Thank Goodness for Feriados

A Feriado is a Chilean holiday often on a Monday or Friday, which means that we get a long weekend!

This past Monday was some Saints day, so some of my friends and I went on a little day trip to El Cajon de Maipu, where we often go for Jornada, but this time we went up higher into the mountains than normal.

Classic me, I didn´t have my camera battery charged, so thanks to Mariah for taking these beauuutiful photos! The first picture is my immitation of the classic Chilean pose for all pictures, just in case your confused, I havn´t changed my career to modeling.

We spent most of the time in the car, trying to tune in chilean radio stations, talking about VE and enjoying the beautiful view. The roads were windy and it was Monday, so there wern´t to many other people up there.

Our destination goal was Baños Morales, yet there was a lot of snow and not a lot of daylight, so we only made it to the termas (a different set of thermal baths not quite as high up in the mountains, but still incredible!). We didn´t have our bathing suits with us, nor enough time nor daylight to go swimming. However they told us we could go check out the termas anyway for 15 minutes without paying. So we dipped out hands in and it was hottttt! Next time we´ll bring our suits.

We returned to Santiago that evening well rested and with lungs full of fresh air, ready to continue with the work week.

I was recently talking to a Chilean and he was saying how foreigners always come here and make such a big deal out of the mountains, yet for him, it´s just his home, it´s completely normal and they´re always there.

This made me realize how incredible it is to have such a strong appreciation for this aspect of nature, and I realized that, of course, all these mountains I witness are more incredible to me, because I did not grow up with them. So, I want to appreciate the flatness of Pennsylvania, with the knowledge that it taught me to have such an incredible appreciate for the many mountain ranges I am able to experience all over the world!

The Ultimate experience

Remember back in college when I quit tenis in my first semester to play Ultimate Frisbee instead? It was a fun time, I made some really good friends and learned a lot about a new game. However, I havn´t played since, although my Ultimate passion has never died and of course I brought my frisbee to Chile.

As I remembered from Mexico, frisbee doesn´t really exist in many other parts of the world (although I now know that Colombia and Argentina are Ultimate leaders in S.A....with Chile right behind them...? Quizás) so here in Chile I often felt like my efforts were in vain, but I always took my frisbee everytime I went to the beach, to an asado (barbecue) or to the park. Of course my gringo friends would throw with me, but its not the same as throwing with someone who´s equally passionate about the game (as I am)!

So at one assado a few weeks back, I was surprised to find that someone had picked up my frisbee and was looking for someone to throw it with. Turns out, he was from Spain but plays Ultimate with a group of students here in Santiago...and the rest has been history.

I feel a little bit like I´m back in college with all these Ultimate fanatics, because literally, these chileans have the exact same team spirit and love for the game, even though half the terminology is in english, there´s no where to buy discs here and people in the park give us really wierd looks when we play.

It´s really neat. In a completely machistic culture, they still play mixed (guys and girls together) and don´t seem to think its wierd at all even through the norm here is for women to barely play sports at all.

So that´s my newest adventure here. Of course, there are so many super chilean parts of the ultimate team, for example, they´re super flojo (lazy) and sometimes they call me, text me, and post on my Facebook that there´s gonna be practice and it´s gonna be soooo fun, then I go and no one shows up because it´s overcast...

Or the way that I´ve gone to multiple practices and still only met about 8 people who play for the team when I keep hearing that there´s like 20 of them, then I go to an asado, and eeeeveryone is there, people I´ve never heard of. Chileans prefer partying to practicing (although this is similar to ultimate frisbee culture in the states as well, I suppose).

And lastly, they are so incredibly kind and inviting. Here I am, this random gringa who shows up and can´t always understand them but knows how to play Ultimate and they are so happy that I am there and love hearing about my experiences with Ultimate from the states and learning what all these ultimate words they say when playing, actually mean.

