Just to clear up the title: carrete = fiesta = party; carretear= to party. Oh, chilenismos.
Last Saturday night Diane, Kristin (new Canadian friend, very cool), and I went to Pablo's birthday party. I joked that we were going to do an homage to Pinochet in the middle of it, as Pablo is a young penochetista. He has redeeming qualities, though, and I just tell myself he doesn't know any better.
As for not knowing any better, we found ourselves in an embarrassing situation that night, but we also learned a new chilenismo, or Chilean way of saying something. We had received a flyer via email from Pablo saying giving the direction of the party, Edificio Lemu, Clubhouse. It said that entrance was free after 10 pm, but at the bottom it said that it didn't include cover. We thought that was strange, but that maybe there was a special fee to get into the clubhouse but we may have to still pay a cover for a band or something. Anyway, we came prepared to pay a cover. Well, ''cover'' actually means alcohol! The party was in a rented out clubhouse, and everyone brought their own booze. We didn't notice this at first, as we were offered drinks as soon as we arrived. Later, though, we wisened up. We had considered bringing alcohol, but because we decided the party was at a bar since we would have to pay a cover, we didn't bring anything. Pablo just laughed and provided drinks for us for the rest of the night. I never would have thought that that is what cover means here. He's having another party to use up the leftover food from the first party, so we are going to bring enough ''cover'' to cover what we didn't bring before!
Other than carreteando, which I really haven't been doing that much of, I have been recovering from a sinus infection, teaching, and eeking out final papers. I am proud of myself for not having waited until the night before the papers are due to start working on them. I figured I couldn't punch out two 15-page papers in Spanish overnight. I shouldn't be doing that with papers in English, either....
I didn't teach at the high school this week because there was a teacher's strike. There were strikes and protests all over Chile because of a new education bill being proposed in the Congress that would further privatize education. That's crap. The free, public school education here is severely underfunded, and the gap between private and public education is only maintaining the economic gap within the country. I don't think they have reached an agreement about the bill yet.
I did teach the little kids this week. My heart is both warmed and broken every time I go to the school. The children are so loving, but it pains me so much to know that some of them live in children's homes because their parents abandoned them, and all of them live in poverty. I found out this week that another child, Jessica, lives in a children's home because her parents were/are drug addicts. She is six years old, the same as my niece Madelyn. She is really sweet, and in class Tuesday she hugged me a lot and called me ´´mamá.´´ I so wish I could adopt her! I actually mean that seriously. If I were in a more stable place in my life and had the money to do it, I would probably try to do it. My 15-year-old niece Kayley told me that if I were to adopt all the kids I see and say I want to adopt, I would already have a house full of kids. She's probably right! That's just me, though. I am a mother without a child.
jueves 19 de junio de 2008
sábado 14 de junio de 2008
Teaching Experience
I recently started two volunteer teaching jobs: one at a high school and one at a rural K-8. I am teaching English to mischievous high-schoolers and rambunctious 1st and 2nd graders, and it has been great so far. Although discipline problems are many, I am glad that I have the opportunity to help in some way and hopefully help boost these poor kids' self-confidence and give them a better shot at getting a college degree. Maybe there will be more government aid for students by the time they have the opportunity to go to college.
As it is right now, tuition is expensive and the student loan program is pretty insuffiicient. The students at to U de Concepción have taken over many of the buildings and have succeeded in stopping classes by strike. (Since there are so few students in my two grad seminars, we have continued to meet off campus and plan to complete our work on time so as not to lose vacation days that will likely be used to recuperate the missed days from the striking. We support what the strikers are doing, but we are continuing our work without really crossing a picket line, so to speak). The strike situation may seem radical to North Americans, but I have been told by many people that the only way to get the government's attention here is to have a strike. Unfortunately, although the government usually makes concessions initially, they often take back what they gave later on, thus causing more strikes. The teachers go on strike, too, because at the primary, middle, and high school levels, the government also underfunds schools, and the teachers' salaries are pitiful. My scholarship stipend is the same as what a teacher makes in Chile, which would be well below the poverty level in the U.S.
