Me encanta la Chile

Well it's been about two weeks since my last post and there so many things I want to write about but something important that I haven't mentioned yet is my time at Hogar Cristo. On Monday's I've been going to Hogar Cristo at 6:00 pm for about an hour or so to spend time with those that eat dinner there every day. This place is a church run program that provides meals for people who need a little extra help. It isn't quite a homeless shelter, although I think there are some who are homeless, but a lot of the people I've met have homes. They've shared a little bit of their lives with me and mine with them. It's a really wonderful exchange of stories, emotions, and even traveling advice! One night I sat with a man who told me about his family, and when I asked a question about how old they were he broke down and started crying, saying that he had been a bad father and had left when they were kids. Now he has grandchildren but he doesn't know them very well. Another day I sat with a woman who had lived in the US for 15 years! She spent ten years in New York and five in California, selling ice cream on the beach. Another guy I met one week came back the next with a black eye, after being robbed by a group of guys in the middle of the night. It's only an hour a week but I've managed to make quite a few friends. One guy made me a rose out of a napkin! It's a great time and I really am enjoying the time I spend them with them. For most of them, the reasons for them being at the shelter as somewhat similar; loss of job, or loss of the family bread winner etc. Every time I hear a new story I can't help but think, "this could happen to me, this could happen to me." Not out of fear but out of incredulity; being poor is never a choice. I think growing up in a country where wealth is portrayed as something that people can attain after some hard work has completely skewed my own reality. Even though I've been up-close with extreme poverty before, and discussed with others the powers at play in our economic society, it is still a shock sometimes to re-experience the realization that our society is so fucked up. The American dream is so threaded in to our daily life that it really takes a lot to step back and re-evaluate again.Even though I consider myself to be aware, I still find myself being shocked again by the same thoughts and realizations. I think that part of what  I am learning here is that for the rest of my life I will have to step back at times and re-evaluate everything. I'm really hoping that this is making sense! It's all making a lot of sense in my head but I'm not sure if it's going to reach out to you guys. In any case, my weekly exchange at Hogar Cristo is a great and wonderful time, and I think I'm only scratching at the surface of what it's going to mean in my life.

To change to a lighter subject I'd like to talk about FOOD again!! In Chile, sushi is a huuuuuuge thing. There are sushi restaurants everywhere, and I mean EVERYWHERE. I think because it's a port town and seafood is so available here, sushi is very popular. I haven't had the pleasure of trying restaurant sushi but last night we made some ourselves! With Kacey, Leah (new gringa friend) and Benito's crew we made some avocado, cucumber and imitation crab sushi. Of course within 5 seconds of cutting a roll they were all gone, meaning success!

 For Fiestas Patrias witch is the week of September 16th and Chile's independence day week,  we are all going to "el campo" (countryside) with these guys and their families to celebrate their independence day! Essentially for a week the whole country shuts down and everyone stuffs themselves with traditional chilean food and pisco. I'm not sure what traditional chilean food looks like yet except for I'm gonna take a wild guess and say it involves a lot of carbohydrates and meat. There will definitely be more than 150 empanadas (meat or cheese filled pastry things the size of a small plate) for our group of 20 people, so that's just a small idea to how much we will be eating. So of course everyone here is on a "diet". HOWEVER that is so false because bread is still everywhere and I've had cake around two or three times this week, so I'm not sure what diet means here. I've been trying to eat well but it's pretty much impossible. My face is getting wonderfully round and no matter how many times I run up my hill, it's not going to go away until I'm back in the states :) We will be going to "el campo" and camping for two nights, smoking half a cow, half a pig, and eating lots of bready-like foods and drinking lots of pisco sour! The buzz around this holiday is unreal, it's all everyone can talk about. Everyone here has told me that it's the holiday that best represents Chilean culture, so you know, I'm pumped. What better is there in life than food, music, games and family for a WHOLE WEEK? On the day of the 18th everyone barbecues, plays traditional games, dances la cueca and spend times with family. However, everyone basically starts celebrating on the monday of the week that the 18th falls on. In this case, that's Monday the 16th. Essentially, the whole city is  a big drunk mess for a week therefore: we go to el campo. 

 Last Sunday we decorated Anto's (Benito's mom and Cameron's host mom) living room with Chile flags, decorations etc. and it looks pretty good! I was thinking about what would happen if I walked into a house in the US with our flag everywhere and how different my thoughts would be. In Anto's house it's a beautiful, and prideful thing and everyone does it. I doubt I would have the same reaction in the US. In any case, it's very cool to be part of this special time for Chile :) 

decorations de la casa de Anto: 

Anto's mom Coty who has alzheimers:

My coty getting ready to dance la cueca for school:

To switch subjects, today I spent the day in Santiago with the CIEE the program I'm studying through. My CIEE class is based on Valparaiso and so we went to the house/work space of a Chilean artist who makes prints out of wood. I think that's the artist lingo, but essentially he makes beautiful prints of images of Valparaiso and Santiago. We all got a small piece of flat wood and carving tools and we got to create our own print! It was so much fun, although extremely hard to control the tools. Mine turned out to not be my favorite piece of art (the idea in my head looked so much better than what actually was produced). However it was really cool to see the process and see all of his art. After this we went to lunch and had a delicious 3 course meal (which is the norm here for lunch) with ceviche, fish and rice, and raspberry cake and tea for dessert. From there we left for El Museo de Memoria which is the museum which commemorates all the lives lost, tortured, and ended between the years of 1973 and 1990.  On September 11th, 1973 Augusto Pinochet made a coup d'etat which resulted in the end of Salvador Allende's (socialist president at the time) life, and the end of democracy for 17 years. Many people were tortured, and/or killed and Chile was a terrible place to live in for almost 20 years. I think the number for killed that was recognized by a commission was around 2,500, which doesn't include many, many people. The number of people tortured was around 28,000. The memorial was very informational and did a good job of explaining and showing what happened. My favorite part and the most emotional part is a look out that towards a wall of mounted pictures of many hundreds of victims faces. It was an out of body experiences looking at all those faces. I'm glad I got to go but next time, I think I need more time.

wall of faces:

I'm sorry for the wall of text, it's been a long time since I've written and hopefully it's not too boring to read! I promise to write sooner next time. Amor a todos <3