My moral of this post, is my love for how all interactions here are always cultural experiences. Whether I´m playing sports, walking down the street, grocery shopping or hanging out with friends. There´s always something to learn and something to teach. I´m learning Spanish frisbee vocab and teaching what I know about different ultimate plays. It´s the perfect intercambio.

Santiago Acheivement #2

April seems to be a time of pushing myself to new physical abilities!

My previous backpacking experience was pretty limited to when I was a camp counselor at Camp Celo. We took short hikes with groups of 7, 8 and 9 years old, carrying packs with our tents, supplies and some of our food.

This easter weekend, my gringa friends and I deecided to hike to a glaciar and camp out for the night. We drove up to the park (up, and up and up), which is about an hour outside the city.

We had been told the hike was about 8 hours to the glacier and we wern´t quite sure about the level of difficulty, rather we just figured, that we´d find out soon.

Classic gringa style, I didn´t wake up to my alarm (two of us had gone out dancing the night before so didn´t get quite as much sleep as we would have liked). I arrived to our meeting place late, but I wasn´t the only one running a little behind schedule.

We left a little late than planned, around 10, when had hoped to leave at 8:30. Oops.

The hike was incredibly beautiful and didn´t start out too hard. It went back and forth from flat to incline, some brief downhills, although we were generally hiking up, with the glaciar in the verrrry far off distance the whole time.

After we stopped for lunch 3 hrs in, the hike got a little harder. We stopped for snack 2 hrs later, it got a LOT harder. By this time, our packs were digging into our shoulders and feeling really heavy. We were sunburtn, had some blisters, and our thights were burning from the incline.

The path was often confusing, whether we were walking through swamp, brambles, grass, streams or rocks and rocks and rocks.

We reached a place where the path seemed to end and all we could see was a huge cliff ahead of us that I could not imagine how in the world we were going to climb. There were a couple of hikers on the ledge on the cliff and we asked them about the path. They just pointed up, of course.

We did find it; it was a switchback path but still, straight up. At this point, we were all feeling the altitude and were literally walking 10 feet and then stopping to wrest our backs, thighs and catch our breath.

We soon ran into some other hikers coming down and they gave us the incredible news that we were only 30 minutes from the campsite! It ended up being more like an hour and when we made it over the cliff and walked a short bit down the other side to a large open clearing, there was one other tent set up.

The nice fellow whos tent it was, informed us that we had indeed reached the camp site and we were overjoyed.

The camp sight was an hours hike from the glaciar, but we´d been planning on hiking there in the morning anyway.

We set up our tents and cooked a lovely, hot dinner of rice and lentils. Although we hiked all day in t-shirts, by this time it was cold and we were as bundled up as possible.

The night ended up being awful. We were so cold that we barely slept even though my friend and I both slept in the same sleeping bag to try and stay warm.

When the sun finally showed its face, we were still so cold that we didn´t bother making breakfast but decided to hike to the glaciar to warm up.

Again, the path was straight up, switchback and really scary at times it was so steep. We were so grateful to have left our packs at the campsite.

When we had hiked about an hour and could see the glaciar really well, but would probably have to hike another day to touch it, (and we didn´t think we could take another step up) we stopped, took some pictures and hiked down, back to camp to eat, and pack up.

I felt great on the hike back. although we didn´t have much water cause boiling snow took way to long and although we boiled stream water, it tasted so coppery it felt dangerous to drink.

My pack was lighter since we´d eaten most of our food, it was all down hill and I was so happy to be in the warmth of the sun even if I was turning even more red (we focused so much on the cold when getting ready that we forgot to bring sun block).

About 4 hrs in, we were getting a little nervous about making it back before dark, but we ended up arriving at the car (and clean drinking water!) with daylight to spare.

We were exhausted, burnt, aching and so proud of ourselves.

I got back to my house a little before 8pm and was in bed and sound asleep by 9:30. The next day I had a little trouble walking and was sore for about 3 days.

We later read that the hike was 20 kilometres there, and 20 back. After a half marathon and this hike, I feel prepared for a cold winter and hopefully my body won´t be mad at me if I use the cold as an excuse to not exercise that much!

