bistec_ab's Journal

Despedida (going away party) from the Hogar
I don’t really know where to start with this one.....Our despedida was what I suppose I should have come to expect from all things at the Aldea, a mixture of a lot of things. Chaotic, surprising, disappointing, frustrating, and confusing, all at the same time. I still don’t completely understand how I feel about it, but I suppose that shouldn’t surprise me anymore.
The despedida Lindsay and I threw ourselves was supposed to begin at 3pm in the art taller. We’d gone to Lider the day before to get food, balloons, and print off a bunch of copies of a picture of ourselves, to give the girls, along with our email addresses, and a quick note. No one showed up till after 3:30, and those that did show up didn’t total over about 15 girls…..I guess I was naïve to expect more would come, but it still hurt. And at least a few of the ones that were there were obviously just there to eat the food, and take advantage of the fact that we weren’t doing the best job paying attention to what they were doing.
A few of them had helped up put up balloons all over the room….all of which were popped or taken down within the hour, and we hurried to get them out of the art taller because Pudding had told us to make sure we showed up to our despedida with the staff, and a small group of girls we picked out on time, at 5pm. A little after 5 we finally managed to get the taller closed, and lo and behold, Pudding isn’t even around. To add insult to injury, she had lost the list of girls we wanted to be there, and two of the tias came in, to (not at all subtly) ask us which of the girls came regularly to our talleres. When things finally did start, they were nice. The tias had nice things to say, everyone seemed grateful for our time there, and the girls who spoke up were funny and appreciative as well. We got cards and picture frames, a weird little booklet with Chile facts from the administrative staff, to remind us of Chile, and a delicious manjar cake from Tia Fresia. Everyone was shooed out abruptly afterwards, so I don't know if Lindsay got much of a chance to say goodbye to the tias.
Afterwards, we cleaned up the taller, and went through each of the 4 hogars we're closest to, so Lindsay could say goodbye. We were received with a mixed bag of emotions, and I was just thankful I wasn't the one saying goodbye forever to the chicas. The harder it got for Lindsay, the more I kept repeating “see you on Monday”, “I'm here for another week”…. “I'll see you all next week”. It was also pretty disappointing to see how many of them WERE actually around, and just couldn't drag themselves to our despedida in the art taller, for whatever reason. Sandra and Claudia left us at the door….I could see them both break down crying as Tia Isabel closed and locked the big metal door behind us. They’re both kind of outcasts at the hogar, but with so so much spirit, I just hope it doesn't break them somewhere along the way.
So that was the despedida, I guess disappointing and frustrating are the feelings foremost in my mind right now. This isn’t to say that some of the girls weren’t sweet as hell, but those girls always are. We got so many hugs, and promises to write, pleas to not actually leave, demands as to when we were going to come back and see them. But somehow things generally seem to end up overshadowed by the disorganization and shortness of our director, and the most misbehaved of the girls.
And on top of all that, I still have a week left…without my best friend at the hogar, and I still have to leave all 75 girls all over again next Thursday.

Current Mood: sad

Chiloe with the Claw; Wandering for days in Southern Chile
Took a much needed vacation this past week/weekend....to CHILOE- this group of islands about 12 hours south of Santiago.

On the way to work on Wednesday I LITERALLY got stuck in the bus doors...stupid hiking pack. We finally made it downtown, to our glorious Tur Bus ride....the attendant may have been the most obnoxious person alive. He kept trying to flirt with Lindsay, which meant he kept waking ME up, stole our blankets while we were sleeping with them, and told me I was going to become anemic from sleeping so much. BITE ME man, its a 14 hour bus ride....I'm allowed to sleep all I want.

Thursday we had lunch in Puerto Montt, and then took a bus and ferry to Ancud, the first city in Chiloe. We stayed at the cutest little hostel ever, Hostel Mimi...Mimi herself was precious, and took good care of us. We did a lot of wandering; wandering and eating took up the majority of our time this weekend, hahaha. Everything looked very similar to Ireland, all the green rolling hills, bright houses and boats. I took way too many pictures of house tiles...they're all wood, painted horrid colors, but I liked them. Lots of wooden churches too, Chiloe is so different from the rest of Chile, it was like being in a different country.
Friday we took yet another bus to Dalcahue, a teeny tiny town, and then took the ferry over to the island of Quinchao and stayed in Achao. It was beautiful, cold, but sunny and beautiful, totally quiet, as no one was around doing anything this weekend. Easter Sunday we probably saw more people out and about than the rest of our trip combined! The hostel there was a dump, HUGE, but the walls may have been made of paper, the service was bad, there were insane amounts of swearing fisherman everywhere, starring at us, and Lindsay got fleas. Boohiss on you La Nave!
Saturday we went to Castro, one of the biggest cities, and had lots of fun wandering around, looking at more churches, and boats, went to the artesian market, and met a guy who used to live about 3 blocks from me, in Santiago, and a guy from Barcelona! I heart the Spain Spanish accent. We ended up going to a Mexican restaurant for drinks, made friends with some Chilote older guys...and then met Mike from Minnesota, and Skylar from Idaho. How's that for a random night? The best was Chilote Mario telling us he hates gringos, but thought Lindsay and I were good people, and good examples, hahaha.
Sunday we slept in, and took some pics of the Palafitos in Castro...the fishing houses on stilts. Reminded me of that old witch, Bony Legs. Though her house was on chicken legs, not wooden poles, but work with me. We couldn't go see the penguins, which I was sad about, but apparently actually seeing penguins would have been a crap-shoot. So we got back to Puerto Montt early, ate dinner and had fun with a sticky Spiderman toy and my digital camera in the bus station.
Good times with the Claw in Southern Chile. Not sure I'm excited to be back.....

Current Mood: My guata hurts
Current Music: I have the 'putita' song stuck in my head

10 Months Later....
10 Months Later And...

I can't believe it's only been 10 months

I have some really close friends that I hope continue to play a part in my life

I have 70+ little sisters, wonderful, annoying, intelligent, hurt, amazing little sisters

I am obsessed with cream cheese

I miss my family & friends

I went to my first 'real' soccer game (Viva River Plate!)

