Tidbits of my life.

Things here are great. Machi and I went into the city yesterday to see a Chilean movie based on stories from the big earthquake here last year. It was really good, and my first experience going to se a Spanish movie! Th

Teaching in awesome, and I'm going to be really sad to leave the school next week! Tuesday I'm going back to Arica! (So much to tell about the school--I'll try to blog on it tomorrow!)

I'm having lots more success with my ISP. I finally got some good interviews in and a couple observations. And I just got a call from the hospital saying that they're letting me go inside for a litle tour/observation on friday! It's all about connections and contacts, and I have definitely made progress in that department!

Today I went with my host dad to their other house which is about 20 minutes outside of the city down a lot of dirt roads. I dont know what he was doing, but I had the Ruka to myself!  (Ruka is the mapuche hut made of wood and straw) I made a fire and did and interview there, then watched Eat Pray Love on my laptop. It was raining and cold outside but so cozy snugled up by the fire...realllyy niceee =)

Saturday a couple SIT girls who are studying in Temuco are coming to Nueva Imperial for a concert! They invited me to go, so I think I will. That'll be the first time I've actually gone out or carreteado my whole ISP. They're probs gonna stay over here and then...

sunday I'm going back to the Ruka and having a little gathering with all the other kids from SIT who are doing their ISPs nearby..I think 8 or 9 peple will come.. We'll ride the horsies , hang out with the donkeys sheep and cows, and cook chicken or something in the fire the ruka. I'm exciteddddd.

okay that's all for now! Tomorrow I'm gonna post about my trip last weekend to Pucon.
Love and miss you allll!
     -Hannah

Wacky but Interesting Trip Further South

I literally could never be a Chilean. My host mom took me on a little trip from Friday night to Monday night and basically planned the entire thing as we went. She originally told em we were going to Chiloe, a huge Island in the south, but we never ended up making it there. We went to Valdivia, Puerto Montt, and Puerto Puelo.It was so great to just be flexible and go with the flow, but I'd say a good 70% of the time I had no idea where we were going, whose house we were at, how far the next leg of the trip would be, or anything. It was almost comical how disorganized and last-minute everything got planned. I'll try to explain a little bit of what we did so you can get just how loco travelling can be down here. Friday afternoon, my host mom told me we'd be travelling for the weekend and leaving friday night. And by friday night she meant 1am on Saturday. She couldn't tell me how many days we'd be gone for, so I just threw some clothes in a suitcase and hoped it would be enough. We left the house at 1am to catch a 2am bus, but I think we missed it or she just had the times mixed up, because we waited until 3am to get on the bus. The bus arrived at Puerto Montt at 9:30am, and the mother of some friend of hers (I think) picked us up at the bus terminal and brought us to their house. So we show up at this house with a grandma, a few kids, a teenager and a middle-aged lady and I'm prety sure my host mom didn't even know then before the trip, but they gave us breakfast and we just hung a out in their tiny little kitchen that you could barely walk in all morning. Later the girl (26yrs old) that my host mom knows, showed up and told me she was taking me to see the center of the city. Turns out she had mothers day shopping to do, so the grandma Maria came along and we ended up shopping in the mall and around the city all day. I literally had just met this girl and had no idea who she was but we spent the day together in the city--I guess that's normal here...? Then my mom got a call from a man at night to go do a house visit for his mother (My host mom's a Machi, a Mapuche healer) How this man got my host mom's number I have no idea, but he basically tolld us he was coming and showed up at the door 2 minutes later. He picked us up in this tiny pickup truck that was only meant for 2 people and brought us to this house that is basically what you would sleep in if you went to a really rustic sleepaway camp, and we just sat there and talked forever. The patient, whoever she was supposed to be, never showed up, so my mom was just like Okay, lets go home now. So this guy drove us home and we went to bed--no house visit done. The next morning, as I was about to get into the shower my host mom told me that the guy with the pickup truck was waiting outside. I literally had no idea we were leaving anytime soon or where we were going, but I took the quickest shower of my life and packed up my things. He drove us for hours into the lake region which was absolutely gorgeous. I was squished and practically sitting on my host mom's lap the entire time but we made it eventually to some little village where we went to two people's houses for lunch and tea. I literally couldn't tell you if I tried how my host mom knew them, and how it happened that this guy who drove us knows them too, but I just kind of went with it. To get to one of the houses we had to climb up a cliff and go by a waterfall, which was pretty cool. and the views were amazing.  I'll try to post pictures soon if I can! Then this random guy drove us back to Puerto Montt after a few hours on the windy dirt roads dropped us at the bus terminal so we could go to Valdivia. My host mom hadn't thought to call ahead to check that there were buses on sunday, and there weren't. so she called some relative who lives nearby to come pick us up so we could sleep there until a morning bus left. Then like 2 minutes after that she decided she's rather stay at the house we stayed at before, so she called them again and told them we're coming back to spend another night. Then she ahd to call back the relatvies to tell them that we wouldn't be coming after all, and they shouldn't come to pick us up. They were pretty mad that we told them we were coming and then cancelled, but she didn't seem to be too worried about it. So we went back to the house to spend the night and took an 8am bus to Valdivia. There we met the family of one of her patients, and they brought us to the hospital to visit the patient. We had to go into the hospital in 2 groups and pretend I didn't speak any English and needed someone to translate for me so they would let in more than one person. We visited this random patient (I have no diea how my host mom became his Machi--he lives 3 hours from her) and then I had another random city tour with the patient's 14-year-old daughter. We visited the sea lions in the river and went to the mall. Then we went back to their house and met her brother, who told me to come along because he had to pick something up at his college. Turns out he had an engineering class at that time and was supposed to be in class. He brought me to class which had already started, and the teacher had me introduce myself to all the students and they were all laughing and asking me questions. Halfway through he was like, hey, do you wanna leave? I couldn't believe he could just leave like that in the middle of a class, so I was like no, you should stay. So we stayed and went to another class. The classes were so chill and laid back that people were playing music from their laptops, and this one kid who knows English was talking to me the entire class. Finally the class ended at midnight (Crazy that classes run so late into the night!), we went home to eat dinner at 12:30, and left to go catch a 1am bus home. We finally made it home at 4:30am. And I got up at 6:45 to go teach at the high school.

