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!
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
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 :)
Monday, October 18, 2010
Two more weeks flew by...
The past two weeks spent in Vilches were full of experiences and we learned a lot! Vilches is a small town in a mountainous area. It is very beautiful with lots of trees, farms and of course a good view of the mountains at all times.
Just like the other cities we visited two schools which we could potentially volunteer at. One of the schools is very small and only has about 10 students while the other has about 75 (I believe). They were both excited and open to the idea of us working with the students in the months to come. We also visited a National Park which is in Vilches Alto and could use help, especially during the summer when there are more tourists. Nobody there speaks English (or any language other than Spanish) so we could certainly help in that sense but there are other opportunities there as well. It seemed like a neat place to work. We also saw an environmental learning center where we could help with any number of things but mostly for when groups came to the center.
In addition to seeing all those places we did lots of work outside. Ted is part of a bee keeping group so we helped him check on his bee boxes one day and learned all about bees. We are pretty much experts now, haha. We also helped plow a small field with Ted and the neighbor. This consisted of guiding the plow which was pulled by Ted’s two horses while the neighbor guided the horses. It was actually pretty fun. We also helped at a retreat center with planting their vegetable garden (carrots, corn, beans, potatoes, peas, tomatoes, etc) and digging terraces for a bunch of rose plants. It was fun to get our hands dirty and help with this kind of project. It’s always nice when you can see the immediate results of your work!
One afternoon we went to Talca which is the closest city to Vilches (45 min to an hour away) and went to a feria of types… it reminded me of the MN state fair but on a much smaller scale. We just went around to all the different craft/artesian tents and looked at all the neat stuff. I did make a few purchases but they are gifts so I will refrain from mentioning what I purchased. Ted and Maruja had an appointment in the evening so Kym and I just wandered around the town a little bit which was fun. I really love being able to simply walk around and explore, it’s really one of the best ways to get to know a new area!
A very exciting thing that happened while we were at Vilches- after nearly 70 days of being trapped underground the miners were rescued and everyone got out safely in less than 24 hours! Ted and Maruja unfortunately don’t have TV and I wasn’t feeling good while all of this was going on so I haven’t seen more than a few video clips online but nevertheless it was a very exciting event (as I am sure many of you know because apparently the whole world was watching as it all unfolded).
Even though I enjoyed my time in Vilches I think it’s safe to say that I don’t want to stay there for the next year. I know there is great need and there are many good places to work but I would like a place with a little more action and not to mention, people my own age might be nice as well! So for now it’s back to Santiago to see what it has to offer :D
*It is late now so I will post pictures tomorrow…
Just like the other cities we visited two schools which we could potentially volunteer at. One of the schools is very small and only has about 10 students while the other has about 75 (I believe). They were both excited and open to the idea of us working with the students in the months to come. We also visited a National Park which is in Vilches Alto and could use help, especially during the summer when there are more tourists. Nobody there speaks English (or any language other than Spanish) so we could certainly help in that sense but there are other opportunities there as well. It seemed like a neat place to work. We also saw an environmental learning center where we could help with any number of things but mostly for when groups came to the center.
In addition to seeing all those places we did lots of work outside. Ted is part of a bee keeping group so we helped him check on his bee boxes one day and learned all about bees. We are pretty much experts now, haha. We also helped plow a small field with Ted and the neighbor. This consisted of guiding the plow which was pulled by Ted’s two horses while the neighbor guided the horses. It was actually pretty fun. We also helped at a retreat center with planting their vegetable garden (carrots, corn, beans, potatoes, peas, tomatoes, etc) and digging terraces for a bunch of rose plants. It was fun to get our hands dirty and help with this kind of project. It’s always nice when you can see the immediate results of your work!
One afternoon we went to Talca which is the closest city to Vilches (45 min to an hour away) and went to a feria of types… it reminded me of the MN state fair but on a much smaller scale. We just went around to all the different craft/artesian tents and looked at all the neat stuff. I did make a few purchases but they are gifts so I will refrain from mentioning what I purchased. Ted and Maruja had an appointment in the evening so Kym and I just wandered around the town a little bit which was fun. I really love being able to simply walk around and explore, it’s really one of the best ways to get to know a new area!
