I am finally totally acclimated to Chile. I am comfortable to work and meet and speak in Spanish all day long. I’m getting along great with my colleagues in the office and we understand each other perfectly. I know how to get around the city, the quirks, how to solve and avoid problems. I’m finally totally acclimated.
Colo Colo is the biggest local team in Chilean soccer, sort of like the Yankees in the US. Zander likes them. The second biggest is University de Chile, and Jacob likes them. Of course, we don’t really know much about them—we just like them for their colors/symbols/cause it’s the thing to do in Chile.
I got the kids shirts today. The kids play a lot of soccer out in the plaza of our apartment, and now they can play out the famous Chile rivalry.
There are three things that most unite Chileans, I read in the paper, and we have been lucky to take part in all three. They are La Roja (the national soccer team), Fiestas Patrias (Independence Day) and Teleton. Teleton is a copy of the Jerry Lewis telethon, that is held every year and headed by Don Francisco—who is Chilean and known throughout Latin America for his show Sabado Gigante.
The difference is that—while I had to look up on the internet if Jerry Lewis’s telethon still even existed (it does)—in Chile you can not miss Teleton. Starting a month ago, seriously, 80% of TV commercials were products that mentioned their Teleton connection. All the schools collect money… I can’t even describe it—it’s like Christmas. The money goes to help disabled kids.
Even Zander has it memorized, “30 de noviembre a 1 de diciembre, Teleton, 2007, en cada pasa estas tu!” (“In every step, you are there”).
Tonight is the night, and the Teleton is 27 hours live on every TV channel in Chile. The goal is to raise $22 million, which is about $1.50/person in Chile. As if the US raised $450 million.
Being in a country led by the first female president in Latin America (Michelle Bachelet) makes you think about Hillary Clinton. First of all, it makes you get used to the idea. For a month, you think, “Wow--a woman president,” but after a while it is not a big deal at all.
It appears that Hillary Clinton will be the next president of the United States. President Bush is
such a failure, making our country more weak and vulnerable and investing endless amounts of capital into a mistake of a war. (Remember when Bush attacked Kerry for saying the war was costing $200 billion? Look at the current cost). So, we all know it now, and it seems pretty certain that the country will not trust another Republican right now. And Hillary, with her political power, seems destined to win the Democratic nomination. And, just like in Chile, though the nation is pretty conservative, most voters are not afraid to elect a woman.
I’m actually quite opposed to having 24 years of Bush/Clinton, as I think it moves the country toward an oligarchy—the rule of a select few. Oligarchy, I believe, is prone to develop when you combine popular democracy with unregulated capitalism and a media in the hands of a few. But obviously this is bad for our nation as a democratic republic.
So, if we look at the history of the female president in Chile, I think we can project how things will be when/if we have President Hillary Clinton. Chile is very similar to the US in terms of its culture, economy, and traditional values.
The people will elect a woman president because they know from everyday experience that women are just as capable as men. But once elected, the woman president will go through hell. She will be unpopular in general. Her supporters, especially liberals and many women, will be disappointed that she will not be able to change everything that needs to be changed. And her enemies—they will be ruthless. Here in Chile, they have coined a phrase: political femicide (political murder of a woman). The Congress and White House is one of the least diverse places in America, (much less diverse than the US in general) and all those old white men have long been scared of a real threat to their power. If nothing less, a woman president means a lot more women running for office in general—meaning more competition for those old white men.
With enemies trying to block her at every turn, and friends who fail to support her, the president will have a real hard time getting things done. Especially in the beginning. If she perseveres, in time, things will get better. People will start to evaluate her regardless of her gender, and they will realize she's actually just as competent as whatever other guy was running, and certainly no worse than all the other guys who came before her. This appears to be what is happening in Chile.
And in the end, it will be good for the country. Think of the Little Rock Nine--those first African-American kids who broke the color barrier by attending school in Little Rock, Arkansas. They are not famous for their academic accomplishments—and they had little chance with so many people out to get them. National Guard had to come to class with them and they endured taunts and threats for years. And while some were successful and accomplished much in life, what is most relevant is their social achievement: they broke down the legal color barrier so that others could come after them.
Hillary will do the same thing for women. And regardless of whether she is a great president or just a decent one, she will open up the opportunity for women after her. And we the people will have more choices for future leaders. It will be interesting to see how our country is improved by active participation and leadership of women, mothers, grandmothers, and wives. Maybe we’ll end up with a culture and a country that better represents the good values of our people, rather than one that excuses and perpetuates greed and violence.
Today was probably my best day in FASIC. They held a good-bye party for me with empanadas, fruit and wine. All of FASIC came, even those I had barely met, and Amy and the kids came too. Juan thanked me for my service in the program and said some really complimentary things about me. I also got to share with FASIC about how honored I am to have been a part of the organization and to thank everyone for welcoming me and being patient with my language and cultural adjustment.