Running and Reflecting, at the same time of course!

March was one of the busiest months I´ve had in Santiago. We literally had a VE event every single weekend: We held our annual trivia event to raise funds, we took our Jornada retreat to the Cajon de Maipu for a reflection and bonding time specifically for the new class of volunteers, we had our first Liga de Deportes event which happens once a month with our kids and we had our bi-annual Festival de Arte (organized by...me!) for the children as well.

Jornada, is one of the most special parts of VE and it reminds me exactly of the good ol´QLSP days. It´s a time were we leave the loud, dirty city (not that Guilford was loud or dirty) and take a retreat to the Cajon de Maipu and stay in an incredibly trainquilo retreat center called Chalet de Piedra.

During my last Jornada I spent a lot of time reflecting on why I came to VE/Chile, as well as getting to know the antiguos (old VE volunteers and directors) better as well as the other volunteers in my class.

This Jornada was very different as I was a guia (guide) for one of the small groups of new volunteers. Last time, the antigous and directors where there creating the experience for me, whereas this time I was taking part in creating the experience for others. This was really awesome and helped me get to know the new volunteers and remind myself that clerking or group facilitation is something I feel really good about doing and havn´t done in a long time.

I still had the chance to reflect on my work with VE and so much has changed from being a volunteer to being on the directors team. I took out my old personal and professional goals (which Mariah keeps for everyone in sealed envelopes with our names on them) and was pleasantly surprised to see how many of my initial goals I´ve achieved, especially the personal ones: being outgoing in Spanish, realizations that I can be in a different country, all alone, and make good friends and still be myself as wierd as I may be, etc! The professional one´s have changed so much from working directly with the children to working mostly in the office, so it was harder to see progress in that area.

Then April rolled on in, with an exciting event the first weekend: The Santiago Marathon. I ran the half (13 miles, 21 kilometres) with two of my co-workers (both of my bosses actually) and we had one friend who ran the full as well!

I was really excited about this run becuase before I started training, I had never ran more than 7 miles in my life. So it was quite an achevement for me. I finished in 2 hours, 5 minutes and 25 seconds and felt goooooood.

Besides that, leaves are starting to fall in Santiago, days and nights are getting increasingly colder and I´m starting to wonder how I´ll fare in a country with no central heating in any indoor spaces. I just may find myself spending a lot of time in the one cafe with heating on my block...luckily they have super tasty tea there, and even gluten free treats for my dear coeliac friend.

I think I´ll probably manage:)

Santiago Summer

Five months in.

January began my training for the Assistant Director of Operations position so I only went to the Jardín once a week, up until it closed for the summer. Ive been missing my kids a lot and looking forward to March when the Jardín opens again for the new school year.

Training has been intense because there´s so much to learn, about all our programs (which I´ll be in charge of), about the selection and recruitment process (also of which I´ll be responsible), and lots more about volunteer responsibilities, general operations tasks, finances, etc.

Now that February has arrived, I´ve finished my training and am doing my best to stay on top of my many tasks and responsibilities. My days in the office pass very quickly with a million emails to answer and send (in English and Spanish), institution visits, staff meeeting, long lunches where we all cook and eat together, phone calls, reports to read and write, and more. It's an office job, but a dynamic and relaxing one. "Muy piola" as we say here in chile to mean "super chill".

One event I had the privilege to help organize was a repair day at my very own Jardín, hence the fun pictures above. VE collaborates with a Chilean organization called the Austral Group, that organizes activities for business students who travel to Chile for an international perspective on business, or something like that. We provide the day of service, of course.

We had 30 New Zealand students working on their Masters in Business, come to the Jardín to paint the inside and outside, shelves, do some general repairs and paint a sign out front and a mural in one of the main rooms.

Annie (the director of resource developement), Josh (our ED) and I (the one and only Jardin volunteer!) did a lot of preparation and planning to be as organized as possible for the day. Still, there were things we forgot or didn't calculate correctly so things were not perfect, but they were incredible even so.