But back to my teaching experiences. I began working at a high school in San Pedro (about 20 minutes from Concepción proper) about 3 weeks ago. Although San Pedro is a pretty wealthy town, this particular high school is where poor children from the outskirts of town come to school. It is also a dumping ground for students who have been kicked out of other schools for disciplinary problems. I am working at the school through the program Inglés Abre Puertas, or Enlgish Opens Doors, which is a government program that recruits native English speakers from universities to volunteer as teaching assistants in schools whose students come from low socioeconomic levels. I think it is a good program, and the teacher I work with tells me that she can tell that the students are more motivated now that I am there. Just having a foreigner around stirs up student interest in most cases. There are many kids who are really good at English. I just hope they get a chance to do something with the language in the future.
I work at the high school on Monday and Wednesday mornings and at the rural school on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday for bi-weekly 45-minute sessions with students in 1st and 2nd grades. The rural school gig was arranged by my host Rotary Club, which does various activities to help the school. This year they plan to build a multi-use sports field to replace the current one, which is just dirt (or mud if it has been raining) that has no actual goals or markings for sports.
Every time I go to the school, kids from all grades surround me, looking at me like I came from another planet rather than another country, and ask me questions until the principal takes me to the classroom. The kids I teach are soooooo cute and sweet, and they are really excited about learning English, especially the 2nd graders. The 1st graders are much more bashful, but they are doing well. The first day that I went to the 2nd grade classroom, the kids jumped up and down and cheered when I came into the room. I couldn't have asked for a better welcome! Although they are more rowdy and are greater in number and thus a little harder to keep under control, the 2nd graders show a lot of potential. It's amazing how well kids can pronounce words from another language! I don't think they quite understand all of the meanings yet, but that will get better with time. This week I taught them basic greetings, and we made masks with which we could practice the words. The masks are good not only for making learning more fun, but also for helping the shy kids to feel less intimidated.
I found out that one of the kids, who is particularly affectionate and always asking to help me with things, lives in a home for children. He is nine years old and should be in 4th grade, but he is so tiny! I think my 6-year-old niece is as big as he is. His parents were drug addicts and abandoned him, and he lived on the street begging for money before he began living in the children's home. Stories like that just break my heart, but they also give me more passion for working with them. I wish I could just adopt all those kids and care for them the way they should be cared for. Many, if not all, of them live in shacks or run-down houses with no heat or indoor plumbing. For many of them, both at the rural school and the high school, the only food they get is the school breakfast and lunch. There are a couple of high school students that I teach that are fifteen or sixteen years old but look like they are eight or nine. This is likely due to malnourishment, and I wouldn't doubt that some of them were premature or had fetal alcohol syndrome.
A lot of the high school students, though they come from these situations, have cell phones. A lot of them work after school and probably use some of their money for things like cell phones, because having the appearance of living comfortably when one is not is sometimes, I guess, more satisfying than taking care of basic needs first. That's material culture for you, I suppose.
As it is right now, tuition is expensive and the student loan program is pretty insuffiicient. The students at to U de Concepción have taken over many of the buildings and have succeeded in stopping classes by strike. (Since there are so few students in my two grad seminars, we have continued to meet off campus and plan to complete our work on time so as not to lose vacation days that will likely be used to recuperate the missed days from the striking. We support what the strikers are doing, but we are continuing our work without really crossing a picket line, so to speak). The strike situation may seem radical to North Americans, but I have been told by many people that the only way to get the government's attention here is to have a strike. Unfortunately, although the government usually makes concessions initially, they often take back what they gave later on, thus causing more strikes. The teachers go on strike, too, because at the primary, middle, and high school levels, the government also underfunds schools, and the teachers' salaries are pitiful. My scholarship stipend is the same as what a teacher makes in Chile, which would be well below the poverty level in the U.S.
