and I am to keep track of usage: who, which class and which computer for what times. There is some problem with theft and also configuration problems. Since the computers all use a single login, anyone can accidentally delete an important file. More often, the wallpaper gets changed to an album cover and the shortcuts end up all over the place. Fixing that has gotten quite old.

There aren’t a lot of games to be played on these computers, so it’s not unusual to see someone just playing around with the start menu. I think you can see how easily someone could change an important setting without being malicious. I do have educational CDs that are asked for on occasion. I get a little concerned when more than one is lent out to be sure to get them back.

It turned out that kids were cutting class to come in to play computer games so right now I keep kids out unless they promise to have permission from a professor to work. Then they would claim to have permission from the teachers and do work, but not all of them actually had permission. I got awfully suspicious when one of them claimed to have permission from the English teacher to print out the lyrics to a Metallica song. OK, here’s a hint for any dishonest students: don’t claim to have permission from the one teacher on campus that is fluent in English; it’s all too easy for me to confirm your story. For now the students must have written permission or be with a teacher.

It’s kind of a sad situation for the students because the only time the lab is open is during classes. It’s not open during any of their free time for either school work or games. Their classes run until dinner time so I don’t know when the extra time could be found, or if it’s a priority for the school. I don’t feel real bad about turning away kids without permission during the day because it means they are supposed to be in class.

I’ve done a little maintenance work on the computers and I’m in the middle of trying to install Win98 on one the older ones. I think a lot of their problems are because they are using a lot of cheap components so the quality is bad. Judging from the number of voltage regulators, they might also have some trouble with stable electrical current. (Later I noticed the gauge for incoming voltage snapping back and forth and making noises like an apocalyptic Geiger counter so I think there are problems with their electricity.)

The computer lab is heated with a woodstove and on rainy days there is a pile of sawdust by the door to absorb the moisture and keep the floor dry. Do you often see that in the first world?

I’ve had one of the newer computers already fail; I think it’s a problem with the master boot record. That makes five computers broken and fourteen in service. I thought it was interesting that the computers claim to be assembled in the USA, with the brand name of Alaska, whose website appears to be based in México. I don’t think you saw that coming.

The Internet access is here; 115 Kbps shared between about a dozen computers. That’s tolerable when those computers are unoccupied and pretty slow otherwise. Using Outlook for mail helps a lot over a web interface. I am still looking for a good way to keep the surfing away from uh, non-Christian web sites. I found another digital camera and this one is good for about two megapixels so I can produce digital photos worth viewing. I see a lot of scary error messages when booting some of the older machines that usually go away when you reboot.

Update (June 4): the cooling fan for the CPU on the server failed. About a month ago a technician came in and replaced about six faulty CD drives. We also have problems with diskette drives not working and keys sticking on the keyboards. I’m a bit astounded at the poor quality of these newer computers. And the older ones are not that much better. A couple do not boot reliably, and three more require the user to push F1 to confirm problems when booting. But we manage; their needs aren’t that sophisticated; a Pentium 90 with Win 95 and Office 97 would serve their needs.

Observation (June 12): the students are often impatient with the computer when booting and start hitting keys on the keyboard to accelerate that process. Sometimes this strategy backfires because it brings up the BIOS menu, but no drastic changes made therein yet. Once I taught a student that when you want to load a PowerPoint file, it doesn’t help to open five copies of Word (when it doesn’t open fast enough they try again, and open another instance of the program). I also demonstrated that moving the mouse in a vigorous back and forth motion (think sandpaper) doesn’t compensate for a slow processor and insufficient RAM.

Rumor (June 30): broadband (banda archa) access might be in the future

Update (July 2): broadband arrived last night, unexpectedly soon after the rumor. Well that’s not true: nothing surprises me anymore. This is a regular aDSL connection shared to the other computers with fixed IP addresses and no need for a server so that will free up another computer for the kids. It doesn’t make a huge difference in sending email but means it’s a lot easier to download files. No need to wait overnight for that anymore. In other news I think I’m losing the debate with the boss as to whether it is better to put McAfee virus protection on all of the computers. He argues the protection isn’t worth the loss of performance. I’m not sure how to value that.

Update (July 15): PCs are often borrowed by other classes, usually so they can watch a pirated movie on CDs. (Yes, pirated media is watched often here in a school setting and yes they get away with watching Hollywood films like 2 Fast 2 Furious as a classroom exercise.) But the fun part is when they try to plug the devices back into the PC. You know those pins? They get bent all which way. The center piece in a keyboard plug that helps keep things aligned? Broken off. My boss spent about an hour with one essential plug and actually had to remove the bent pins with pliers to straighten and then reinsert.

Update (August 31): One good project is that I’ve fixed a computer from the a/v room so that it can play movies. This should reduce on how often they borrow a computer from the lab to do this. I tried to install a video card but I lose video when it is installed. I tried to move the hard drive to a different machine but the screws were rounded out. Sometimes I feel that I’m trying to do something that has already been tried. I was able to uninstall IE 5.5 and remove Media Player – not without difficulty – and get media player reinstalled from a Word 2000 disk that has IE 5.0 on it. That still didn’t play SpiderMan 2 however, so I burned a CD with the latest versions of the media players that run on 98; that’s all I can do. BTW, the machine also rejected a flash memory card (aka USB memory key). The highlight of that machine is that the video card is cemented into the board with silicone glue. I was told it was sold to the school as a new computer. I am definitely sticking to name brand computers when I return to the States.

Alas (September 7): When you find paper folded up and shoved into a floppy drive…

Update (September 20): Well the paper in the floppy drive gets easier the second time. Installed SP2 for XP home, so far no problems. Another person here had trouble, apparently it checks for invalid licenses. Recently, I also added some javascript to my active desktop to calculate how many days I have left in Chile.

Update (October 27): According to the impartial folks at www.tie.cl/bw we nearly have a 1 Mbps connection in the lab. I never suspected it was that fast, but it is certainly what I am used to from a DSL connection at home or office LAN.

Update (December 10): A couple weeks ago I was surprised by some new computers. The new ones (1.5 GHz) are total brand X, not even a made-up name on the case. One has a pirated version of XP on it so I can’t download SP2; the other has a problem where the light for NumLock doesn’t go out when you turn off the computer. Longing for better quality equipment, I’ve recently found out that IBM has sold off the ThinkPad line.

Then the next day some PIII computers with Win98 showed up. I haven’t had as many problems with those. But what’s important to note is that no one bothered to give me advance notice of any of this. It’s hard to take oneself seriously as a supervisor of a lab if the communication is this bad. For another thing, I’m not sure I would approve of spending money for brand new equipment when all the kids need is a version of Office and Internet Explorer.

School day

The school day varies. On Mondays we start late in the morning at 11:30 but classes run until 7:15 pm. Most days classes start at 8:30 and run until 6:30, and then on Fridays classes end at 1:30 pm. There is a fifteen minute recess about every couple of hours and lunch is given 75-90 minutes which is a great break in the day.

Sometimes it’s quiet. If no one is using the lab I’m allowed to lock up and take a break. The challenge has been when there are a lot of kids in the lab. It’s hard to help some bored looking kids in one end of the room if it means not watching who else comes in. But really it’s a problem when the kids refuse to leave during the recess between classes. That’s the time when they don’t have much to do and the lab looks appealing (for all of fifteen minutes) but it’s also my own guaranteed break during the day. The first time I had a problem I realized that the kids knew they were supposed to leave but wanted to spend every possible second there before I turned off the monitor in front of their face. The second time they started turning the monitor back on and I dragged them out. But they enjoy this too. I can’t leave the room to get help and I don’t know what their names are. Perhaps I will know them better when the process of documenting who is using which computer gets better. But now the kids move around enough that there’s a chance I would be turning in the wrong name.

On weekends it seems like nearly all of the kids leave for home. About a score stay on campus because it’s sometimes difficult for parents to pick them up. There is a schedule for each weekend which involves work and study, but also a trip to town for shopping and games and movies here on campus.

Although the school is known as an agricultural school, it doesn’t limit itself to farming. I would say that agriculture is one of the classes taught and that it doesn’t receive anymore emphasis than mathematics or chemistry. Which makes me feel better about there being a computer lab. I had openly (but discretely) wondered about the value of teaching PowerPoint to kids who would return to a farm back home, but I now see that those kids might just find an office job elsewhere. Judging from what I’ve seen them doing as homework, they get a good understanding of Microsoft Office by the time they leave here. Robert Schilling, who provides money to this school and other projects around the world through his foundation, told me of some success stories of kids who started their own business selling produce and used computer skills from the lab therewith.

Animals here

We have 120 hens. I helped feed them one day and decided they aren’t the smartest birds in the world. I’m not sure if they stay in that building all of the time because I didn’t see anyplace for them to lay eggs.

We also have cows and pigs but I haven’t seen much of them. The cows might spend all day grazing in the fields.

We currently have two stray dogs (April: five that come and go). One arrived the same morning I noticed all of the trash cans had been knocked over, the other a couple days later. They are very affectionate for some reason. But on the other hand, when I fed one it seemed pretty lazy and he didn’t even get up. He must have been digesting a lot of meat at the time.

Nueva Imperial

About half a mile up the road is the town of New Imperial (old Imperial being another town down the road since renamed Carahue). The population is I think about twenty thousand, which makes it just big enough to have a small video rental store. There is a stately old town square and one traffic light. It has nearly all of the services that I need as far as shopping or a church service or a haircut. It’s not unusual to see ox-drawn carts on the streets. I like the character of the town better than Temuco, perhaps because Temuco was big enough to have franchise stores (including Pizza Hut, McDonalds, a VW dealership, etc) and Imperial seems to have kept its small town feel.

I don’t know if it would offer much to tourists except a few hours of diversion. It does have hospedajes – a homestay hotel – restaurants, and a small museum (based in a residence) of wood sculptures and historical items from the Mapuche and Spanish.

Mail

The mail service here hasn’t been that bad. Some packages arrive in less than a week; what you might expect from the domestic post in the States, other times it takes much longer. But at least nothing has been lost yet. It seems to take quite a while for mail I send here to reach the States. Not sure why one direction takes longer than another.

Mail in a small town: you can call the post office to see if your package has arrived.

English class

I visited an English class, one of the first classes. It’s interesting that the students learn British English. I haven’t recognized any of their Received Pronunciation yet, but it’s said to be easier to learn than American English. I had wondered why all of the textbooks I had seen were from England. It’s mostly noticeable when they learn their alphabet and pronounce Z as “Zed”, just like our Canadian friends.

I’ve returned but it doesn’t seem like I am of much use there. When I get a chance I’ll try to stop in again, but it seems that they are still on basic vocabulary.

Strangest thing seen yet

One of the kids had pierced his fingernails, with rings and chains attached to them. Really wish I had a picture of that.

I’ve seen people mix a soft drink with wine on different occasions. The wine here is supposed to be good, so I don’t think they are trying to improve the taste.

The kids often wear just one glove. I was told that they leave the right hand exposed to preserve their dexterity.

Apparently it’s considered rude to point at people or things with your fingers. So they use… their lips. It looks almost as if they are trying to kiss the object in question. I’ve gotten in the habit of doing it, but I think I will get beat up if I don’t stop when I return to the States.

Today, August 19, I was offered a pig’s tail by a student as an additive for my coffee. I think it might actually improve Nescafé but I declined.

Conversely, the kids think me wearing sandals in the fall (and early spring) is really crazy.

Great 220v Experiment

I really thought that the AC adaptor for my IBM ThinkPad laptop would work with both 220v and 120v. IBM thought so too. But it didn’t, so I went almost three weeks without being able to charge the battery in my laptop. IBM wouldn’t sell me one because of arrangements they have local retailers here. Fine, but you can’t buy one from a website in Chile. I was referred to a retailer in Santiago, who could sell me one, but not with a credit card. I would have to go to their bank (twenty miles away in Temuco), fax them proof that I deposited the correct amount in their bank account and then they would process the order, which would take twenty days. Instead, I risked the customs fees which delayed my Chacos and found a US firm (Westworld Computers www.westworldcomputers.com) with quite reasonable shipping fees and got them faster and cheaper. I recommend them to anyone needing parts, especially overseas.

Although this new AC adaptor is also rated for 220v I think I will keep using the 220-110 adaptor as well. For one thing, it gives me an additional (and easily replaced) buffer against the fluctuating current here. The downside is that I draw too much current if I charge the battery when the laptop is on or watch a movie and cause the converter to overheat and shut down. I’m not sure how many hours in a day I should use something that is marked “not for continuous use” so I’ve just been going by the heat of the device.

The converter I bought at Radio Shack for twenty bucks. I’m told they sell here for a fraction of that cost, but judging from the quality of the other electronics I’ve seen here I think I’m glad I went ahead and bought it ahead of time. It converts 220 to 110 for up to 50 watts which isn’t much, but it’s a clean current suitable for electronics. Some of the other converters will allow a lot more wattage but aren’t suitable for electronics. It is also more than capable for charging my toothbrush, razor and ham radio. Chile recently changed their electrical outlets, but luckily this is the right size.

Update (September 15): I finally gave in and ran my laptop with 220v with the new adaptor. No problems. I wanted to watch a DVD and the 220-110 converter would overheat with that much use. I figured this new adaptor would run on 220v but found it so hard to plug it in after that experience last time.

A typical day

I try to get out of bed before the school bus leaves for its second load of the girls who live off campus. It roars past my bedroom window so I don’t really need an alarm clock. Don, my housemate, showers in the evenings so there’s no competition for the bathroom. I have to go into the kitchen first, however, to light the hot water heater. It provides continuous hot water, but we aren’t supposed to leave the pilot light lit. I often forget to turn it off afterwards.

Breakfast is at the cafeteria, usually the ubiquitous rolls (nearly all of the bread (“pan”) in Chile is the same sort of flat roll) with hot milk or coffee. Both beverages take a while to drink because of waiting for them to cool. Fortunately in Chile, one never need be on time. Also, beverages aren’t considered portable here. It’s rare that someone takes a drink with him, it’s expected that you sit and enjoy it properly.

Then it’s off to the teacher’s lounge unless I’m running late enough to go right to the lab. At the teacher’s lounge there is occasionally coffee or breakfast if someone brings in, yes, pan. Also, they don’t like you to eat bread alone, without jelly, butter or something else.

At the computer lab the mornings are usually slow. This is the time to catch up on music from home at www.xpn.org or www.cartalk.com; anything like that. There is a recess about every 90-120 minutes, when I am guaranteed a chance to get out to the bathroom or drink more coffee, anything like that. I am allowed to take unofficial breaks if no one is in the lab, but usually whenever I try this, some kids show up before I can escape.

The kids need permission slips to get in; most of my job is acting as a bouncer to enforce this. They usually come in small groups to work on projects in PowerPoint or Word, usually about agriculture. I have to watch where they surf on the Internet and prevent them from playing music or games. In the earlier days of the lab, it was pretty much a free-for-all, and a lot quieter now.

