Turkey, traveling, tennis and more

Well it’s been three weeks since I’ve updated… I will highlight important things from each week… I still did plenty of the day to day normal activities such as recording books in the library, working on the mosaic, entertaining little kids and spending time with my host family but each week also had special, out of the ordinary activities as well.

The week of November 22-28 was “the week of parties” for me. The first of three parties was on Thanksgiving. I went up to Vilches for the annual Thanksgiving feast there. Ted and Maruja generally host and other US volunteers always attend. This year there was a small crowd partially due to a march for non-violence against women that many of the volunteers who would have come were participating in. In the end there were 6 of us. I’m told on a normal Thanksgiving there are about 20 people. We still had all the necessary foods such as turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, various salads, pumpkin pie (made from scratch by yours truly, it was very good if I may say so myself) and turkey cookies (they were a hit, see picture below). After stuffing ourselves full of delicious food Ted and I set up a couple hammocks in the woods and I enjoyed an afternoon napping in a hammock :D Oh yeah, and we ate our Thanksgiving meal on the patio under a grape arbor with a great view of the surrounding hills and forests. Before heading back to Talca we stopped to play with the kitties across the street. They have grown sooo much!

The next party was more of a closing ceremony/end of the year celebration at Domodungu (the women’s center). At this celebration there was sharing/reflection on the different workshops, we did a circle dance, a candle lighting ritual and ended with snacks (homemade bread with pebre (Chilean salsa), chopped up tomatoes (eaten with bread), tea and coffee).

Then there was Kym’s birthday party. She came down from Vilches and we went to a feria with a couple friends. After looking at all the treats, arts and crafts and other things for purchase we headed to the grocery store and bought food to prepare. We then went to one of the friend’s houses for a night of cards, dancing and of course good food. Like any good party we didn’t stop until 4:30 am.

The next day I pulled myself out of bed around 1:15 in order to make it to Sarah’s house for my second Thanksgiving. Since she wasn’t able to go to the Thanksgiving in Vilches she decided to host one of her own. When I got there a little after two we started with appetizers- crackers and cheese, veggies and ice cream (kinda odd I know but I’ll eat ice cream whenever you give it to me!). It soon became apparent that the turkey wasn’t going to be done anytime soon so we ate salad, some mashed potates and green beans. After everyone had their fill we sat and talked and soon started playing UNO. A few hours later (around 6:30) the turkey was finally done and we all had stuffing, turkey, more potatoes and pumpkin pie. After more chatting we had ice cream again and then all headed home around 9 pm. I never imagined I’d have two Thanksgivings in the same year while in Chile!

The week of November 29 – December 5 included lots of travel. The first traveling took place on Wednesday December first when I went to a local campground for the Domodungu end of the year outing. At least 50 women (probably more) went and we took over the picnic table area. It was surprisingly cold and a bit windy at the campground which was disappointing b/c they had 2 pools. A good number of people did go swimming and said the water was nice but if I’m not hot, I don’t really like to go swimming. Anyway we spent the day talking, eating, napping and going for walks.

Then on December 3 we headed to Vina del Mar for the weekend. There were many objectives on this trip- to meet up with the study abroad group from CSB/SJU, to see Chilean friends from when I was in Vina 2 years ago and of course to have fun. In the end we accomplished 2 of these objectives. On Friday we got off the bus in Valpariso and immediately bought tickets to Algarrobo (we got on the bus 2 minutes before it pulled out) where we meet up with the study abroad group at the World’s Largest Pool. It was a really nice place and we were immediately welcomed by the group. Throughout the night we explained many times who we were and what we were doing in Chile. It was fun getting to know the group, here where they lived, what classes they were taking, and share stories of fun times in Vina. The next day we all headed to the pool. After getting sufficiently warm by laying in the sun I ventured to the pool… it was freezing!!! I guess one shouldn’t expect the World’s Largest Pool to be like a bathtub but I was surprised by how cold the water was… after a few minutes you got used to it and as long as you kept moving it was fine but if you stood too still it got chilly. Never the less it was fun to play in the world’s largest pool… you can even rent kayaks, sail boats and paddle boats to use in the pool. Talk about crazy! After soaking up some more sun we headed back to Vina. Once we had checked into our hostel we headed to the beach and walked around for awhile looking at all the vendors until we got hungry. At dinner we met some other gringos who were volunteering in Vina and we ended up spending the rest of the night with them. Sunday we spent wandering around Valparaiso and also went to the beach for a little bit. We were going to meet up with a couple of my Chilean friends but all our plans ended up falling through so in the end we hung out with our new friends from the night before. After hitting up Starbucks for breakfast on Monday we took made the nearly 6 hour bus ride back to Talca. The ride home seemed much longer than the ride up! (and on the way up we even hit some traffic so it actually took longer…). All in all it was a good weekend and sometime within the next year we will be making a trip or two back to Vina!