But back to my teaching experiences. I began working at a high school in San Pedro (about 20 minutes from Concepción proper) about 3 weeks ago. Although San Pedro is a pretty wealthy town, this particular high school is where poor children from the outskirts of town come to school. It is also a dumping ground for students who have been kicked out of other schools for disciplinary problems. I am working at the school through the program Inglés Abre Puertas, or Enlgish Opens Doors, which is a government program that recruits native English speakers from universities to volunteer as teaching assistants in schools whose students come from low socioeconomic levels. I think it is a good program, and the teacher I work with tells me that she can tell that the students are more motivated now that I am there. Just having a foreigner around stirs up student interest in most cases. There are many kids who are really good at English. I just hope they get a chance to do something with the language in the future.
I work at the high school on Monday and Wednesday mornings and at the rural school on Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday for bi-weekly 45-minute sessions with students in 1st and 2nd grades. The rural school gig was arranged by my host Rotary Club, which does various activities to help the school. This year they plan to build a multi-use sports field to replace the current one, which is just dirt (or mud if it has been raining) that has no actual goals or markings for sports.
Every time I go to the school, kids from all grades surround me, looking at me like I came from another planet rather than another country, and ask me questions until the principal takes me to the classroom. The kids I teach are soooooo cute and sweet, and they are really excited about learning English, especially the 2nd graders. The 1st graders are much more bashful, but they are doing well. The first day that I went to the 2nd grade classroom, the kids jumped up and down and cheered when I came into the room. I couldn't have asked for a better welcome! Although they are more rowdy and are greater in number and thus a little harder to keep under control, the 2nd graders show a lot of potential. It's amazing how well kids can pronounce words from another language! I don't think they quite understand all of the meanings yet, but that will get better with time. This week I taught them basic greetings, and we made masks with which we could practice the words. The masks are good not only for making learning more fun, but also for helping the shy kids to feel less intimidated.
I found out that one of the kids, who is particularly affectionate and always asking to help me with things, lives in a home for children. He is nine years old and should be in 4th grade, but he is so tiny! I think my 6-year-old niece is as big as he is. His parents were drug addicts and abandoned him, and he lived on the street begging for money before he began living in the children's home. Stories like that just break my heart, but they also give me more passion for working with them. I wish I could just adopt all those kids and care for them the way they should be cared for. Many, if not all, of them live in shacks or run-down houses with no heat or indoor plumbing. For many of them, both at the rural school and the high school, the only food they get is the school breakfast and lunch. There are a couple of high school students that I teach that are fifteen or sixteen years old but look like they are eight or nine. This is likely due to malnourishment, and I wouldn't doubt that some of them were premature or had fetal alcohol syndrome.
A lot of the high school students, though they come from these situations, have cell phones. A lot of them work after school and probably use some of their money for things like cell phones, because having the appearance of living comfortably when one is not is sometimes, I guess, more satisfying than taking care of basic needs first. That's material culture for you, I suppose.
miércoles 4 de junio de 2008
The End of the Earth
It has been a month since I last posted an entry, so I have a lot of catching up to do. I have been busy traveling, teaching, and studying, and I usually don't feel like writing in my free time! I'm going to try to post a couple of entries that will get this blog up to date, and this first entry is the story of my glorious adventure to the ''end of the Earth'', i.e. Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego.
In the middle of May, I went with Eduardo and Diane to Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, and the Torres del Paine national park outside of Puerto Natales. I discovered a totally different part of Chile that, to be, seems more interesting and aesthetically pleasing. The people in Concepción are great, but it is quite an ugly city, to tell the truth. I like the little communities outside of Concepción because they are usually prettier and have a more soulful feeling to them (perhaps I am romanticizing the countryside, but I assure you, I am no right-wing nationalist), but they lack the convenience of city life. I found Punta Arenas to be a mixture of those two: a small city that had enough diversions to keep a person entertained, but also pretty, clean, and full of history. Immigrants from Great Britain, Croatia, Germany, and other European countries settled here; not just Spaniards (and of course indigenous peoples, but I am talking about immigrants).