There are also classes in the lab. I don’t teach and I’m kind of glad for it. I tried to fill in for one class and was unable to hold their attention with my limited Spanish. For the classes that teach how to use the computers, the teacher sounds very exasperated so I’m glad to avoid that. I can help one-on-one, but I have to be careful not to do their work for them. It’s a slight challenge also to figure out how to do something in PowerPoint when all of the menus and help files are in Spanish.

I’m often assigned or take it upon myself to work on the computers in the lab. This is where working with older systems can be frustrating and yet nostalgic. I have vowed to never buy a cheap computer after seeing so many hardware problems here.

The recess is fifteen minutes long, barely enough time to let that coffee cool and drink luxuriously. The students are slow to leave the lab, but I think is the Latin American attitude towards time more than anything else. I usually open the lab five minutes late to compensate (also before permission slips, this helped reduce the number of people who would run in the lab for a few minutes of pinball before class).

Lunch starts at 1:30 but I usually wait until 2:00 so it’s easier to find a seat. Also, this is when the teachers usually go, although the downside is there is less time for a nap afterwards. This is also the time when I take my daily vitamin to thwart the usual communicable diseases that make their way around schools. No one here can believe that I am still wearing my Chacos; they ask if I am cold or warn me that I will get sick. I think the ones who wear shoes and are already sick are a bit jealous. If it’s a nice day, I like to walk out to a market and buy a fresh chili pepper to eat with lunch.

The afternoon usually sees more kids than in the morning. I help with technical problems, and check email. I try to keep something to read in the lab as well, either the current issue of the Economist or the Message Bible.

Dinner is like lunch, not only is it often leftovers, but that it’s a good idea to try for the second shift of the meal. But this can be tough because if you’re late you officially miss the meal. I have somewhat elevated status and have been able to get into the kitchen (even when I have to ahem scale a stone wall because the gate is locked) to get something to eat.

Sometimes there are activities at the school after dinner, like intramural soccer. I like to stop by those when I can to see the kids in a different setting. Other times I just go back to read my serious book, Jung’s five hundred page dense Psychological Types, or rest.

That’s a typical day.

Update (December 10): I wanted to update this. As I write this, there don’t seem to be any more classes, just a teacher taking the kids somewhere so she can work while they play. But as spring arrived, my schedule did change. I had been sleeping until 8 am or so, then rising to take a shower and show up for the 8:30 class. At 10 am there is a breakfast in the teacher’s lounge of bread and usually something else. I used to take each recess in the teacher’s lounge as well, usually with a cup of Nescafe.

The earlier light of spring got me awake earlier, and the time off with real coffee made me reluctant to return to the instant Nescafe. I could get up at 7 am and take breakfast with the male students (same fare really, bread and something else, with hot milk) and come back for a shower and still have time to brew coffee with a French press.

Since it is late in the school year there hasn’t been many classes. I have been quite lazy, probably from waking up so early and just lie down in the fields. When there were classes but they were starting late, I could recline in the grassy areas near the lab and wait to see if a teacher would show up for a class.

The other volunteer

The other volunteer here is Don White, a sculptor in clay and wood. He was living with the host family in Temuco when I arrived and had been teaching at the school in the prior semester. He’s seventy (as of March 30, 2004) and a Nazarene minister. He’s spent a lot of time teaching kids in a reformatory and also in a prison. At the school he has made a life-size statue of John Wesley and another figure with an owl out of wood and the head of an ape out of clay. His big project for this fall was a giant Mapuche woman with a drum for the town of New Imperial. He left it just about finished and had an assistant who is to put the finishing touches on it. He returned to the States (Springer, NM) on May 30.

Before Chile, he also worked in Palestine, Estonia, El Salvador, México, Russia and Navajo reservations. Probably more locations, but those are the ones I remember.

Sometimes when I get discouraged I remember about the problems he had with students stealing tools that he bought himself. Other students would come into the classroom and dull the knives on metal tables.

Don returned November 8^th. I’m hoping to hear what changed his mind; he had mentioned that he was quite ready to retire when he left in May. He is currently working on a small project and is supposedly to start and run a school for sculpture that is to be housed in a school building that burned down over the winter. Yet there is no sign of activity there for rebuilding. Don said that he might make this his permanent residency. I’m sure he’d appreciate a note from you: dondwhite@hotmail.com.

So how’d you learn Spanish, anyway?

Funny you should ask. I had classes in Temuco, but my expectation was that they would be classes about every day for several hours. Instead, it was a couple hours several times that month. I was disappointed about this because I thought learning the language was essential and that I would be severely handicapped without good classes my first month. So I did what I could, learning from the host family and the phrasebook I had brought with me.

After a conversation with some other long-term missionaries who warned me that I would not learn the language with simple immersion although I would be continually told I was improving, I decided to try to find a textbook and have it shipped over. I asked for recommendations from my college, but ended up with something that sounded good on Amazon. The trouble is that Amazon never shipped it. After waiting about a month for it to leave the warehouse (said to be in-stock), I went to Barnes & Noble and bought two. They arrived when expected and I started on the first one, Margarita Madrigal’s Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish. I’m about halfway through it now (June 16) and enjoy it, mostly due to an occasional bit of fun like “and the last two verbs are irregular in their own sweet way” (p.266) or “Remember that if a noun is feminine it is followed by a feminine adjective and if a noun is masculine it is followed by a masculine adjective. Boys don’t mix with girls grammatically as they do in real life” (p.188). A laugh in the middle of studying is a great break.

But what’s more gratifying is the feeling I get when I can sense that my grasp of Spanish is growing and I learn something that I find myself using on a daily basis. I should have brought a book like this with me, but one advantage of starting late is that I feel that I have a better grasp of pronunciation. While I have any number of people around who can help, I’ve been studying alone and that involves reading a lot aloud. It doesn’t help to practice incorrect pronunciation.

(Aug 31) I don’t like the second textbook (Living Language’s Ultimate Spanish) however. I have to drag myself over to work out a lesson even though the lessons are short. I think it’s because there are frequent errors and I lose confidence with some of the answers. Also (nearly finished, Oct 26) there isn’t enough practice for the concepts. I don’t think I noticed this in the beginning because it was review from the first text book. But I am now firmly into new territory with the different forms of the subjunctive and it’s frustrating.

A church service in the countryside

The churches in the countryside have services every week, even if the pastor only makes every other Sunday. He has five churches (or capillas, “chapels”) in his jurisdiction and has a schedule for visitation; three each Sunday.

The pastor doesn’t run the service but only gives the sermon. Someone else in the congregation handles that; I assume that there is a rotation schedule.

The services run from about an hour and a half to nearly three hours. The sermon is about half an hour and there are a lot of hymns (from a hymnal) and songs (memorized by the congregation). Usually they have some musical instruments, whether it’s a battered drum or electric guitars and a keyboard. The congregation can be from about five people to twenty. Sometimes their prayers are more emotional than I am used to and often someone will switch from Spanish to Mapadungan, the indigenous language.

Volunteering at La Granja compared to Iquique

Seeing how volunteers live in Iquique has been an interesting comparison with life in Nueva Imperial. Here there are several volunteers and a much richer social life. They have cell phones, modern housing and social lives. I feel very isolated in La Granja now and also aware of the primitive living conditions in the rural south. I don’t lack anything at my house that the school could readily provide; I believe that it’s just the difference between the city and the country, just like volunteers in Manhattan (are there any?) would have a different experience than someone in a rural section of upstate New York.

I approached the conditions here with what I considered a “Peace Corps” mentality of flexibility and it’s been fine. I do feel a bit funny though after calling the house where I live “quite nice” to some people, and then seeing the apartment building in Iquique, I feel like I should modify my description as more of a shack.

I am a bit tempted to move up to Iquique because they have the things I lack in La Granja, but someone has to live in La Granja to fill their needs and that means living in similar conditions to what I have. Also, I prefer living on campus to eliminate the commute from say Temuco, even though Temuco is about the same size as Iquique. It’s hard enough to get up in the morning to walk to breakfast; it would be awful to get up an hour earlier for the bus ride.

Advice for the next volunteer here

On the house:

I would buy an electric heater that you can run all night (the gas stove puts out harmful fumes), and a radio.

They wouldn’t replace the washers in the bathroom; so currently (9/22/04) the water runs nonstop in the shower and somewhat in the sink. But other than that, the staff was quick to fix problems with the house.

Mice live upstairs and scurry around in the walls but are easy to ignore if you live downstairs.

During cold mornings, the gas won’t work until you go outside and switch it on and off a few times. Another trick if you can’t get the pilot light lit in the morning but you can hear the gas running is to turn on some hot water at the sink. This will increase the flow of gas enough to light from a match.

I enjoyed living in the house because I could sleep until eight and still make my 8:30 class. But on the other hand, you are now stuck in the area. If you instead choose to live in Temuco you will have the commute but a better chance at a social life. There are hospedajes in Imperial but they are said to be dirty. You might be able to rent a room from someone in the church in Imperial.

On the school:

I was never asked to personally financially contribute to anything but I heard the previous volunteer was. The advice seems to be that it’s better to just serve your post and not become a philanthropist. Towards the end there were lots of questions about whether I knew of churches that could support the school and many references to the money problems.

It’s easy to get discouraged with the kids. I think the only advice I can give here is to not let the bad kids keep you from appreciating the good ones.

No one tells you anything. Look forward to that. Well, things did get pretty bad, so I would like to champion the idea of having a ‘buddy’ at the school who would be responsible for communication about what’s happening and could also help with any problems you may be having.

Rules do not seem to be rules here. Well there are rules like “no smoking” that are enforced, obeyed and yet not told to volunteers, and then the rules for your job (see Oct 26 entry).

On the work:

(this was the work in the computer lab) Oh, it’s so boring. The maintenance is gratifying at first; it had been so long since a lot of the work had been done, and when you fix something that had been broken it always feels productive. But showing up just for the classes means there’s very often little to do. I either hang out at my laptop and surf or write email, or lean against the wall and read my magazine. The students don’t really like it when you openly watch what they are doing even when it’s too help. I would not recommend taking this particular position full-time unless you have a hobby you’d want to indulge in. It’s one thing to be available for problems as they arise and another to wait at a post for them.

On the town:

I was told many times it was dangerous but never had any problems. The risks are muggers, and of course to watch for traffic on the main road. It’s been a pleasant diversion to walk into town even for a quick errand.

On the host family:

They were awfully fond of that rent money and weren’t able to resist a few persuasive statements comparing life at the house to life at school. They told me that I wouldn’t be able to learn Spanish at the school nearly as well as living there with them and that the food at the school was somehow worse than the food at their house. Neither of those statements was true, so don’t trust anyone who is receiving your rent money. For price comparisons, the rent was $250 a month or $290 including lunches for that immersion month in February and included laundry.

In general:

I would get a cell phone that you refill with a card for minutes. It’s a bit of an initial investment, but not a monthly fee (like in the States) if you don’t use it. I’ve had several instances since I’ve been here when a cell phone would be great. You can sometimes borrow the phone at the school but only during the day and pretty much just for local calls.

I decided that I would buy a motorcycle if I could do it over again with more money or had another year. The transportation goal is Temuco, 30 km away. I think you could do it on a road bike, and but might have trouble securing it there in town. Either way you could probably resell the bike at the end of your time without too much of a loss. A car is safer of course, but it’s hard to find a good used car here from what I’ve heard. Maintenance is not a regular habit here, but perhaps even a Lada would get you around. One of the professors bought a 2-cylinder Daihaitsu for 300k pesos (about $500).

What next?

So far I plan to return to work with computers. I might switch later to being a schoolteacher or social work, but if nothing else I’d like to save up money, for example to pay for a return to university.

I don’t have any plans to return to a volunteer post like this. If I did, I think I would want to take a more measured pace and insure that I had a tenant for my house instead of rushing down.

Becky Harrell explains how to get a Chilean ID card

first, he goes to the office of "gobernacion"...and takes a letter from the Church saying he is a volunteer...also, they will need the official government paper that says the church is a registered agency in Chile (Bishops office has this), take your passport, have a paper notarized that says you are supporting yourself while here and make sure it has your banks name on it (no account number), have the school he is appointed to write a letter saying what he is doing there and that they do not pay him for his work, that it is volunteer. After all of that they will give him another 3 or 4 months...then he goes back and they will ask for a bunch of other stuff, then they will give him another year....then as soon as they give him the one year visa he has to go to the police department of investigation and they will "investigate" him, and he goes down and gets his Chile rut carnet....at the end of that year when he returns, THEN he gets permanent residency...whew....it is tiring but nice when you are done

Some prayers said at mealtime

Por esté pancito / con rico sabor / te comemos a diario / muchas gracias Señor / amen

Por esté pan, por esté don / te alabamos, te alabamos / por esté pan, por esté don / te alabamos señor, amen

Llego el día con amor / gracias te damos hoy Señor / amen

Padre nuestro cariños / hoy bendice esté alimento / cinco panes y dos peces / como allá en el desierto / amen

School fight song (autora letra y musica, Sra. Heroína Valenzuela Vda. De Conejeros)

El liceo Agrícola La Granja

Invitándote esta

La novena región te necesita

Estudiante de Imperial

Juventud, tesoro incomparable,

Flor que besa el sol primaveral.

Al maestro, al amigo, al compañero,

Nunca, nunca, olvidaras.

Muchachada, estudiante,

Adelante, sin temor.

En tus manos, el futuro,

Cielo, fe, ideal y amor.

La espiga dorada esta madura

Y los campos en verdor

Las estrellas y Dios en tu camino,

Te señalan lo mejor.

Juventud, la patria te reclama.

Ideales fraternos y d acción.

Al maestro, al hogar a la familia,

Dale siempre lo mejor.

Blog

I’m going to switch gears here and start a daily journal. I wanted to get the basic topics above fleshed out for the reader, but I’ve run out of things to post there and I want to keep this current somehow. By the way, feel free to email me for photos or anything else. I usually have time for email, and it’s good to also hear what you are doing and not just talk about myself.

4 February

Left Philly. I’ve already realized I’ve forgotten some things that will be sent later.

5 February

From the airport in Santiago, I took a bus into town and got off at the train station where I immediately got on a bus to Temuco. I think that was about ten hours, but it stopped in towns along the way for enough time to stretch my legs and buy snacks. After a long time traveling, I was glad to arrive in a house. I’m staying with a host family that the other volunteer met at the Methodist Church in Temuco.

7 February

I went to the beach in Lican Ray with the host family and got my first sunburn of the season. It was a nice beach on a calm lake with great views of the mountains around us. We had a picnic lunch there as well.

23 February

I just had a great day at Imperial and La Granja.

It started way too early. I remembered that I had not yet figured out the alarm on my travel clock so I had to wake up in time to get to the school the hard way, but that worked out fine. I got up around seven thirty and had a light breakfast.

