I've been asked several times if there is anything that could be sent from home that I miss. While I greatly appreciate the offer (and wouldn't refuse anything) the things I really miss can't be sent through the mail.
Here are some examples:
- Toilet paper, soap and paper towels in the school bathrooms. Everyone has to bring their own toilet paper and either not wash their hands or use hand sanitizer
- Being able to wear a summer or a winter outfit and not have to continually adapt it to the changing temperatures. Not only is it extreme between morning and night, but also between inside buildings/in the shade, and outside/in the sun
- Drinking water from the tap and knowing there isn't ARSENIC in it (damn copper mine)
- Washing my face with warm water at night
- Communicating with people without having to wrack my brain to come up with the necessary words
School Time!
So far I love my school: the girls are well behaved and willing to participate (for the most part), and my co-teacher ROCKS! Plus with my help we are going to have a pretty good English Debate team :)
To the right is one of the patios in my school during recreo (or recess) which they have 2x a day, once in the morning before the lunch break and once in the afternoon after the lunch break. Even seniors in high school have 2 recesses a day! The majority of the classrooms are on the three levels you see.
One thing I never realized before starting to teach English as a foreign language is how difficult it is to pronounce! For example, in Spanish each vowel has one sound, and it is the same in every word. English, on the other hand, has about 70 phonograms (or possible sounds, depending on how letters are put together in a word). Imagine that! When they ask me, "How do you know that is how you pronounce it?" I have no answer because I don't know!
This is my classroom, which I am very lucky to have because teachers in Chile don't have their own classrooms. Instead, each grade has a room, and the teachers of the various subjects move between rooms.
This is the other patio in the school. You enter my classroom from this patio.Stray Dogs
Are everywhere!!!! There are hundreds if not thousands in the streets of Calama (and in every other town/city in Chile). This is also something distinct to Chile. For example, I've been told as soon as you cross the border into
Argentina, there is no longer a stray dog problem. There are no laws in Chile governing the ownership and responsibility of having a pet. So, most people will have a dog for a period of time, and when they can't afford it, don't want it, or are moving away, they just let it go. To make matters worse, most of the dogs aren't sterilized, so the population keeps regenerating on the street. There are also no laws governing the treatment of animals (or at least no one cares enough to enforce them).One of the debate topics this year is the euthenization of street dogs. During the discussion on Friday in the Debate Club, one girl mentioned that municipal authorities have come to her condominium complex, rounded up the stray dogs and then abandoned them in the desert. That is how Calama has decided to deal with the problem :(
Birthday Party!!!!!!
Today we are celebrating my host brother Cristóbal's 1st birthday!!!! The family has been up since about 8 this morning cleaning, moving furniture, and in general preparing for the fiesta (which doesn't start until 5pm!). Excited to see how a typical Chilean family parties! Pictures from the fiesta will be posted soon :)
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