If all of this seems like a stream of consciousness or a big mess of events and ideas, that's because it absolutely was. It was really frustrating when I didn't understand who people were (I must have met 20 random people) or when or where we were going, but it was a learning experience for sure. And I guess that's just how travel is in Chile--the hour doesn't matter, knowing the people you're staying with doesn't matter, and neither does sticking with your original schedule.  I can't describe how wacky and strange it was. ¡Que Raro!


I taught all morning at the high school which was amazing, and I'm doing a big physical therapy observation tomorrow in the hospital. My fingers hurt from typing so much to blog about that some other time. But other than my total lack of normal sleep lately and the cold rain, everything is good!

On another note, my host family in Arica invited me to a family wedding on the 28th! I'm working on switching my flight so I can get back to Arica in time for it--that would be SO MUCH FUN!

ISP Time!

     After an awesome excursion to the south and to Bariloche, Argentina (Where the scenery was incredible and the chocolate was deliocious),  I finally started my ISP period. I literally didn´t know anything about my host family before I got here, and we couldn´t even confirm that they were ready for a student until the night before I get here. But I made it here and am pretty much moved into my room. The majot thing I am working on now is starting to plan different observations in the hospitals and with Mapuche healers who work out of their homes...It´s gonna be a lot of work, but I have a lot of connections and am getting contacts that will be really healpful!

       I´m living with a Machi, a spiritual Mapuche healer. She´s really spunky and is literally always cooking and telling me to eat more, in between the patients that come to the house to see her. I have 2 sisters, one 18 and another 22 who are really sweet and go to school in Temuco, the big city nearby. I also have a brother but haven´t really met him yet. My dad is a big guy who just hangs out watching TV and sleeping, and I literally can´t understand a word he says because of his accent. He gets really frustrated when he has to say something 5 times before I get it, while the rest of the family is dying laughing. Ánd there are 3 kida who I think are cousins, but they basically live here. They´re 2, 4, and 6-- 2 girls and a boy. They´re so cute and I literally just played with them all last night. Everyone is so sweet and carinosa --my mom calls me hija(daughter), mi amor (my love), or Hanni, and the little girls call me tia, auntie. We also have an adorable kitten that I´m in love with and fell alseep in my arms wrapped up in my scarf last night. (It´s freezing here and there isn´t really heat but everyone bundles up!)
     My family also has property in el campo, the countryside. It´s about 20 minutes from here, and they have a ruka, a Mapuche hut, where they spend Sundays around the fire. They have 2 horses thast they say I can ride sometime, cows, cats, dogs, and I think a few chickens and sheep. Sometimes they spend the night there, sometimes here in town. It´s kind of random and I can´t figure out exactly why or how they use both houses, but it´s cool that they have that! 
     My mom works out of the house, but this weekend she´s going into el campo to do house visits for patients that live far away. She wants me to come along to observe her treatments and see el campo with her..It should be fun! We´re leaving Friday and should come back on Sunday.
       So basically my family is amazing and I literally couldn´t be happier with my homestay. The house isn´t rundown but very basic and so I´m getting a very real experience! But it´s always busy with friends and relatives coming and going, there are lots of patients to observe, the food is more than enough, and everyone is so sweet.