The bus ride to school was crowded bus, and I realized that it can be tough to find the bus stop when you can’t see out. Don, the other volunteer, told me about the landmarks and what it’s like in the winter when the windows are fogged up, but we had no problems this time. Don’s been taking the bus daily for the last five months so he knows the routine now.

I saw Don’s sculptures in wood and clay and was impressed. Hope to get some pictures later.

I met with Daniel Martinez, who runs the school, and got a brief introduction to the school and computer lab. The room has about twenty computers, some new and others didn’t look so new. My duties are to be in the lab during the day when the teacher isn’t there to answer questions. On the surface, this might be tedious just because it entails so much time in one room indoors, but I’m holding off judgment until later. It’s also exactly what I was told when I accepted the assignment, so I definitely can’t complain.

Don and I went on into Imperial and found a plain clean Mapuche (local Indian tribe) restaurant for a complete lunch that cost about two dollars. Imperial is celebrating its 122^nd anniversary this week. It’s a pretty quaint quiet town where horses can be seen walking down the street and hogs are tied up on fences.

At the post office, a package from the US that had been sent in December had just arrived. I’m not sure what that means for packages sent to me. Don got some of his in a week or so. Anyhow, no mail for me had arrived yet.

Don started talking to two girls at a cement store, trying to get them to speak English and then went on to two guys working at a tire vulcanization shop. Then we get invited in and to my amazement, the house is full of wood sculptures and a Mapuche museum. I agree to look at their computer and agree to come back later with a system disk to try to fix their problem, although I really think the computer is trashed.

Don & I walked back to the school (15-20 minutes away) and I used my laptop to produce the disk I needed while he returned to Temuco to wash up. We’ve an appointment for tea that night in Imperial with another family he met. As I start back to school, one of the workers gives me a ride and offers to show me the countryside. We head off out of town through gentle pasture lands to a farm where he is digging a well. He stops the truck at one point to pick wild blackberries. We drop off some pipe (and pick some apples) to return to Imperial.

The emergency repair disk I created doesn’t fix the BIOS problem for the sculptor’s computer (as I suspected). I’ve two hours to kill, and expect to spend them on email in the plaza hoping my laptop doesn’t attract any attention, but the sculptor’s son is ready to entertain me, so we go off for a walk and then return for “onces” (Spanish for elevens, a British tea hour) including some bread straight out of the oven coated with icing. Incredible.

Then another one of the brothers invites me to the river. It works out to pick up Don at this point (the two hours are gone) and we have just enough time to walk out to river to see the paddleboat that he’s got ready for a race this Friday in town. I manage to take my laptop out on a rowboat for a spin without any problems.

Don and I get to the house for tea a couple minutes early. The house is incredible, big spacious rooms. Heavy solid wood doors (I don’t know if that means anything to you, but I’m so used to the lightweight doors in the US that this just really spoke of quality to me; this house really demonstrated to me the luxury that someone might feel would justify a move from Spain). The family is from Spain and seems very educated. The two sons are both engineers for example. We have a dinner that I can barely stuff in onto top of the snack I’ve just had of great food. The table was full of food, and I was very glad to see the second son show up to help eat the empanadas, olives, figs, peanuts, walnuts, chips, apple pie and cherries.

I’ve been invited out to hike up a volcano in a couple weekends with one of the sons.

Now that I’m home it’s midnight and I’ve promised to sleep until noon. I start at the school next Monday March 1 and will be able to move into the rather large house then as well.

1 March

It was raining quite hard early this morning, but lessened to a drizzle for the bus ride to the school, and then stopped altogether. I got a key and moved into the house; it’s exactly what I hoped for. It’s rustic sure, and had the musty smell of an old house as I walked in, but was adequately furnished with a table, chairs, couch, etc. Don picked the upstairs loft for his room so I’ll take the first floor bedroom, with a window that looks out onto the driveway and beyond that, a greenhouse and field. It’s heated by a woodstove and has a small kitchen and bathroom.

There was an orientation that lasted about an hour punctuated with prayer and singing where I was introduced and then a second meeting that was equally incomprehensible to me. I did find out that they have a problem with attendance which has dropped from three hundred to two hundred in the last year.

After that I was led to a third meeting in sort of a faculty room where we had Nescafé (instant coffee, but better than the instant coffee in the States) that I much needed to cope with the early arrival (I didn’t sleep much after the rain started in the middle of the night). I found out that there are some faculty members who speak a little English and also a little about the computer courses here. They are very basic and seem to focus on Microsoft Office. The faculty seems fun, and thus far I am looking forward to the year here. But first, lunch.

21 March

I went to the Conguillío National Park with Claudio and Rodrigo, friends from town. It wasn’t a bad drive, but nearly all on two lane roads, sometimes gravel. The drive in the park started out as a primitive but smooth road through the assorted volcanic rock left over from the eruption of Volcán Llaima in 1957. The landscape was all black from this eruption, with trees poking out from the rubble and a few lakes. One was especially eerie with green colors underwater and trees visible at the bottom. We parked the car and started a hike for a few hours up one of the mountains. That was an incredible hike: the landscape was varied from forest to volcanic rock, and the forest was all native Chilean plants, a marked difference from the imported trees which are now all that is seen in most of the region (that said, many of the trees are from countries like Australia so they still look different from the USA, just not authentic. The colonists burned much of the trees as they cleared the land). There were waterfalls coming from the snow at the top of the mountains and we had a chance to refill our water bottles from one of the streams.

We retraced our steps back down the trail and went swimming at a beach a nearby (cold) lake, and then drove out of the park a different way. This route went through some of the old forest and I could get a feel for what the country would have looked like before. Tall, tall trees in a mature spacing dimming the light from sun above, makes one think about the old forests in the Lord of the Rings.

I felt really good about seeing this park. Pablo Neruda said that “Anyone who hasn’t been in the Chilean forest doesn’t know this planet” and that’s well about what I would expect from a state poet, but having been to the park, I feel like I have been to the natural Chile that people come here to see. I felt that living here as long as I intend to do that I should see things like this.

Also on this trip I met two Swiss girls bicycling thousands of miles from Ushuaia in southern Argentina to Santiago.

23 April

Started the blog on the website. Reinstalled XP on a machine that had problems with activation, maybe due to damage from a virus. This was a little stressful because I had to do it with a firm deadline and a classroom full of kids, but no problems. Donated the rest of my jelly beans to the faculty.

26 April

My first class on Mondays isn’t until 11:30 so I’ve started walking into town for the morning. Last week I went to the post office but today I didn’t have a mission. Until I got to the road and noticed activity north of the road. It took a little work to get there but it was a large animal market. I’m not sure how else to describe it; lots of cows and pigs for sale with a few horses and sheep to boot. It was pretty interesting to be in the middle of all that authentic local activity and I was afraid to take a picture lest I call attention to myself and someone would notice that I was wearing Chacos and a Xemex and be found out as a tourist. I don’t know why, but I always act like I’m near a Russian military base when I take pictures abroad. I’m not comfortable taking people’s pictures without permission or even to ask for permission.

27 April

My role here in the computer lab is mostly when there isn’t a professor here I can babysit the kids and maintain my ever vigilant porn patrol. So when there is a professor who is capable of handling the technical problems that might come up I’ve asked to visit another class. I went to my second English class in the afternoon. I was able to help the students pronounce some words, but I also spent a lot of time proving to the kids that the word they wanted defined was in the Spanish-English dictionary on their desks. The best part was when some of the students asked me what I thought of the teacher’s bottom and insisted on getting an answer. They made such a fuss that the teacher caught on that something was happening and then I narc’d on them. It’s been a while since I was in high school, but these kids do seem a little less disciplined than I remember. It could be a cultural thing, and it’s supposed to get a lot worse when spring rolls in and the kids get senioritis.

29 April

Vacation to Buenos Aires!

I had a wonderful break, the experience of having a vacation from work (this is work after all) and BA itself, which has the grandeur of any major European city and is yet affordable. I ended up doing a lot of sightseeing but with lots of time for breaks in the numerous cafés. I stayed in Milhouse hostel which was fine. The common room had a frat house feel to it, but that largely disappeared once you left it for the rooms. Most of the people there opted for the night life in town which meant that they would be returning about the time I left in the morning. Yes, the techno club nearby had its music playing until about 9 am one morning.

I don’t want to just list off the places I went, but here’s an example. I’m drinking coffee in a café (which by the way, automatically comes with a small tumbler of water and a bit of cake or something else to eat) and a man goes by outside pushing a piano. Not something you would see in Nueva Imperial. It turns out that a group has assembled to play chamber music in the cobblestone street for donations and to promote their album.

On the way back, I stopped at my host family in Temuco and had dinner with them before taking the bus out to the school. Not much news there. I noticed that I was able to speak in Spanish the entire time. A few times I didn’t quite understand what was being said, but they were able to restate in simpler words that I could understand.

3 May

I was not in Chile during the earthquake which shook the buildings here and woke people up. A second earthquake takes place in mid-June.

4 May

Firewood was delivered to the computer lab this morning. I guess I’ll make a fire one of these days. It’s still nice out when the sun is shining, but was chilly this morning (if you have a synonym for chilly that isn’t a homonym for the country’s name let me know).

First piece of junk mail delivered.

5 May

For the “brisk” (thank you Nat) morning today, a fire was lit for me in the stove here in the computer lab.

I think it’s meant to be funny, but I am getting a lot of flak for not bringing back any chocolate from Argentina. Forgotten are the jelly beans from Easter.

6 May

The definite highlight of the day was a trip out to the countryside with the Pastor. He brought with him Jeff and Heather. Jeff has been volunteering for two and a half months up in central Chile (Coquimbo?) and is touring the country with his girlfriend as he prepares to leave. It was great to talk to him and find out some very similar things about volunteering here (am I a distraction when I visit a class and the kids get excited to have a visitor? Teachers say no). I did have to remark on the horrors of him teaching the Chilean kids his Tennessee drawl. Despite the darkness, the pastor showed us the rural churches in his district and related some of the problems he had with mud or getting lost on these one lane dirt roads (shared with cows) in the middle of the night. We were also able to meet people at the churches and enter one of the houses to visit a sick parishioner.

7 May

I bought two oranges, three apples and eight carrots for less than a dollar. My Spanish textbooks finally arrived from Barnes & Noble (not to disparage them; the one from Amazon was never even shipped and I’ve switched my allegiance).

9 May

Photos can be viewed here.

I rode back into el campo with the pastor. We started at ten a.m. and went to the first church. It had incredible views out of the front door. There was a ruka there; the Mapuche thatched hut, which was mostly used as a jungle gym for the five-year olds. I think there were about fifteen in the service. Two women led the service and then the pastor went up for the sermon.

Afterwards, we went back to his house for lunch and out to the second service. This was pretty far out there, or maybe it was the extra trips we made to see if we could give rides to some of the parishioners. But it was certainly set in a quaint valley. I got a treat at this service; the pastor gave them same sermon. This service was characterized by the youth’s music, a couple guitar players and a kid with a keyboard which combined for a full musical experience. The service was followed by a community meeting which was really just a lot of cake and mate (local tea) for someone’s birthday.

My big surprise was that after we returned back at 7pm there was a third church service. This wasn’t in the country so to speak; mere yards away from where the paved road ended, but a small service for five people in an unheated building.

I was really impressed with how much this seemed similar to the story of circuit riders in the history of Methodist church. Pastor Pulgar has a Toyota truck and not a horse, but three services in one day. He alternates with some other churches and I’m going to try to go to those services next week. But this time, I’ll try to leave with the kids to their activities so I don’t have to hear the sermon (most of which I don’t understand due to the language barrier) as many times.

Got to bed late.

12 May

The day of the students:

There weren’t any classes today, but a day of other activities. There was a schedule, but all I really noticed was the football games and an assembly in the frigid auditorium. During which, by the way, they mentioned taking up a collection to buy me shoes (as a joke), since I’m still wearing those Chaco sandals. I liked that. We had a football game between the students and the professors. I had heard about this for a while, but it turned out to be just a couple professors and we had to draft some students to get enough numbers. Oddly enough, we won. I had hoped to get a tarjeta roja, but didn’t even manage to get a tarjeta amarilla…

Oh, and they also had musical chairs and some general dancing to music, which I think of as Latin American Bandstand.

The students did a good job of turning the cafeteria into a techno dance club but it still had that high school dance feel to it. I shied away from there and instead we sent out for empanadas and cake in the teacher’s lounge.

13 May

There was a parade today to mark the anniversary of Chile’s war with Bolivia and Peru in the 19^th century. By parade, I mean the students marched around the soccer field in formation to recorded band music. (It turns out that they were practicing for a later parade in town).

14 May

I did not react to a bird flying around one of the rooms of my house the exact same way Indiana Jones might have. Both of us escaped the house uninjured.

15 May

Today the pastor invited me into Temuco with some youth from the rural areas for a day of prayer and sports. It was heavier on the sports than I was led to believe, but these days pastors might need to use chicanery to get sinners inside. Especially when it’s cold inside. Anyone who knows me will confirm that I don’t lightly complain of the cold. The church is a giant concrete building that is difficult to heat, especially in Chile when heating means a space heater. The students didn’t seem to mind, just me and a missionary who just arrived from Scotland to spend three years with the UFOs in Angol.

16 May

There was a break-in a while back at the director’s house on campus and afterwards he got a German shepherd and bars on the windows. Someone I know from the church in town had a break-in and they are likely to get a dog as well. Cats just don’t seem to do the trick. Some blame increasing crime on unemployment in the town.

I brought ice cream to lunch with the neighbors but had a mix up about the time (doce y medios sounds bit like dos y medios) and ended up with half a gallon of ice cream about to melt. Somehow, I managed to find some students to help me eat it.

That evening I went to a musical program at a church and was entertained by a trio – I think from Paraguay – with some great music you’re unlikely to hear on the radio back home.

17 May

Wore boots for the first time - instead of the Chacos - to the delight of all of the students who congratulated me on my purchase. Actually, I’ve had the boots for years and only wore them because of some pain in my heel.

20 May

Heading off to Santiago for the weekend. I’m a little sick but hope to be better soon, and the thought of spending the weekend sick at the school when it’s closed down doesn’t appeal to me at all.

24 May

I had a pretty good time in Santiago. I was sick for some of the time there, but my friend also had tons of work to do for an exam. I ended up touring the city with her nanny while she studied and saw some of its interesting neighborhoods. It was also a good weekend for Spanish immersion because neither one of them speak much English. I wonder sometimes what it would have been like if I had eschewed reading English (including email, say) for total immersion in Spanish here. In the beginning that was quite frustrating because even things that looked simple could not be translated even with my dictionary.

There was a reception for Don, the other volunteer today, a special lunch with the teaching staff. He returns to the States on Sunday.