We got to see some important sites in Punta Arenas, such as Fuerte Bulnes. It was a fort and settlement where ruffians of England lived, sometimes as punishment. The fort is famous (here, at least) because the community rebelled and liberated itself. That must have been a hell of a day.
We also visited the city cemetary. Doesn't sound interesting, but it was. It is full of mausoleums of various sizes and designs--and a various family names. There one can see the tremendous Croatian hertiage of the city. Behind the giant monuments and mausoleums were bigger mausoleums that held many of the deceased of less wealthy stock. Eduardo asked why I took a photo of them sine they were so ugly, and I replied that it was reality, ugly or not.
Our trip to Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine was wonderful. We stayed in a very nice hostel for a cheap, low-season rate. Puerto Natales is quite small, so there wasn't as much to do, but we went there because of the park anyway. We took a guided tour on a minibus with a group of young women from Hong Kong and a man from Holland. Hiking would have been nice, but it would have required several days and warmer weather. Still, we got to see all the high points of the park, including the torres del paine (or the stone towers) and the cuernos (horns--smaller than the torres), a couple of beautiful lakes, and a waterfall. We didn't make it to Glacier Grey because it was way on the other side of the park. Being in the park made me feel calm, which was a nice turn from the rest of the trip. I sort of had wanted to strangle Eduardo for most of the trip, because he decided to be in control of everything. He has some idea that he needs to take care of us, but there's not a huge age difference! I think Diane and I are a little more mature than him, anyway.
Enough venting. Eduardo and I did have a fun time at the Austral brewery, but unfortunately Diane had had to leave. We got to drink a lot of beer, and we bought souvenir glasses. Austral beer is pretty tasty. My favorite is Austral Calafate, which contains extract from the calafate fruit, which we don't have in the U.S. Too bad the beer isn't available back home.
I also turned 24 in Punta Arenas. It was on a Monday, and Diane, Eduardo, and I had a nice lunch at a fancy restaurant after we returned to Punta Arenas from Puerto Natales. That night, Eduardo, his cousin Rodrigo whose hostel we stayed at, and I went out for drinks, and I had a slice of alfajor cake (crispy layers of pastry and manjar, which is like a mix between dulce de leche and caramel). Truthfully, I spent most of my birthday being cold, achy, and sad. May is basically wintertime in Chile, especially in the South; I'm used to having a springtime birthday! I missed my friends and family, and my phone wasn't working, so I couldn't talk to any of those who tried to call. I have had some awesome birthdays in the past few years, though, so surely one mediocre one won't hurt me.
The day after my birthday, I took a ride on a ferry across the Strait of Magellan. As a history person, this was pretty exciting for me, even though I always hated studying the exploration period in school. I went to the small town of Porvenir in Tierra del Fuego. Porvenir is not much, but at least I can say that I crossed the Strait of Magellan and have been to Tierra del Fuego! A Chilean man of Croatian descent who had been on the ferry offered to show me around town after handing me a business card for his mom-and-pop travel service. He drove me around the little town and showed me the main points of interest, like the church, the plaza, and a museum that told of the city's history. In the end, he didn't charge me anything and refused to take anythign I offered him! I had only a couple of hours in Porvenir before it was time to board the ferry again. It's a three-hour ride, and since the sun sets earlier in the winter, the return trips are right after lunch. Still, it was worth it.
I am so, so glad I went to Punta Arenas, Torres del Paine, and Tierra del Fuego, even if it wasn't in the springtime. It gave me a new appreciation for Chile and its natural wonders. Who knows, maybe I'll have the chance to go back someday when it's not so cold!