Then Juan projected my blog on a screen, and we all went through it all. Since it’s in English, I explained what each part was, and told some of the fun stories from my time here. It was a great time to share with FASIC about my experiences and impressions of their country. Of course, everyone really loved the video of me getting hit with a soccer ball.
One thing we are enjoying is that the fruits and vegetables are great in Chile. In general, they are less expensive, and some are just amazingly cheap. Including:
Wine (mid range): US: $9/bottle?
OK, wine is not a fruit or vegetable, but had to mention it.
Basil US: $2/bunch
Chile: 40 cents
La Moneda is also famous because during the 1973 coup, it was bombed by air force jets. President Allende died in La Moneda trying to fight off the military troups. Here’s a picture of La Moneda that day.
Amy worked all week to prepare for us a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. She made pumpkin pie from scratch, which is amazing considering they don’t really have much pie here, nor pie crust, nor regular orange pumpkins. She used a local variety of pumpkin that is actually green on the outside. We also had corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and of course turkey (which is actually common in Chile). In place of cranberries (which they don’t have in Chile), she made cherry sauce.
It was great. The only weird thing was that it was a normal day in Chile—everyone else at work and school (we skipped), all the stores open. This means that, unlike those in the US, we didn’t have to wait for the stores to open at 4am on Friday for Christmas shopping—we just went right out after dinner and started buying Christmas gifts.
Tonight Jacob and I went to see "La Roja," Chile's national team vs. Paraguay in a qualifying match for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Basically, all the teams in South America play a series of games over two years, and the top four go to the World Cup 2010 in South Africa. Keep in mind that two of the best teams in the world—Argentina & Brazil—are destined to take two spots, so everyone else is fighting for the other two.
The game started at 10:30pm, but because we had general admission tickets ($12 each), we had to get there at 7pm to get a good seat. The stadium was old, with warped wooden benches, and little leg room. I was dreading the wait, but it actually ended up being fun. The crowd sang songs, people chatted, and they threw around an effigy doll of a Paraguayan soccer player. Amazing that Chile—which is just as capitalist as America—hasn’t come to gouging sports fans: everything cost a buck—a coke, chips, peanuts, ice cream, hot dog, etc. There was so much energy and spirit and optimism, as Chile’s new coach had been practicing new strategies with the team in secret.
Well, the cool thing is we saw the best team in South America. The bad thing is it was Paraguay, who leapt to 1st place in the qualifying ranking by beating Chile 3-0. The game was fun, but the energy of 76,000 people evaporated each time Chile—who showed incredible control of the ball—failed to score a goal, and each time Paraguay scored goals with simple, perfectly-executed, textbook corner kicks and plays.
We got home at 1:30am.
Lonely Planet guidebook calls Valparaiso “the most unique city in South America” and it is only 1 ½ hours from Santiago. So, we went there today to spend the weekend. It reminded me a bit of Venice. What makes it special is the colorful ancient houses that are perched on the edges of mountainsides. Narrow, windy streets run throughout the town, and it is fun to just get lost. To get up and down the steep hills, there are a series of fununculars, which were built long ago and still are actually used by locals (and tourists too) to get around. Steep and scary.
We stayed in a youth hostel and stayed up talking to the guests from France, UK, The Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. We all spoke in English, and one guy from The Netherlands commented that he had traveled for four months in South America and stayed in youth hostels. He said his Spanish had not improved, but his English had improved incredibly from chatting in hostels.
I’ve been in a lot of hostels and met tons of young, cool European people traveling the world on six-month vacations. But this was the first time I was not jealous of them. I’m getting to know the culture and people of South America much better by living and working in Santiago, than those that spend six months traveling to every country and staying in youth hostels.
some Andean dancing with a series of Andean women. Wish I had a picture of that one. Here's me with the Aymara woman I danced with.
Our friend Ken Martinez emailed us a video of some of Jacob’s buddies saying hello to us. So, I had a great idea for a reply video. I had the kids dress in their Chile soccer shirts and kick a ball at me. Great idea, eh?
Did I mention how strong Jacob can kick now? Imagine if he were told to do something ridiculous, like kick at full strength at some poor soul standing just three-feet away with a metal camera right in front of his nose. Imagine that then the guy with the cut on his nose had to wear a band-aid and explain the whole embarrassing story to all his co-workers for the week. Imagine.
Oh, and imagine that in the first video take Alexander hit the camera with his ball, but I was dumb enough to do a second take. The second video was lost when the camera broke, but here’s the first one.
There is tons of smoking in Santiago. This despite the most in-your-face anti-smoking campaign I’ve ever seen. Every pack of cigarettes, and every ad for cigarettes, must have no less than 50% of it’s surface covered by this warning. It says, “CAREFUL! These cigarettes are killing you.” On the other side, it shows “Don Miquel, Chilean. Smoked 20 years. Lost his larynx to cancer.”
