Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto ~Violeta Parra

Hello all! I am currently writing from my new home in Buenos Aires, Argentina. But before I go on to describe my initial reactions to this freaking huge city, I have a lot of backtracking to do. I will warn you, THIS IS LONG.  

LOS ANDES

On September 25^th some of us took a small day trip to this middle-of-nowhere town called San Gabriel to hike. Fyi 1) I am not a hiker and 2) I had no idea where we were going (this became obvious after the bus I picked was wrong). This meant that my trusty and amazing friend Lauren took over most of the navigating for the rest of the day. Our journey began at the police station in San Gabriel.  I still cannot stop being scared of police in Chile (it is mostly a result of their green army-like uniforms and some terrifying historical videos we have watched), but they were very friendly, took down our passport info and pointed us in the right direction. We spent the next four hours hiking with no one else around, singing and sitting on big rocks on the river. 

There was something quite unbelievably beautiful to sitting on a river you know (well, you hope) has never really been touched/polluted by mankind. We probably could have stayed there for the rest of the day, but our two hour bus ride home kept us moving.

VALPARAISO

The next weekend was spent in the well-renowned port city of Valparaiso. There, we visited a technical high school for girls (in Chile, high schools are either technicalàjobs or humanistic-scientificàcollege), spoke with the director of the regional organization of professors and visited a rural primary school half an hour outside the city.

View from the soccer field at the rural primary school we visited

I have to say, I was not blown away by the city in the way I expected to be. It is full of art and the views from the top of the city overlooking the port are stunning, but I found that after living in Santiago (a non-touristy city with an amazing transportation system), I was not pleased with being treated like a tourist (as in, they assumed we wanted to speak in English) and navigating was extremely difficult. The one truly amazing thing about this weekend was that the annual Festival de Tambores was happening. This festival brings in people from all over Chile and Latin America (mainly hippies and drummers), but I felt so at home watching the performances and dancing for hours in this open space overlooking the city with a bunch of strangers. It was a mix of everything, from dancing, to political speeches, to reggae and jazz bands. 

LA ESCUELA DE ALEMANIA

The week of October 4th I spent in La Escuela de Alemania observing classes and interviewing students and professors for a small-scale independent research project. I will not bore you with details, but it was more than fascinating to sit at the back of a fourth grade classroom in a school with one of the largest immigrant populations in Santiago.  I observed the good and the really bad (like when the professor repeatedly told the class they were psychotic and needed treatment), made some fourth-grade friends and learned about fractions in Spanish.

MARI MARI! (“hello” in Mapadungun)

I will truly let the pictures do the talking on this one, but some background info first:

We lived in the region of Arauncania with Mapuche families in a small town called Chapod 20 minutes outside of Temuco. The Mapuche are an indigenous group that were living in Chile well before the Spanish arrived. From the time of colonialism until now, the Mapuche have been discriminated against and repressed by the State in various ways. At the time that we went, the hunger strike over a law that basically makes it possible for Mapuches to be tried twice, once in civil and once in criminal court, had just ended. Apparently, they are in negotiations with the government, but who knows if anything will change.

Although some Mapuches are still traditional in their religion and lifestyle, we were living with a family that dressed like anyone else, attended an evangelical church and watched TV at night. We lived on their farm for a week while taking classes and visiting schools with intercultural education programs (that teach Spanish, English and Mapadungun- oral language of the Mapuche). Anyway, here it is all for your viewing pleasure. It is by far one of the most tranquil, beautiful places I have been to!

33rd miner! Listened to my family sing the Chilean national anthem afterward.

 A group of  "family members" and friends that performed at our final lunch with the families

All animals in my yard

Fabi!

On our last day, Cheque and Fabi took Jill and I to "la cascada." It was incredible

NOW

Less than one week after returning from Chapod, we left for Argentina. BIG CITY. BEAUTIFUL ACCENT. OLD BUILDINGS. I must admit, I was enamored at first with this city and the fact that there was real coffee everywhere, but the truth is: I miss Santiago terribly. It’s strange to me how I have come to consider every small trip a vacation away from “home.” I miss my host mom in Santiago, I miss the random random stores on the streets, I miss the metro and I miss the familiarity (obviously). 

Despite all of this, I have decided to live in Buenos Aires for my independent study project. I will be examining the intersection of art and social justice within the schools here. It is my hope to interview some people at the Ministry of Education, students studying to become art professors and art teachers in local city  schools. We'll see how that goes...

TO BE CONTINUED…