     I haven´t found wifi yet but I have a couple more places I´m going to search for it! I also know a lady who has a computer in her house and she says I can come use it. Until then I am going to stores where you pay to use a computer, and today I´m going into Temuco to maybe find some wifi. So Skyping may not be possible for the next few weeks....but if anything changes, I´ll let you all know so we chat!

Lots of love from Imperial!

3-Day Village Study in Nueva Imperial

       I just got back to Temuco from the village study and had an really awesome time! I finally decided where I'm doing my ISP -- Nueva Imperial for sure. So it was really good to have a chance to get to know the town with friends before sending myself off there by myself. The town was even cuter and sweeter than I thought before, and this trip made me even more excited to do my ISP there--I learned so many things and met so many people, so now I literally can't wait to start my ISP and live there for a month!
       I feel like we were in a reality tv show because they dropped us off in a random town, gave us money to pay for food and a palce to stay, and we had a project to do by the time we got back today. There were 4 of us; Marlee, Machi, Katie, and Me. The first thing we had to do was find the police station and let the police know that there are gringas in town (so we know where they are and so they know that there are gringas in town and not to worry) Then we found a hostal to stay in--for 13USD we stayed in this tiny little hostel that you get into from a skinny blue door you wouldn't even notice on the street if you didn't know about it. It's run by a sweet old lady and her family and was like a really really simple bead-and-breakfast. We stayed there for 2 nights, and during the day we had to go into the town center and get information about the town's education, health care, transportation, religion, arts, culture etc.

My group the first day in Nueva Imperial!

A few highlights from our adventures....
     -There were 2 other guys staying there at the same time as us, so we got to know them a bit. They're on the Chilean canoe racing team and they're training on the river in town for the 2012 Olympics...So cool! They're living in the hostel in Imperial while they train for a year, so we can be friends when I go back for my ISP!  :-)
         - The people in Nueva Imperial are unbelievably friendly..like I can't even try to explain how every person is nicer than the next! We went to a bar for a beer and to watch the soccer game, and there was this sweet lady working there who was doing Easter arts & crafts the whole time we were there. She was cutting out eggs and flowers to hang on the walls of the bar. Then she brought us over some chocolate Easter eggs with a big smile...She's a little late for Easter, but I guess it's the thought that counts.
       -We also went to the forestry and agriculture office in town to get info on natural resources and ecology (part of the project we had to do) And they told us they have a Jeep that goes into el campo, the countryside, and they said if I go back on a day they're going into el campo they will take me with them to show me!

This is the hospital I'll be doing my ISP at!
You can see the occidental part (white) and the Mapuche part (the wood hut)

       -We went to the hospital to find out some information about public health care in Nueva Imperial. We were blown away by how easy it was to find someone to talk to--the janitor brought us to the secretary, who brought us to the assistant director of the hospital! We explained they we're study abroad students learning about communities and health care, and he spent a good 45 minutes talking to us about the hospital and how it's set up (It's essentially two hospitals--one for occidental medicine and one for traditional Mapuche medicine) At the end, I asked if there was a chance I could observe some of the therapists for my ISP, and he said absolutely! So now I know that My ISP can actually happen!
       -Yesterday we went to the school in town to find about their education system. The secretary dropped whatever she was doing to talk to us for half an hour and then take us on a tour of the entire school, where she introduced us to all the teachers and faculty. We met the English Teacher,  who said she would let me come back to teach a lesson or two and work with her classes! She also said I could join her to the English classes she teaches at the local jail--that could be quite an experience. I've kind of always wanted to teach English to little Latino kids and now I'm going to be able to! I have to work out some details with her, but I'll probably try to volunteer in the school in the mornings and work on my ISP in the hospital in the afternoons.
     -We also went to a few art shops and talked to some street artists to learn a little bit about the culture and they were all super nice. This one lady making baskets in the plaza says we should be friends when I go back and would wave at me every time I walked by her booth.  :-)
     So basically, the people in Nueva Imperial are awesome, the town is precious, the food is ridiculously cheap, and I already have a few familiar faces and contacts!

Tired, cold, and wet, but happy to be exploring the town

I still have a lot to do to get ready for my ISP--I have to figure out my host family situation, how I'm going to schedule my time, and I have to tweak my proposal because I'm slightly changing my topic. But it's all starting to come together, and I know it will eventually.