Annie and Josh went ahead to call it the most successful repair day we've ever had. The students seemed so happy to be there, they were coming up with their own projects, fixing toilets, playing with the few kids who showed up, they brought bags full of donations and gave a small monetary donation to VE. And the mural and sign on the front wall of the Jardín turned out incredible as you can see in the pictures!

Tía Luz, the head tía at the Jardín, cried when she arrived and she saw the incredible work that was happening. "We would not be able to realize these necessary changes and improvements to the Jardin if it wern't for groups like you all. I don't have words to express how grateful I am" she exclaimed in fast Spanish that Josh quickly translated for everyone to understand.

It was especially incredible for me to experience because I've spent 30 hours there every week for my first four months here. To see the transformation that took place, from the dingy, dirty, barely-held-together Jardín, to a shining, clean and incredibly sweet looking one, was incredibly special.

I don´t need to say anymore because the pictures do more justice to the work that was done than my words could ever do (Thanks Aunt Diana for a great camera to take all these photos!).

In other Chile news, there've been a few earthquakes in the South, but nothing that I ever feel here in Santiago. So, you don't have to worry about me when you hear about the quakes on the news!

There's a Santiago full and half marathon on April 2nd that a bunch of us VE-ers are going to participate in. I'm going to run the half (did you think I was crazy there for a moment or something?). I've started training, trying to run about five days a week (but not always succeeding), throwing in a little strengthening here and there, and running a long run once a week, adding an extra mile each time.

I´m up to 8 miles and most training plans tell you to stop at 10, so I'm taking it easy, not getting down on myself if I miss a day or two of running as I've still got a month and some to go. It feels really good to set a goal for myself that is hard enough that I'll really have to work for it but not completely out of my reach. I´ll keep you all updated on how this goes.

I've also started riding my roommates bicycle which makes me incredibly happy (as I´m sure you can imagine). Riding a bike is a little like making art for me. I could be in a really bad mood, be sad or upset about something, but the minute I'm on that bike (instead of being on the hot, crowded metro or bus) with the wind blowing through my hair, passing people and traveling at a perfect pace, I am suddenly transfered to a world where nothing is ever wrong. It´s the best therapy ever for me and makes my life here in this big city, more enjoyable than ever.

I'll even save some money by not using public transportation. So, thanks to Jorge, my roomate, for buying a wonderful cruizer bicycle that he never rides and lets me ride instead!

I have been taking an hour or so bus ride to the beach these past few weekends, to Vina del Mar one of the most popular beaches outside Santiago. I really enjoy the hot city weather, and cool evenings but its always a nice break to get away for the weekend and spend the days lying on the beach slathered in suntan lotion and eating artesanal sorbet that come in flavors like naranja- gingibre (orange-ginger) and frambuesa-menta (rasberry-mint), to name a few of my favorites.

Nest weekend I plan on going camping at the best surf beach in Chile, Pichulemu, with a few friends. The plan is to get as much beach time in as possible before March and fall arrives in Santiago. Leaves are already beginning to fall...

As always, thank for reading and please do drop me a line to let me know how your doing!

Nos Vemos,

Fey

A New Year, a New Outlook on Life

Me and my VE friends at our Christmas Party

Stephen, Lindsey, Lily, Meghan, Faith, Jamie (from left)

New Years Eve in Valpo with Katelin and her pololo

The incredible City of Santiago, photo taken from the top of La Santa Lucia which is a "cerro" (hill) right by my house that is basically forest with steep winding paths and a little lookout spot on top. It is also a favorite place for "pololos" (couples dating) to go and make out, EVERYWHERE and in plain sight (although that basically describes all of Chile in a nutshell). The point is, its very turisty but also incredibly beautiful and one of the best places to see the entire city all around you.

___________________________________________

Dear Friends,

I just spent my first Christmas away from my nuclear family, and although this was difficult for me, I also began to see how I can form family wherever I am, in whatever country, language and culture.