I feel like I've been at the Aldea forever

I'm living with two guys for the first time since I moved out after high school - and they kinda feel like my brothers too - brothers from anotha motha

I went on a 5-day real live hiking trip- and survived

Despite never wanting to teach English, I have girls who will only do their English homework with me because 'Tia Annye explains things really well'

I'll be leaving another boy behind, though in totally different circumstances- better or worse I can't yet tell

I'm not afraid of the busses here anymore

Gema doesn't hate me anymore

I have visited two new countries (Argentina & Peru)

I can actually cook real food for myself

I haven't driven a car since I left the states

I have a very bad Kriko addiction, I blame Little Lindsay

I still haven't been inside a 'cafe con piernas'

I miss being in school

I am unbelievably sick of all the catcalls I get everyday, yet am afraid I’ll become convinced there is something wrong with me when I don’t hear them in the states

I don't feel embarrassed actually using my Spanish- even on the phone

I finally went to the Santiago Zoo, for the first time

The strongest people I've met here are still in grade or high school- and I can't even comprehend some of the things they've taught me

I would kill for a Big Mike's #5 with mayo

I have seen the Southern Cross

I'm excited to go home

I'm sad to leave my home here

I can’t believe it's been 10 months

Current Mood: contemplative
Current Music: Matt Nathanson

March class update...while its still March ehh?
The newest class arrived and started their orientation on the 12th….It was amazing how much easier it was to coordinate the arrivals of the11 of them (8 full-time and 3 part-time), after stressing out so much over the December class arrival.

Orientation week went well, seemed so much more low-key than the rest of them, though maybe this can be attributed to the fact I was only a part-time leader, and their welcome party was a ton of fun…dinner and dancing at los Buenos Muchachos (and drinks with miss Teri Carlson and Sam Ferm at Kiko Schop later on)-the highlight being when Luke was pulled on stage to be part of the ‘Isla de Pascua’ cultural dance, and ladies in grass skirts stripped him of most of his clothing, haha.

Ok, lets meet the Newbies: Andrea- representing the Midwest, oh yeah! She seems a bit strange, but in the fun, I don’t care what you think kind of way- in her mid twenties. Lily is another baby (19 years old), like Little Lindsay-I see a lot of the same things in her now…shes one of the one’s I’m a project coordinator for, so I’m exited to work with her. Kaori, is from Japan, so puts our international volunteers rate up, a wonderfully smilie and sweet girl. Robert is the sole male in the group, a 24 (or is it 23?) year old ballet dancer working in the baby house….I’ve already roped him into coming to the hogar to teach my diablas, Louise is from England, couldn’t seem more genuinely excited to be here, thus far as been chatty and lots of fun. Ariane is from Canada, very quiet, so I haven’t gotten a good reading on her, she’ll be living in her hogar with Claire, another English bird, who I really like-I actually met up with her before the june class started, and I’m a fan, muy buena onda with that one. Karoline is from Norway (haha, that’s where I occasionally tell people we meet that I’m from) and seems to really know her stuff with kids-I think she’ll be great. Kristen, Sonal, & Sabrina are our part-timers, Kristen is from Minnesota and went to UW (wootwoot), Sonal is from India, and funny as hell….and Sabrina is from Holland and speaks 6 languages!

p.s. check out all the photos of us on the VE website: www.voluntariosesperanza.org

Current Mood: sleepy

Peleas
Its only Wednesday and I'm already ready for the week to be over, over over.

Monday was rough, Mati left again for Mendoza, I got a bit of a verbal beating for that whole situation from friends (they meant well) I was running on four hours of sleep, and still had tons to do for the new class arrival next week.

Then I got to work. Things started out fine, Lindsay and I decided to take some girls into the taller just to paint and listen to some music. Tiana and Karina had been arguing earlier, or rather Tiana (14) began the afternoon being annoyed by Karina (9)’s presence. Things escalated in the taller, and Tiana ended up throwing her cup of water all over Karina, twice. Then they started hitting, slapping and pulling each other’s hair. Lindsay and I broke them up, then Lindsay went to get one of the tias. They just kind of circled each other for a bit, or rather Karina sat in her chair, pretending not to be afraid of Tiana, while she tried to get in her face and provoke her. At one point Tiana went to the corner and picked up the broom. She said ‘you like being hit with these at home, why not here too?’ I had no idea what to say or do. I was so struck with the hurt, anger and frustration someone would have to experience to think something like that, much less say something like that. And Tiana’s only 14 years old. She’s covered with self-inflicted ‘brands’ I’ll say for lack of a better word. She either carves things into herself, or has someone else do it, like the huge shape (closest resembling a knife to me) that covers her left shoulder blade. About 2 minutes later they were at each other’s throats again, and the tia arrived just in time to help me pull them off of each other. Tiana was pissed she was the one getting kicked out, and Karina was wet, shaking and bawling.
Afterwards I just held Karina while she cried, and tried to hold back my own tears. Tiana probably needed that hug just as much as Karina did, but what’s worse is that afterwards I was thinking about it, and I don’t know if I was holding Karina to make her feel better, or to make ME feel better.

This was the first fight I’ve actually witnessed at the Aldea, I suppose I should consider myself lucky- the Lindsays experience them more or less frequently. But I just feel even more useless and frustrated with the situations that breed such damaged little girls.

Current Mood: blah
Current Music: Dispatch

Aldea-rific
Lets talk a bit about work at the hogar...its been long enough yes?

This week was totally fun. Our director (we call her Pudding, so we can talk about her in front of the girls without getting ourselves in trouble) has been gone for the past 2 1/2 weeks, and it’s been glorious. I swear we’ve had more tallers and classes without her around, I know she’ll still find fault with whatever we’ve done as soon as we have our overdue sit-down-chat with her, but I’ve had a great two weeks.
Crazy things continue to happen…like the other weekend when I was noticing the girls hanging out near the fence separating us from the nuns, only to return with two huge garbage bags filled with honeycomb-looking white things. They all sit around watching TV and eating whatever this is. And what does it turn out to be? The excess from cutouts of the communion host. Why anyone would willingly eat the Styrofoam-flavored cardboard I don’t know…and does that seem sacrilegious to anyone else? And then there was the time last week when Lindsay and I actually got locked IN the hogar….so we played war until we saw Karina walking by and banged on the windows until she alerted the Tia to our presence.