This past week I went with the greenhouse group to Constitución, a seaside town about 2 hours away. On the way there we took an old 2 car train. The train was slow and made many stops along the way so it took about 3.5 hours to get there. Once off the train we headed straight to the beach where we stayed the entire day. It was a pretty windy day but as long as you were in the sun it was warm. Just like on the Domodungu end of the year outing we passed the day chatting, eating and napping. One of the ladies, Marcela, really wanted to play in the water and brought 2 swim suits so Sarah and Marcela played in the ocean for a little bit. They had a good time but I was content just watching. We headed back to Talca around 7:00, getting there around 9:00 pm. Before heading to our houses, Sarah and I stopped at Annita’s (member of the greenhouse group) and each got a bag full of little plums from a tree in her back yard. They are very yummy and I snacked on them all the way home.

I’ve started playing tennis at the Talca Country Club where my host dad works. Typically only the really rich people can go to the Club but since my host dad works in the little club house by the tennis courts he knows the tennis coaches and they said I could come and play. I borrowed a racquet from Ted and have now gone three times. I’m certainly a bit rusty but it’s great to be playing again! The coach says he can tell I’ve played before and that in not too long I should be playing really well. The courts are clay which surprised me at first. Since I’ve never played on clay before it took a little getting used to but now it isn’t odd at all… I just leave with my shoes and ankles covered in reddish orange dust!

Yesterday was a lazy rainy day. It was great to just lounge around and do nothing all day long! The last three weekends have been full of traveling and parties so I’m happy to just hang out at home this weekend. My host dad said that it was unusual to have rain in December… I guess it often doesn’t rain at all during the summer! The last time it rained was about a month ago, just after I moved to Talca.

Hope you are all enjoying the snow and getting ready for Christmas! I have a baby pine tree that I got from the greenhouse at Domodungu and is going to be my Christmas tree this year. My family has been talking about finding their fake tree but so far it hasn’t appeared. Other than that there aren’t any decorations up around the house but there are decorations around town and the orphanage is getting in the Christmas spirit as well.

Pictures are as follows: Kym's birthday, closing ceremony at Domodungu, Thanksgiving in Vilches (2 photos), end of the year outing with Domodungu (3 photos), Thanksgiving at Sarah's, Constitucion with greenhouse group (5 photos), World's Largest Pool (2 photos), my baby Christmas tree, a few of the little girls at the orphanage, a beach in Vina del mar and Valparaiso (2 photos).

A weekend at the beach + other adventures

Last night (around 8:30 pm) I got back from a weekend trip to Constitucion (about 2 hours from Talca). I went with an outdoor group that my friend Sarah is part of. Constitucion is on the coast and we spent two days camping on the beach :D The point of the trip was to register/record some bouldering routes… or at least that’s what the grant was written for (the whole trip was free). However the trip included much more than just bouldering- it also included rock climbing, lounging on the beach, a huge bonfire, walks on the beach, etc. All in all it was a good weekend; I really liked the location and had a great time exploring, climbing a little and meeting new people. (see pictures below)

Last week at the orphanage a group of high schoolers came and threw a party for three of the houses (at least 30 kids where there at the time… others were still at school, see picture below). They played games, fed the kids way too much sugar and entertained them for a couple hours. The kids all seemed to have a great time and were actually well behaved. The other two days I went, I can’t say the kids where as well behaved… I need to work on coming up with activities to do with the kids to keep them busier and out of trouble…

This week the library got some of its new books so we started processing those :D. It’s exciting to see the brand new books because most of them are really interesting and are books that were chosen with the women in mind (natural healing, feminist perspectives, women authors, etc). About 100 more books will be coming soon so we will be very busy! Since we only have one book to record all the library books in the process is slow and it will take us several weeks to record all the new books.
The greenhouse is coming along well and there are many tomato plants (as well as others whose names I forget) that are ready for sale. Since the weather has gotten nicer and many of the plants have been moved onto the patio lots of women come to see and buy plants every day. It’s fun to see how excited the women are when they leave with their newly purchased plants (flowers, cactus, and vegetable plants). The mosaic is also progressing nicely. At least two sections are very near completion. I’ve made lots of process (see pictures below) but am nowhere near being done. I really enjoy working on the mosaic but I can only do it for about an hour or two at a time and I seem to get surprisingly little done each time I go (I often go to work a little when I don’t have other commitments).

