First Date

Three words: Tall, solemn, and rugged. The epitome of attractive. No person could say otherwise about the neat yet unkempt natural beauty of Coyhaique. At first glance it is green and hilly and maybe even a bit homely. But look again! The hills support trees blushing in hues of red, brown, yellow, and orange. A farm, the rio Simpson, and sheep down below might make you wonder if you're really in Chile, or at least that's how I felt. The smell of burning wood fills the air. Mountains on every side of Coyhaique shield the town from unwanted attention. With all that in mind, I guess you could say I'm pretty smitten with this little town, and it's not only for the scenery.

Saturday, I received a warm welcome from Senora Lupe and Julio. Lupe is the director of my school (I'll talk more about Senora Lupe later) and Julio Bravo is my host father. So who are the Bravo's? Julio is a civil engineer and Maria Eugenia, his wife, is a nurse. They are really light hearted, hard working, and humble people. They have two children, whom I haven't met since they're studying at university in Vina del Mar. Julio knows enough English for us to have conversations and to explain things. Maria is learning English, and I of course am learning Spanish. So as we sit around the table, Maria and I ask Julio, "Como se dice..." this and that, and we laugh and have a good time. I love this, I love the fact that I can speak broken Spanish, get laughed at and then join the laughter. Our sense of humor is very similar, so it makes things pretty easy.

The house is very nice too. When I found out I would be living in Patagonia, I had no idea what to expect. Except, I guess I didn't expect this. We live right near one of the local reserves, which is similar to a state park in the US, so our neighborhood is generally pretty quiet. We have a normal shower (very rare in Southern Chile), tvs, and wonderful food. I consider myself pretty lucky. They probably eat healthier than I do, despite having access to an excessive amount of healthy choices in California. For instance, I would never choose to have celery for dinner or ever since I'm not a big fan. However, the lack of veggies for two weeks in Santiago has left me willing to eat pretty much anything green. Up to now, delicious stuffed bell peppers were probably my favorite so far, besides a yummy bean soup.

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Thursday, Abril 18, 2013

Today as I ran, rainbows formed in the sky above, and the warm wind playfully buffeted my pony tail and jacket. The coming storm made the day pretty muggy. Time to get ready for class! After walking the 30 minutes from my house to Liceo Josephina Aguire Montenegro, I prepared myself for a few hours of observation.

Walking into class, students perked up as they saw me, and realized that something was going on. "Hello, what is chyour name?", a brave student offered. At first I was nervous, but now after several introductions it's easy. After giving a short biography, I let students ask me questions. The questions ranged from the simple, "what's your favorite sport?" to the personal, "do you have a boyfriend or husband?" As I gently steered them back towards other topics I can't help but laugh. Their curiosity is great. It's important. Some things are universal and I fear with advances in access to social media curiosity is quickly dwindling.

What I've seen here so far, is that many of the teachers are− different. The students definitely aren't the most motivated, but even some of the difficult ones have something to offer. From the look of things, teachers are begrudging babysitters, and give students busy work to pass the time. I don't know if anyone who wants to be a teacher sees it as a glamorous job. However, at the same time those who teach usually hide their disdain while working. Hopefully, what I'm seeing from the teachers is just a bad day, and not a normal thing. I have been lucky enough to have teachers who inspire me, teachers who have cared about me. I should say to be fair, my head teacher does care and notices a lot about these kids. After observing this I do feel a pinch of pressure to give these kids something to look forward to. I want to care for them in a way in which they aren't getting right now. Next week, we take off the training wheels.