Wednesday February 22nd VE had a summer carnival for the kids, with games, art projects, volleyball, twister etc. I was in charge of the art project, had the kids make headscarf things with potato cut-outs on fabric, a little on the slow side at times, but it was fun. We brought 11 girls from the Aldea, and they actually behaved themselves! The finale was a talent show MCd by Neil and Edwin, VERY funny. Mati and Mauri showed up at the very end, so they got to see most of the talent show…didn’t get a chance to meet many of the girls, but Lola was in my lap and was cracking me up with her absurdly inappropriate comments, including how attractive the two of them are, hahaha.

Mark had come in early last week and again this Monday to teach a break-dancing class, and we had Neil come in last Thursday to do a Japanese taller. Waaay too many girls came to it, and we’re kinda of diablas to Lindsay and I….Paula ended up dumping black paint all over the place and swearing at Lindsay, but we managed to keep most of them in line, and they all seemed to really enjoy themselves.

But Tuesday was lo major de todo. Edwn came in to teach a Cumbia dance class. He brought Neil with him, and Lindy showed up to take photos, and Mark re-appeared- because I think he likes hanging out with the girls. So there were 6 volunteers dancing cumbia with about 3 girls, and around 10-12 at any given time there to ‘watch’. Just fooling around with the ones that come to taller has been so much fun this past week, It doesn’t seem to matter what we start out doing, it always ends in a dance-party where at least 3 Michael Jackson songs are featured, sometimes belting out Avril Lavigne with Pati or dancing and spinning around with Belen.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Music: The Format

Rest of Vacation
I'm just going to start where I left off....

After leaving Torres we went back to our hostel in Puerto Natales for another night, went to this wonderful pizza place, had lots of cute text message, and got to sleep in a REAL bed for the first time in 5 days, it was glorious. Monday we had to change hostels and then spent most of the day wandering around Puerto Natales- and Fermie got her king crab dish, finally.
Tuesday morning (January 23rd) Liz and I headed off for El Calafate, Argentina. I think the original plan was to see the Perito Moreno glacier, then begin our trek northwards through southern Chile. Plans changed. After talking to numerous travel agents and airline attendants we decided we wanted to somehow get up to Buenos Aires. Which eventually meant taking the 36 hour bus ride up to Barriloche, along ‘scenic Ruta 40” and finding our way north from there.
And ohhhh the bus ride. Finally left El Calafate almost an hour and a half late, and somehow managed to snag seats directly behind the most obnoxious women I’ve ever met. In. My. Life. About 1am we’re all asleep and the bus just stops, I’m out of it so I don’t really question this, until 2 hours later when we’re herded off the bus and loaded onto another one-technical difficulties. 9am the next morning our new bus-neighbor breaks out his flask…. its going to be a long journey. We made a few other stops, like at the “Olnie Hotel”, where running water means the proprietor will turn on the hose out back for you. And then I stepped in dog poo getting on the bus, and so that scent mingled with the 26 hour old bathroom stench—good times. And then we had a three hour rest in the town of Perrito Moreno, which about all I can say for it is its windy. 8:25am the next morning we arrive in Barriloche…and left for the airport about 5 minutes later.

Later that day we landed in Buenos Aires!! Oh my gosh, what a beautiful city! It felt a little like being back in Europe, it was nice to be back in a big city after the countryside and smaller towns. We found a cute hostel and booked tickets to see our first South American Futbol game!! And then we went out for Mexican food. Which I have not heard the end of from the Argentineans- but it was good, so they can shut up. Thursday we wandered all over and finally made our way to La Boca, one of the cool little neighborhoods in the city, but didn’t end up doing much once there because we were so tired. And we walked through Plaza de Mayo, complete with a Madres de Mayo demonstration. And then around 7pm we left for the game! It was River Plate vs. something Petroleo (Argentina vs. Uruguay), and the Toyota Libertador Cup, woot woot. So much effing fun, River is Mauri’s favorite team, so we took lots of nerdy pictures for him- and our team won 6-0.
Friday we hung out in Barrio Once and did way too much shopping, eeek. We went back to the hostel for a siesta and then went to Barrio Palomo for dinner.
Saturday we went back to La Boca again, saw some tango, and were just rather lazy all day…had about 4 Clericots de Sidra (the wonderful Argentinean take on white sangria), and lots of ice cream.
Sunday we flew to Mendoza and spent a few hours wandering around there. Most of the shops were closed, but we had a good time, then took the 7 hour bus back to home sweet home.

Current Mood: annoyed

PICTURES OF TORRES!
Sammy has her pictures all up....so we're just missing the other 1/2, that Liz took.

Take a look!

http://photos.yahoo.com/samferm

Patagonian Adventures....Pt II
DAY FOUR: Ahhh day four….yet another one with our backpacks from hell…..though supposedly the easiest day of the 5-day trip. We got up gloriously late…why? Because we could! Fermie and I went down to the river for a little bit, just chilled out watching the mountains. The 2 hour hike took us a little longer than expected (hmmm, sound to anyone else like a pattern is developing? I take about 99.9% of the credit, hahaha), but I was just glad to get the damn pack off my back. The Pehoe campsite was really nice, a lot bigger than most, and HOT SHOWERS!!! But first thing we all did was pitch our tent, and take a beautiful, toasty warm nap inside. And then came the best spaghetti bolognese (out of our huge, huge pot) of my life.