Kym and I have started researching trips for summer vacation. We found a great deal on flights to Buenos Aires, Argentina so we are for sure going there. I’ve also been researching Easter Island because I really want to go there. It is going to be expensive but I’ve wanted to go there ever since I did a report on Easter Island sometime in Junior High School! Other potential destinations include Brazil, Uruguay and Ecuador.

This week started out with meetings. One for the coordination team of Domodungu and the other for all the workshop facilitators plus the coordination team. In the future I probably won’t go to the coordination team meetings but it was good to see what goes on at their meetings. On Tuesday I made puppy chow :D Since Chex does not exist in Chile I improvised and used Oat Squares instead. The final result was not exactly the same but still very good. I brought some with me to Domodungu and everyone who tried it thought it was very good :D

On Tuesday I worked with the library group recording and categorizing books. We didn’t get too far we ran out of stickers to put on the spines of the books so we stopped and had tea, bread and jam. I really like the group of women in the library group and I think it’s great that Domodungu has books that people can borrow. Soon we will be getting about 150 more books for the library because Domodungu won a grant.

On Wednesday I worked with the greenhouse group. Domodungu has a greenhouse out back where they are growing lots of different plants, flowers and herbs. They have many plants for sale, right now the baby cactus are really popular, hehe. Another part of the greenhouse group is working on a mosaic on the back patio. Each member has a section of the mosaic to work on. I decided to do my section as an under the water theme complete with fish, a sand dollar, a starfish, seaweed and sand. Others are doing flowers, a mountain with trees, the sun with insects (ladybug, bee, butterfly), animals (giraffe, elephant) and others were not far enough along to tell what they are doing… I will update with pictures once I have them.

On Thursday I went to town and got my Visa paperwork done. In a month they will call me and I need to go back to the office to get the Visa put in my passport. After that I can get my Chilean identification card (which will involve going to the Chilean equivalent of the FBI to get a document and then to another office to apply for the actual card). Here in Chile your driver’s license is separate from your identification card, unlike our driver’s license which serves as both. Later in the afternoon I went to an organization called CODEFF which is an environmental organization. CODEFF stands for “Comité Pro Defensa de la Flora y Fauna” which for those of you who don’t speak Spanish that means they are the “protectors of flora and fauna.” They are just getting an office set up after the earthquake (Talca has TONS of earthquake damage) and are very excited that I want to help out. I will be going back next Thursday for a meeting and will then set up a work schedule. On Thursday night I met the last member of my host family, Milton. He lives with his girlfriend and has not lived at home for about four years. I am currently occupying his bedroom. He is currently going to college and is going to get me in contact with some people who use the trapeze and tissus at his university :D My host dad also has contacts with tennis coaches so I might join a tennis group soon.

Friday morning I peeled myself out of bed and went to the orphanage. The kids where a little crabby but I still had a good time. They are all just looking for a bit of love…. My plan is to go Monday, Wednesday and Thursday afternoons but that may change in the future.

This weekend has been low key. Saturday morning I went on a walk with Domodungu through Talca. The point of the walk was to see how certain areas have changed since the earthquake. One interesting thing I learned was that in the damaged sectors of town you will notice that the buildings on the four corners of an intersection are most likely not standing. This is because the end of the rows of houses/buildings receives more of the shock that went through all the rest of the houses/buildings. Since it had nothing else to lean on/pass the shock to, it would most likely fall down(hopefully that explanation makes sense). Kym was in town this weekend but unfortunately she we were unable to meet up. Between her leaving her phone at home and then spending the entire afternoon at a family friend’s house things just didn’t work out so I spent my afternoon and evening watching House episodes online, napping and watching Chilean TV with my host family. I also spent time gawking at the pictures of the snow storm that hit MN. My host family found the pictures incredible as well. Today has just been a lazy day but later I might go with my host sister to a cultural event in town.

