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.”
I am writing this from an airplane thousands of feet over the driest desert in the world. It is somewhere between Arica in the North of Chile and Santiago in the Center. The terrain is astonishing—miles and miles of nothingness. Somewhere on this trip, the mountains of sandstone will turn to mountains of some other kind of stone, and they will be covered in snow. And imagine that the same country, as far south from the center as I am now north, is covered in glaciers like Alaska.
Here's a picture of us in the desert around Arica.
In Arica, it never rains. I don’t know if it ever has in history. But today, I met a girl of 20 years old and she has never seen rain in her life.
“If you had been there in Egypt, what kind of welcome would you have given?”
Try translating that into Spanish. That’s just what I did today, when I did my first presentation in Spanish for a group of Christian young adults today. I definitely bit off more than I could chew, getting all theological with the topic of why people should volunteer with refugees. I referred to the story of baby Jesus and family fleeing to Egypt just after the birth to escape Herod, who was killing all the boys under age two. I then suggested it was interesting to wonder what kind of welcome they received in Egypt. And, this led to the crucial question—which I repeated three times in the presentation for emphasis—if you had been in Egypt, what kind of welcome would you have done? It was such a strong point that I couldn’t resist (and I’ve never heard it used before).
But, my gosh, the verb tenses! I pulled out the textbook and Amy helped too. Still, we got it wrong, and Juan was kind enough to correct it before my presentation. The presentation went well. It was 30 minutes, with a Power Point and all. I was seriously nervous, but it went pretty well. Juan is great and was there to tie up any loose ends after the presentation. Oh, and the correct translation is:
¿Si hubieses estado allà en Egipto, que tipo de bienvenida le hubieras dado?
How’s that for some crazy subjunctive verb tenses?
When we first got married, one of the first interesting things that we did “as a married couple” was to sponsor a child through Compassion International. This is a Christian organization that connects sponsors with kids in developing countries. We sponsored a kid named Edwin from Bolivia back in 1994. In 1998, I encouraged our band Caedmon’s Call to partner and endorse Compassion as other artists do. And Amy and I went on tour with the band that year to talk about Compassion with people at the concerts. That same year, we got to go on a trip with the organization to see their work in Bolivia. There, we met Edwin, 10-years-old. We got to spend a day with him and share dinner with his family. Afterwards, we kept in touch by letter and later by email, and always hoped we would see each other again.
Now, Edwin is with us in Arica. I had emailed him that we were in Chile for three months, and he made arrangements to come. Flights were expensive, but he found a bus for about $70 each way from Santa Cruz, Bolivia to Arica, Chile (a 25 hour ride). He was really committed to coming. To take time off for a week at the university, he had to miss a whole month (and they go by month-terms). This means, he’ll be doing double work next month to make things up.
It is so amazing to see him. He is 19 now, and a great young man. The kids are having such a good time with them, are speaking to him in Spanish and teaching him some English too. In fact, we’re having such a great time that we’re arranging for him to come to Santiago with us for a week after Arica. He’s never flown on a plane, so it will be great for him. And he’s never seen a city like Santiago..
Arica is totally different from Santiago. Santiago prides itself in being European, and the people are very European too—I hate to make it so simple—but basically formal and very white. Arica, on the other hand, is more like the Latin America I am familiar with—Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama. The city is full of brightly-colored buildings, the environment is casual and lively, and the people are all shades of brown. I like it here.
e Arica’s slogan of “Siempre Primavera” “Always Spring”). Zander started walking into the water because he had spotted something and sure enough it was starfish—dozens of them all over the rocks just a couple feet off the shore. We picked one up for a picture.
Arica is an oasis surrounded on all sides by the desert. But when I say desert, I’m not talking about Arizona or any other desert I’ve ever seen. I’m talking about miles of sand, sandstone and rock without a single twig of grass, plant, weed or anything alive. We drove through it today, and for 3 hours, we did not see a thing—no plants, no animals, no birds, no people. It’s very very weird.
We were headed to Lake Chungara, one of the highest lakes in the world. It is at 4.500 meters (about 14,000 feet). We started the journey at sea level in Arica, on a road that goes along the beach. Then, over the course of five hours (which was supposed to be three), we reached the high plateau that goes all the way to Bolivia. There, there is rain and cactus and shrubs. With this, comes animals, especially at the lake, where we saw flamingos, llamas, lampacas, and plenty of other birds.
Part of the experience is the altitude, and tour companies take bottles of oxygen for customers to breath. We took only bottles of water and a special blend of herbal tea that the native people use for the altitude. Reaching that altitude so quickly can make you sick, and Juan who
drove us up got some altitude sickness for the first time in his life—mostly it was a headache. The kids, thankfully, were OK, but a combination of the altitude and the long drive made all of us feel sluggish. Here's a llama sticking his head in the window looking to be fed.
Walking slowly at that altitude, you breath fast and hard like you were running at sea level. Running at that altitude—well, you just don’t do it or you are guaranteed to get sick.
Our kids are spoiled, I know, with all their travels. As of today, Jacob has been to seven countries and Alexander six. I know it’s crazy, but it is for a reason. #1, they just are going along for the ride with us. #2, It is very important for us that our kids understand the breadth of the world and its people in order to be productive and successful in the ever-changing world.
we went just long enough to have a lunch, which was much cheaper than Chile (I got a plate with chicken, sausage, pork, beef and some other beef for $5). Then, we went to the market and bought a few souvenirs. While we didn’t expect it to be too different from just across the border, it was. The people were very beautiful looking, with dark and reddish skin, just like you imagine Peruvians.
