Moving

I've started doing all new posts over at Wordpress seeing as blogger won't let me upload any photos and the blogger staff are doing nothing to resolve the problem. New blog here.

Yay!

I actually got to meet some Los Navios kids today, and they were fantastic! We did our first session with the 8-11 year olds and I did a little introduction about who I am with my scrap book of photos, which they responded to really well. They asked me loads of questions about myself, England and english football players (needless to say I wasn't too hot on the latter topic) and said at the end they were glad I was working with them. I felt pretty elated by the end of the day as I've been waiting for this moment for over two weeks now and it went much better than I had expected. R also seems to be warming to me and has been more chatty; I hope that my positive and enthusiastic interaction with the kids helped her see that I could be a useful and fun member of the team. To round the day off, one of the other tias called me Laurita. This may not seem anything special, but the use of the dimunitive ita denotes friendship and caring so it was a really nice moment.

Fingers crossed that tomorrow and Friday will go just as well.

Another yay goes out to the fact that I have a massive translation assignment to do for VE: I'm so happy that I'm able to work on my favourite language skill while I'm here. Begins with g, ends in k.

And finally: Bombay Sapphire at £5 a bottle. Oh yes.

Valparaiso

Valpo didn't quite live up to the guidebook description as the most enchanting city in Chile, but there was some great street art, some beautiful houses, an astonishingly obvious cloud of smog as we drove in which eventually disipated somewhat, friendly locals telling us not to walk ANYWHERE as we'd get mugged (a combination of the Chilean tendency to worry about people too much, the still widespread view that women shouldn't travel without a male escort and the fact that, yes, if you wallk through the wrong part of town you may well be targetted by pickpockets, but we had been forewarned so no problemos there) and the fanastic ascensores (lifts up the hillside), which I of course got more excited about than was perhaps necessary.

Young Sammy will no doubt be pleased to hear that I also rocked The Sequel t-shirt all day ;-)

Work Update

Well I finally have a better idea of what my work is all about, although I still don't have a proper timetable of when I need to be at work and on what days, which is pretty frustrating as I need time to do my work for VE as well. Looks like I'll be spending half my time with the proteccion team who organise and implement the after school activites for the kids, and half with the prevencion team who work directly with their families and those who are most at risk. Both teams' objectives revolve around the UN's Declaration of Children's Rights. I wasn't even aware that such a formal document existed, but here children's specific rights are well known : there are posters illustrating them at metro stations, they are talked about on the news when abuse cases come up, and the children themselves are made explicitly aware of what they are; this is one of the aims of both teams. Proteccion then work to enable the children to implement these rights in their daily lives through the after school activities based around certain topics : education, recreation, family, sexual awareness etc, while prevencion aim to enable families to respect the rights of the children within them, as well as dealing with issues such as domestic violence which do not exclusively affect children. All this is done as much as possible with the involvement of the local community and government groups. When a child and their family have sufficiently improved, the child is presented with a certificate and moves on from the programme at the Centre, allowing other children on the waiting list to benefit from what it offers.

So far I know that I will be working with three groups on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, initially with one of the existing group leaders, but later as an independent member of the team. Apparently no volunteer has ever had this opportunity before, and it's nice to know that the director has so much faith in me : I just hope I can deliver! The main problem here is that the woman I'm initially going to be working with, R, really isn't my biggest fan and is less than forthcoming to say the least when I ask what I can do to help or whether we can organize some activities together. She also works at a ridiculously slow and unproductive pace, full of cigarette breaks and phone calls, which I find frustrating as I've always worked very hard and to the fullest of my abilities in any job I've had : I don't see how people can do anything less, but apparently it doesn't bother her.

So I'm just going to plan some of my own activites and bring them up at the team meeting in the hope that our team leader will give me the go ahead. I know this isn't really the best way to get into the R's good books, but if she's not going to let me help I don't really have any choice. The kids are actually starting next week, not the week after - v. relieved about that! - and the first sessions are just welcome / getting to know you evenings. We're supposed to be organising games, though R has shown no sign of doing this, so I'm translating all the games we played at Brownies into spanish and hopefully I'll be able to do some with the kids. The groups are 6-9, 9-13 and 8-11 years old : I'm happy I don't have teenagers because they're much harder to please - everything has to be cool, and my spanish for a start is anything but.