Chileans celebrate on the 24th in the evening with a large dinner and then present opening at midnight. I celebrated a half chilean and a half american Christmas eve. First, I spent time with my roommate and his family and our Brazilian couch surver, eating really good food (you would be surprised how much random vegan food there is here in Chile) and making small talk, in Spanish of course.

Then, when things started getting a little to family oriented and I became a little sad because my family was so far away, I took a quiet walk (there was noooo one out in the streets, it was the quietest I've ever heard Santiago) to my friend Stephen´s apartment (fellow VE volunteer). We were both a lil sad not be participating in our normal family traditions so we comforted ourselves by listening to our favorite selections from the Hanson Christmas album and watching A Charlie Brown Christmas.

On Christmas day a VEer had a Christmas potluck barbecue so we celebrated with Chilean classics; lots and lots of meat and delicious veggie kabobs made by me.

For New Years I went to Valpairiso and Vina del Mar with my friend Katelin, who actually left for the states this Tuesday morning and I will miss her dearly.

We had a blast staying with the family of her boyfriend, meeting his incredibly nice family members, eating the delicious food they made and being driven around by him in his Sisters fancy car. It´s funny how walking and taking public transportation all the time (which is suuuuper hot and sticky during the summer, and always crowded) makes me appreciate cars much more than ever before.

However, don´t think I´ve given up my environmental ways, I think about buying a bicycle daily and I often spend about 20 minutes every day looking on the craigs list of Chile for good deals...

Besides crowded metros and HOT weather, the new year also brought my new job as the Assistant Director of Operations for VE - GLobal! So far its going quite well. I´ve been spending my days in the office contacting new volunteers who will be arriving this weekend, finding them housing, planning welcome dinners, preparing for the week of orientation, writing up program reports, sending thank you notes and so much more.

From now on I´m mostly in the office and I go to the Jardin once a week. For the summer they will be closing anyway, from January 15th until the beginning of March, so there is a possibility that I will get to spend some time in a different institution while mine is closed for the summer.

Today when I arrived at the Jardin, bringing with me two other volunteers who´s institutions already closed for the summer so they´re helping me out at the Jardin, we were told that the electricity was cut off because there was no "plata" (money) to pay for the "luz" (lights). Apparently, they had been without electricity for about a week and they had to transfer all the food in the frigerator and freezer into those of neighboring "houses".

The fridges stank, and all morning I kept trying to turn on lights to find a pencil sharper or more toilet paper, and I kept being reminded that this is not the situation where the irresponsible college kids forgets to pay their bills. This is an issue of an incredible lack of resources and extreme poverty where at the end of the year, there just isn´t money any more for the lights.

Luckily, electricity workers seem to be pretty understanding here because some men rolled up after lunch and turned the electricity back on! I tried to ask the Tias what happened, where did the plata come from, but they just shrugged their shoulders and said "we told them we´d pay later." There will always be things like this that I just don´t understand here...If only I could have told Duke Energy in North Carolina that I´d pay them later, I could have saved a lot of plata. Or maybe a lot of electricy...(since they are not Chilean so they would have just cut it off, get my joke?).

Other good news is that once again, I can tell that my Spanish is improving! When I first got to the Jardin, I could barely understand the Tias and I barely said a word. Today, I understood almost everything they said and we were cracking jokes, having serious conversations about birth control and sex ed. for teenagers and I felt at ease with my language skills. As this is one of my main goals of being here in Chile, it brings me so much joy when I can see these concrete improvements.

Lastly, both myself and my class of volunteers reached our fundraising goal for VE! Thank you all so much to those of you who donated and to those of you who sent me loving thoughts, emails and more. We couldn´t do it without you all.

Muchos Besos de Santiago, Chile.

Faith

p.s. Some friends asked for my mailing address, so I'm gonna put it up here!

Merced 332

Depto. 73

Santiago, Chile

America del Sur

(no zipcodes here)

www.ve-global.org

Christmas time in the Jardin!

Monday we spent the afternoon making santa and elf hats! They turned out quite well don't you think?