It cost Amy about $7 today to go to church. The whole family went to the Methodist Church that is involved in the refugee work. They have a tradition that everyone who has celebrated a birthday in the last week has to come forward and put pesos in a box--$100 pesos per year, which makes $3.600 for Amy.
This evening, I went with Juan from FASIC to visit a Pentecostal church that supports the refugee work. The church was basically made out of scrap plywood and the metal from an old shipping container. They had plastic lawn chairs for pews.
along. I totally don’t believe in admiring people for what they lack. But it was really interesting to see people who would choose to go to church in a plywood box when there are plenty of fancy Christian churches in town with bathrooms that aren’t outside in the dusty backyard. I have a lot of respect for that. Here's me and the pastor in front of the church
Today, we all flew to the very northern end of Chile (just 20 miles from the border) to a town called Arica. I had to come for work because there are many refugees here who come by land through Ecuador, then Peru, and enter Chile.
There’s about five McDonalds in the Centro of Santiago, but they are only mildly popular.
Maybe it was the wine, but last night’s dinner was surreal. We were invited by a Chilean family, but I was greeted when I entered with a real, authentic, “Howdy partner!” It was a friend of theirs, an American born in Houston, who has lived in Latin America for more than a decade and is an expert in bird sounds. He can identify a thousand bird calls and has recorded more. He contributes to the top bird call website in the world
Then, the host, asks me if I know Keith Green, the Christian musician. I say that I’ve heard of him, so the host starts to crank up loud worship music on the stereo, in English.
One of the cute things about Santiago is that there is a store for everything. Need a plastic bag? Go to the plastic bag store. Need a little wheel for a rolling chair? Go to the little wheel store. Need a printer cartridge? Go to the printer cartridge store.
This will also drive you crazy. I had this great idea to mail my Dad a bottle of wine from Chile for his birthday, which was yesterday. I bought a bottle of a sort and brand that is unique to Chile. My friend told me that the post office has service to pack and box things, but after waiting in line there for an hour yesterday, I learned they were out of all boxes.
So, today Amy offered to help. The people at a different post office told her that they also did not have packing supplies, but they referred her to the Styrofoam store. Seriously, the Styrofoam store. There, she found Styrofoam packing supplies of every shape and size, including one for the bottle of wine. But boxes-- of course not!--this is the Styrofoam store, of course. So, she got referred to the box store, which indeed had boxes, but alas, no tape. For that, you would need to go to…you guessed it…the tape store.
The bikes in Santiago are really great. I would not say this is really a “biking city,” and I would never ride a bike in the congested city center, but there are a good number of people who ride bikes around town. And the bikes are the sort that are made for people to actually ride. It’s ridiculously hard to find such bikes in the US because the bike market there is obsessed with racing road bikes for rich Lance-wannabes and mountain bikes for people who want to be cool and outdoorsy. These are not bikes for people—meaning regular people—to ride—meaning not race or take into the mountains. Bikes for people to ride have the following characteristics:
I can’t tell you how many people in the US have told me they want to buy a bike with these characteristics. But if you do find one with the physical characteristics, typically it will be made by a big-name brand and have a big price tag. This negates the whole equation because if your bike is so valuable that you worry about it being stolen, you won’t go out and ride it to the store.
In Santiago, you see bikes old and new with these traits, and they are cool. They look inexpensive and utilitarian. The most popular brands are Oxford (made in Chile) and Bianchi. Oh, on the weekends, the Lance (or more likely Eddy) wannabes do come out on expensive machines.
This is the first time that Amy has celebrated a birthday in another country. And this was the first time we have tried to shop for Amy’s birthday in another country. Our friend Samuel spent the day with Amy, teaching her how to make Chilean-style empanadas. We improvised birthday decorations and wrapped up her Mexican food as a present.
We walked all over town looking for the perfect cake. Interesting that vanilla is not too common here in Chile (it’s really common in Mexico). But the kids decided on something unique to Chile—a cake made of manjara—a caramel-like sweet that is used in all kinds of baked goods here.
This was one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We rented a car and headed for the mountain, hunting for snow. After a 12-mile drive on a dirt road that took an hour, we ended up at this lake, bordered by steep slopes. So steep that when the kids climbed on the snow, I was thinking of the headline “Clueless Texan Didn’t Know the First Thing About Avalanche Avoidance.” I told Amy I felt like we were at the beginning of a Rescue Heroes video. The kids froze their hands having a snowball fight and we made a snowman too (named “Snowie”).
I was really jealous to see groups of cyclists riding the curved, fun-sloped, empty paved road that led to the dirt road.
The good news is that they don’t have Wal Mart in Chile. I asked my co-worker Ely about it and she had never even heard the name. American business is all over Chile, but I guess not Wal Mart (yet).
The bad news is that they have do Wal Mart in Chile. Well, a store just like it. It’s called Jumbo and what’s worse is that I went there today. I wanted to buy Amy some tortillas and Mexican food stuff for her birthday, and my co-worker Juan told me Jumbo had a Mexican food kiosk.
Chile is full of playgrounds. There must be more playgrounds per capita than anywhere else in the world. In all the parks, of course, but also in any random public space—on the sides of roads—there are playgrounds. Some new plastic ones like in America, and some fun old ones with dangerous stuff like real see-saws and merry-go-rounds. Still others somewhat creative and improvised-looking, with logs stacked up in fun ways. Definitely more variety and creativity than you find in the US. The playground near our house even has this little library booth, so parents can borrow books to read while their kids play. How cool is that?
Chile has a culture that lets kids be kids. Unlike in many/most Latin American countries, children do not work here, selling things in the streets. Some help their parents in their shops after school, but this is far different than some eight-year-old kid sitting on the streets trying to sell trinkets.