29 May

Today I returned to Carehue for a baptism. This is one of the capillas in the countryside, with a music program of a keyboard and electric guitar. (Which isn’t to suggest an undue Hendrix influence; the songs are out of the Methodist songbook.) Afterwards there was another banquet of potatoes, rice, ribs, chili peppers and salad. Just count the number of dogs in the front yard when you go to one of these feasts to gauge how good the food is… I enjoyed the food and also the mate afterwards and little touches like a big pan of coals brought out to warm the room. Afterwards I played a little soccer with the kids and thought it was interesting that despite any purity from growing up in the country they are not above pointing behind you just before they kick yelling “ave” (bird). No, I didn’t fall for it, and the youngsters are small enough to pick up and move out of the way if they get in your way during the game.

30 May

Seemingly as good as new, Don left for the States. On Thursday he fell from a worktable he was using as scaffolding onto the cement floor and was hospitalized briefly. No break, but some tendon damage which was described with a gruesome twisting of the hands.

I followed the pastor around to Catripuye and Pichuihue, two other capillas in the countryside. My Spanish is gotten good enough to understand most of the sermon now. Not only did the pastor drive 120 km (75 miles) today, but he also went without lunch. I ate at 6:30 pm, but he went on to El Magro for his third service of the day and didn’t eat until after 9 pm. Rough work. After riding in the back of the pickup truck (we had twelve people in it at one time; he acts as a taxi as well as a pastor), I do not miss roller coasters in the States. I really like these services in the countryside: the small congregation, the sense of meeting at times in a building in someone’s backyard, and the idyllic scenery.

8 June

Back from a long weekend in Valparaiso, a charming port city which was built on steep hills, giving it its exceptional character. Each hill becomes a small neighborhood and can be reached from the lower city with outdoor elevators. I had a good time both wandering the city and also with two trips out to La Campana National Park for hiking and a second visit to see the rare palm trees. Palm trees aren’t often found in the mountains, this far from a beach. Spending time with some other native English speakers was also a great experience, to re-immerse myself into that language. The hostel was the perfect size for meeting new people but not so many new people that you were overwhelmed. The final night there were just four of us and we shared a stir-fry dinner.

I got back in time for classes at 8:30, but since yesterday was a holiday, hardly any students were here, and it takes hours for them show up, due to a combination of their living far in the country and the busses not running very early in the morning. That explains why we start at 11:30 on Mondays and finish early on Fridays.

9 June

I thought I had guessed wrong. Yesterday was dark, gloomy and rainy all day. Last night it was windy and rained a lot; you could hear it clattering against the roof, glad to be indoors (and last night was the first night I fired up the stove for some heat while I read). So I assumed, this is their winter, it’s arrived. But this morning the rain had stopped and we even had some sun appear, blue skies and the clouds opening. And an hour later, BAM, the rain comes down in sheets with a stiff wind and grey skies once more. It happened so suddenly that we all stopped what we were doing to watch. The rain has stopped, still puddles to dodge, but the grey skies remained for hours. Then it did clear up with blue skies.

I had a tough class today. It was a combination of hyperactive twelve-year-olds and technical difficulties. Things got better after the teacher told one of the worst kids to leave, and some of the others happily left their work to physically eject the kid and even punched him once or twice.

10 June

Every now and then the students screen a film for a small donation (one hundred pesos which is about fifteen cents these days). Since this is Chile, it’s not VHS or DVD but that pirate format that compresses a movie to two CDs and plays on a computer. But this time the quality wasn’t too bad (at one exciting part it got stuck). Let me tell you, you may have seen a horror film in an urban theater before and think you know all about audience participation, but the students are something else. Throw in their mocking of the horror scenes with their reactions to some childhood romance stuff that looks like it’s out of Dawson’s Creek (boy and girl talk about going to a dance and kiss) and you’ve got some audience participation. All part of the fun. The movie was “Darkness Falls.”

12 June

I spent a quiet Saturday morning at home with the stove, coffee, music and Spanish verb conjugations.

13 June

All you folks out there with 4wd and don’t use it, please ship your vehicle down to the pastor. We made it up the hills, but spun a bit with the truck, as we visited the churches. We had to walk more than usual, as some of the ‘driveways’ were impassable, at least for us. I realized as we parked the truck wherever to walk the rest of the way that there are few established parking lots even in town. They get by with parking on the street because there are so few cars. Another difference from the suburbs back home.

15 June

A mild earthquake in the morning to start the day. My first – I slept through two others in Wyoming and California. It’s a little different to feel the house shake, and to hear that rumble from deep in the earth.

18 June

The problem of theft in the computer lab – previously restricted to stealing the rubber balls out of the mice – escalated this morning when I found that someone had stolen a power cable, mouse and keyboard by reaching through a window from one of the other rooms (I guess due to complicated additions in the construction process, there are two barred windows that look into another room from the computer lab). I haven’t got a replacement keyboard that will fit that plug. A little discouraging, but I was warned that the kids would ‘steal anything not nailed down.’

21 June

Today we celebrated Wetripantu, the Mapuche New Year. Many students participated, some dressing in the traditional festive garb and playing traditional music. But the part that the kids seemed to like the most was the group of hip-hop dancers. There was a ceremony outside involving the music, branches tied to a tree and marching back and forth waving twigs. I assume that was the ritual to ensure good crops. We all ate in the gymnasium of steak and potatoes and then watched some traditional Mapuche dances by a group brought in from outside the school. That concluded the cultural part of the day; it was followed by a screening of “Van Helsing” in the cafeteria with possibly two more movies after supper (I left, more tired than hungry).

22 June

Are those students climbing the fence to escape school? No, he’s just trying to get on the roof of that building next to the wall. Why, I have no idea. Also suspected of escaping was this cow I saw trotting down the road, if cows can trot that is. Just a cow with a bit of a wooden harness around his neck but no cart or owner near by. I’ve thought of a pet, but I’m not sure he’d fit through the door. I watched him for several minutes. He was going into Imperial so I guess when he gets to the stoplight someone will notice him.

23 June

Off to Ancud, Chiloé for the weekend. It was a rainy windy weekend. Also most of the restaurants and cafés were closed on Sunday. But it was a chance to use the GoreTex™. Chiloé is an island a few hours south of here known for its folklore. I was lucky to find a traditional dance and music presentation while I was there.

1 July

Under the category of ‘never knowing what each day will bring:’ I am given a strange fruit-like object by a student and told it’s a dinosaur egg. It’s about the size of tangerine and has a strangely textured surface. I’ve got photos if you want them.

6 July

Saw off a German youth who served a year here in lieu of military service. He worked with another boarding school closer to town and a church popular with the German ex-pats here. I’m a bit jealous of his trips to Bolivia and Paraguay with his work but I bet he was never given a strange fruit-like object by his kids. I had to throw that away, BTW, it started to leak on the shelf where I left it.

8 July

Had a bad day today. It wasn’t one big calamity, but a lot of little things. Here’s a list:

- I didn’t get a shower in the morning because the gas ran out the day earlier and wasn’t replaced by the school. At the time, I didn’t mind that much and instead made coffee and worked through another Spanish lesson in the textbook. It also meant that I had a late breakfast, which didn’t seem to bother me, but perhaps that’s significant.

- I’ve had a cold for almost two weeks. It hasn’t gotten better as quickly as I hoped and despite spending a lot of time in bed, the sleep hasn’t been very fitful.

- I got tired of continually pushing in chairs for the kids after every class every day. I had been slacking off and only doing it at the end of the day, but my boss was in the room at the time so I did it then. He asked why I was angry. I tried to convince him that I wasn’t, and I honestly didn’t feel angry, but he wouldn’t believe it. I mentioned the problem of getting the students to leave promptly when the recess bell rings:

Earlier today, another faculty member substituted and she tried to get the students out with gentle persuasion. I had left five minutes into recess to get that late breakfast. She didn’t show up until after the recess had ended, proof to me that without aggressively helping the kids shut off the computers they won’t leave until they have to be at the next class. I sort of understood their side of it; recess to them means waiting either outside in the cold or in the classroom for the next class to start; only the teachers have a lounge with coffee to look forward to.

My method is to make a peaceful comment about recess when it starts, wait about thirty seconds, and then make rounds about the computers to discourage further work, prompt them to save, and if necessary close down the programs and shut down Windows for them. That’s how they have learned about Alt+F4.

The boss then asked me to bring that up in the Monday morning meeting. Not only do I not like to complain in that meeting, I prefer to avoid it altogether, sleep in and do a Spanish lesson over coffee in my house. So instead I have a meeting that I will barely understand.

- The boss asked me to open and ‘clean’ the insides of the computers, even though the method seemed wrong to me (to open a functioning electronic device and brush the dirt around and apply WD40 and Vaseline to moving parts). One of those computers failed to operate afterwards.

- The boss chewed out a student for not doing any work during class. I’ve noticed that for some time she does no work in class. There isn’t much I can do about it: I can kick them out a lot easier for going to music sites (against the rules) than I can for just pretending to work. That taps into the sentiment of being sad for the students because they ought to be working to try to better themselves instead of wasting their time. I think that sentiment is found in almost every school, but I think it’s worse when the student is disadvantaged to begin with. At least in college the understanding was often that the students would find work anyhow from virtue of their socioeconomic position. Here, I could almost be persuaded to take the opposite line; that odds are she’ll end up working as a live-in maid somewhere so just go home and work on the domestic skills.

- When trying to help the kids with a technical issue, one of them started making fun of my Spanish. Hurt, I stopped trying to explain to them what they needed to do.

- I have been in limbo for about a week trying to plan my vacation. One of the teachers knows a travel agent and is working to get me cheap airfare to Iquique (less than four hours flying time; 36 hours in a bus), in the desert regions to the North. What is happening, and it took me several days to learn this, is that we are waiting to see if anyone cancels an identical flight with the low airfare. I was going to fly, but the price jumped up 50% by the time I got permission to miss an extra day of school. I just want to know when I should buy my bus ticket since I am committed to buy the airfare if the agent is able to snatch it; and that time is always said to be the next day. And then today, I was told that I couldn’t stay with the people I know there. I had been looking forward to spending time with other long-term volunteers. I started to wonder if next I would be un-invited to spend time with them while I was there.

A pretty long list. I rewarded myself with a restaurant dinner in town. That wasn’t too bad; I had an interesting conversation with the waiter/cook there. They don’t get many tourists in Nueva Imperial, and he had a lot of questions about the USA. Anyhow, bad days happen here. I don’t always realize that I’m in a bad day until it’s over. Because if you know it’s just a bad day, you know that tomorrow should be better.

10 July

Sent a package home today. That was interesting. Once it weighed in at just under a kilogram, seldom consulted papers had to be pulled out to determine the price. The box had to be measured, and a phone call placed (to headquarters). The mysterious two-letter abbreviation for Pennsylvania had to be explained, and the word spelt out to the person on the phone (Tom Ridge?). It required so many stamps that they were also pasted on the side of the box. The staff was very helpful though, and added extra tape to the battered box. I think the postmaster was happy to have someone recognize his jacket (Harrah’s casino in Shreveport; he wanted to know which state that is in).

And I’ve received word that my airfare to Iquique has been confirmed.

11 July

A cold windy rainy day, but I finished up the first Spanish textbook.

12 July

Pablo Neruda’s 100^th, if you’re a fan.

Some changes from that morning meeting. It looks like students won’t be allowed in the lab anymore without a teacher. This gives me a lot of free time, since I won’t be sitting in the lab all day. I would be bored waiting in the teacher’s lounge for a class to use the lab, but I have hopes that this will allow me the time to take on an English class. I do want to make sure when the director made this decision he had all the facts. I think he was told that students were still coming in the lab without permission and that hasn’t been the case since we instituted the policy of requiring written permission slips.

I got that airfare to Iquique. The hassle getting it at the ticket agency (they had trouble with credit cards that day) would have been unacceptable in the US, but no one here bats an eye when I tell them. Welcome to Chile. Bring a magazine, so you can spend two hours at the ticket agency in comfort. Or nap; I did both.

14 July

Cueca dancing. Pronounce “Quaker” with a Bronx accent and you’re there. Our school was represented by two young students in a local competition at the gymnasium. This is an old Spanish dance, not Mapuche. The boys wear fake leather boots with riding spurs, vests and big rimmed hats. The girls wear dresses which I don’t know how to describe. Then they circle around each other, waving white handkerchiefs vigorously above their heads. I’m kind of sleepy right now so I know that description doesn’t do it justice, but it’s fairly accurate.

Two weeks of vacation for winter break photos

16 July

There weren’t any classes today so I hung around the teacher’s lounge until they left for a meeting and I left early for my flights. I noticed that the terminal in Temuco has two woodstoves and both were lit that day. Also, a street dog ran outside the gate as we were waiting to board the flight. I was met at the airport in Iquique by John Elmore who works with VIM and I had met earlier in Temuco. He invited me to stay with him at his house.

17 July

After some Folger’s coffee (John is the manager for work teams here so he gets frequent supplies from the States; his house is a virtual embassy with peanut butter and English spoken all day) I left to walk around Iquique. I like, well the fact that I can wear shorts and a t-shirt instead of my winter clothes, its beach and boardwalk. One thinks of a bit of Southern California or Miami, although it is also dominated by the Andes in the background. In Santiago they looked like the Andes but here there is no snow. But they rise so high above the city that frequently you think you are looking at a cloudy sunset only to look a bit further up and see that it is just the sandy mountains.

Iquique shares a privilege with Chilean Antarctica in having a tax-free shopping zone. Here that is concentrated in a mall and we visited that. Afterwards we saw some of the other missionaries and retired to Blockbuster for a couple of movies.

18 July

After some Folger’s coffee we went to church and met the work team that’s currently here from Lewisville, Texas (near Dallas). We had a big lunch at a military base of all places and then later that night I met Alice and her friends in from Ireland.

19 July

After some Folger’s coffee, Alice, her friends and I left for a trip, hiring a private bus to take us up to Peru. The first stop was El Gigante de Atacama, a design of a man and some other objects 86m high formed by arranging rocks on a hill. These are special energy rocks which ring when struck against each other. Then we drove past a gorgeous chasm on the way up to Arica where we stopped for dinner.

Here changed our plans and decided to see Bolivia instead of Peru. We imagined ourselves walking across the border to enjoy coffee and renew my visa at the same time. In Arica was a church made entirely (save the door) out of iron in Eiffel’s factory, although it was painted and appeared to be like any other church.

We then drove over to Putre, arriving at about 1:30 in the morning and settled into a hostel for the night.

20 July

Putre was fairly unremarkable. We had breakfast there, and moved on to the Lauca national park. Staying in Putre helped us adjust to the elevation of the park, about 4500m at its peak I believe.

In PN Lauca we saw volcano scenery, llamas (or one of their variants) in the wild and also a creature that looks like a combination of a rabbit and a mouse. It’s about the size of the rabbit and acts like one, but has a long curved tail. I’ll try to find its name somewhere. We also saw the world’s highest lake, Lago Chungará. I felt silly traveling all this way just to look at the lake and it was too shallow to swim in it so I waded in a bit. The others thought that the wading was silly, although they are not inured to the savage Temuco winters.