DAY FIVE: Last day…..and the first day I noticed how horrifically swollen, in manner of elephant man, my body from my knees down was (and lets hope my pot-belly can be chalked up to swelling too, shall we?). The three hour hike to Glacier Grey was a tougher one, especially as it was almost all uphill on the way there. We passed at least two lakes on the way up, the variation in every part of the park is amazing, and we made a few stops to enjoy the scenery (and give my angry knee a chance to rest). Samantha and I, in lieu of not having seen any pumas yet invented our Puma Song. Good times trying to seduce the elusive pumas out of hiding with our beautiful voices. Sadly we were not successful. Liz waited for us for the final hour hike to the glacier, so we’d be one big happy beaver family…and not only was the view amazing, we were the only ones there! Since no one else moved to, I took it upon myself to stumble down the side of the mountain to get us some glacier ice/water…not the best idea I’ve ever had….but I wasn’t going to see the glacier and not have our pisco with glacier ice! And, of course, I bit it on the way down, and had a little trouble getting back up to dry land, but our pisco/maderina/glacier trago was glorious.
Liz, RAN back to the campsite, we were a little scared we wouldn’t make the catamaran in time to get out of the park that evening, and Samantha and I walked even slower on the way back down, haha. And we did, in fact, make it with more than enough time to clean up and get on the boat. The boat trip was the perfect way to end the 5-day, 76.1 km, 17 kilo backpack trip. We were able to see the majority of the mountains we’d hiked from the turquoise blue waters…marravilloso!

Current Mood: Well rested

Patagonian Adventures Pt I
I don’t even know where to begin with this one….other than to say this trip will be remembered for a long, long, long time. Liz (Mama McPhillips, or Mama Goose), Samantha (Fermalove or Fermie) and I left Punta Arenas on an 8:30am bus on Monday morning, for TORRES DEL PAINE. About 30 minutes prior to arriving at the check-in ranger station you could see the mountains...specifically the Torres themselves, it was pretty imposing, yet breathtaking at the same time. Kind of an “Oh crap, I’m really, really unprepared for 5 days of intense hiking” feeling.
DAY ONE: We took another little bus to the Campamento Torres station, set up our newly bought baby tent, and set out along the way. It didn’t take Samantha and I long to loose Liz (being that we’re kind of Tortugas in the hiking sense)….but had a good time singing through the forests and eyeing the male hikers. About an hour and a half later we were at the next campsite. The two of us rested for a bit, before journeying on towards the Mirador for the Torres. The 45 minute scramble up large boulders wasn’t the greatest time of my life, but the view at the top was well worth it. Liz had almost given up on us (and a little cold from the wind and intermittent rainfall), but the three of us took lots of pictures (Poppy included) and hung out for a bit before the 3 hour hike back down to the campsite. We had a rather foul pasta dinner and chatted with some Austrailian and Brittish hikers before bed, one of whom actually spent a semester at UW! Small world…..

DAY TWO: Involved actual hiking with our 17kilo trekking packs, not just our day packs. While it was beautiful, I pretty much wanted to kill myself most of the day. Especially when the map time of 4 hours hiking turned into a 5 hour and 21 minute trudge to Campamento Cuernos.

DAY THREE: Began with another 2 hour hike with our big packs, to Campamento Italiano, where we set up our tent again, and proceeded to take a lovely little siesta. Then we started travelling up the Valle Frances (I’m pretty sure Sam and I couldn’t have walked slower if we tried, it was great)…..with amazing views of the Alpine Bowl. The second lookout was even better, right before the Campamento Britanica, especially because Samantha and were able to take it in almost totally uninterrupted….except by incredibly strong winds. We came back to Miss Liz all ready with some hot water for tea for us, and the most amazing pea soup from a packet I will probably ever have in my life. And then hung out with some Chileans weçd met the night before, and played a few games of pyramid, while partaking in their Johnny Walker (hey, at least we were warmer in our sleeping bags that night).

Current Mood: Swollen ;)

Joe´s Visit.....a year late
Its 2006 and I’m in the end of the world!! Liz Samantha and I are finally all together, and packed up for our viaje tomorrow to Torres del Paine!!!! Ahhhhh, I’m so flipping excited it isn’t even funny. We’re currently in Puerto Natales, which is adorable, about to start our 5-6 day hiking trip. So here´s to hoping we don´t die along the way.

But, I haven’t written about Jojo´s visit! He came down here to visit me 2 days after xmas, on the 27th...and without any luggage, fun times.... We meandered around Santiago for the first few days. Did some shopping around Santiago, went to the hogar, so some of the girls could meet Joe, saw Pablo Neruda´s house with Mati and took the teleferico´s around Cerro San Cristobal We went to dinner at the Montenegro´s house (now Nick has to come, so they’ll know the whole fandamly) for completos. Sooo much fun, Sarah Mercadante, Bekah´s sister was in town, so it was the four of us, Ely, Horacio and Sandra and Jaime....I should go over there at least once a week and eat with them out on that patio, it was glorious---except when Ely told Joe that his Spanish was better than mine was when I arrived last year. LIES I tell you, total lies. Hahaha, no I have no idea in reality, but I was so impressed with Joe’s Spanish! And the fact that he wasn’t embarrassed to use it was almost more impressive.
Went to Valparaiso for a few hours one afternoon--took lots of pictures of ourselves with Bilz and Pap (soda mascots I can’t even begin to describe.
Then that Friday...Dec 30th we headed up to Los Molles, a little beach town between Santiago and La Serena. It was beautiful, a little cloudy and cold the first day, but Samantha put it best the next day, for which we made fun of her the rest of the weekend: ´there you are sun, came out and cleared up ALLL those clouds!¨ It was so much fun. Samantha Mark Joe and I shared one of the smaller cabañas and spent a ridiculous amount of time playing ucher tournaments among the four of us. Went to a little asado on Friday night, and had our own on Saturday to celebrate new years, then ran around on the beach at night. The mosquitoes we’re treacherous, especially since we didn’t notice there were any until Samantha Joe and I woke up looking like we had chicken pox. So Saturday night before bed we literally used an entire bottle of bug spray on the cabaña (and by we I mean Joe), while Sam and I killed every stinking one we could find with our sandals…it was hysterical. We laid out on the playa all day sat and Sunday. And were pretty useless, a perfect vacation I’d say.
Didn’t do a whole lot once we got back into Santiago, which was ok. I was just so glad Joe got to meet everyone, and hang out-not to mention get along with- my peeps, Liz, Sam, Mark, Lindsay among others. And who knows what will happen with Mati, but I’m glad those two got a chance to meet too. Mati later told me that Joe was the kind of person who wasn’t ´full of shit´, that he’ll tell you what he really thinks instead of beating around the bush about it-which makes me laugh, because if only he knew how right he was! Theresa came up to me the other day to tell me what a great time she’d had with him, talking about art etc., Sam’s in love with him, and I think Liz wants to come live with the Bruns clan for a bit, hahaha. I missed him so much, and it was absolutely wonderful to have him around for a week with me...he was the best Christmas present ever.