Speaking of which, everyone in the team speaks incredibly fast, with terrible pronunciation and masses of chilean slang, so I can't understand a thing at lunch break, and it's much harder even to hold one on one conversations than it is with my housemates or Maria. I do keep asking them to slow down, but they tend to forget, which is understandable. I do understand the majority when they are talking more formally, in a meeting, say, so in terms of knowing what I'm doing it's not too much of a problem; it's just hard to get across who I am and be friendly.

So I have my hours for proteccion, but prevencion don't have their planning meeting until next Wednesday so I don't really know when I'll be working with them. They all seem happy for me to be with them, though, and I will be shadowing them on family visits and helping with workshops (from what I can make out anyway!) until I understand more about what they do, then they want me to be more active and suggest ideas and activities, which is great. I'll also have a few designated hours for english lessons and the library - I ran my idea for a neighbourhood book drive past the VE education committee head and she really liked it, so hopefully that'll be going ahead (and I get newbie brownie points which is always good hehe).

All in all I think I am really pretty lucky to be here from a work experience point of view : I have a much more varied job than the others, but it's also a lot harder and requires patience and the ability to really put myself forward, with reference to both the time and effort it will take to get in with the teams and properly understand the work before I can actually do anything concrete. At the moment I feel like the useless work experience kid, to be honest, but I know things will improve. It's just hard because it's so far removed from what I've been expecting for the past year and a half. I'm still rather peeved I'm not working as a volunteer in a children's home or school, that I won't be spending hours a day with kids, but I just need to switch my brain over into work experience mode and be positive. I've got plenty of time in my life to work in a children's home I guess.

To end on a couple of positives : I accompanied the director, S, to a meeting of campamento residents on Monday (the campamento is an area of housing made from wood, corregated iron etc, often with stolen elctricity and water) where I met a woman, C, who is taking night classes in English. She asked S if I could help her with her work, and she said we could use the Centre for classes, so I'll be doing two English classes a week in the mornings before I start work. We had a short one on Tuesday with C and her friend and it was good fun : both are enthusistic to learn and they can help me with my Spanish too. I've never taught before, but we had a day of training with WorldTeach during orientation week and I think I should be fine, although I'm not sure that I'll be able to conduct the entire class in English as WorldTeach suggested : these are not women with much experience of education and they really need to understand how the phrases translate into their native language, especially as they are tested in class in this way, so we'll just see how it goes. Second positive, not work related, was seeing Billie on Monday : we went for a lovely meal and chatted for hours, and it was so nice to see a familiar face. I do get twinges of homesickness every now and then, especially on the metro in the morning, but I'm generally so busy that there isn't time to miss people and places too much. And third : I finished my first translation for the VE website and I'm v. happy with it - so glad I can keep up what is probably my best languages skill while I'm here.

Over the weekend I'm going to meet my surrogate family, visit Valparaiso and hopefully the girl I met on the plane on the way over, work at the Casa de Guaguas (baby house) and make the house video I keep saying I'm going to do! Blogger isn't letting me upload stuff at the moment though, but hopefully I will get some more pictures up here soon (was going to put all my stencil photos in the sidebar, but it stopped working after one, so it looks a bit lonely...).

Now I need sleep - I must admit I really haven't been getting enough, but I don't want every day to just consist of breakast, work, dinner, sleep with three hours on the Transport system to get to work and back, so I stay up late to chat with the girls and watch rubbish chilean TV (you have NO idea how bad it is; France seems positively radiant in comparison) while being affectionately mobbed by the doggies. It's nice :-)

If anyone wants to send me a care packet, as they call it in the US, I'd like:

marmite
proper extra mature Cheddar
chickpeas in a can
a clear view of the mountains
yoghurt sans gelatine
fruit juice made out of fruit
a metro system that doesn't close at 22.45
a food item not made by Nestle or CocaCola
Christopher

Sadly, I don't think you can get any of those across the border right now.

Buenas noches.

All is well

Just a quick one to say I'm very happy! As illustrated by the below photo, THE best hot chocolate I've ever had, which is saying something! It had a whole bar of chocolate melted into it, mmm....

The girls are lovely and I met some of their english friends today who are much more like me than some of the volunteers, so it will be cool to hang out with them. Having said that, I've clicked immediately with some of the volunteers, new and old, which I'm superbly pleased about after the Paris sitution, and get on with all the others I don't have so much in common with as well. L and I went to a reggaeton club on friday night - the most popular music here, kind of like Sean Paul type booty shaking stuff hehe - not me at all but great fun to experience a proper Santiaguan night out. We also managed to avoid jotes (vultures, ie sleazy men), so ten points for us.