On the way back we saw a small town notable really only for the superstition that there is a table tied down in the church that bangs against the walls in its attempt to position itself outside of the house of the person who is supposed to die next. Whether tying down the table has saved the town from supernatural extermination or granted them immortality I don’t know, because the church was locked when I tried to go in.

After lunch in Putre we left for Colchane. More desert scenery. We stayed the night not in Colchane as planned but a Conaf ranger station. The hut was occupied by some college students from Santiago (which we had met earlier at the town of the demonic table) but we were able to sleep in another building which had beds but no electricity, heat or running water. I noticed that the buckets in the bathroom used to flush the toilets were all mostly ice. We had enjoyable onces with the students. The stars were very bright there, miles away from any light, and those rabbit-mice creatures came out at night to beg food.

21 July

The next morning we got up and left to admire the salt flat near the ranger station. This is a really salty lake that seems to be partially dried up. As you approach, first you get to the ground that’s coated with a crystalline salt and then salty water which was partially frozen at the time. On the way back we found an abandoned flamenco egg.

The road took us into some snowy regions. This was the reason the driver didn’t want to take us all the way to Colchane last night; he was concerned with ice in the road. We also forded a couple streams that were easier to navigate in daylight. There were some natural hot springs along the way, a nice facility for free, but the water was just lukewarm.

Colchane was not the shiny city we might have thought but a dusty stretch of town that was largely closed and without a restaurant. We tried to get into Bolivia for lunch but the immigration control on its side was at lunch and unable to be summoned by the customs official. We waited for 45 minutes and then left. By the way, between the two towns was a demilitarized zone that looked like landfill, mostly plastic bags waving in the breeze.

We ate at a nice restaurant outside of town and I commented that this had been a grand adventure and all that was lacking was a flat tire. This prediction was not appreciated when it came true later on way back.

Our final stop was at some geysers. These actually shot a stream of water into the air, but out of a carefully concealed pipe. Accompanying the geysers were collections of ice as the water settled out of the eruptions.

At a final coffee break we met a German bicyclist trying for a thousand miles during his four weeks in Chile.

22 July

Back in Iquique, I had a slow day. I helped John’s brother-in-law with his computer and visited a church office. We met the work team for their goodbye party at the English College and had ice cream afterwards. I went back to Alice’s apartment to for a reunion trip to the casino with the driver of the van but left early and walked home along the surf. The waves have been quite large lately and might come up over the road soon.

23 July

Checked on getting a bus ticket to La Paz for next week or maybe visit another missionary in Santa Cruz, Bolivia. I climbed up one of the mountains here with the path marked with large crosses. It was a nice workout and view of the city from the top. The trail was real sandy and steep at times. There was a party that night, allegedly for the English Club, but with plenty of Spanish spoken. I met a Chinese couple: he’s here taking photographs to publish about the parties in La Tirana.

24 July

I got up early and went up to Arica with Daniel, Cristina’s brother, and we took a collectivo up to Peru. There is the station which looks like a used car lot. Nearly all of the cars they use to get across are older large American cars with diesel engines. I spent nearly no time in Peru but got my stamp to extend my visa another ninety days. A trip to Bolivia seemed uncertain and I was glad to get the stamp. My vacation seems to be getting quite short now. I also got to visit Arica, a dusty desert town on the sea.

25 July

I had a seafood lunch with the group here. During the church service in the evening, a woman who had worked at the church for 35 years and had been chronically ill passed away.

26 July

Bought a bus ticket for La Paz, and saw the Iquique English College. I’m not sure what to say about the school. It’s for about 1200 kids but is not a boarding school.

While waiting for my bus to arrive that night there was a power cut. Candles were brought out to give a medieval look to the busy street. I was glad to have my light with me (link).

27 July

Arrived in La Paz around 1 pm. I went through the walking tour from my guidebook and saw a museum which was mostly old photos of the town. It’s interesting to see because it’s situated in what is like a large bowl. When you look past the buildings you can see the houses built up on the steep sides, and then some snow capped mountains in the background. The walking tour was mostly the old church in the center of town and the streets full of vendors. There is one section called the Witches Market where you can buy mysterious herbs and worse: dried up llama fetuses. For the tourists there are the usual woolen goods in bright colors.

28 July

I took in more museums, dodging school groups, and a view point of the town. I was about to just go home the next day but at the last minute signed up for a bike trip.

29 July

This bike trip is widely known in the city, one of the must-do activities, according to the tour groups. You leave town and start a ride about an hour out of town where you descend from about 5000 m to about 1500 m. Not only does it take you through great views and the change from cold snowy mountains to green muggy rainforest, but it’s billed as the most dangerous road in the world. It didn’t seem that dangerous for biking though because bikes can dodge oncoming trucks easier than other trucks. But a steep drop down should you go off the edge. We also had some rain and I noticed that people in Bolivia are loath to use their headlights. (Even when driving in the city at night.) So you did have to watch the road more than you’d like given the scenery but there were no problems on our trip. I saw some people limping and grimacing at the end of the trip so I guess not everyone was that lucky. You can read about this trip from http://www.gravitybolivia.com as well; although I didn’t take that particular tour group they are all about the same.

30 July

Trapped in La Paz for the day. I saw multiple signs in the bus station advertising daily afternoon departures to Iquique but all were lies. It was a rainy day and I was ready to leave and in hindsight wished I had sacrificed two hours of sleep to take the early bus which did exist, but I made the most of the day. I think the best part was the lunch in a hole-in-the-wall café where locals next to me where playing a dice game during their lunch hour.

31 July

Returned to Iquique. The bus ride was most of the day, but it was some great scenery. I’m a bit disappointed by the movies on the bus. I found it hard to really follow the movies that were dubbed in Spanish except for Shrek 2. The bus ride over was during the night and I was disappointed to find out that the return trips were all during the day. No doubt in the same bus.

1 August

First bowl of cereal in six months. I slept in and started to pack up for my return to Temuco. That night however I did go to the circus that was in town. It wasn’t all that different from what you might expect, similar acts as the bigger circuses but only one ring. Mostly gymnastics; there was a lioness in a cage outside the tent but she wasn’t used.

2 August

Spent most of the day returning home. I had a break in Santiago and walked around to a restaurant and a café (no longer the bookstore mentioned in the guidebook). There was some “Mapuche Nation” graffiti that I missed the chance to photograph.

3 August

First day back at classes. The kids seem to have enjoyed their vacations as much as I did.

5 August

We had two visitors from the States today, the sister of last year’s volunteer and her boyfriend. Julie had volunteered in a school in the Bolivian jungle before law school and her boyfriend John turned out to have spent time in Argentina doing similar work. Then they went to law school and now they are awaiting results of the Oregon bar exam.

Played soccer (baby futbol) in the town again. Good exercise, that’s all I’ll say about my efforts.

7 August

I was a bit concerned about the workload for this semester because the kids won’t be allowed to come to the lab with permission slips; just with classes. However after the first week it seems like classes are scheduled in the lab frequently enough to keep me from being bored. And I am mostly relieved of the disciplinarian role which makes things a bit easier. I still might get an English class of my own soon, stay tuned on that one.

Had a great little Saturday. Started with brewed coffee (French press) and made a leisurely walk into town to go to the post office and some other errands. I like being able to buy a bottle of Coke for just fifteen cents and return the bottle right there. I helped the Pastor trim some branches on his trees and then went out to take some photos of the Virgin Mary statue down the road. Just reflecting on how nice this area is. It doesn’t have a big draw to attract tourists but it’s a nice place to live.

9 August

On my walk this morning into town, I met someone selling roosters. Not in a store, just happened to be walking down the sidewalk. I asked where she bought them, wondering who sold them in town, and she replied that she was selling them. I wasn’t sure how to explain why I wanted to know where to buy them if I wasn’t in the market for a pair, so I managed to slip away.

10 August

Saw another couple odd things today. In a classroom during lunch, there were two students playing accordions. And that evening, I found three students practicing kickboxing in a dark corner of what they call ‘the park,’ a section of the campus near my house.

11 August

The rumor of Don White returning to Chile resurfaced. An employee of the city told me that not only was he returning but the municipality was in fact paying his airfare.

12 August

Soccer continues. I’m getting decent at defense.

13 August

On a rainy day, Thomasina, the missionary in Angol, visits the school with fifty others in a district meeting of some sort. She is doing fairly well there. I met here on May 15^th in Temuco. She’s here for three years working with pastoral counseling.

14 August

My second English-speaking visitor in so many days visits. I met Katy in Iquique when she was there with a work team (her photos). She’s taking another month before school starts to see more of Chile. Her pastor back in Illinois is a brother of the pastor who lives next to me (Ronny Pulgar) and also has a brother in Santiago where Katy has been staying. We saw the school, had lunch with Thomasina, and then saw the Methodist church and its school in Nueva Imperial.

15 August

Katy joined me on the visit of three churches. I got to translate her introduction. Highlights of the day were the picnic between the two morning services (we just stopped the truck along one of the more scenic stretches), getting the truck stuck in mud, and then Chinese take out from Temuco for dinner. The food was good, but I have not found Chinese food in Chile that had much of a sauce with it for flavor or spice.

16 August

Today Katy visited the school on her last day here. We were invited along with a class that took notes at a weekly animal auction in town and then she went to an English class. She returns to the States at the end of this week to return to school.

21 August

I spent the day at the house of the pastor’s parents in the countryside. Olympic tennis was widely watched on TV and Chile won its first ever gold medal. In celebration of this, people all over were honking their horns and which had a predictable effect on the dogs.

23 August

I was on my way to the post office this morning when I ran into some of the students in the plaza and ended up playing foosball (what’s foosball) with them.

Approved today to take on that English class.

29 August

I got to drive the pastor’s truck on those country roads to pick up some people when he was tied up in a meeting. I’ve been on the roads a few times but I would have been hopelessly lost if I didn’t have a navigator. Other than that no problems.

We ate some odd white fruit that was hanging on one of the trees. They told me that it was very common in September and this was just the start of the season. It tasted a bit like a mushroom. There was a clump of them up on a branch and my navigator – who works professionally with agriculture so I hope I can trust his opinion that it’s safe – knocked them down by throwing a branch up.

31 August

It was so warm last night (64˚F) that I had to open window. Spring must be coming. My English class should start any day now – I’m told that they are still trying to find a classroom for me to use. And the teacher doesn’t want me to sit in on any of her classes because the kids act up too much when I am there.

1 September

I met someone tonight from Coyhaique, down in Patagonia. I think he was a friend of the pastor’s father. I might get invited down to visit, have to see if I can take a week off for that. From the map it appears to be a nice spot.

2 September

Tried volleyball during a free period. Here in Chile, or at least this school, you can head the ball over the net (or kick), perhaps a bit of fusion with football/soccer.

Today was a great example of that catnap, just fifteen minutes but it’s all I need.

3 September

Off to Victoria for the weekend to visit with a pastor there. We also visited Thomasina who is just starting to recover from bronchitis; her first illness in twenty years. There’s plenty of moisture in the house where she lives and perhaps a mold or something is behind it. She’s moving quarters so hopefully she’ll be healthier for the rest of her three year stay.

Talking with a family over some bread and tea, it seems that some Chileans who went to the States and found work have returned because there was too much “work” in the culture in the States. Not that it was too many hours per week, but just that in Chile one doesn’t work as hard while in the office.

6 September

Hail, the first I’ve seen while I’ve been here. They say that they get hail on occasion but never snow.

7 September

I’m not sure how, but I ended up playing an accordion. It showed up at the cafeteria and was offered to me. It turns out that it requires some skill for music but noise is easily produced.

10 September

There were 20 students here for the weekend and we were all invited to the municipal theater for a classical music concert in the evening.

11 September

This is the anniversary of the military coup in 1973 when Pinochet took power. There are usually violent demonstrations in Santiago and this year was no exception. But I was in Angol and things were quiet there. I had another good visit with Thomasina (both of us are starved of English conversation and six hours of talking went by quickly and we only stopped when we noticed the lateness of the hour). It seems that some of the agricultural lessons at the school were taken to heart by the students and they managed an extraordinary yield on some extracurricular horticulture. Yes, plenty of strong marijuana plants were found by the police and one would hope they were safely destroyed in a fire. The farmers were put at the head of the anti-drug parade which was apparently scheduled at the same time by coincidence.

I am not sure I would like living at El Vergel (this is another Methodist agricultural school, for those you who didn’t read the prologue) in Angol. The alien sightings aside, it is a beautiful spot with lots of land (La Granja is quite small in comparison), but I’m not sure I like the idea of an open-to-the-public park, museum and nursery (plants not kids) on the property. I guess there’s still plenty of privacy, but it’s a different feel. Angol is much larger than Nueva Imperial and lacks it small town charm without adding the conveniences of a city. On the other hand, Thomasina does enjoy a house with a splendid view and very close access to orange, avocado and lemon trees and that counts for a lot now that the weather is looking like spring.

13 September

Found out today that I am broke. I haven’t been spending too much money here in Chile but I underestimated the costs of maintaining an empty house back home. I only have 98 days left here so I don’t think I’ll change too many plans based on this new knowledge (although buying that frivolous 1968 Mustang seems a bit less likely now) but it is a bit of a downer.

16 September

In anticipation of their Independence Day, the school held a cookout feast after the students left for the holiday weekend. Beef, chicken and sausage roasted on a long pointy thing.

18 September

Independence day for Chile. I went to Victoria again. The holiday is known for eating meat and the cueca dancing. I’m correct in telling people that we don’t dance on July 4^th in the States, right? Perhaps they do in other parts of the country, but never to the parties to which I’ve been invited. Thank God.

It turns out that the party at the church in Victoria is scheduled for the 19^th. So we – me, the pastor and Thomasina – took a bus out to Curacautín where we borrowed a car and drove further east to Lonquimay. This was a deserted town and it was raining so we went further east to Liucura where it stopped raining and we were able to take some photos. The pastor knows people in the town and we had coffee with a customs agent in his quite comfortable lodging (Sony TV with cable) and then took in two hitchhikers to return in a wet snow. At this point, maybe I could relate a few of the curiosities of this car: bad fan so it’s hard to see through the windshield, bad alignment but just keep the wheel pointed way off to the side, bad suspension (any pothole bottoms out), a window I opened didn’t want to close, weak headlights and something else wrong with the windshield so that water leaked onto the inside as well as outside. Quite hard to see. The car did have 302 thousand KM on it, in its defense. Oh, and the key nearly broke in half when I tried to open the door on our return. Not a great place to be stuck I think. Neither I nor Thomasina had our passports with us or we would have gone over to renew our visas, although as it was we just made it back to Curacautín in time for the last bus home which was then delayed 90 minutes because of a gas tanker flipped over on its side.