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Salsa

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Killing Hamsters, and Karaoke: Christmas in Chile
I kid you not, I have enountered all of the above this past week...this country makes me laugh.

The Christmas scene at the Aldea was quite the hodge-podge of little fiestas and activities. Last Wednesday the madrinas came (‘godmothers’) to almost all the hogares, ours come pretty infrequently to teach yoga classes. But it was fun to see the girls get all excited for ice cream, cake and presents…though the entire thing lasted all of 40 minutes. It seems to me if you’re going to devote time to something like this you should actually do so, but I should just be glad anyone from the outside world comes to see them at all, right?
Last Thursday was the official Christmas party, which consisted of listening to a sermon of some sort, and my girls putting on a nativity scene play—Alicia and Maria where the stars as the donkey and the mule. Highlight was Ana dressed up like a doll in a dress about 12 sizes too small for her, and pirouetting around.
Monday the girls were finally allowed into what the Lindsays and I affectionately call ‘The Nun Pool.’ Aptly named as it is the large swimming pool located on the other side of the wall separating the Aldea from the conservatory, or whatever it’s called where all the nuns live.
Apparently Michelle Bachelet (one of the two 2006 presidential candidates) came into the hogar on Wednesday morning, along with some other famous people. The girls had all sorts of autographs, and were scrambling to tell me all about it as soon as I got in—its been a while since I’ve seen them excited about much, so it made me smile. Then later that day a group of middle school boys from a neighboring school came in, to have another Christmas party. Oh the life of middle schoolers…it was adorable, the girls all stood in one corner of the living room, and the boys on the other. Until they finally sat in a semi-circle, listening to a boy about 3 months away from braces talk about all of his hamsters, and the myriad way they’ve died or been killed, not the best pick up lines I’ve heard, but he gets points for originality.
Thursday though, was the kicker. The carabineros (the Chilean police) were supposed to come to the Aldea for some kind of ‘demonstration’. We waited around all afternoon, and just as the girls had given up hope, the carabineros came riding down the street on their motos. And not just any carabineros, but carabineros dressed as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was ridiculous. They had ramps set up, and did jumps over no less than 6 people lying down on the other side. They did wheelies, rode off a see-saw type thing. And as the finale drove off the ramp through, oh yes, a burning ring of fire. Never a dull moment at the Aldea...I guess?

Yesterday morning little Lindsay and I attempted our gingerbread men. We made it though a grand total of two gingerbread men (Neil, and Hercules) and then moved on to gingerbread round cookies. It was hotter than hell in the 90 degree heat with the oven on, but we survived listening to famous 60s tunes and singing at the top of our lungs (the rest of the house was out xmas shopping). The only frosting we could find was mocha, and that mixed with the coconut flakes should make for an interesting cookie experience.

Then it was off to the Montenegro’s house, to hang out with Ely, Horacio and Bekah. I was worried they’d all be gone to Christmas parties by the time I showed up at 7pm, but this is Chile, and we didn’t end up going to their son’s house until after 10. It was so strange to have the holiday outside! We all sat in the back yard and talked, had some pisco sours etc. Then it was inside to see what the Viejo Pascuera (Santa Claus) had brought the kids. Its been a long time since I’ve seen little kids opening gifts, Benjamin and Cote are about 7, and Matias and Cha Cha are 3ish….it was so fun to see them get all excited about their gifts, but also a little sad when I thought about my girls, and then for most of them the generic purses and flip flops were the only thing they probably opened this year, and it certainly wasn’t with loving families...at least not for many of them. The adults all had dinner after that, which was a lot of fun. Then it was back outside for Karaoke. All the karaoke Cds were in Spanish, so Bekah and I thought we'd be exempt, but then Sandra insisted on putting in the only one they had with any English on it. Childrens songs. So we were forced to sing 'The Wheels on the Bus', but got booed offstage shortly thereafter for laughing instead of singing, oops. It was so great to be with a family for xmas, Jamie (Ely and Horacio’s daughter Sandra’s husband) asked me if I had a Chilean boyfriend, and Bekah inserted that I’d been seeing an Argentinean. So about 30 minutes later everyone knew about my new ‘pololo’ and were giving me crap about Argentina in general, and the Karaoke song by an Argentinean rock group was dedicated to me. I hadn’t seen some of them in over a year, but they were so welcoming. Karaoke lasted until 3am, because they were afraid the neighbors might call the police on them. Christmas in Chile, what can I say?

Current Mood: content

Newbies
Ahhh the December class.

Lets give you all the low-down on all 12 of them, shall we?

First there is.....Edwin. He is the only spanish speaker, native anyway, from Colombia-a friend of Gelber's. He'll be working with Anna and Neil. Anna is 20, I think? She's from U of Chicago, taking some time off to be harassed by Chilean children. Neil, is my secret crush, well kind of. He's from Canada, and I kind of claimed him after reading his application--who wouldn't like a canadian who can play guitar, dances to Spice Girls in a bra and skirt and speaks conversational Japanese? Haha, I got tons of grief from all the old volunteers about it at the beginning...don't have a real crush on him, but he's fantastic anyway. Lindy is from NY...she's cool, a photographer-so I've been bombarding her with questions. She showed up some of her work the other night, impressive. She's working with Rita, my new housemate of the month, who is from Hungary. Pretty quiet, but I've been talking to her more and more at the house, and I like her. Ummm, Erin is from California, reminds me of Sara in some subtle ways. She's gonna work with Tamra (thats TAMra, like camera with a T) who has the FUNNIEST gringa accent ever....might be in contention with Harvard Steve in the accent category. Daniel and Natalia are the new couple. They're cute, very very quiet, but grew on me during orientation week---they lived in our living room, which is disgusting at the moment.
Siril is the crazy kid from Switzerland. His english isn't great so he comes out of left field with some great comments just when you think he's been spacing out for the last 45 minutes. Beth is from the UK, Jessie and I had a bit o trouble finding her before orientation week, Vitacura is harder to get around than you'd think! But even though I haven't talked to her much I really like her. She and Jonah are going ot be working in the baby house together. Jonah's great--hes totally nerdy but in a funny way...playes the saxophone like a maniac.

