Thursday 19 June 2008

Across the Bay in La Serena...


13km or 80 cents from Coquimbo is the beautiful and touristy city of La Serena. Surrounded by hotels and tour shops, my house and school are located right in the city centre.

La Serena lighthouse


As I setted in over the past few weks, although not surprised, I was shocked by the nonexistant English my family spoke. I live with an 88 year old abuela(grandmother) who is adorable and gets very excited every time I come up with spanish sentence to say to her. She generally stays in bed except for at lunch time when she gets all dressed up. I can usually hear ´much music´ blasting from her room. The other woman that I live with is a 74 year old nanny named Horte who is always cooking or baking a cake. She makes some incredible feasts. Coming from zero spanish a month ago, I am now able to communicate a little... mostly about food and activities. They are very patient with me. Some of our frequnt misunderstandings include my box of chocolate syrup ball cereal that I get every morning with hot milk, my 3L bottle of cream soda, and getting locked out of my house when I dont bring my keys.


Horte


My School, Gabriel Mistral, is an all girl´s high school. There are 9oo students in 3 buildings and I think this was the first week I managed to not get lost. The girls and staff are very kind and welcoming. Sitting in a staff room of 40 middle aged women chattering in spanish and trying to communicate with me is an experience in itself. Learning 320 spanish names is quite a challenge, but usually I´m pretty safe going with ´macerena´or ´francisca´. I have told some of my girls tht they can come home with me to meet my brother. Hope that´s okay, Dave!!

Students and ´completo´

I teach grades 9-12 from Monday to Thursday and run into my students around the city the rest of the time. Whether in a grocery store or on the beach, it is normal to hear ¨hello Miss!!¨ coming from all directions. A few days ago I was surprised by about 15 girls on my street who popped out of a hostel to sell me a completo (hot dog with tomato, avocado, cheese... you name it). It was.... edible. Most Mondays I hear of all the places my students saw me over the weekend.

Well thats all for now. Its so difficult to sum up life here in a post, but I´ll try to update this more frequently. Off for another weekend adventure! con amor (that´s me stitching together my nonexistant vocabulary... hope it made sense....),

Vianna

Coffee Granules for Dessert

If my last post didn´t make it clear I need to emphasize how amazing my Chilean Family is. Weekdays I don´t have much contact with my own family because no one except Abuelita (grandmother) is home before 8pm and I´m the only one who eats a dinner-type meal, but on weekends they´re eager to show us Canadians the Chilean way of life. Some highlights have been playing Spanish board games, singing Karaoke in a local pub, celebrating my host father´s birthday, and the events of this past weekend...

Host Father´s 60th


As Liza described, on Saturday we got to experience the true spirit of soccer by going to the tournament final between La Serena and Universidad de Chile. The four cold Canadians huddled together to the amusement of the security guards to take in some top quality soccer and infectiously crazy ´U´ fans. Arriving back to my house FREEZING cold, Liza and I were welcomed by the warmth of empanada baking. We walked in on the preparations for Sunday at the Campo, a farm-type place on the edge of the Elqui Valley. The 50 massive empanadas made us excited for what lay ahead.
The next day the four Canadians, my host family, and an assortment of family friends arrived at a picturesque ¨Camping area,¨ but this was no Algonquin Park. We drove in, plugged in our kettles and the men began to barbeque every kind of meat imagineable on a large stone grill. We enjoyed a lovely afternoon in the valley with lots of eating, disc tossing and a spirited soccer game.

Notice the pile of meat


On the weekdays I am beginning to get into a routine at the Estado de Israel School. I teach three classes of year 1, 2 and 3, so since they are split into half class groups each that makes 18 groups of students. Each class has such a different dynamic so I find my lesson plans really have to take into account the character of the group. Some classes sit quietly, some are apathetic, and some bounce off the walls. Furthermore, with the unruliest year 1 and 2 classes only the 12 best come to my class, but with all the others I get about 24 each. Moral of the story: various lesson plans are required.
I found some amusement in my second year classes this week when they made menus and presented restaurant skits for their food unit. Orders included rainbow slaw to start, roasted rage with stick for dinner, and instant coffee granules for dessert. Mmm.

I have also been teaching at a lab downtown a few times a week where the eager students can come for free classes. They are a mix of the best behaved from all Coquimbo schools plus some adults so it´s a nice change from the sometimes trying school groups. I made my newspaper debut in ¨La Region¨newspaper this week after a surprise interview in Spanish and have officially experienced the word-twisting habits of journalists. Apparently Canadians have no family values. I don´t care how broken my Spanish is, I did NOT say that!

Early morning photoshoots aren´t my thing

We look forward to a weekend in the heart of the Elqui Valley and hope that Vianna will write about her crazy adventures soon, she is alive and well!

Until next time,
Kelsey.

Wednesday 18 June 2008

Paro (Strike, in Spanish)

It´s difficult to put into such few words everything that has happened here so far. It often takes only seconds to make first impressions, and then one sometimes feels that the rest of the time is spent either trying to confrom to those impressions or to defy them.