19 September

After the party (more food as on the 16^th) Pastor Elisabeth was having a party in the parsonage. But the guests can’t arrive until 10:30 when they get off work. Oh, let’s go to their workplace I suggest. It turns out to be a wonderful tour of the city jail. One of the oldest jails in Chile, it was once a Spanish fort. And compared to the Ethiopian jails Thomasina has toured (as an innocent guest); the jail provides food for the inmates instead of relaying on the families of the inmates. The most popular crime committed by the felons was abuse, not a surprise for those who read the Harvard Review articles from the links section. And they claim to have many supernatural events there as well, but I didn’t get to hear a lot about them.

23 September

Heard a Tennessee accent from a Chilean today. A group from the Red Cross was here giving a presentation to the students and needed some technical assistance. By the way, it’s still not easy to switch back and forth: Him- “Do you speak English?” Me- “Sí.”

The technician from the University stopped by today. We don’t have any real problems, but I showed him something that had been problematic; he couldn’t figure it out. I noticed that the sheet that the boss signs before he leaves claims he did a full day’s work on the computers and that it’s work that I do. I’m not sure how I feel about being a volunteer here and doing the work of someone who is getting paid. It’s something I would redress if I were here longer. When I asked the boss about this, he replied that the technician was a “muchacho” and quickly came whenever he had problems so he didn’t mind allowing him to get away with being here an hour and not doing any of the work he’s supposed to do. I’ve never seen him do any useful work here so I can’t substantiate that claim. Before I feel too bad about doing his work, I tell myself that he probably wouldn’t be doing that work if I weren’t here, so I actually am doing work that wouldn’t be done otherwise.

25 September

Last night we made kites and today we took a trip out to a windy field to fly them.

Trip to Patagonia photos

26 September

Took a bus down to Puerto Montt and stayed with the pastors there. After the service, we visited a member of the church who had fallen. She was riding in the back of a pickup truck.

27 September (condensing the info into one day)

Mailed some letters. The prices are different in different cities for the mail (it costs more to send mail to the States from Puerto Montt than from Nueva Imperial).

Got on the boat for the ride to Patagonia. Great weather. There were lots of activities on the ride. I assumed it was just a ferry ride – it is a ferry after all – but it had good food and programs as if it were a cruise. A booze cruise, I’m afraid. They have a generous BYOB policy that some abused. It wasn’t so bad this trip because there weren’t many people on board (about 20% of capacity) but there was plenty of noise as people returned from the pub at 2 am. And a fight and a broken door the first night. The staff seemed very reluctant of restraining those who were a problem, and lectures at 9:30 am about mutual respect on the boat and moderation with alcohol don’t seem to reach those who are the problem; they are still asleep in their bunks.

The boat stopped in Puerto Eden, a small settlement only reachable by boat. That was nice for a walk around, although I had some misgivings that we would be there as if it were a zoo to see this indigenous group we had learned about from a presentation on the ship.

30 September (condensing the info into one day)

I can’t say enough good things about these pastors I stayed with. The pastor in Puerto Natales helped me pick out a bus ride home, find a good tour with the time I had, and lent me gear for the trekking. We also had lunch (very filling pizza) in Argentina: it’s just 30 km away and where he goes for cheap groceries and gasoline. Rio Triful was a pleasant town nestled in a valley in some spectacular scenery. Argentina is a vast country of wide open spaces.

Due to the bus schedule, I ended up with enough time to get into the park. I thought about horseback riding but ended up with a day trip in a bus and got dropped off to hike for two days and get back in time for the evening service at the church.

I was able to borrow a big car-camping tent and a sleeping bag that looked fairly skimpy (but the thicker one took up my whole pack). It was odd to buy food in the small Puerto Natales supermarket. Not having a stove, I ended up with a lot of ham and cheese sandwiches. I was strongly thinking about trying to make an alcohol stove right there, but I’ve had so little experience with them I decided it wasn’t an option for someone with about two hours to pack for the trip. But D-Low, I was thinking of you in that supermarket!

For the tour we had decent weather and saw Milodon Cave, where some animal was found with human remains – proving it had postponed extinction longer than previously believed.

In the Torres del Paine (pronunciation tip: to-rays del pah-eh-nay, kind of weird, remember they will pronounce that I, anyways, not pronounced as pain) park, we stopped plenty often to check out the sites. The guidebook pooh-poohed the bus ride, but I would argue in favor of it (you see all the sites) and then getting dropped off to hike as much as you have time for.

At the first campground I ran into friends from the boat ride. “Steve, you said you didn’t have time to hike before getting back to school?” “I don’t!” Luckily, no one here at the school seemed to be bothered or even notice that I was back two days later than planned. It was fun to have dinner with the group, although they had stoves and two genuine French cooks so their food was a bit more interesting than instant mashed potatoes (made with hot water from the kitchen at the hostel in the campground and carried over in a – brace yourselves, ultra lightweight hikers - thermos I brought with me).

The first day of hiking we had brilliant weather but some trouble finding our way. The trails are beaten down and easy to follow except that there are occasional forks and no indication which fork is yours. Sometimes it’s a matter of high-water or low-water and they quickly meet up and other times you end up bushwhacking around for a bit. The trails weren’t too tough either; I mean some people are hiking here in jeans. It wasn’t the raw wild park I expected. I mean, there were snack bars along the way. Great scenery though.

I left the group at lunch; they were hiking the W circuit and I had to get back to the road for my pickup on a different path. There was a nice couple at the campsite that night from New Mexico and they had real coffee with them.

The second day a lot of the hiking was in grassland. That got a bit boring after a while and I wondered about reading while hiking. One real cool moment was when I was high up along a river and on the other side were wild horses drinking. Despite the wind, I could hear them making noises and watched one roll over on his back.

Had a bit of a moral dilemma when I got to the road at 3 pm. I had been told by the agency to be there at four yet the guide told me I couldn’t be picked up until at least five. There was little traffic and I could convince myself that I’d be left there overnight and then miss my 7 am bus the next morning to get back to the school. So do I hitch in? I have to admit it was a really nice spot to wait for a ride. I tried half-heartedly but didn’t have any luck. But when a tour bus stopped at 5 pm I didn’t ask whether they were from the agency that sent me and just got on.

I made it back in time for the last few minutes of the church service and then unpacked camping gear to pack up for the early bus ride the next morning.

4 October (condensing the info into one day)

I got dropped off by bus #1 at a police checkpoint to wait for the bus from Punta Arenas to pick me up for the ride through Argentina to Osorno, Chile. That was a nice ride, lots of wide open space scenery. I had books and shifted attention between them, the bad movies shown, and the scenery. I also was close enough to the driver to hear his music, so that acted as a nice soundtrack for the generally bad movies shown (a Russian prison movie with Van Damme; Wrong Turn, Man Apart and Along Came Polly). By the time I took bus #4 to the school it was 33 hours since I had left Puerto Natales. The worst part was trying to sleep; the bed felt really nice when I got back.

It was a real good trip. I’m glad it worked out that I could hike in the park. Still haven’t seen any penguins, maybe I’ll have to check out a zoo.

5 October

Some gossip about the school: the students all had a mandatory meeting on better behavior and there is now a school rule that the kids cannot carry knives. (Later I found out that there wasn’t a knifing incident, but that it’s a new national law; knives can now be considered concealed weapons.)

6 October

And in perhaps a continuation of yesterday’s news, the students now eat dinner separated by gender because the boys were shoving the girls and knocking down their trays. This was a bit of a surprise to hear; I hadn’t seen anything like that earlier in the months I’ve been here. (This was confirmed.)

8 October

This is a prime example of bad communications aggravated by not having a cell phone: I had been invited and made plans to visit a pastor in La Serena, a coastal town up north. I had the weekend picked out and I just needed to call to confirm whether I’d arrive Friday or Saturday. On the 6^th, I bought the trip (for Friday arrival) and then called up to report in with the arrival times to find out that the pastor was in Puerto Montt (south instead of north) for about a week. I was told that since I didn’t call back he made the other plans, but I now wonder if the assignment came up and he didn’t have a good way to reach me to tell me. I suppose he could have called the school. But his niece took the invitation upon herself and she showed me around while I was there.

Left Thursday and arrived in Santiago Friday morning. Found a nice diner type restaurant for breakfast and got on the bus to La Serena. What luck, it was nearly deserted. But it seems to be having some trouble, moving slower than other traffic. And stalling repeatedly. Thankfully not in the tunnel, but we stop outside there and give up. Soon, another bus pulls up and we change to that, a more crowded bus but we get into La Serena at the same scheduled time.

Rosio and I, after we got settled and had the mandatory onces, took a walk to the beach. Turns out that not all La Serena is beachside, the walk took us a bit of time. She said we walked for over three hours. The odd part was the dogs that followed us. My animal magnetism caused one dog to follow us along the beach and into town (it seemed to be mostly her territory given the authoritative manner she ran off other dogs) and another dog escorted us from the center of town to the house (about an hour) entirely without encouragement. We had no food with us, not sure what that was about.

9 October

The surprise for Saturday was that a giant fruit and vegetable market sprang up out of nowhere on the street while I had been sleeping. I got some cheap strawberries, peppers and a chirimoyo.

By the way, it’s also election time up here, although just for the local races, but there’s no lack for advertisements, pickup trucks with megaphones and all sorts of inducements to vote for one candidate in particular.

We walked into town after lunch and saw a Japanese garden, and the town park which doubles as a prison for local birds. It was nice to see a couple condors, but any cage is too small for such a bird. On the way back we saw the big local market for handicrafts. La Serena is known for its papayas, but I didn’t buy any. I was tempted by the juice, but judging from the ingredients (water, papaya concentrate, sugar, etc) it wasn’t all that different from what I had bought in the supermarket before.

In the evening we went to a youth service at the church which was nearly all singing. Sadly, I couldn’t find any songs in their hymnal I had heard before and of course I’ve none of ours memorized so I couldn’t participate.

10 October

Daylight savings time kicked in, now one hour ahead of Eastern time in the States. This hour also kept me from Sunday School, although I made it for the regular service, which followed the hot dog (called “completos” here) break. The interesting part of the service was watching birds fly in and out of the building; they have some nests in the ceiling. After lunch, I walked down to the beach to finish my book. Some people were in the water, but it was still a bit cold.

11 October

Not much news on the ride back. It was delayed from the onset, and I blame that and the traffic in Santiago for nearly missing my connection for the bus from Santiago. Unlike airlines, they have no idea who their passengers are, just that a seat has been booked, so they don’t wait for you. But I made it, albeit without dinner and got some reading in. Instead of a movie, we merely had a bad kung fu episode dubbed in Spanish. I’m not sure why Asian movies dubbed in Spanish seem more odd than being dubbed in English, but it didn’t seem to matter for this one because it had very little dialogue. It was of that style that we all mocked as kids, with loud wind noises as people move their arms.

12 October

Today I got my absentee ballot, a relief since they had been delayed in my state due to the nagging question of whether to include Ralph Nader.

The school is taking a survey of students for questions about their living conditions at home and what they think of the school. I wasn’t surprised to learn how many of them have outhouses, but I was a little surprised at the education level of the parents: a fourth grade level for mother and father seemed pretty common. (Boarding schools are free here up to a high school education, but perhaps this wasn’t the case a generation ago.) When I talked about the results with some of the teachers they seemed to define rural poverty as not having shoes. That’s saying something, given the used shoe market here.

The kids made a tennis court out of the futbol field and had a couple matches going on.

Our running group (4 km) got a lot bigger tonight. We have to avoid trucks as well as unlit bicycles on the road (close call with the latter). The interesting part was the kid who was hungry and started eating select weeds that were growing at the destination (the Virgin Mary statue). He seemed to know what he was doing.

15 October

For the Day of the Teachers (in contrast to the Day of the Students, May 12) we had an assembly yesterday and today classes were cancelled. It was a cold and rainy day and I turned on the stove for the first time in a while to work on my Spanish lessons and reading. In the evening I rode out to a restaurant/club in Temuco for the school-sponsored celebration of a buffet dinner and salsa dancing to a Cuban band. Cultural note: they notice and remark if you fasten the seatbelt in the backseat of a car. It was a good time and interesting to get out. It’s a restaurant that would not be out of place in the States; that’s a side of Chile I rarely see living in Nueva Imperial.

16 October

I went over to visit a friend, Wilson, who moved to outside Nueva Imperial but he wasn’t there. It was a good 4 km walk from the school and a great day for it. Yesterday was cold and rainy, today was nearly hot and sunny. A bit of a breeze to keep it cool, but I was still wondering if it was time for shorts. It was really too nice a day not to be napping outside. The clouds were big and puffy and demanded to be contemplated. Wilson wasn’t there but I received typical Chilean hospitality from the two women who were there. I don’t know him very well; I assume one woman was his wife and the other his daughter? She was nursing a baby and said the father is working in Spain. I think she said he would be there for ten years and there didn’t seem to be plans for her to move out there either. He is working without paperwork with a relative. The house was newly built and they’ve only been in it two and a half months. They like living in a neighborhood that is quieter than one next to a boarding school, and seem to be coping well with the fact that they don’t yet have electricity and that water enters the house out of just one tap in the bathroom. But the house seems more solidly built that the others with brick construction.

On the way back to the school I ran into Christian Salas, who often works at La Granja on weekends with the kids. He works for the city and was setting up a sign for a mayoral candidate. I want to get some photos of the signs around town. The election is the end of the month and so far I’ve seen lots of photos of the candidates and some slogans but nothing terribly compelling about either candidate. So that made two nice conversations with locals today.

And I cooked today, the first time here. It seemed a shame to use the new pots provided by the school.

17 October

Today I went into Temuco to visit the 2^nd Methodist Church and a professor there. There was a party after the service with pizza and cake to celebrate the birthdays that month and afterwards we had lunch at his parents’ house right around the corner. Visiting was a relative from Venezuela who was thoughtful enough to bring coffee. I couldn’t think of much to say about Chavez in Spanish.

I’m surprised a bit by the lack of geographical knowledge of the United States. Perhaps I shouldn’t be, doesn’t every survey show that students in the US can’t point to the USA on a world map? Anyhow, people here might confuse California with being a city instead of a state (the Director of the school) or have no idea of the distance between coasts (college student; “you’re two hours away from the beach!!?? That’s so far!” “OK; here’s a map of the USA and here’s Philly and compare that to the poor slobs in Kansas.”). Not being aware of Philadelphia seems trivial in comparison with those. So, I don’t know. As a superpower, do we deserve better attention in geography classes? I’ll try to check out the classes here at the school. Actually, I don’t recall being taught much geography about the USSR in the day. Update: the professor told me that they teach geography but the kids immediately forget it (according to the professor this is because of a deficiency of minerals in their brains). I also remembered about the woman in the post office often guessing the continent of my mail’s destination wrong, as in the Congo being in Europe.

18 October

I woke up early to try to help out with the lecheria and milk some cows and got a shot at it. It’s all with vacuum equipment of course, but still different than defragging a hard drive. BTW, I don’t think those cows have been shampooed lately, perhaps I’ll do that tomorrow.