Thats about all I've got...time to do more law school app stuff, boooo.

Current Mood: intimidated

Mom and Dad visit, part deux
I really am a lazy butt......its been a month since mom and dad came to see me, and I'm just NOW finishing their visit update.

So, we did almost nothing on Friday, after getting back into Santiago, which was fine by all of us, it was nice to just relax for a day. Mom and I stopped by the apartment so she could see it, and dad rested. That night we had a potluck at the volunteer house, and after the cab ride from hell we finally showed up, over an hour late, oops! But it was a good time, really relaxed, I was just glad they could meet some of the people I've been living and working with during my time here. Plus Little Lindsay made her amazing apple cinnamon muffins, so it was all worth it.

Saturday morning (November 19th) we got up so we could get to Cerro Santa Lucia in time to hear the cannon go off. Cerro Santa Lucia is one of the city's park/hills, and everyday at noon a small cannon goes off from the tower at the top of the hill. We waited around in the sweltering heat for about 25 minutes only to realize that the cannon is apparently a Monday-Friday kind of deal.... Then we stopped at Brainworks, which was my favorite little cafe when I was here last year, haven't been there much this year cause its kinda on the carro side of things. We managed to get through the Museo de Bellas Artes in record speed (due mostly to the fact that Dad couldn’t read every piece of information written because it was all in Spanish) and then had popsicles in my favorite park, Parque Forrestal. Then we headed off to Pablo Neruda’s house in Santiago, La Chascona—that was fun, though our tour guide was a little strange. Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for our date with the Montenegros. OHMYGOSH was that fun!! We went over to the house to have dinner with Horacio and Ely (my old host parents) and Angie (my old host sister). At first I was doing a lot of translating, but Angie speaks English, and as the night wore on (and we had more wine) it became easier to communicate. It was totally adorable to see my parents meet my Chilean parents. Horacio kept telling dad that he had a really good Spanish accent, though I’m pretty sure dad just kept repeating the 12 or so words he knew in Spanish. I would be talking to Ely or Horacio and dad would hear a word he knew and just keep repeating it. Terribly funny I tell you. So the dinner lasted for hours…its amazing how well people can communicate without a common spoken language if they want to. Plus the Montenegros kept telling my parents how much they heart me, so that’s always fun to hear too. J

Sunday we went to the Pre Colombian Art Museum. I’m pretty sure all the time dad couldn’t spend in the Bellas Artes museum was transferred over to this one, hahaha. Then we moseyed our way through Cerro San Cristobal for a few hours, saw the huge statue of the Virgin Mary, rode the gondolas etc. We got back to the hotel kind of late, so mom passed out and dad and I went on a date to the Italian restaurant across the street.

Monday morning (November 21st) we met Samantha at the metro station and took a loooong bus ride to the Concha y Torro vineyard. We missed our actual tour, so wandered around until the next one. It was a huge tour, compete with some guy mom thinks is a special guest star on the West Wing or something. So Samantha took some stalker pictures of mom and him, it was great. It was a perfect day to wander through a vineyard, though I wasn’t a huge fan of our wine samples.

Tuesday, after much argument over our supposed laziness we decided to get up early and take the bus to Valparaiso (or butt buddy as dad has since dubbed it). It was a little on the cloudy side, but a nice day to walk around the city. We took a few of the ascensores up the hills….I thought mom and I were going to pee our pants after taking the first one. It started up really suddenly and dad wasn’t ready for it and almost lost his balance, and mom and I lost it laughing at him (love you papa). We got back into town in time to go over to Javier’s mom’s house to have a short visit with him and Domingo. I met his mom; I remember her being mad I wasn’t invited over to lunch with her last year, hahaha, so it was nice to finally meet her. Then the three of us walked back to the hotel and stopped for a Pisco Sour on the way home.

Wednesday we hung around my apartment in the morning and went to see the hogar in the afternoon because it was raining on and off. The girls were ok…. they weren’t particularly pissy, though not all that friendly either. It was a short visit, but I’m glad mom and dad got to see where it is I spend every day, and meet some of my diablos. Then before I knew it, it was time for them to leave for the airport. I put them in the cab and watched them drive away. Which I think was actually harder than saying goodbye to them the first time….but at least the visit was a half way mark right? Only another 1/2 year before I see them again.

Current Mood: lazy

Aldea Chant (becuase they re-taught it to me)
All done to the beat of Queen's We Will Rock You (they're smart little diablos no?)

Somos lo mejores de Maria Reina
Y nadies lo detiene porque somos reinas
WOOO!

Current Mood: relaxed
Current Music: Ray Lamontagne

Alternate Universe
So this entire week at the hogar has been.....well wonderful!

I've been so frustrated with the girls for so long that I feel a little bit like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Monday we had our art taller (class), we're making origami crane mobiles (thanks Pixie), and for once the little diablos actually behave themselves, and enjoyed it! Its also orientation week, so I've been really busy, but didn't change my work schedule so I've been at the hogar all week. The Lindsays and I were amazed with the girls’ attention and dedication to this project! Yesterday we had another art class, so they could finish up, and even without Big Lindsay they behaved!

Orientation has been going well for the most part, had a stressful day yesterday with everyone getting places late, but at least they all arrived in Santiago safe and sound. And I really like most of them. I'll do profiles in a bit ;)

Today we played 'Metro Tag' with the newbies, it was so much fun! Running around the Santiago metro stations at full speed (I was a cop looking for one of the "Bakan (cool) 5", the group of thugs set out to assassinate president Pisco. You know you'll have fun if Mark is in charge of the games. Then at work Little Lindsay and I were supposed to set up a 'futbol competition', which turned into a Naciones competition (a playground game kind of like dodgeball), and partly because I actually understood the rules, and partly because I was actually decent at it, I had a great time. It was 'practice' for the full out tias/tios vs. the girls on Monday.....ohhh man that’s gonna be funny.