Talca: a new place to call home

Here in Chile Halloween came and went, it was just another day. The only “trick or treaters” we got were my fellow volunteer Kym and her host family wearing masks and wigs. Halloween is catching on in Chile but the small rural town of Vilches hasn’t really adopted the tradition. Two years ago when I was in Vina del Mar we did have some little kids who came trick or treating and the weeks before Halloween you see costumes and little pumpkin buckets for sale but it’s certainly not as huge of a deal as it is in the States.

On the other hand, November 1st was a big celebration. The day started out with mass in the cemetery at 10:30. Families gathered to decorate the gravesites and enjoy all the stands that had popped up outside the cemetery. There were tons of stands selling food (empanadas, chicken soup, and other traditional foods) as well as stands selling everything from clothing to lotion to toys. I helped out at a stand for a group called “Vilches Without Garbage.” It is a new group that is trying to improve the garbage problem in Vilches (really there is a problem in all of Chile). There aren’t many dumpsters for trash and the ones that they have are pretty beat up. Vilches is a big tourist area because of the national park and many camp grounds and the people who come often leave a mess behind. Part of the work they are doing is educating the people. At the stand we talked to people about composting and handed out brochures with information if people seemed genuinely interested. We also collected food scraps from the stands and had a compost bin for demonstration. During my lunch break I enjoyed fried fish and “helado de nieve.” “Helado de nieve” or snow ice cream is a specialty that they make for the November 1st celebration. It is made in big drums just like you would make homemade ice cream. They use snow from the mountains in the outer tub just like you would normally use ice. The result isn’t really ice cream but more like shaved ice since they only use water, sugar and flavoring. This treat is served with harina tostada or toasted wheat. Personally it like just a little harina tosada on my helado but it appears that most people like their helado with lots and lots of harina tostada.

In the following days I helped transplant plants from the greenhouse into the ground. We transplanted squash, tomatoes and cucumbers. It was really fun and it’s great to see how much things have grown since we first planted them! I also helped Ted with his being keeping a little bit but I’ve decided that working with bees really isn’t for me…

On Thursday I moved into my new home! After moving around so much during the past two months it’s kinda odd to think that this will be my home for the next year! My Chilean family consists of a mom (Marcela), a dad (Luis), a daughter (Evelyn) and a son (Milton). The daughter still lives at home and works at Domodungo (the women’s center I’ll be volunteering at). The son has not lived at home for a couple years now. Unlike in the US, in Chile it is common that kids live at home until they are married so even though my host sister is 30 she still lives with her parents and it is completely normal.

I spent Thursday and Friday at Domodungo hanging out and helping with whatever was needed. This coming week I will start forming a schedule between Domodungo and the orphanage where I’ll work. This weekend was spent with Evelyn’s friends. On Friday night we went over to a friend’s house, had a barbeque, listened to music and chatted until 3 am when the rest of us who live on the other side of town decided it was time to go home. At that hour it took awhile to find a collectivo (like a taxi) so we didn’t get home until almost 4 am. By Chilean standards this is not that late but I was certainly tired! Yesterday was super hot and sunny and we spent the day with the same friends as the night before, just hanging out. Today, in contrast, has been rainy and cool so I’ve spent the day inside catching up on emails and reading. I’ve already been told that tonight we are having sopaipillas (yummy fried dough) which are typical rainy day food :D

Below are pictures of Vilches, helado de nieve and my new home

A decision has been made!

Since I last updated I’ve gone back to Santiago for a week but now I’m back in Vilches. Our return to Santiago couldn’t have been much more eventful… When we got to Judy’s house (where we stayed before) we found it completely dark and were without keys (who knew we were suppose to take a set with us!)… Judy was gone for the weekend and the lady staying at her house was apparently gone as well… So I hoisted my camping backpack over the fence and we headed to Lider (the local grocery store) to buy some food in hopes that when we returned somebody would be home. Well, as you may have guessed nobody was home when we returned from our shopping trip so we sat down on the curb and waited. After listening to some music on Kym’s laptop, taking silly pictures and playing with Judy’s cat (who was also locked out of the house) a neighbor noticed we were locked out and invited us in for tea and cake. They were super nice and the grandpa was worried somebody would take the stuff we had thrown over the fence so he stood guard while we were inside. Eventually we got a hold of Judy’s son who also lives in Santiago and he was nice enough to come over and let us in. By this time it was nearly 11:00 pm so we had a quick dinner and went to bed.

