Excursion in Temuco

We're in the South finally--por fin! 

On Thursday we flew from Arico to Santiago and then got on our plane to take us from Santiago to Temuco. We were on the runway and ready to go when they told us that the weather in Temuco was bad and the flight would be delayed until the next day. So we went back to the airport and they set all 30 of us up to stay at a 5-star Sheraton in Santiago. This is kind of like what happened when I first got to chile and missed my connection in Santiago and got to see the city for the day--but this time, we got to spend the night. I went out to a discotec with a couple friends in the night, and then we got to tour around the center friday morning. It was cold and rainy, but we were lucky we had the chance to see Santiago again, even if it was just for a little bit.

In front of the president's building in santiago!

Now we're in Temuco and learning about the indigenous Mapuche people. For the last few days we've been having classes in Rukas, (the Mapuche word for house which is a house made of wood and straw.) The whole class sits in a cirlce, because it's a mapuche tradition that everyone can see each other, and there's usually a fire in the middle because it's kind of cold sometimes. It's been pretty lecture-intense, but it's really cool to be learning from the actual Mapuche people.

We had two classes taught by machis, the Mapuche's spiritual doctors. We were really lucky that they were willing to talk to us about their practice, because they're usually private and don't even talk to foreigners. There were definitely some questions they couldn't or wouldn't answer, and they didn't give any details about their treatments, but they told us all about how people become machis and how they function in the greater health system. We also had a class with an intercultural facilitator, who is someone who accompanies a patient to their appointments. This person interprets for the patient or doctor and offers the patient advice on whether their illness would best be treated using occidental medicine or Mapuche medicine. We also had a class to learn a little bit of Mapudungun, the Mapuche language. And we learned a bit about the Mapuche cosmovision, their world view. So much to learn..ahhhh!!

Having classes in a ruka

Tomorrow we're doing village studies! This means that we're going in smaller groups to different villages near temuco to learn about their culture and medicine practices. I'm going with 3 other girls to Nueva Imperial, a cute little town half an hour from Temuco. It should be a really cool experience--they're basically sending us on a bus with some money, notebooks, and our backpacks to our different villages. Once we get there, we have to find the police to 'let them know that there are gringas in the town' so nobody freaks out. Then we have to find a hostel or some place to live for a few days, find some food, and then go out into the community to talk to Chileans and get info about their village! After 2 days and 3 nights, we'll all met back at the hotel in Temuco and present on what we learned...I'm super excitedddd!  =)