A very exciting thing that happened while we were at Vilches- after nearly 70 days of being trapped underground the miners were rescued and everyone got out safely in less than 24 hours! Ted and Maruja unfortunately don’t have TV and I wasn’t feeling good while all of this was going on so I haven’t seen more than a few video clips online but nevertheless it was a very exciting event (as I am sure many of you know because apparently the whole world was watching as it all unfolded).
Even though I enjoyed my time in Vilches I think it’s safe to say that I don’t want to stay there for the next year. I know there is great need and there are many good places to work but I would like a place with a little more action and not to mention, people my own age might be nice as well! So for now it’s back to Santiago to see what it has to offer :D
*It is late now so I will post pictures tomorrow…
Monday, October 4, 2010
Possibilities
Last week was full of adventures. We went to a lot of different schools that are possible volunteer sites if we decide to stay in Chillan. First we went to San Rafael which is a school for young adults with special needs. The school focuses on teaching the students skills so they will be able to get a job and work. It seemed like a great place and all the students were very nice. When we visited a lady who also goes to Casa Ursulina was teaching them some crafts which not only provides them with the knowledge of how to make the different crafts but it also improves their fine motor skills. Later in the week many of the students came to Casa Ursulina to present a dance they had been working on. It was the anniversary week at the school and one of the activities was to go perform to an audience outside the school.
We also went to a public High School in San Nicolas which is a town about a half hour from Chillan. Many students come from the country to go to the school and it recently won an award as a “Bicentennial School of Excellence.” While we were there we helped with the eleventh grade English classes. We helped review a test that the class had taken and also had conversations with the students. In one of the classes we took a mini field trip to the plaza which is a couple blocks from the school and the students had to point out important things along the way and tell us what they were in English. All in all it was a good day but a bit tiring.
The third school we went to was for children of all ages (infant to young adult) with disabilities. It is an amazing place and there are lots of possibilities for volunteer work. We could help with computer classes, I could teach cooking classes to a group of young adults or the group of mothers who come to a special workshop a couple times a month, we could do art projects, etc… the director of the school just kept listing off thing after thing that we could help with. She was clearly very passionate about her work and the school!
The last school we visited was El Libertador which is a public school a couple blocks from Casa Ursulina. It serves a poor neighborhood of Chillan and previous volunteers have worked there. Some possible options for this school are to teach English or tutor children who need extra help. We met with the director briefly and he seemed like a really nice guy.
On the 29th we started to celebrate my birthday! The celebration at dinner with longanizas (a type of sausage that is very popular in Chile and Chillan is said to have the best longanizas!), chips and dip and artichokes (they eat lots of artichokes in Chile, not just the hearts but the whole artichoke). I really like all of these foods so I was quite pleased. Then we had cake. Mimi, Ruth and Kym sang Happy Birthday both in Spanish and English. It was a great way to start celebrating. The next day began with birthday cake for breakfast. We lit the candles again and sang to Ale (a lady who helps around the house except on Wednesdays (the 29th was a Wednesday and her birthday)). Mimi says she likes nothing more than sweets for breakfast so we continued eating the cake for breakfast. I wasn’t going to argue with that! The cake they got was called Nogales and was a walnut cake with manjar (caramel) frosting between the layers. It was definitely good but adding some chocolate somewhere wouldn’t have hurt either :D Later that night we went out with Ale and one of her sons to a bar called Kactus. It wasn’t very crowed which was good because it meant it wasn’t very smokey. We could have gone out a Friday instead but it would have been really busy and very smokey so I decided that would not be as fun. We had a great time laughing, dancing and talking. Later Ale told us that it was one of her best birthdays in a long time! On Friday the celebration continued (for my birthday and Ale’s) when we went out to lunch in town. We would have gone out on Thursday but there was an extra morning workshop so there wouldn’t have been a lot of time to go out to lunch and return in time for the afternoon classes. The restaurant we went to serves typical Chilean food. It is really good, has big portions and is cheap! I got an Ave Palta (chicken and avocado) sandwich and it was great!
During the week we went to more of the classes at Casa Ursulina and I learned how to set up a loom and weave. Over a span of three or four days I set up the loom and knit a scarf (light blue and navy blue). If I may say so myself, I did a great job, especially considering I’ve never done any weaving before (unless you count weaving in fourth grade art class which is a bit different…).