Tomorrow we're going to Bariloche, Argentina, to learn about their health system..I'm guessing it's very different from Chile's. And Bariloche is known for its delicious chocolate... It should be a good time!

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!  =)

Hasta Luego, Arica!

Its crazy that I'm leaving Arica tomorrow! The classes are basically over, and I'm getting ready to leave my host family for the south! I still don't know exactly where I will be doing my project/internship-- either at the Teleton (pediatric rehab center) or in Makewe Hospital, a hospital that is divided into 2 departments, one where they treat patients using modern medicine and another where they treat using traditional Mapuche medicine. And I don't even know where I'll be living yet--My friend Machi and I are trying to decide between renting an apartment or living in a pension, a family's house where you just rent a room and have access to their kitchen. I feel like this should all be set in stone because I'm leaving tomorrow for the trip for 10 days and then immediately starting my ISP period. But the staff don't seem to be too concerned--they say it's easy to set stuff up once we get down there and get our bearings. So it will be an adventure!

Last night we had a goodbye dinner with all of the host families at a hotel in Arica.  Everyone got all dressed up and there were speeches, songs, a slideshow, and even a little skit to teach everyone about Passover. =) It made me think a lot about the experience living with my family and lookng back on it, it was really something special. I'm probably going to miss then after a week or two of being in Temuco and want to live with them some more! The picture below is us at the dinner...Our first formal family portrait! It was such a special night and the picture reminds me of so many good memories...I think looking at it might make me cry someday.

Tonight my relatives are coming over for a big dinner! I can't eat the lasagna, but I'm making an apple/sweet potato dish with new England maple syrup that we're all going to eat.

Also, saturday night was the last weekend night that we had together in the house. I didn't think much of it, so I was getting ready to go out at 11:30. When I walked out of my room, I saw my dad setting up a projector in the living room with karaoke! Then he started cooking french fries and bringing us soda and we just ended up sitting on the couch singing karaoke all night. So much for wanting to go out. But I guess the point is that my parents have been super sweet and have made the end of my stay really special.

I walked around el centro today one last time and realized how much I love Arica and really just don't want to leave. I love buying ice cream at DiMango,  I love shopping around for things I really don't need but buy anyway because they're dirt cheap, I love when Chilens ask me where I'm from and then we get into a nice conversation, I love buying fruit from the market, I love surfing and the beach, I love people-watching, I love riding my bike around like a native, and I love hearing Spanish songs everywhere I go and being able to sing along. I've really grown to love Arica and feel at home here. So I can't wait for then end of the ISP period when we get to come back for one more week. =)

Whenever I tell a Chilean that I'm going to Temuco they look at me like I'm crazy and ask me if I like cold weather and rain. I had to go out and buy all these warm clothes because it's wayyy farther south than Arica so it's colder and it rains. I know it's just a month, but I haven't seen real clouds in a couple months, and I'm gonna go crazy if I go down there and it just rains every day! Obviously there's no place on earth with better weather than Arica, which is 75 and sunny all year, but hopefully it won't be too bad and I'll survive! And if I do hate it,I'll just go back to Arica at the end of the month and be in heaven.

Passover!

The seder turned out really really REALLY nicely! I was on the haggadah committee (haha, I know it's funny), so we were responsible for making the hagaddah. We used different readings and songs that people usually use at their own seders, and wrote in English, Hebrew, and mainly Spanish. It was a lot of work to completely make a hagaddah from scratch, but we did it! They're going to be nice little souvenirs for us to remember the night. =)

Dahlia, Lauren and I with our finished product  <3

Cooking was also a daunting task in Chile. Thank goodness that 2 girls' moms sent them passover packages with horseradish, matzah, etc. But the rest of the stuff we made. We kashered the kitchen in casa SIT (the program headquarters) and did all the cooking there with just a few pyrex, bowls, spoons, etc. The kitchen is SO TINY, it's amazing that we were able to make everything, store it until the night, and heat it all up at the same time. This is a picture of us all crammed in the tiny kitchen--it was like out of a movie with all these Jewish girls crammed into a kitchen fussing and squeezing by each other and trying to cook.

We were all super busy cooking, moving tables and chairs, and making the hagaddah for a few days before, but it was all worth it. All 27 students came, and all but one of our Chilean staff too! Only 8 kids in the group are Jewish, so everyone was interested and wanted to learn more about the holiday, the food, etc. It definitely wasn't the same as being home for Passover, but it was really special to share the holiday with other people who had never experienced a Seder before.

Cameron, Machi, Julie, and me