The school has been an interesting experience thus far. After completing the ´observation´period, i was finally given my own classes and classroom - let´s just pretend my class has enough desks for each student. I have two 4th years, one 3rd, two 2nd and two 1st classes, all with varying ability and desire for english. One 1st class was removed from my schedule due to the fact that as i was teaching kids were swearing at me in english and spanish (yes i do understand that stuff now), yelling obsenities at one another, throwing things, leaving class, on their cellphones and mp3s, and simply a general disregard for anyone but themselves. My co-teacher, Pamela, decided that they were not worth it for me - bless her! Not all my students are like those ones though. My favourite class so far, 4C, has hardworking students who love to have fun in the classroom. Conversations of music and sports are usually the basis, but it is clear that english related to their interests is what will motivate them to learn. I too have also now become an avid soccer (i will forever call it soccer) fan and watch whenever possible! Although i say much about teaching, my time in the classroom has been cut short as of date. After a lovely illness kept me from school last Thursday, i have been feeling worlds better, yet have not returned to class as the teachers have been on strike for this entire week - for the second time since my arrival. The education system throughout Chile is ... lacking, in a few areas. Vianna and Kelsey´s schools have been kept in relative order this week, but fellow volunteers and friends, Steph and Colin, have had a week of vacation along with me. Rumours say that we might have to work through our supposed winter vacation, but let´s just hope that remains a rumour, as San Pedro sandboarding calls my name loudly and frequently.

As school is not an option at the moment, my home is becoming a much more familiar place. Kahel, Cameron and Stacy are now frequenting my room as much as I am, but it is hard to tell them to leave for they are rather cute, and i lack the vocabularly to tell them nicely.
(Stacy and Kahel playing with Disney cards.. how fun!!)
Alexis and Alejandra continue to make me feel like their house is my own, including the revolving door for visitors, which primarily include missionaries from their church. Religion remains a nightly conversation for me. Through all of this though, I have learned much of the Mormon religion including interesting things such as why they are not allowed to drink coffee or tea because of caffeine, yet coca-cola frequents the house just as the stray dogs frequent the streets - oh yeah, those lovely beasts gave me fleas, that sucked, but they´re gone now. Nightly conversations touch on religion, food, race, culture, and beliefs of every sort. The bluntness of this culture will forever astound me as 9 years old are blatantly talked about as ´the fat kid´ as they delve deeper into the common meals of white bread, sugar, salt, oil, and butter. Oh yeah, we cannot forget about the ´milk fat candies´ I found in my house the other day. However, I do generalize, the food is great, just different. Kelsey´s house and family is like a second home for me here, calling me not by name but by ´hija´, or their new favourite, Lumpy.

Weekends generally are spent as a clan. Kelsey, Vianna, Steph and I have had some adventures here so far, mainly alongside Kelsey´s sisters and their every-loving, fun-seeking friend Priscilla. We´ve done the boat tour of the Coquimbo harbour to see the sea lions. Last weekend took us to our second night óut´thus far in Chile.. yeah, we party hard. The Spanish Karaoke almost puts our ´Blondie´experience in Santiago to shame. This Lovely gentleman was dancing for us at the Karaoke bar. How Lucky!
Saturday i faced one of my biggest fears. The circus. Oh how i hate clowns. I´m not entirely sure whose idea it was, but we all agreed, and ended up at the dingiest, dirtiest, horrorshow ever. Some family run circus with clown-esque things will haunt my dreams forever. Try everything once, right??? Following the lovely time we had at the circus, we head for the soccer game - La Serena vs Universidad de Chile. The game was amazing to watch and numbingly cold, but the U fans and constant cheering (despite the 3-1 loss) made it all worthwhile. As Sunday was father´s day, Kelsey´s family took us to a Campo (somewhat like a public camping ground) where we had a beautiful day in the Valley with blue skies and more food than i could congure in a dream.

Beautiful sunset at the Campo on Father´s Day.

I now await the fate of my school, and further adventure.
Hope you all are well, wherever you may be.
Love,

Lump.

Wednesday 11 June 2008

Photo Posts By All...

June 8th, 2008 - Diabetes 5K Walk for a Cure... in Chile
Kelsey´s family and their surrogate daughters
Canadians attempt to play SOCCER.. Liza fell.
Raincoats, Lifevests, Boats and Babes

