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