Mapuche

On Friday, our CIEE program had our last orientation program class of the week and we had several guest speakers come talk to us about the indigenous Mapuche population of Chile and Argentina. Cecilia, a lawyer who is involved in many of the conflicts that arise between Mapuche and the government explained to us the details of many of these conflicts. Mapu means land and che means people. They are the people of the land, and they fight against the government often because of the exploitation of the Chilean natural resources. Everyone in the family is involved in these fights and they are very physical. I saw pictures of little children with BB gun wounds all over their bodies, and videos of Chilean soldiers actually hitting women, children and men alike. They fight for the land, for their homes, for their lives. But the government represses them very heavily and many Chileans don't know the extent of the conflicts because the media does not cover it enough.  Since 1855, I think, the territory of the Mapuche has been dwindling from what was once about 1/4 of the Chilean boundary to interspersed communities within the central region. It is very strange to see blatant violence against people and having it go unnoticed and unseen by many. It is interesting to see the similarities between Chile and the Unite State's government treatment of our own Native American population. It was a very interesting class as we also were told the story of a Mapuche woman who grew up in Valparaiso and experienced a lot of mistreatment and violence by non-mapuche Chileans. Her story was sad, but she has found peace and happiness through sharing her story, and writing poetry. 

The weekend was fun however clubs are just not my scene I think. On Friday there was a club that held a special party for gringos and holy moly I never want to do that again. I came to Chile to get away from gringos, not meet more of them! It was fun to see what a club is like...for about two minutes.  And then the music just starts sounding the same and I quickly lose motivation. I have an image in my head of a perfect night out at a bar, a friends house, or somewhere low key where you can hang out, talk and get to know one another. I know that it happens here, I just need to find Chileans who will invite me to! 

 Saturday I spent the day with Kacey, walking around Cerro Concepcion, looking at insane views and getting coffee at El Desayunador. I don't think I'll every get used to how beautiful it is around here, or how insane it is that I live here. Today I did the same thing as yesterday and had a chai tea at Color Cafe, listened to a patagonian guitar player sing and play music, and started a new book. For lunch we had a huge meal of fried fish, rebollo which is cabbage with lemon and salt, shredded carrots, rice, and pelva which is a yummy tomato and cilantro with lemon side dish. It was DELICIOUS. I'm still having a hard time getting used to not eating dinner! We eat huge lunches but dinners don't really exist. It's really hard resisting the urge to stuff myself until I'm full at la once, which consists of crackers, bread, cheese, ham and tea. It is a nice meal but I've been craving a nice big dinner with vegetables NO BREAD. So much bread is eaten here and my gluten allergy has been acting up a lot. I'm on my way to getting used to the different meal schedule here, I'm just not quite there yet. 

Tomorrow I start class for the first time, but thankfully I only have one on mondays! Can't wait to see what happens this week :)