Weeks 5 and 6

So I realize that I am very behind on my blog posts. The last two weeks have been really busy...a combination of the workload here and dealing with stuff (like rent) in the US. However, both weeks were 4 days work weeks which was nice.

Two weeks ago (June 20th-June 27th) was pretty busy. I had another fun parent teacher meeting...but this time it was one-on-one. And of course the kid I was there to discuss is a problem child. It also didn't help that he is one of the kids at the hogar that I do not know (since there are 80). It was definitely a little intimidating at first but by the end of the meeting I was proud of the fact that I was able to understand and communicate with the teacher one-on-one. This time I felt like I had somewhat of an impact instead of just sitting in a seat and listening to the teacher talk to 20 parents at once. After the meeting Ophelia and I went to Santiago to buy bus tickets to go to Argentina for the 3 day weekend. Then we met up with a friend to learn to dance "cueca"...the national dance of Chile. Overall it was a fun night but I still cannot dance the cueca very well because you have to keep and handkerchief moving in your hand the entire time you dance. Later in the week my sinus infection came back with a vengance. I think it is because of the mold we have in the house here. While we were in Argentina it got better, but was bad once we got back returned.

Argentina was tons of fun. Ophelia and I got first class seats on the bus...they were leather, laid back into beds, we were served a full breakfast and lunch (all for about $30)! Needless to say we were very spoiled and had a good 8 hour trip there. During the weekend we went horseback riding, tried lots of food (some good and some bad), went to 2 vineyards and an olive oil factory. It was action packed but definitely worth it.

We got back late Monday and started working again on Tuesday. This past week was pretty laid back. One of my kids was able to recognize and identify the number 1 (which made me very happy!). I also saw an adoption take place. One of the babies here, Jocelin, who is 16 months was adopted by a Chilean couple. While I didn't know her that well I was amazed at how emotional the adoption was and how emotional it made me. The tias that take care of her were very sad to see her leave (because she is like a daughter to them) but at the same time it was great to see her with her new parents. They seemed like very genuine people. I did not expect to get as emotional as I did. Maybe it is just because I am a girl, but it was a really incredible process to watch.

We spent a good part of the week planning winter vacation for the kids. I must say that these kids will not be bored during their vacation. We will still be doing some tutoring (for the kids that need it the most) but they have activities and field trips planned for every day (for 2 and a 1/2 weeks). We are going to the mountains to play in the snow one day. Other days the kids are competing in the "Olypmics" for all of the hogars in the region and having dance competitions and movie nights. There is something different every day and it will be a busy 2 and a half weeks.

Friday night we went out in Santiago. While this may not seem like a lot we could not take the bus back to Peñaflor until 6am. The last bus before that leaves a 1am (and people don't start heading out until 12 or 1am). All in all it was a fun night, we met up with a friend of mine from Pittsburgh and were able to dance some. However I felt like I wasted all of Saturday sleeping. Saturday I was able to meet up with the same friend again (that is interning at the embassay) and we got a new volunteer from Germany. Winter vacation starts this  Wednesday so it will probably be busy....filled with lots of parent teacher meetings before vacation.
   

Week 4...

This past week was such a blur. Everybody here was sick (myself included) and we were extrememly busy the entire week. We found out that Leona, the other girl from the US, has tonsilitis. I went to two more parent teacher meetings and the first one actually went well. At some of the meetings they hold a "rifa" or raffle as a fundraiser for the class. However, it is a little different than your normal raffle. Some parents bring a specified food, usually oil, eggs or sugar, and they sell raffle numbers. They also have cake and coffee or tea for sale. Not only did I get cake (since I was missing dinner) but I won a bag of sugar! While that was great the best part was that one of the moms there talked to me. At the past "reuniones" I generally just get stared at becuase I am the only "gringa" in the room. If any of the parents notice that I am there they most likely know I am there for the kids at the hogar (which is just one more prejudice against me). The mom asked me if I had a kid in the class and when I explained why I was there she didnt seem to think twice about it. Later she continued to talk to me and included me in the rifa. While, this doesn't sound like a big gesture it made me feel welcome for the first time at one of these meetings. I wanted to go up and thank her at the end of the meeting because after 5 reuniones she has been the only parent to approach me and not judge me.

Since we were all sick working with the kids was even more difficult. I know that there were several days I did not have the patience to deal with kids that misbehaved the way these kids can. Luckily we spent some afternoons preparing notebooks for the kids (which I will explain). Since we cannot work with all the kids in the library we make notebooks with activities for them to do at home. So, we had about 25-30 notebooks to update this past week. Unfortunately when I was able to work with "my" kids this past week it was a disappointment. I have one kid who is a complete terror most days, Paul. He cannot stay seated for more than 3 minutes and he has the tendency to jump up and scream at random because he has so much energy. He didn't show much improvement this week...we actually had to take a step backwards and give him pre-school activities instead of kindergarten (which is the grade he is in) because he was having too much trouble completing the ones at his grade level. Since the work will be more at his level hopefully he will focus and become more interested in his work. Then there was Jairo....the 5 year old I work with. I have been working on the numbers with him for the past 3 1/2 weeks. I finally got to the point where I thought he could write and identify the numbers 1,2 and 3. Little did I know that he still can't. He has the number 1 down pretty well...however he still cannot get 2 and 3. I wish I could express how I felt when he failed to write the number 2 and wrote a 3 instead. At first I wanted him to learn all of his vowels and numbers before I left however, I have changed my goals just to the numbers 1-10. We'll see how that goes.