On Saturday we had Liga, an inter-institution sports day, where I met some of my kids at last, and they were great fun - though two of the older girls were WAY too cool to join us playing volleyball and hung out by the fence trying to sneak cigarettes and chat to boys, so typical teenagers really. They seemed excited about seeing me again in April, so I'm feeling good about their eventual return to the Centre.

Today I was supposed to meet up with my surrogate Chilean family but they didn't turn up to our meeting - apparently the woman is infamous for being late - so we're going to meet up Friday night instead. They sound really interesting, though : she is a social worker who has particular experience working with victims of domestic violence, and he's a doctor from Cuba. The other families that were there were really warm and enthusiastic, so I think this is going to be a positive experience. Tomorrow, from what I can gather, the psychologists and social workers start doing more planning of activities and home visits in preparation for the children's arrival, so I'm hoping I will have more to do. If not, I'll just work on my translations so it's all good. Ooooo and my friend Billie from Sheffield will be here tomorrow as she's travelling round S. America at the moment so I'm super excited about seeing her. Super = just one of the many americanisms I will no doubt be picking up while I'm here.

But I'm super cool with that, it's all super good fun ;)

Am planning on making a video of my apartment and family here (Camila, Nata, the dogs and the cats!) will put it up as soon as possible. Until then, chau :-) xxx

My beautiful neighbourhood

It's quite hard to take photos of where I'm living because there's so many trees! Here's my house, though:

My apartment is to the right of the front door, ground floor.

Mini video of my street (yes, it's pretty noisy):

The town hall in Providencia (first day without full blue sky today!):

More to come...

First days

Well I'm glad I didn't have time to write this yesterday as it would have made upsetting reading! Turns out that there are going to be no children at the Centre until 2 April. Yesterday, no one could, or would, explain why this was, why I hadn't been told, and what on earth I was supposed to do until they arrived. A couple of the staff members were very edgy with me and even though I tried hard to make conversation I wasn't getting anything back. No one other than the director seemed interested in the fact that I was there or felt that they had any responsibility towards me. I read through lots of files and got to know more about the place and the work they do, but after that they could offer me nothing to do and just left me sitting around for ages. The director came back at the end of the day and went through a few things with me, but most of the activities she suggested or wanted me to do involved the kids and as they weren't there I felt useless.

I went straight to a VE meeting afterwards and everyone else had had a brilliant day and spent lots of time playing with the various groups of children, so I felt pretty upset. I've spent a year and a half imagining that I will be surrounded by kids to play with and support and it seems that everyone has that other than me. I spoke to the VE director and asked him why I had been put in Los Navios and not the special school or somewhere else where my existing experience and skills could be put to better use, and he said it was because of my spanish level (which makes no sense as other speak better than me and one is bilingual) and because they thought I was the best volunteer to deal with the most challenging place. I went home thinking I wished I hadn't filled out my application in spanish or bigged myself up so much. My housemates cheered me up loads when I got back, though, and I'm really glad I'm living with them and not with a family who might not have been so understanding (or stayed up til 2am watching Little Miss Sunshine!). It's nice that I can feel relaxed and in friendly company despite all communication being in a foreign language.

Today I feel a bit more optimistic, though. The psychologist, who pretty much ignored me yesterday, took the time to go through her side of the work there and said she would be happy for me to accompany her on home visits and take part in various workshops for the children and parents. We also had a good conversation at lunch and she really liked my scrapbook. The occupational therapist who works there is nice too, although he's leaving at the end of the month to go live in the US with his wife : the first VE volunteer who worked in Los Navios! So hopefully they will sort out something for me to do, although I haven't been able to get any concrete times or days out of them. After lunch and meeting with her, though, I didn't have anything to do, so I spent an hour sharpening all their pencils! Not v. exciting I know, but it made me realise that I'm just going to have to bring in my own work and ideas and just do stuff whether or not they have asked me to or have mentioned it : they have a little caravan thing which serves as a library so I'm going to clean that up and make lists of all the books, hopefully get some new ones for them (a lot have been stolen). I can also use the time to write some english lesson plans and plan other talleres (workshops).