Boat Tour of Coquimbo Harbour

Friday 6 June 2008

La Familia

My first encounter with my family illustrates some of the Chilean personality attributes perfectly so here´s where I´ll begin. I was picked up at the La Serena bus stop by my Chilean mother, her sister, and a teacher who spent some time in Australia in case I didn´t speak any Spanish. When they discovered I do speak a minimal amount of Spanish however, the floodgates were opened and I now live with the constant challenge of understanding the fastest, most colloquial Spanish en este mundo. They exhausted their English phrases pretty fast with ¨what is your name, door, chair, grandmother.´Upon walking into the house my mother pinched me on the side and told me I would gain at least 10kg living with her, y mi casa es tu casa. She then led me up the narrow staircase, where if I didn´t duck my entire upper body would be swiped off, and introduced me to the 87 year-old grandmother, who smiled and told me I am so young and pretty. After dropping my things off in my Catholic-cross adorned room I came back downstairs to be force-fed an array of empanadas and pasteles de choclo (corn and sugar based things). I was introduced to the daughters of the family, a Kinesiology student age 24, and a Kindergarten teacher age 28, and the father, a taxi driver. He was immediately patient with my struggling Spanish.
Then came the swarm of women. The school inspector, other office women, and a few teachers all came into our house to meet the Canadian girl. I was peppered with questions, the first of which is ALWAYS ´¿tiene un pololo?´ (do you have a boyfriend). They also are constantly checking up on my body temperature since it´s rather cold right now, and they think it´s crazy to only wear socks around the house so shoes it is. OH the name Kelsey is also very difficult to pronounce; they think it sounds like the word ´crazy´. We had more sugar-filled treats, tea and ice cream-coffee, and they laughed when I failed to follow the conversation and told them it was because they all talk at once!

The three of us with my two ¨sisters¨ at La Cruz de Coquimbo


My school is called the Estado de Israel Institución de Administración y Comercio and yes, although there are no Jewish students to be found, our fences and courtyards are decorated with the star of David. It is considered quite a good school by Chilean standards, but as is the case with Liza´s school, the students speak NO English and are accustomed to music, cell phones and wandering about in class. When the students were asked if they have ever come in contact with a native English speaker before, only about 3 of the 45 said yes. Also, the English teachers here tend to describe people as ¨tender¨ and ask the meaning of ¨dairy,¨ so I am excited to be an English resource to the school. When the students were given the opportunity to ask me questions they delved right into it (still almost all in Spanish) - do you smoke, boyfriend, age, music taste, do you dance etc. So I am 23 with a serious boyfriend, in case you were wondering. I have already led a few classes but am excited to start official teaching next week and will give an update on how it goes!


-Kelsey.

Coquimbo or Bust

hello friends!

Sorry that it has been so long. There has been a lot happening and computer time is rather limited. Pictures will soon follow suit, when i can get to Kelsey´s house to post them. Yes, she has a computer.

After the somewhat organized orientation, we boarded an 8 hour bus heading north from Santiago, to the town of Coquimbo. Arriving in Coquimbo we were met by our regional coordinator, and sent off to meet our families. For the next two months I am living with a lovley, happy family. Alexis, the 36 year old father speaks some english, so it helps when i get a little confused. The 29 year old mother, Alejandra, is as kind as they come, but speaks not a word of english, however the house is never quiet. The three children - Cameron (10), Stacy (6) and Kahel (1) make enough noise for all of us. The house is very well located, as the centre is but a 10 minute walk, and the Mormon church only a block away. Oh yes, they are Mormons. I experienced my first religious gathering the other day, in Spanish of course. This will take some adjusting, but its always interesting to learn... Kelsey´s house is a 15 minute walk from mine, and is often a haven of cafeine for me, as i am not allowed to consume any in my house. Its great to have a familiar face around the corner too.

My observation week at the school - where i followed the teacher around like a lost dog - has finally come to an end, and i will be placed in my own classroom as of Monday. For me, the school has been the most shocking part. The students are on their cellphones and mp3s during class, putting on makeup instead of doing the work, and ive encountered only a few (out of the 150 i will be teaching) that know a word of english. Liceo Diego Portales, my school, is a bit run down with minimal windows still in tact, few doors that actually close, some classrooms have lights, and one is hard pressed to find a classroom without graffitti all over the walls. Its no Havergal or Lakefield, thats for sure! Despite all of that, the school does look out over a harbour filled with fishing boats, and is backed by a beautiful mountain range in the distance. There is however, lot of room here to make a difference. As the week concluded my feelings of frustration were rising, as i felt almost useless in the classroom, I have difficulty getting my point across in Spanish, and i figured that no one would benefit from me being here as i had yet to encounter a single student interested in learning. Things change. I helped to teach a 4th grade (grade 12 for us) english class yesterday, and i was appraoched by one of the students. Jose was very reserved about the english he would use, but as we began our conversation he opened up in english and was not afraid to make mistakes. He mentioned that I was the only foreigner that he had ever spoken to, in english or spanish. e sat with me for the better part of the class asking as much as he could, improving each time he spoke. I went home after school that day excited to go back and teach. Monday will be challenging, but if i am able to reach even one student, then everything has been worthwhile!

A new found Torontonian - a fellow volunteer - Steph, is placed in a smaller town about 40 minutes away called Tongoy. She will be coming into Coquimbo this weekend and staying with me, so that Vianna, Kelsey, Steph and I can explore together! Also, a friend from the program, Colin - from Vancouver - is in Coquimbo with us. e has sort of been MIA for the past couple days but we hope to meet up with him this weekend.

I hope that all is well at home, wherever that may be.
All for now!
amor siempre Liza.

Museo de Arte Precolombino

Museo de Arte Precolombino

Summit of San Cristobal

Summit of San Cristobal

Alpaca Market

Alpaca Market