Current Mood: excited
Current Music: Backstreet Boys Package

PERU
Alright, I’m going to do the parental visit in at least two installations, cause I’m too tired to write it all now. In one word….ok, well I’m going to need a few. It was amazing, soooo much freaking fun, comfortable, and a little triste at the end…why can’t everyone I know (or at least the ones whose company I enjoy) move to Chile? Just for a few months, I swear.

Ok, Peru. Things started out a little rough…damn Piñera and his airplanes…we got stuck in the Santiago airport for the better part of Monday. Dad made the most of it and fell asleep in the gate area…and I did a lot of whispering. I mysteriously lost my voice the day before. I mean yes, I’d been to a party-Alfonso’s going away party in fact, but I swear I wasn’t screaming obscenities to passerby from balconies or anything, and I sure wasn’t doing any karaoke. I’m going to blame all the damn smokers in this country. Moving on…we finally got to Lima, but after the last plane out to Cuzco, so we had to stay in Lima for the night. Which pretty much sucked, but we got over it, and I got to watch tv for the first time in months, so it wasn’t all bad.

Tuesday we got on the first flight to Cuzco, and were met at the airport by Cesar, our van driver for the week and had some coca tea. I remember learning about coca in one of my Latin American anthropology classes….but using it for tea is apparently a wholly tourist thing to do. Call me a gringa, but I really liked it, so there. We were driven to the train station, where we took Peru Rail to Macchu Pichu. The train ride was great, absolutely beautiful the entire way, and we saw some people hiking the Inca trail! I’ll have to do that some day.

Machu Picchu involved a nail-biting bus ride up into the mountains. The fact that the bus driver’s 3-year-old daughter was in the front seat was about the only thing that gave me hope that we wouldn’t actually tumble down the entire mountain. We made it safe and sound to Machu Picchu about 20 minutes later. First thing you do is hike up, which was harder than I would have thought. But the view….spectacular. Our tour guide, Beto, seemed to know just about everything about the place, though I think dad was the only one who absorbed it all. I was just too fascinated by all the visual stimulus, and when I’d come back and ask questions I was told “I already explain you that”. So I just asked dad what we were supposed to have learned later. ;) The advancement of the Inca was incredible, I’m sure that gets said about a lot of cultures, but Machu Picchu really is amazing, I’m sure much of that attributed to the fact that it wasn’t ever found, or touched by the Spanish. But enough of the history lesson... We stayed at an eco-friendly hotel in the town of Machu Picchu, which was fantastic, best meal I’ve had in a long time.

Wednesday we took the train back, and explored the Sacred Valley with our new (and much friendlier) tour guide, Juan Carlos. Saw more ruins and sacred Incan sites, explored Ollataytambo (my new favorite word, now that I can pronounce it), and bartered with the vendors at the Pisac market. And by barter I mean Dad refuses to barter, and I walked away (and tried to hide) from a woman trying to sell me bracelets who 15 minutes later hunted me down and made the sale. It started to rain, so we stopped in a little café for a while and watched as a elementary school’s students paraded by with all sorts of different kinds of instruments. We were able to see a ‘traditional’ Peruvian household- guinea pigs running around, an open fireplace, ancestral skulls and stuffed alpaca fetus, which ensure good luck in harvests. It seemed a little forced, and I felt uncomfortable poking around in someone’s actual home, but it was really interesting at the same time. Then we drove back into Cuzco to stay at our next hotel. At Juan Calros’ suggestion we went to eat at a traditional Andean restaurant. None of us had the cajones to order the Alpaca or Guinnea Pig, though I ordered the traditional Andean pizza….. And then the Roque Brothers came in and treated us to some traditional Peruvian music. They were quite good, the smallest of them playing a flute that was bigger than he was. Dad was intrigued by the brother playing a maraca kind of instrument. Turned out to be bunches of sheep hooves strung together, so of course he later had to buy one.

Thursday we explored Cuzco, saw the Temple of the Sun, a fortress where the Inca fougt the Spanish, and the Cathedral where supposedly the last Incan king was beheaded. We also got to see the ‘shrine’ of the Puma (or peeeeewma as dad obnoxiously pronounced it). But it was at the fortress where I came up with the genius idea for the photo shoot of the three of us embodying the three levels of life, or life after death... can’t remember which, I’m sure someone ‘already explain me that’, but my memory isn’t what it used to be…the Condor, the Puma and the Snake. As a Where’s Waldo fun time, try and find the pictures in my Mom and Dad Visit photo album….a good time was had by all.

Current Mood: content
Current Music: The Aldea Dance Mix

Porque Somos Reinas
Ohhhh diosmio. I´m more than a little behind on this, so I´m just going to pretend I´m not in PERU right now with my paretns, and write about all that later (only have 10 more minutes).

The competition with the girls was so much fun. A terribly hot day, which made me sleepy, but it was awesome. The bus ride to this town (somewhere outside the city, past Buin) was funny, about 20 of us smashed into an escolar van (should seat about 12), and all of us into two vans. I heard the Aldea Maria Reina cheer about 300 times on the way down, and yet I can only remember the ending ¨porque somos reinas´ (because we´re queens)

The hogar where it was held was interesting, much bigger and better equiped than ours, but it also functions as a private school. Huge indoor basketball court-where the volleyball tournament and dance competition were and a large outdoor soccer field, with GRASS, where we played baby futbol (soccer on a short field).

We won first place in the baby futbol!! Second place in the dance competition :) and we don´t like to talk about how volleyball went. Our director was hysterical the whole time, and I liked spending time outside of work (sorta) with Tias Ely and Vero. The after-competition snack time for all the helpers was a little awkward though, because the Lindsays and I ended up at the head of the huge table, and were subject to a barrage of questions from the other educators, tias, and tios. Why are you here? How is this hogar different from those in the US? Why do you like working with children? The list goes on, luckily big Lindsay got bullied into answering them all, I just got to nod and smile. But the director only had nice things to say about us...as well as passed on the not-so-hysterical joke about how the girls refer to us as ¨hello¨.