So although there are no children, and to be honest I'm still pretty annoyed and confused about the fact that I'm not working in the special school or in an institution where I'll have a lot of contact with the children, I'm just going to try and make the most of it. Having my housemates and Maria to spend time with in Spanish makes me feel more positive about things and that I'm not wasting my time : after all, I'm here to study oral Spanish (well, Chilean, it's hardly standard Castillian!) so even if I'm not doing much child-related work, I'm still using my time in a worthwhile way. I'm also going to be working a few hours every fortnight in the Casa de Guaguas (baby/toddler house) which will be lovely, and we have a football tournament on Saturday that all the volunteers are involved in, so there will be some child contact there. Tomorrow I work in the VE office with the PR committee, which I'm really looking forward to, but keep your fingers crossed that I'll find something to do on Friday...

Will do a post about where I'm living, complete with photos (prepare to be jealous ;-) tomorrow.

Kiddies, feministas and lovely chileans

I visited one of the institutions VE works with for the first time today. I spent the afternoon at a small home for children whose families are temporarily unable to look after them while social workers try to help the families get to a point where it is appropriate for the children to return to them. There were only a few children there but we had lots of fun just playing make believe games, looking at my picture book and dancing around. I was surprised how much of their spanish I could understand and I'm feeling lots more confident about starting work, though I am still overwhelmed by the fact that I am going to be working with up to one hundred children : don't think I'll ever remember their names...

This evening my friend Aisan and I went to a rally and march for International Women's Day, which was loads of fun : there were singers and poets at the rally and people dancing in the main square to a samba band. I tried to chat to quite a few people and hopefully have a group of young feminists I can hook up with, which is great. I'm amazed how friendly and open everyone is here, especially after Paris : everyone is more than happy to chat and luckily they like talking so the conversation isn't too dependent on me. I've been chatting to my soon to be housemate and to the girl I met on the plane in spanish on msn: v impressed with myself hehe.

Tomorrow we're supposed to be doing some variety show thing at the Volunteer House where all the new volunteers have to do a skit. Not too excited about that! But have to play along I guess, I expected some 'Go Team!' US type stuff so I'll just grin and bear it. Am certainly working on my slight anti-US prejudice anyway! I'm hoping it will all be gone by the time I leave, but I must admit that I'm glad there are three other europeans here too.

Bedtime! Lxx

Falling on my feet, and Parque por la Paz

So I have an apartment hoorah! Two girls who live and study here in Santiago found my other blog, where I mentioned I was coming to Santiago, and emailed me before I got here inviting me to rent out their spare room. I went to visit them yesterday evening and they are both really friendly and the apartment is lovely so I've decided to take it. I have my own bathroom connected to my room, Wifi access and laundry service, so it's all rather nice.

At first I was worried about living in one of the richer areas and working in a poor area, but I think I will be a more effective worker if I am able to have my own space and chill out between work shifts, which I may not have been able to do living with a family in a poorer area, plus me living in a poorer area isn't really going to benefit the kids I'm working with, so I might as well take the opportunity to see both faces of Santiago. I move in on Sunday and start work on Tuesday.

Before going to visit the apartment we went on a group trip to Parque de la Paz, which is a memorial to those who were killed and tortured under Pinochet: left wing political activists, teachers, priests who extended help to those of a socialist persuasion, members and associates of left wing political parties : men, women and children. The area the park covers was one of two main torture centres in Santiago and was also one of the places where people deemed a threat to the military regime were processed for 'disappearing', or in other words sentenced to die.

We were given a guided tour by a man who spent two weeks there in the 1970s as a prisoner. For one week he was kept blindfolded in a wooden shed a couple of feet square with three other men, taken out only to be tortured for 'information', and another week was spent in the cells, again blindfolded and tortured three or four times a day. Listening to, and translating for others, the stories he recounted, was one of the most harrowing experiences I have ever been through. I also realised halfway through that I had read testimonies of other people who had been held here when I was studying Chilean history last year, and seeing the place where these awful things happened was incredibly upsetting. I had to have a big cry after the visit and felt very shaken up for the rest of the evening. Below are some of the anecdotes he shared with us - they are upsetting and could be triggering so please scan down if you don't want to read them, but I think it is important that these human rights abuses are not forgotten. There are many people in Chile who continue to ignore these abuses and insist that Pinochet was a blessing for the country, while members of the military regime who were complicit in these abuses and doubtless know where the bodies of the disappeared can be found continue their lives without fear of reprisal.

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Women prisoners were systematically raped by both male guards and the guard dogs. Their children were often present. Other children were born as a result of these abuses - another form of torture, this time psychological, as each time the women looked at their children they were reminded of what happened to them.