I went back to Santiago with every intention of visiting new organizations and seeking out further volunteer options but I didn’t quite get that far… I spent time researching and looking up possible organizations but since Kym and I decided to go to another retreat our trip was short and I didn’t get around to going to any of the organizations I looked up. Kym and I did get to two museums while in Santiago. First we went to the Contemporary Art Museum which was pretty interesting and then we went to the Memorial Museum which was just recently built and is all about Chile’s dictatorship. I found the Memorial Museum more interesting than the art museum and learned a lot more about the dictatorship. I already knew a good amount from the last time I was hear but nevertheless I learned a lot from all the displays, videos and artifacts at the museum. We spent a good amount of time exploring and wandering the streets of Santiago. During our wandering one day we happened upon a display in a plaza behind the presidential building... At first it didn’t look like much but upon further inspection we noticed that it was the capsule that they had used to rescue the miners! It was very exciting to see up close and personal. I have to say it looked a lot smaller than I imagined.

Another important thing happened while in Santiago this time- I felt my first tremor… well, saying I felt it would be incorrect but saying I noticed it was happening would be more like it. Actually if it hadn’t been for Kym and Judy I wouldn’t have noticed it at all. Kym and I were watching a movie one night and the window started rattling… Kym noticed and commented that there was a tremor… I noticed the window rattling too but just thought it was the wind or a big truck passing by… in reality it wasn’t windy and there weren’t any trucks going down the street… it was a tremor… I never checked the newspaper to find out the strength of the tremor or where it came from but I can now say that I have consciously experienced a Chilean tremor. (There have been several since I’ve been here and there were many when I studied abroad but I never felt or realized they were happening before).

A week after we came back to Santiago we were on a bus and headed back to Vilches for a retreat. At first I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to the retreat or not but in the end I decided to go. There was going to be a lot of people from Talca and since Kym decided to stay in Vilches, Talca became a new option (mostly because nobody liked the idea of me staying in Santiago). Talca is about 45 minutes- 1 hour from Vilches and is the closest big town to Vilches (if that makes sense… there is a small town between Vilches and Talca but that’s it…). Since I was now going to look at Talca it was a good idea to get to know some women from Talca. The retreat was on Circle Dance but it was done in such a way that it connected bible passages where there were dancing women to different circle dances. The title of the workshop was something like “There is a time for everything… I time to lament and a time to dance.” It was actually really nice and a good combo of moving around and sitting/listening. I also met a lot of nice people from Talca (and other cities) too so that was good.

This past week I spent three days exploring Talca. The first day I went to two different “hogares” or orphanages and a women’s center called Domodungo. We also tried to find an environmental organization that is always looking for volunteers but due to earthquake damage and lots of businesses/organizations moving we were unable to find it. Hopefully as time goes on we’ll find out where it moved to and I can do some work there too. The second day I spent getting to know Talca and the women’s center. At the women’s center I helped with their library project and also helped bake muffins for a bake sale/fundraiser. Both were fun and I met a lot of really nice women. On my third day in Talca I spent about six hours at one of the hogares (San Jose). This orphanage is set up like a little community and has about 8-10 houses each with 15-20 kids. The houses run like a family and each house has several house moms that work in shifts (morning, afternoon and night). I spent all my time in a house with little girls (ages 2-7). They were very loving and the moment I stepped in the door had about 5 little munchkins wrapped around my legs! They gave me a tour of the house and for the next 6 hours I played with them and answered about 5,000 questions. Next week sometime I will move in with a host family and start forming a work schedule. For the time being I will spend my time at Domodungo and Hogar San Jose.

After spending some time in Talca I returned to Vilches and have been hanging out. It has rained the past couple days so we haven’t been able to work outside so I have been happily passing the time reading and doing other indoor activities. Today I went to a community meeting where they talked a lot about a new project called “Vilches Without Garbage.” It was interesting to hear about all the different ideas and initiatives that could possibly be put into action. I also saw some snow today! Vilches Alto is higher up than where I’m staying (Vilches Centro) and it snowed a bit this morning so when we went to the meeting we saw some of the lingering snow :D

Well, that all for now folks!

Pictures

Here are the pictures for my last blog update. The first two are from the National Park in Vilches. The yellow building is the small school in Vilches Alto and the rest are from our adventures in plowing and bee keeping :)