I do actually miss the little diablos (yes, my director actually told me thats what they all are the other day when I asked for help with some of them...devils)

Current Mood: exhausted
Current Music: hotel music

Second Retreat & Sopaipillas
Where to begin? Well, last week at work was an enormous improvement over the mierda that it has been….I think talking to the director helped ease my mind, and the girls are starting to come around a bit more too. On Thursday I played hide and go seek with my little ones, and then we finished the Grease dance. And by we, I mean my suggestions were wholly ignored, so I will accept no blame if we don’t win the competition…though I’ll be happy to take credit if we do. Haha.

So the plan for this weekend was to go to Mendoza, to visit Chelsea. But in addition to my partners in crime pooping out, when I called the buses to find out times, they were completely full for all of Friday and Saturday. Then after the meeting on Thursday, Luke pretty much guilt-tripped me into going on the retreat. I had very mixed feelings, but he made some good points, like how amazing the September class is, and that now that I’m playing a bigger role in the organization, I should really be along on this kind of thing. So I went….

2 hour bus ride (following almost that long of a wait for the bus driver to actually show up to take us) to Cuncumin…a hole in the wall up in the mountains, and absolutely beautiful. We stayed in little cabins…the weather was great. It was a good time, Friday I played soccer for the first time in years, and as much as I hated practice, I remembered why I played for so long, it was great fun. We had a few activities on Saturday…a few of which Milena and I skipped to make sopaipillas. Ohmygosh was I proud of myself for that one! They are these little fried pumpkin/flour things, incredibly labor intensive (esp when you’re a terror in the kitchen, like myself and come all too close to destroying them during the first, yes first step)-but turned out wonderfully. Stayed up late Saturday night to star-gaze, the sheer number of them is amazing, and we finally found the Southern Cross (or at least we think we did)…and Grant found the southern crab, the new VE mascot. Grant is the newest volunteer, he came in last week from the east coast and will be working at Hogar Esperanza....he's Harvard grad number 3 now, which I think is pretty funny, but he seems like a really nice guy. Luke and the Chileans gave a few speeches, and Luke was talking about the organization, and how much its grown, and will grow, mentioning that now we even have an ass dir (my aptly shortened title), and I was suddenly struck with the thought, “I’m never actually going to leave this country, am I?”
All in all it was a really good time, much needed rest from the city, and all the other distractions Santiago provides, not to mention a vast improvement over the last retreat.

Today is a holiday…and I’m currently being a huge slug all day, because I can.

Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: Ray Lamontagne

Grease Lightening
While this isn’t the exact song we’re dancing to, it made a better title. So with just 3 weeks before the competition, and two other dances partly choreographed, we finally settled on the ‘you’re the one that I want’ song from Grease, the musical. Apparently the director had a bit of an issue with all the booty shaking that was going on to Britney Spears’ “Outrageous”, and thankgod, because it’s a terrible song. As of now we’ve got 8 girls, doing some roughly swing-like dance moves, I rented the movie, so Tia Ely and I could get some ideas, but the VCR was MIA, so who knows when/if I’ll watch it….

Saturday afternoon Samantha and I journeyed to Valparaiso! I hadn’t been there since last year, and it was much better weather-wise than I remembered it. We got there around 5pm, and wandered around til we found the hostel Luke had suggested. It was beautiful, the upper floors of this old house, with great views. We went out for our first of about 37 meals that weekend and watched the sun set. Then we went back to the hostel, to put on more clothing, as it was a little chilly, and ended up sitting out our windows, stargazing and talking. We finally got some mo, and went to Jota Cruz, the birthplace of Chorriana. Now, chorriana may as well be known as heart-attack-on-a-plate, but it sure is tasty. Consists of french fries, covered with grilled onions, small pieces of cooked beef, and fried egg. A mixture of delicious, and so greasy you want to go on the carrot juice diet for the rest of your life. So we got a huge portion, in what turned out to be a charming little bar. There were two old men as musical accompaniment; one played the accordion (why did those go out of style?) while the other played his maracas and sang. Alternately serenading me, to the point of total embarrassment, I don’t even like the birthday song, so this was not my favorite thing ever. But it was the perfect way to start our night. We went in search of some exciting nightlife, and ended up at this tiny little bar made to look like a trolley car. About 10 minutes later a stray dog came in, sat itself in between Sam and another customer on a bench, and proceeded to fall asleep, classic.

Sunday we got up and had breakfast on the terrace, which was cold, but a wonderful view of the port. As we headed out, I told Sam that we could do all the touristy stuff this trip, because she’d never been there, but that next time we came I wanted to try to do all 15 ascensores in the city. She said, well why don’t we just do that this time? I knew there was a reason I liked her. Don’t know why I thought this would be a good idea, felt like Alena was somewhat of an inspiration though….
The ascensores are these cable-car like things that carry 4-10 people up the various hills of Valparaiso. And we thought this would be a great way to see all of the city. Which is was, but after going up on the first one, we realized that the things were created for a purpose. Which was not, in fact to just walk from one to the other. Each was for a specific hill, and walking from the top of one to the top of the other proved to be a lesson in balance, patience and calf strength.

Because I know you all care, and because I was nerdy enough to record it, I will provide you with the time we finished each and every of the 10 ascensores we made it to, and some interesting info about each:

Saturday:
Concepcion: 19:00 ish (was the first constructed in the city, in 1883)

Sunday:
Lecheros: 12:50 (has a beautiful view of the entire city)
Larrain: 13:32 (not at all interesting, but a pain in the ass to get to)
Polanco: 14:46 (actually goes straight up, through the rock of the hill, we met with angry users who said it was broken, so we got a solo journey while a little old man fixed the moving elevator from on TOP of it…great fun)
Monjas: 15:31 (cool wooden structure)
Mariposa: 15:50 (the longest, at 177mts)
Florida: 16:04 (I got nothing)
Espiritu Santo: 17:33 (ends up at the open air art museum)
Reina Victoria: 18:12 (steepest one we saw, at 52 degrees)
El Peral: 18:38 (we were really tired by this one…)

Yeah, so Valpo was great, ate some more and came back to the pissy bus drivers of Santiago, home sweet home.

Current Mood: good
Current Music: Radio

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