On Saturday afternoon Kym and I took the bus to Talca where we met Maruja. From Talca we went to Vilches and will spend the next two weeks here. Ted and Maruja are a couple who have been Mary Knoll Missioners for a long time. They just closed the Chile branch (and many others) of the Mary Knoll program but they have decided to stay here. Vilches is a small, rural town. We haven’t seen much yet but over the next two weeks I will be able to tell you much more about life in Vilches.
Unfortunately the internet here is not great so I will not be able to post any pictures for the next two weeks. Also Skype dates are out of the question…
We also went to a public High School in San Nicolas which is a town about a half hour from Chillan. Many students come from the country to go to the school and it recently won an award as a “Bicentennial School of Excellence.” While we were there we helped with the eleventh grade English classes. We helped review a test that the class had taken and also had conversations with the students. In one of the classes we took a mini field trip to the plaza which is a couple blocks from the school and the students had to point out important things along the way and tell us what they were in English. All in all it was a good day but a bit tiring.
The third school we went to was for children of all ages (infant to young adult) with disabilities. It is an amazing place and there are lots of possibilities for volunteer work. We could help with computer classes, I could teach cooking classes to a group of young adults or the group of mothers who come to a special workshop a couple times a month, we could do art projects, etc… the director of the school just kept listing off thing after thing that we could help with. She was clearly very passionate about her work and the school!
The last school we visited was El Libertador which is a public school a couple blocks from Casa Ursulina. It serves a poor neighborhood of Chillan and previous volunteers have worked there. Some possible options for this school are to teach English or tutor children who need extra help. We met with the director briefly and he seemed like a really nice guy.
On the 29th we started to celebrate my birthday! The celebration at dinner with longanizas (a type of sausage that is very popular in Chile and Chillan is said to have the best longanizas!), chips and dip and artichokes (they eat lots of artichokes in Chile, not just the hearts but the whole artichoke). I really like all of these foods so I was quite pleased. Then we had cake. Mimi, Ruth and Kym sang Happy Birthday both in Spanish and English. It was a great way to start celebrating. The next day began with birthday cake for breakfast. We lit the candles again and sang to Ale (a lady who helps around the house except on Wednesdays (the 29th was a Wednesday and her birthday)). Mimi says she likes nothing more than sweets for breakfast so we continued eating the cake for breakfast. I wasn’t going to argue with that! The cake they got was called Nogales and was a walnut cake with manjar (caramel) frosting between the layers. It was definitely good but adding some chocolate somewhere wouldn’t have hurt either :D Later that night we went out with Ale and one of her sons to a bar called Kactus. It wasn’t very crowed which was good because it meant it wasn’t very smokey. We could have gone out a Friday instead but it would have been really busy and very smokey so I decided that would not be as fun. We had a great time laughing, dancing and talking. Later Ale told us that it was one of her best birthdays in a long time! On Friday the celebration continued (for my birthday and Ale’s) when we went out to lunch in town. We would have gone out on Thursday but there was an extra morning workshop so there wouldn’t have been a lot of time to go out to lunch and return in time for the afternoon classes. The restaurant we went to serves typical Chilean food. It is really good, has big portions and is cheap! I got an Ave Palta (chicken and avocado) sandwich and it was great!
During the week we went to more of the classes at Casa Ursulina and I learned how to set up a loom and weave. Over a span of three or four days I set up the loom and knit a scarf (light blue and navy blue). If I may say so myself, I did a great job, especially considering I’ve never done any weaving before (unless you count weaving in fourth grade art class which is a bit different…).
On Saturday afternoon Kym and I took the bus to Talca where we met Maruja. From Talca we went to Vilches and will spend the next two weeks here. Ted and Maruja are a couple who have been Mary Knoll Missioners for a long time. They just closed the Chile branch (and many others) of the Mary Knoll program but they have decided to stay here. Vilches is a small, rural town. We haven’t seen much yet but over the next two weeks I will be able to tell you much more about life in Vilches.
Unfortunately the internet here is not great so I will not be able to post any pictures for the next two weeks. Also Skype dates are out of the question…
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