In honor of the school’s anniversary (12 years as a liceo) there were no classes today. I didn’t find that out for a while. Instead, the students organized into three groups -- blue (the mascot was a student dressed up as a drop of water); white (princess) and red (ladybug chinita) -- and competed in various tasks like arm wrestling, hot dog eating contest (actually it was to eat a hot dog without water, then chug a pitcher of water, inflate a balloon until it burst, using only the mouth discover some object in a bowl of flour and then crack and swallow a raw egg), a scavenger hunt and soccer (of course you knew that was coming). This will continue until Thursday night. Perhaps as a reward, the students can once again dine with boys and girls together in the same room.

Spring seems to be here and the timing of classes is even more off. The bells still ring, but it’s a good fifteen minutes afterwards that the classes start. They still end on time, so we just have longer recesses.

19 October

Today the director asked me if I knew of anyone who could help with their farm equipment or help the school buy new mattresses for the kids. I promised to ask, but my feeling – which could be terribly wrong – is that the school already gets lots of donations and perhaps better management is needed before more money is requested. I don’t know, colleges in the States are always asking for money as well, aren’t they? I don’t understand everything that goes on here, but I could come up with a short list of questionable spending.

21 October

We had a program for the anniversary with some musical numbers and guests from other churches, including Thomasina. Some news from her (enough for her own website): She also gets little notice for things like a trip to Nueva Imperial. She was interviewed by the carabineros (militarized national police) as part of her temporary residency, as she is here for three years. I’m officially a tourist so I’m under the radar; she’s signed a three year contract and in theory gets paid (in reality, she can’t access the money due to some banking problem that’s taking a while to remedy). She’s has trouble with her mail; some hasn’t shown up and some takes months to get here from Britain. She recommended that I stop grinning so much when I tell people how many days I have left in Chile. She knows the volunteer that was abducted in Iraq. That situation kind of burned me up; the person has been there thirty years trying to help; speaks the language and is married to an Iraqi. A friend of mine warned me when I had considered going to Palestine that it wasn’t just tourists that were kidnapped. Even so, I have little sympathy for helping places like that now. Is that the point of terrorism? Because I might volunteer to work there if I were in a B-52, but when I remember that there are supposed to be people in there with Syrian accents perhaps I’m just easily manipulated by people who want a bombed, anarchic and weak Iraqi nation-state.

The white team won the week’s activities and this was announced in a dance that night. I hadn’t realized until I saw the reaction to a girl who didn’t win the king & queen competition (this might have been decided by which team won and not personal attributes) that is in effect their high school prom.

One of the students who also work at the school left the dance to work on something but must have been still dancing to the music because he cut his hand with a table saw quite badly. He was rushed off to the hospital in Temuco for surgery, and can fortunately still has and can still move all of his fingers.

22 October

I woke up from a nap and happened to walk into town with a student on his way home for the weekend and had a nice talk. He seemed concerned that the students mistreated me. In a good mood, I might have downplayed it. I answered that sometimes they did, but perhaps I could have elaborated on how I felt on those occasions. But what can you do? After all I’ve been through to get here, I wouldn’t want to cut out and leave because a few students kick rocks at me or insult me. He also asked me if I was afraid to go into town. ‘No, I’ve never had any problems,’ I reply. ‘On Wednesday night,’ he tells me, ‘some students went into town to buy bread and were followed back by kids with knives.’ I don’t know if I should do anything differently. I’d love for it to be true that I haven’t had any problems here or in other cities because I’m so tough-looking I scare away hardened desperate muggers but I’m not sure that’s true. I guess you decide what you can tolerate as a lifestyle and assume the risks, like anything else. Drive in the rain, but wear a seatbelt at all times. Live as they do in Tel Aviv. I could also mention that the murder rate in Chile is far below that of other countries in Latin America and it seems to be the only place where people (60% of them at least) trust the police.

23 October

Sometimes these stereotypes get mixed up. As the local gringo, I’m the one who is supposed to be uptight and always in a rush. But it’s the pastor who is like that here; always popping in with something urgent that has to be done right away, no time to lock the door or anything like that. I’ve often wondered if I will be able to adapt back to the atmosphere when I return to work but I decided that after 31 years in the USA; one year here couldn’t wreak permanent damage on my work ethic.

I kind of feel sorry for the kids here on weekends. It seems that there often isn’t much to do, especially when it’s raining. I found two students watching a sow reject advances by a hog, for example. Entertaining the kids is probably a lot more fun than my work, if I could find a job like that. I also realized later that I’m getting along pretty well with the kids if I could even imagine doing more work with them. At times the disrespectful ones had left a bad impression in my mind.

I found a babosa in my bedroom. Hey, you have to learn Spanish too.

27 October

After all this time there are still grand mix-ups with what’s going on. This semester started off with the grand rule to only allow the kids in with a class and professor. Often the professors asked me to allow kids in alone or for me to watch the class, as a favor. This was happening so often that I asked the head professor what I should do, since it’s against the rules. It turns out that the head professor chided the other professors in front of their colleagues and the headmaster, so one of the professors came to talk to me. She talked a lot about how things work at the school with a favor system but what seemed the biggest revelation to me was that these “rules” are apparently just set up to make things more convenient for me and that I am allowed to break them whenever I want. Thus, there is a rule that the kids can’t be here without a professor unless I feel differently. I’m wondering if rules are ever so interpreted anywhere else in the world. So I’m not sure if the other professors are upset at me or each other and I’ve started letting kids in without a professor, which doesn’t seem to confuse them at all.

Fell while doing nothing terribly dangerous and twisted my ankle. (I had the opportunity to scale a precariously placed board with steps nailed in it to retrieve a soccer ball from the roof of the gym, but none of us was foolish to do that.) Perhaps that ankle is weak from a sprain last year whilst in Alaska. It doesn’t give me a lot of confidence to restart a hiking career.

Great views of the eclipse. It had been raining, but then we had sun and the sky cleared up at night quite nicely.

28 October

Minor crisis in the morning with students under the impression that the director of the school called their parents to report that they were crippling missionaries and some would be kicked out. I believe now that the phone calls were only about their poor grades. I am able to balance on the sore foot and kick soccer balls with the good one.

30 October

Arrived in the morning in Santiago to visit Roger Mosquera, another volunteer there who is coördinating work teams. By the way, Roger used to work in Ardmore at the EMS store. Small world. It was nice to get reimmersed in English with conversations with him and Shana. Shana works with handicapped in a converted old house and Roger just lives there. Shana has been there nine years so she has a good perspective on how things are with the Methodist Church in Chile. Enjoyed Domino’s Pizza. It arrived promptly; I was wondering if they would be a bit lax on the thirty minute pledge. In the afternoon and evening there was a festival at the workshop involving the expat community with Santiago Community Church, an English speaking non-denominational church there, and workshop participants. My favorite was the folk dancing students who demonstrated dances from the different countries. All were very distinctive and interesting but my favorite was the haunting Panamanian dances.

31 October

Roger and I went to church. It was nice to hear “Ardmore” spoken with that upper class English accent when I was introduced. The church is very active and has members from all sorts of Anglophone backgrounds. This was my first English language church service since February 1^st. Not much was open afterwards. It was election day, and voting is mandatory. To keep people from being distracted, things like restaurants were closed. We went out to a park for conversation with Angie, who teaches English there in Santiago, and then went to the movies, which involved waiting on the steps for an hour for the cinema to open. We called it a “ghetto picnic” with the simple fare available at the minimarket across the street. Afterwards we waited an hour for the movie to start. We watched Motorcycle Diaries and realized too late that it was in Spanish (after all, those were real Latin American names for the actors and not Matt Damon & Ben Affleck). We understood most of it. We saw a few kids dressed up for Halloween, but no trick-or-treaters. We weren’t home much though so maybe we missed them.

1 November

We had a dinner with some kids from the English Reader, an English language bookstore which has a following of reciprocal English instruction. One of the girls is going up to New York state to work at a ski resort. It’s not for profit, but they take care of the visa application and the expenses; she expects to break even and is going for the experience. Another big topic was debating whether Chilean fashion was just a rehash of the ‘80s in the States.

I tried the train on the way home. I don’t meet many people who ever take the train and prefer the bus. It seemed plenty comfortable and does have things like a dining car or just the opportunity to walk further than the length of a bus. Pretty much like a train anywhere else, seemed to be recently made and nicely appointed.

3 November

Apparently most of the kids are staying home to watch the results from Ohio come in. This is the second day of reduced headcount (holiday weekend) and from what I’ve seen teachers are refusing to teach because they don’t have a quota of kids. So it’s movies, music and games here in the lab. Oh wait, it’s a cultural field trip that’s taken some of the kids away. Pity I wasn’t invited.

4 November

I found out today about something called ‘practica profesional’ which seems to be like a career elective. It’s for about two weeks or so after the classes end for the senior kids and they go to a place of employment. I think they are in effect interns.

Drove the tractor around the obstacle course.

When putting out some sheets to dry outside in the sun I saw the cat that’s been around from time to time. When retrieving the sheets, the cat was still there and we took a nap together. She’s affectionate and doesn’t seem to be a stray. Perhaps she’s been abandoned by someone on the highway; they do that to dogs when they are no longer cute. That night when dumping tea leaves in the back yard the cat was there, sounding hungry. I’ve no food for cats, but invited the cat in and she ended up sleeping for a few hours on the bed. It’s been a while since I’ve had a pet. I’m about to leave for a week and a half of vacation with friends from the States so I’m not ready to adopt a new one, but maybe when I return.

Visit from friends in the States (photos here, here and there on WebShots)

6 November

I met my friends (John, Sabine and Mary from the Quetico trip and Trevor, who speaks Spanish from previous experience in Latin America) at the airport. I was able to borrow the pastor’s truck (he is in Brazil and his wife gave me the keys, although I still feared the director of the school would yell stop thief as I pulled out of the garage) to speed my trip to the airport and have a backup plan in case there were problems with the rental vehicle. I showed them the school and then we walked into town. By chance we ran into someone I know who is from Germany and Sabine was able to talk to him in rapid-fire German. We found out about a new German bakery and went there after lunch in town. I have never seen the town so dead as it was then at 2 pm. We got a great strawberry cake at the bakery and rushed it home in a taxi.

7 November

We drove into Temuco for breakfast and some shopping and then into Villarrica. We unpacked at the hosteria Las Colinas and then drove out to Lican Ray to walk around, hit a cold beach, and then drive out to a lava flow.

8 November

We drove over a narrow frail-looking wooden bridge to see the Ojos de Caburga and then went horseback riding on a 4000 ha ranch. We never got over a trot on those tired horses, but it was still fun. On this trip we heard about how the ranch lost a third of its land during the Allende years and I think that almost made Pinochetistas out of some of us. Complicated times. Even the ranch’s beagle was chasing the horses around the field.

9 November

We got up early – ugh – to climb Volcan Villarica. This wasn’t the volcano I had tried to climb with Claudio back in the fall, but it was still fun. We were well equipped by the tour guide and driven up a ski slope to take the lift up to a trek to the crater. I’m not sure how far up the mountain you are allowed to be carried by machines and still consider it climbing in the volcano, but it seemed like sufficient work to get to the top. It wasn’t a fun hike, but concentrating on stepping in the footsteps of those ahead of you and not looking around that much. But on the way back, we got to slide down and that was pretty fun of course.

10 November

We took a rafting trip. It was fun with lots of splashing, but a short ride just the same. Maybe an hour and a half? I think it was mostly class III. Some Spanish words here are remo for paddle and balsa for raft.

11 November

There was some rain, but we had a good trip going to look at various waterfalls and then a stop at some hot springs. These were nicer than the ones I had been to in the fall; all natural pools and several of them to choose a different temperature.

12 November

We drove over to Valdivia for the day and checked out some old Spanish forts. One was on an island and an interesting stop. The ruins were in better shape until a recent earthquake. The flowers growing out of the walls were beautiful, hope there’s a picture of that in the collection.

13 November

With some rented equipment we set off for overnight camping in Parque Nacional Huerquehue. The hike was longer than I planned and turned rainy with lots of mud, but I’m just glad that I thought to grab some bamboo poles from the trailhead. It was a bit of a slog at times getting up but a nice rainforest hike (and you know, it often rains in rainforests). At one point we saw snow on the trail. And the waterfalls on the walk down were wonderful. What concerned me was just what we would do after we got down, wet cold and tired, to set up camp in the rain. It turned out that the group needed no convincing to stay at the Refugio Tinquilco just at the trailhead. This place was wonderful. It’s always a good sign to see the words “Real Coffee” here in the land of Nescafé. We took bunks there for the night. The house was very tastefully appointed with classic books (for example, two coffee table books by Michael Palin – Monty Python fame – including a note inside of them by the author) and art. The house was managed by a woman and her son. We gave the kid English lessons including role-playing to help with reservations. But when I knocked on the door in the game instead of asking “would you like a room” he said “vayas de aqui” and slammed the door in my face.

14 November

The next day we tried to hit the second hike, but we decided the trail was lost in the bamboo forest and returned. It was raining anyway. We ran into several people who had been dropped off by tour agencies and were not equipped for the hike up the mountain in the rain. I suspect they would spend most of the day in that hostel. We went back to our hostel and had naps.

15 November

On the way back to Temuco, we stopped by Conguillo national park for a picnic lunch and some short hikes. The road through the park was still blocked by snow.

16 November

Back at the school (they are on their way to Santiago for some more travels there), I found the computer lab a bit of a mess (and wild unfounded rumors of a virus causing all sorts of problems). Well it’s nice to know that my presence makes a difference. We beat Liceo Commercial in volleyball 3-2. As on Sept. 2, one can still kick the ball in regulation games. I thinking that it’s either a sign of the lax enforcement of rules in general here in Chile or a persistent deference to the preferred sport, soccer.

19 November

I went to a night of Bolero and Tango at the community center. I had read about it in the local newspaper and it turned out to be a formal affair, with wine bottles on white table clothes. But I checked and it was free, so I went ahead and listened to the music. It was my first exposure to bolero music so it was an interesting time. I had thought there would also been tango dancing, but I think it was just the music.

20 November

Got some milk right from the cow for the cat that I’ve seen around the back yard. Hope she finds it before it goes sour.

As long as you’re willing to get completely soaked, you can have a water fight with the hose they use to wash the school bus and other vehicles. The students were pretty fast, but I got the inspector general pretty wet.

23 November

The digital camera that I had been using disappeared from the lab. It was a confusing day as we prepared for the expo (see tomorrow’s post). Some students had been using the camera and left it in the office part of the lab and apparently another student picked it up when I wasn’t watching.

My first futbol game since I twisted my ankle and I did OK. It’s amazing to watch these kids play, they seem to really know what they are doing. I’d need to compare high school kids playing soccer in the US to be sure of course.

Another kid went to the hospital (something in his eyes I think). I think that happens so often that it’s barely even a topic of conversation.

24 November

Another kid went to the hospital (said to have fallen and hurt his head).