In the middle of May, I went with Eduardo and Diane to Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales, and the Torres del Paine national park outside of Puerto Natales. I discovered a totally different part of Chile that, to be, seems more interesting and aesthetically pleasing. The people in Concepción are great, but it is quite an ugly city, to tell the truth. I like the little communities outside of Concepción because they are usually prettier and have a more soulful feeling to them (perhaps I am romanticizing the countryside, but I assure you, I am no right-wing nationalist), but they lack the convenience of city life. I found Punta Arenas to be a mixture of those two: a small city that had enough diversions to keep a person entertained, but also pretty, clean, and full of history. Immigrants from Great Britain, Croatia, Germany, and other European countries settled here; not just Spaniards (and of course indigenous peoples, but I am talking about immigrants).
We got to see some important sites in Punta Arenas, such as Fuerte Bulnes. It was a fort and settlement where ruffians of England lived, sometimes as punishment. The fort is famous (here, at least) because the community rebelled and liberated itself. That must have been a hell of a day.
We also visited the city cemetary. Doesn't sound interesting, but it was. It is full of mausoleums of various sizes and designs--and a various family names. There one can see the tremendous Croatian hertiage of the city. Behind the giant monuments and mausoleums were bigger mausoleums that held many of the deceased of less wealthy stock. Eduardo asked why I took a photo of them sine they were so ugly, and I replied that it was reality, ugly or not.
Our trip to Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine was wonderful. We stayed in a very nice hostel for a cheap, low-season rate. Puerto Natales is quite small, so there wasn't as much to do, but we went there because of the park anyway. We took a guided tour on a minibus with a group of young women from Hong Kong and a man from Holland. Hiking would have been nice, but it would have required several days and warmer weather. Still, we got to see all the high points of the park, including the torres del paine (or the stone towers) and the cuernos (horns--smaller than the torres), a couple of beautiful lakes, and a waterfall. We didn't make it to Glacier Grey because it was way on the other side of the park. Being in the park made me feel calm, which was a nice turn from the rest of the trip. I sort of had wanted to strangle Eduardo for most of the trip, because he decided to be in control of everything. He has some idea that he needs to take care of us, but there's not a huge age difference! I think Diane and I are a little more mature than him, anyway.
Enough venting. Eduardo and I did have a fun time at the Austral brewery, but unfortunately Diane had had to leave. We got to drink a lot of beer, and we bought souvenir glasses. Austral beer is pretty tasty. My favorite is Austral Calafate, which contains extract from the calafate fruit, which we don't have in the U.S. Too bad the beer isn't available back home.
I also turned 24 in Punta Arenas. It was on a Monday, and Diane, Eduardo, and I had a nice lunch at a fancy restaurant after we returned to Punta Arenas from Puerto Natales. That night, Eduardo, his cousin Rodrigo whose hostel we stayed at, and I went out for drinks, and I had a slice of alfajor cake (crispy layers of pastry and manjar, which is like a mix between dulce de leche and caramel). Truthfully, I spent most of my birthday being cold, achy, and sad. May is basically wintertime in Chile, especially in the South; I'm used to having a springtime birthday! I missed my friends and family, and my phone wasn't working, so I couldn't talk to any of those who tried to call. I have had some awesome birthdays in the past few years, though, so surely one mediocre one won't hurt me.
The day after my birthday, I took a ride on a ferry across the Strait of Magellan. As a history person, this was pretty exciting for me, even though I always hated studying the exploration period in school. I went to the small town of Porvenir in Tierra del Fuego. Porvenir is not much, but at least I can say that I crossed the Strait of Magellan and have been to Tierra del Fuego! A Chilean man of Croatian descent who had been on the ferry offered to show me around town after handing me a business card for his mom-and-pop travel service. He drove me around the little town and showed me the main points of interest, like the church, the plaza, and a museum that told of the city's history. In the end, he didn't charge me anything and refused to take anythign I offered him! I had only a couple of hours in Porvenir before it was time to board the ferry again. It's a three-hour ride, and since the sun sets earlier in the winter, the return trips are right after lunch. Still, it was worth it.
I am so, so glad I went to Punta Arenas, Torres del Paine, and Tierra del Fuego, even if it wasn't in the springtime. It gave me a new appreciation for Chile and its natural wonders. Who knows, maybe I'll have the chance to go back someday when it's not so cold!
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