Finally Friday got here and we were all starting to feel a little better. I got the day off for my birthday and slept in. I also spent most of the day on skype with family and friends. While it doesn't sound that exciting it was really nice to relax and spend the day talking to people I care about and miss. I also had a "surprise" party in one of the offices. They got me an amazing cake and had a bunch of snacks there. Then later in the day I had another party with more food, wine and another cake. While it wasn't the most exciting birthday ever I definitely enjoyed it. Saturday it poured all day so Ophelia and I did not go to Cajon de Maipo to go horseback riding...maybe another weekend. Instead we sat around and watched movies and went to Santiago on Sunday. The next few weeks should be pretty busy...I have a friend from Pitt coming to Santaigo to work starting next Saturday and I found out today that an old friend from elementary school and high school is interning in Santiago until the end of July. And we have a 3 day weekend next week!!

I want to add that I am really enjoying myself here. While my posts may seem a bit frustrated at times it is because I know that the people in the US reading them can identify with some of my frustrations (since we have the same educational norms). I can't believe I only have 5 weeks left here...it actually makes me sad to think that. While I will be happy to see the summer again and all the people I love, I will miss being here.

Weeks 2 and 3

I am going to try to condense the last two weeks into a short post so I can finally start writing about the present. During the second week I finally became somewhat accustomed to the cold weather. However, the rest of the week was an adventure. It started out with attending a parent-teacher meeting for 2 of the kids at the hogar. The schools here have these meetings monthly so they can be in touch with the parents and give them the students' grades. All of the parents convene in the classroom and the teacher talks about what is going on in class. Little did I know that these meetings last about 2 hours and consist mostly of parents complaining and disrespecting the teacher. I was amazed when some of the moms just refused to volunteer for the class because she didn't like the director of the school and last time she had to work with her. After the meeting was over I figured at least the other volunteer (who was on vacation) would be back soon so I wouldn't have to go to these anymore.

The other volunteer, Ophelia, from Belgium came back to the Hogar after spending some time in nothern chile and Peru. She went to Machu Picchu so it was nice to be able to talk to her about that and see what she thought.

Anika was leaving at the end of the week for a 2 week vacation with her mom. However, before she left she realized that she had lice...which she had earlier in the year. Needless to say I was a bit freaked out because I have never had lice and the idea of bugs crawling in my hair scares me. Luckily I have some lice combs coming in the mail just in case (thanks mom!)

Friday finally arrived and I was asked to go on a "paseo" with a five of the kids, Ophelia and one of the Tias (Tia Vero). I was told that we would go to San Antonio (a port city) for the day and just kind of look around. In the morning we went to drop off some of the other kids at school and I quickly realized that I was going on a school field trip. The kids here cannot go on a field trip unless they have somebody (a parent or guardian) with them to watch them. This surprised me because it is very different from the US where there are a few chaperones that watch over the kids. Unfortunately the set up here puts the kids whose parents have to work at a disadvanatage. I am sure there were many kids who weren't able to go for that reason. Luckily, the 5 kids from the hogar were able to go and it was a very nice day. The weather was great and we were able to take a boat ride around the port and spend the rest of the day walking around and looking at the sea lions, pelicans and boats.

The third week a new volunteer arrived and I had to attend two more parent teacher meetings. The first one of these two was even less pleasant than the previous week's meeting. I sat in the classroom for an hour and a half with about 20 parents and 15 kids. While the teacher was talking the kids were running in and out of the room, screaming, crying and talking to their parents. Then, the parents made announcements and aruged. They argued about class dues, about their kids fighting with one another and with the teacher on what she expected from the kids. I was amazed with how this meeting went: the lack of respect for the teacher and for one another. It was just a session for all of the parents to vent. Needless to say when I was asked to go to another "reunion" (as they are called) I was not too excited. Luckily this one went much more smoothly than the last two.

I finished out the week by accompanying one of the 4 year old girls here to another Children's home so she could visit her brother for an hour. Unforutnately I missed the carnival again, but I thought it was great that Darcy got to see her family (even if it was just for an hour).

By the end of the week I always look foward to the weekend. This past weekend Ophelia and I went to Pomaire, a small town about an hour from Santiago, that sells clay pottery and 1/2 kilo empanadas! We also decided to go to Cajon de Maipo, a town in the Andes where you can horseback ride and go rafting, next weekend for my birthday. :) Luckily the weekends are more relaxing and let me enjoy myself outside of Malloco (which is a pretty small town).