Doctors were kept in the complex with the sole aim of judging how much torture the prisoners could take and ensuring that they were kept alive in order that this torture could continue.

Many former prisoners have fled Chile, unable to come to terms with what happened to them in their own country, and with the fact that, under torture, they often ended up condemning their friends and comrades to the same abuses they themselves suffered.

Prisoners who were sentenced to death were taken to 'The Tower' where in the early years they were treated better than in the cells. This led to rumours that being taken to the tower was a blessing, or good luck. What the prisoners did not know was that the tower meant 'disappearing', or death : they were taken away, injected with cyanide, and their bodies dumped in the sea. The metal bars used to compress their bodies have been found off the coast and one stands outside the parque, but as is the case for the majority of Pinochet's victims, their bodies have never been found.

The guide recalled hearing a little girl running up and down the corridor outside the cells, shouting and playing as most children do. What was horrifying, and a testimony to the psychological damage inflicted on these children that they have to deal with as grown ups today, is that her playful cries mimicked those of the women undergoing electrical torture.

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From this hellish place, the survivors have created a park where children can now play in peace, where families of the disappeared can come to remember their loved ones, and where the horrors of the Pinochet regime can never be dismissed as mistakes, necessary evils, or mere fabrications.

It's definitely somewhere I will go back to, and somewhere I will never be able to forget.

Bienvenido a Santiago

Spot the mountains...

The Mapocho. Not quite as impressive as The Seine, to say the least:

BK Centre in Providencia - I might be living in this area, it's rather nice! Santiago definitely gets ten points for greenery, with added merit for trees :

Plaza de las Armas:

The sun's in my eeeeeeeyes, or, 'Yes, I am really here':

And, yes, the weather's fantastic, though I have a nice pink stripe on my forearm where I missed putting suncream. Mmmm. Going to look at appartment tomorrow and meet the other volunteers, then it's onto orientation week and whatever that involves on Monday. I'm incredibly scared about my job, am going to make sure I do lots of spanish revision next week because apparently if you're not all chatty and jokey when you get there they'll think you're rude, and at the mo' I can only just form sentences. Eek.

Hasta pronto.

I'll make the photos bigger next time but am on a slow PC at the moment so had to do them smaller so it wouldn't take forever.

Estoy aqui!

I'm here, arrived at the hostel two hours ago, waiting for my room so I can sort meself out and wash off the travelling smelliness. Santiago is massive, hot and architecturally bizarre, that's about all I can report so far. I managed to hold a conversation in Spanish on the plane and now have a Chilean friend which makes me feel a bit more confident, though she does live in Valparaiso, by the sea, rather than in Santiago.

Found out where I'm working at last -


Centro Comunitario Los Navios

Since 1998, Community Center Los Navíos has focused its efforts on the continuing problem of child abuse in its various manifestations, including neglect and physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. The Center has several programs working in tandem to combat the mistreatment of children. The staff is divided into teams of Promotion and Prevention, which offer an afterschool program, workshops, home visits, academic help, and specific assistance tailored to the needs of individual families. Help consists of everything from distributing food and clothing donations, organizing medical clinics, securing police intervention for protection in domestic abuse situations, and homework help, to providing psychological treatment, a listening ear, and a secure place, attention, love. Since the beginning, the Community Center has been an important force in the community, an open, welcoming place for social interaction and support. It is a well-used and respected resource for the entire community. One need only take a walk in the neighbourhood with a staff member (known as tías and tíos) to see the genuine bond those at the Center have forged with the community. They are greeted with warm affection and respond to the tragic stories they are told every day by with empathy and action. The permanent contact with the community has allowed the staff members to educate, intervene, and treat the various factors associated with child abuse. The Community Center serves 100 children, ages 5 to 16, and their families. Most of the children live in the neighbourhoods Los Navíos, Los Quillayes, San José de la Estrella, El Rodeo, and Juan Pablo II, in the comuna, or region, of Santiago known as La Florida. The socioeconomic condition in the area is one of social exclusion, high poverty, illiteracy and low academic achievement, domestic violence, and students at a high risk for academic desertion.

So looks like it's going to be pretty challenging and I'm worried about my Spanish, but I'm sure it'll all come together after a few weeks.

Right now I just want a shower...

Excited!

I still don't know where I'm working or living, but I do know it's going to be a lot warmer and sunnier than in the UK. Mwa ha ha!

I can also only take 20kg of luggage, each kilo I go over will cost me £14, which is a little worrying... But oh well.

Bring on Friday 2nd March!