Today the school had an exposition set up in the plaza in town. There were tables set up for various programs here, like science exhibits for the various programs. For computers, the kids were playing Quake 2. It was interesting for me to see what the kids do when they’re not in the lab. There were studies of erosion, demonstrations of water pumps, the apparatus they use for digging pumps, graphic photos of work with cows (let’s just leave it at that), and items that they students make for sale like candleholders. I’d have taken pictures, but the camera seems to have gone missing.

A girl went to the hospital with an acid burn on her cheek.

In the evening I went with the director, his wife, and Don to a program of gospel singers in town. There has been a lot of cultural activities later, and Don pointed out that it’s significant that a town the size of Imperial even has a cultural minister.

25 November

I went into town for a band recital but missed nearly all of it due to a schedule change. Figures, last night they started 45 minutes late and tonight they start an hour early.

26 November

The faculty celebrated some sort of appraisal or accreditation process that was successful.

Roger Mosquera, a missionary in Santiago arranged a weekend at a orphanage in Coronel, a bit south of Concepción. Tonight, I took a bus ride made longer by road construction into Concepción, had dinner and went to bed.

27 November

I met the group at the train station and we went into Coronel, a bit south along the coast. Although we were briefed about how bad life had been for the girls at the orphanage, they were all smiles and happy to play. There were more of us than them so they all got plenty of attention. We prepared a lunch of completos for them (hot dogs) and invited them to the church service that night.

The service was in anniversary of the church. We prepared food for them as well and donated audiovisual equipment to the church that Roger had obtained somehow. During the service we introduced ourselves to the congregation and shared a bit about what we were doing in Chile and felt about that day.

Most of the group returned to Santiago that night, but Gaaitzen and I (he is the only one in the world with that name so he needs no surname) stayed an extra day. We stayed the night at the house next to the orphanage, where two missionaries who I met at my VIM orientation live. Jack and Judy Schaible are from Arkansas and are teaching English in the area.

28 November

Gaaitzen and I went down to Lota to tour a disused coal mine. Suffice to say that working conditions were cruel and onerous. If the tour guide is to be believed, eight year old boys were chained to walls of the mine to keep them at their station of opening and closing doors that were either shut to restrict fire expansion or opened to allow air pressure to subside. Afterwards, we returned to Concepción and I was happy to find a bus leaving promptly so I could return to Temuco in time to catch a micro to Nueva Imperial.

29 November

Water balloon wars on a pleasantly warm day. Actually, the balloons cost ten pesos each so also popular are plastic bags, bottles or five gallon buckets. Or another favorite is just to pick someone up and hold him underneath the spigot next to the soccer field.

1 December

First official goal in a soccer game.

I was warned that the students might try to, well, see all of me before I leave the school. This turned out to be a joke though it made for an interesting conversation topic for a few days.

3 December

Jack & Judy Schaible visit from Coronel. There was a little fuss when they arrived as when I told the school that two friends were coming they seem to have thought “fratboys” instead of “retired pastor and his wife.” Jack & Judy stayed in the infermeria and the boys that usually sleep in that building on the weekends were quickly transferred to another pabellon. We took a quick tour of the town. The telethon was in town. That is a weekend celebration of music on TV and it seems every named village in Chile. In Imperial there was a stage set up outside the cultural center with amateur live music and some dancing as well.

4 December

We went into Temuco to see the church and building from the book ________ that the Schaibles had read and saw a bit of town. For the telethon, the fire department was giving people rides up on their snorkel and allowing kids to play in the foam that’s used for oil fires (we saw three kids run around thoroughly soaked in the stuff).

5 December

Jack & Judy left for the trip back to Coronel.

For some reason the headmaster (nickname: fish belly) doesn’t want people to sleep on the grass outside the gym even though the sun feels so good. We might have to talk about this. Or maybe I’ll just send a water balloon lobbed his way to try to change his mind (bet that would dry faster if you laid down in the sun).

Made my farewell trip to the Methodist church in Imperial.

8 December

A school holiday for Immaculate Conception. There was a procession of Catholics out to the Virgin Mary shrine for some sort of ceremony. At the school we had movies, soccer and lots of water balloons. It was a hot day and perfect weather for this kind of stuff.

9 December

Taking a break from water balloons today, I met Andy, a guy from England who worked here a few years back with the pastor and with the English classes. He now lives in Temuco and I’d put his cell phone number here if I thought someone could use it soon, only because it would have been nice to have been to talk to someone else who had been earlier and share experiences, hopes, frustrations, etc. When he first got here, they put him in the dorms in one of the small rooms that an Inspector typically uses. This he described as “hell” due to the kids jumping around all the time and being awoken loud heavy metal music at 6 am.

Recovering from getting smacked in the chest with a soccer ball at close range, I found two students stealing lettuce and cilantro from the school fields for a party this weekend in their homes. The produce seems so cheap to buy in the stores; it’s a sign of the poverty here that it’s still something worth filching.

10 December

The campus seemed especially dead this afternoon. I went into Temuco with Camille, a youth from France who is at the school for two weeks working with Eric, who runs the school’s radio station (Radio La Granja 102.1 FM but there’s no license so it’s just over wired speakers). We had a little barbeque at his house and talked a lot. I managed a few French words, but I’ve forgotten most of the ones I once knew.

12 December

I said goodbye to the churches in Rulo, Carehue and El Magro. We managed fourteen people in the pastor’s truck despite a broken shock absorber mount.

13 December

It turns out that there are no classes this week. Had I known that, I might have made last Friday my last day. I do have some work this week on cleaning up the computers for the next year and I can take plenty of breaks in the sun as I stretch out the work.

I also got pissed off today. I heard a bit from students and found out that tomorrow most of the students will go off for a “paseo” and take a day at a swimming pool or water park. I really wish that one of the teachers had told me about this because they all leave fairly early in the morning and I still feel obliged to seek out permission before accepting an invitation from a student (not easy to turn them down btw) to go with his course. It was the last straw for me with the poor communication from the school.

It turns out that the pastor needs someone to drop off the truck in Temuco for the needed repairs. He takes this very seriously; I have put forth the opinion that the truck is a tool he needs for his job and it’s not his problem to sweat when there isn’t money to repair the truck or time in the day to get the repairs completed before an event.

14 December

Someone else already going to Temuco ended up taking the truck in. I was invited a teacher to a pool in nearby Labranza but first I went into Temuco with some students I know pretty well and had a snack by the soccer field with them. Not all of the students left, for reasons of money or finances probably. I had some trouble finding the pool in Labranza but made it with plenty of time to enjoy the day. The pool was small so I probably dove in about forty times. As always, one wishes he dove in a few times more when it was over. There was a big cookout with more than enough food. I didn’t expect a six-pack of beer to be there; they used some of it to fry the steaks and most of it to fry the students; most seemed to add it to their soft drinks as Chileans will also do with wine. We were lucky with the rain and the downpour didn’t happen until we were already back at the school. I’m happy with how the day worked out. I’m not sure it’s where I would have picked to go – I still assume that places with unfamiliar names that are difficult to pronounce are more interesting than places nearby – but I’ve no complaints.

The director of the school wanted to talk to me today. He apologized if he had been rude to me earlier (I thought he had, actually). He explained how the much work it is to oversee sixty people. He mentioned several times the financial problems of the school and made rather naked solicitations for a donation (for instance, apparently it strained their food budget when two missionaries came down to see me and ate in the cafeteria; yet if one factors in my vacation time, don’t I have a credit balance?). I wasn’t ready to say anything to him, but my opinion is that the financial problems of the school might be a result of poor management and that if he really can’t sleep at night due to the problems here perhaps he should step aside. I am to write an evaluation of my experiences for Volunteers in Mission when I leave and I’m sure that was on his mind.

15 December

There were water balloons at the school already, but that might have been the largest water fight that school had ever seen. This was the Christmas celebration at the elementary school in Rulo where the pastor teachers a couple days during the week. I forget exactly how it started, but I was well behaved and my water balloon bounced off harmlessly (only to be treacherously used against me). I then only displayed a dripping bag of water as a deterrent. But none of that worked, and I had to use my water bag and then fetch a cup. After a bit of this, I filled up a big bowl of water and used that as a portable filling station for the cup outside. I felt like I was fending off wolves like in the beginning of Call of the Wild. I would exchange water with the various kids but that bowl was running low on water when I lost the fight catastrophically. I had my eyes closed, but as soon as my guard was down from one student, I was deluged by about twenty of them, or so it seemed. I was soaked from head to toe, but with water fights, that means you have little left to lose. The kids at this point were using cups and 2-liter bottles and I ran around with one of those for a bit longer, but mostly retired. Until I was soaked by some kids while I was drying out, laying down in the sun. I sort of expected this of course, but those kids are so hard to catch. I have a better top speed, but they are much more maneuverable, no doubt from all that soccer. I eventually caught one of them and soaked him pretty good in the big sink; a trick I learned in La Granja. I certainly keep all the kids occupied, and found out later that the 12^th grade girls visiting from the Colegio Methodista in Temuco appreciated it when I had my shirt off. By the way, it’s not hard to get really soaked in a water fight and I’ve been thoroughly soaked several times at La Granja, but these little kids managed to eject one of my contact lenses; that’s a water fight.

16 December

In the morning was my farewell breakfast. It was scheduled for 8:30 and I confirmed that it was a punctual 8:30 but I would have been a bit early had I showed up then. The pastor asked me to wait for him and that extra ten minutes allowed people to show up and get settled. I didn’t really say anything during the breakfast; I was seated next to people who, while I get along with them, aren’t very talkative. The standard farewell gift is a watch with the church logo.

We had our Christmas celebration today in that park across from my house. After some musical numbers, all of the students received gifts like soccer balls, notebooks or school shirts. One student wanted to sell his shirt so I went and got the thousand pesos he asked for and we made the swap. Later I went and got that watch and asked him the time. When I found out he didn’t have a watch, I gave him mine. I felt like a thousand pesos wasn’t enough for the watch and I kind of wanted to give it away anyhow. He sought me out afterwards, I think a bit puzzled that I gave him a watch so nice. I explained the best I could that I didn’t really want it and already had three and he gave me a chocolate bar, which I later shared as we were waiting for lunch. I was full of a sense of generosity and felt great. When I saw him later, beaming and wearing the watch, my heart almost broke. I felt a little awkward talking with him though because I didn’t want to feel like I had bought a friend or anything. That sounds silly now as I write it, but I’m not used to it; would have been happy to just slip him the watch case and then disappeared.

That evening I went out with the pastor to a dinner in town. It was a good dinner, but we didn’t get back until midnight. He asked about the watch and urged me to wear it the next day so the director could see it, so I told him the story. At first he thought the kid would just sell it, but knew the kid in the question and agreed he was a good choice (bueno muchacho). BTW, I really don’t think watches make good gifts in general, despite the gold watch tradition with retirement. I think nearly adult already has a watch if he wants one.

17 December

The graduation ceremony was much longer than I thought. I don’t know why I always assume these things are an hour long. It was a combination ceremony for the 8^th graders and the 12^th graders, although the 12^th graders need to complete an internship (practica) before they get their degree. It can take a while for this because the kids need to support themselves during the unpaid internship and they need to save up money for the housing, etc. The bishop was there but I didn’t officially meet him.

I packed up all of my stuff and went to one of the professor’s houses – Pedro Aguilar, theater/Spanish - afterwards with Eric and Camille for yet more food. I spent the evening there before heading off to the train station and got to talk a bit about my experiences for the year.

18 December (condensing the info into one day)

The ride over from Santiago to Mendoza seemed quite long, maybe seven hours. But as the guidebook says, they know how to live there and I enjoyed the many parks and chances to catch some sun. (The guidebook also has a remark in Chile that if you’ve come from Argentina, you’ll think that the drivers in Chile are saints; stop signs in Mendoza seem to mean the same thing as a green light in the States, and I saw one accident with an overturned vehicle. Many of the intersections seem to have no right of way at all.) I’ve gotten a bit too addicted to the sun, but it’s hard to turn it down when it feels so good and when I see how cold it is in Philadelphia. The highlight of the weekend was a paragliding flight. Not only is it always a great experience, but I had great views of the mountains and city in the clear air. On the ride back the driver of the minibus changed a radiator hose at the gas station, but I was happy in the sun knowing I had plenty of time to catch my flight.

21 December

Airport, flight home

Re-entry to the States

I really haven’t seemed to have suffered any culture shock with my return.

Returning during the holidays was a convenient time to get reacquainted with my friends because the parties were already scheduled. I had about a month before I found a job so that was a good amount of time to relax. Those times seem to be gone now because of the time spent at work and a sudden awareness of the chores that need to be done around the house. As I write this on February 12, 2005 I seem to have no free time left because I choose to spend it in the city after work and I am getting up early for exercise again, but that was more the transition from easy unemployment to fulltime work.

Update, April 2005

OK, the culture shock did set in and took a while, as it’s said to happen while abroad. The novelty wears off. I think also part of the issue for me was that when I came back I was trying to be a better, more responsible person with that fresh start. A major problem came with housework. I have a house with fourteen rooms, most of them small. But try to mop them each week and it’s about four hours gone. Add in the pressure of fixing up the fixer-upper (how many years could you put up with a hall that’s halfway stripped of wallpaper and needs re-plastering), and of course keeping current with reading news magazines and a novel, laundry, dishes and try to have a social life. Pretty much I decided I could keep my house clean or have a life. The option to hire a housekeeper wasn’t one I fancied as I saw that as too aristocratic. It seems that the answer was just to relax my housekeeping standard to traditional male levels, which can still be above the stereotypical bachelor levels. I’m sure this sounds trivial to you because it does to me as I write it, but it was enough to make me pretty depressed for a couple days.

A couple minor ones:

I’m having trouble with driving to work on the turnpike. I was trying to drive 60 in a 55 and it turns out that flow-of-traffic is at least 75. I think they drive faster when there is rush hour traffic than other times during the day, so that is a bad habit to get into.

I had some brow-furrowing over people abusing shareware licenses for software at work. I guess that’s hard to explain, but sometimes software is free for individuals and not for corporations or free for the first thirty days even if it continues to function after that time.

Conclusion

I think it was worth it. For the most part, I was uncomfortable living at home before I went to Chile and felt like I needed the trip. I do feel better after the experience. Near the end of the year I was puzzled why I felt so good about the experience because it is so easy to start harping on the negatives. But perhaps that’s like anything else; plenty of negatives but more positives. After all, I could tell you about wet feet, bugs and poison ivy on the Appalachian Trail but that was also a worthwhile experience. I feel like I’ve made a contribution that was more meaningful than answering a letter from a charity devised by a marketing company. I’ve made new friends and had the rich cultural experience of living outside the USA for an extended period of time. It’s hard to put my finger on exactly what the benefits were and usually when I discuss this with people I feel like I have been a poor salesman for the program. I think it either appeals to you or it doesn’t. It did for me, but I’m not sure when I would return for a second project. But then, I still need to save up money for a few years before I can consider it, so maybe that’s a good thing.