First Week- May 23-29

I spent most of my first week getting acclimated with the Hogar and Chile in general. The
biggest adjustments were the temperature and language. It has been awhile since I have
spoken Spanish. While knowing Spanish is important here, it is almost equally important
to know the "Chilenismos." There are times when I get funny looks for saying something and
then I am corrected and told the "chilean way" of saying it. For example, the word boyfriend
is not "novio" it is "pololo." Unfortunately there are a million Chilenismos and I don't think
I will pick up all of them before I leave.

As for the weather...I knew it is winter in Chile, but I didn't think it would be that cold.
60s during the day and 40s at night. That's not too bad when you have central heat. My frist
weekend in Chile one of the Canadians at my hostel told me that there is no central heat in
Chile. This entire week I slept under 4 blankets and I wore just about everything
I brought with me. Thank God for the German volunteer, Anika, who has lived here for 9
months. All of these adjustments would have been much more difficult without her. She was
able to show me around the Hogar, the town and Santiago. It also helps that
she knows English because when I don't know a word in Spanish I can always ask her.

Each day I worked with a few students and helped tutor another volunteer's students (she was
on vacation). I consider myself to be a rather patient person, but the first few days here
were definitely a test of my patience. I had kids that would get bored and not want to work
anymore. Sometimes that meant that they moped and other times they would be bouncing off
the walls. I first realized that I needed to be more patient and adjust my expectations when
working with Jairo, a 5 year old. He needed to work on his numbers (1-10). I thought that this
task could not be too hard. We did activities where he circled a certain number of objects and
then we moved on to a page in his notebook where he was supposed to identify the number that was
written. Little did I realize that he could not identify or write a single number. Then Anika
told me that it took a month for one of her 4 year old students to identify and write 2 vowels.

It took several days but finally I was able to adjust my expectations and be more patient with
the kids. Then, to end the week, I got sick. I was ordered to stay in my bed all day and missed
the carnival that Met Life hosted for the kids here. Hopefully I am finished adjusting and the following week will go more smoothly.

Overview of Koinomadelfia

Ok, I am finally getting this blog started. I have tried and failed once already but I am determined to get it started this time so everybody can stay updated on what I am doing (and so I don't have to tell the same story over and over). This blog will most likely not be well written but it is just meant to give an account of my experiences during my 10 weeks in Chile.

First, a bit about where I am working. I am volunteering at a Children's Home, Koinomadelfia, in Malloco, Chile (about 25 minutes from Santiago). So what exactly is a Children's Home...it is somewhat like an orphanage, but it houses children that have been abused or abandoned. The goal of Koinomadelfia is to provide a stable living environment for children with the hope of having them return to their families (if they are fit to take care of the kids).

Since the emphasis is on the family unit, Koinomadelfia is a different than most Hogares de Menores (Children's Homes) in Chile. The Hogar (which is what they call it down here) is set up to replicate the family unit. There are 10 houses here and 10 house moms (or Tias) and 4 auxiliary Tias.  There are 8 kids in each house (ages 1 to 17). The Tias are pretty strong women. They spend 14 days taking care of 8 kids (who were abused or abandoned) and then get 3 or 4 days off. However, because there is a shortage of tias right now they can work for more than 14 days at a time.

Luckily, the way the hogar is set up there are about 25 full time staff who help the tias. There is an office staff, the maintenance man, drivers (for the kids to go to school), the kitchen staff, a psychologist, a social worker and the library staff among others. The kitchen staff cooks the food for the entire hogar every day and the tias come and pick it up and bring it to their houses. So cooking is one less thing they have to worry about. Although we have to eat the same food every week.... Also, they offer yoga and a fitness class for the tias once a week (for stress relief). It was definitely a pleasant surprise to see that they care so much about their tias' sanity.

Now a little bit about the kids. After working in Honduras and seeing orphanages there I was not quite as surprised as I could have been when I arrived in Chile. On the surface many of these kids (not all) come across as any other kid. However, after working with them a bit and observing them it is much easier to see their psychological state and behavioral problems. One day they are well behaved and the next day can be a disaster. They can scream, cry, hit and kick for almost no reason at all. That being said the weeks tend to be very unpredictable. Just the other day one of the girls tried to hit the priest here (who founded the hogar and is in his 80s). But, most of them are sweet and loving kids; it is just that they have been through traumatic experiences. The effects of the abuse are more noticable in the younger children because they tend to have cognitive and developmental delays or they misbehave.

Finally, a bit about what I am doing here. I am working (along with 3 other volunteers) with Tia Sole, the head of the library and all school realted things at the hogar. The other volunteers and I tutor a kid every hour throughout the day. Right now I am working with five different kids (from ages 4 to 13). If the kids have homework we help them with that and if not they have notebooks prepared with work for them to help reinforce what they are learning in school. Most of the time we end up being the first ones to teach them the material though. When we are not tutoring we are preparing the kids' notebooks, preparing a catolog of the books in the library, helping the kids with computer games or attending parent teacher meetings.

This is just an overview of where I am volunteering right now and what I am doing. As I said before I am late at starting this blog but I plan to catch up in the next couple days and give more detailed descriptions of my experiences. Also, I apologize for any typos I miss...the auto correct and spell check are for spanish.