a new home

Wow, what a crazy few days its been! Lots of new people and excitement.  Friday night we all got the opportunity to meet our host siblings and get to know them a little bit before moving in to our new homes on Saturday morning.  I got to meet my two host brothers, Matias (16) and Luckas (12) (I think I spelled their names wrong in the last post), and along with them were two of my cousins, Kimberly (12) and Dominica (10). We ate pizza and ice cream and got to know each other a little bit. I learned that my family loves soccer (no surprise there), going to the beach, singing, watching scary movies, and visiting their grandparents place (which I would compare to the concept of having a cabin in the US) in el campo, or Valle de Lluta.  Most of all my brothers said they love playing Xbox (wow, as if I haven't heard that one before? Ehm, Zac!).  They also informed me that they haven't had school for the past few weeks because of all of the protesting, and that's basically all that they've been doing in their free time.  Overall, the whole night made me very excited to meet the rest of my family, as I think it did for the rest of the people in my program too.

parte de mi familia chilena

Saturday morning we all woke up, finished some final orientation things, and re-packed all of our stuff into our suitcases.  I was picked up by my mom, Giovanna, and my two brothers.  They arrived at about noon and there was lots of hugs all around, both between us and all of the program staff.  We stopped downtown to buy my a cell phone and then went home to get settled in the house. It's fairly modest in size but decorated very warmly.  I have my own bedroom and bathroom connected with a little hallway that's separated by the rest of the house by a doorway. We had a great lunch of chicken, vegetables, and rice and then I went to unpack my stuff.  Later in the afternoon we got in the car to head out to my grandparents house in Valle de Lluta.  We stopped to pick up some other family members and drove about 8 miles outside of Arica into the valley.  The place was very nice - a small house with a lot of outdoor space, a garden, and a fenced in area with a few goats and a horse. After about an hour of chatting we headed further into the valley to a small village of Ponconchile where the annual Festival del Choclo (Corn Festival) was taking place (maybe I'm not so far from home after all?!).  It was basically a bunch of people gathered for some great food (all made of corn) and music.  I ate a delicious humita - a dense corn mixture cooked inside a corn husk like a tamale - and a traditional Chilean drink called mote con huesillo - a sweet drink made with dried peaches (huesillos), water, sugar, cinnamon, and wheat (mote).  I was a little weary at first (it doesn't exactly look the most appetizing), but absolutely everybody was drinking it, so I figured it had to be good.  Sure enough, it wasn't bad at all! It was a lot like a cold cider, it just had chunks in it (which were usually eaten with a spoon).  I didn't want to whip out my camera and look even more like a tourist, so here's a picture I found on Google images:

Mote con huesillos

We hung around the festival and the house in the Lluta for a while before heading back home in Arica, when I met my dad (Ricardo) for the first time.  He had just returned from work (he told me he works as a businessman for Walmart, I'm not sure if he means the actual Walmart or a Chilean version) and spends a lot of time traveling for business.  All in all, it was a great first day with my new Chilean family.  

I woke up around 9:00 this morning not knowing what exactly to expect for my first Sunday in Arica.  Things in general are always relaxed in the city, with time not being a very strict thing, and we'd only been told that Sunday is even more so.  Almost all stores, with the exceptions of supermarkets, pharmacies, and a select few restaurants, are not open at all.  Nobody else was awake when I woke up, so I figured they were either still sleeping or had gone to run some errands or something. Anyways, time kept ticking by until finally it was 11:30, and since there was still no sign of everybody I decided I might as well take a shower, only to no avail.  I had not yet been shown how to turn on the hot water heater, so unless I wanted to take a freezing cold shower I'd have to wait.  My mom was up and about a little while later and we ate breakfast (yes, at noon!) and she explained to me that yes, Sundays are verrrrrrry relaxed days in the city and basically nothing of any significance goes on around the house (or in many other places, for that matter).  So this afternoon I met up with another girl from the program, Stacey, and we headed to the Fería domincal, the open-air market downtown that stretches 10-ish blocks and goes on every Sunday.   You can buy absolutely anything there - from basic clothing, shampoo, jewelry, candy, notebooks, toys, lingerie, to everything else - for very, very cheap prices. I'd never seen anything like it before!  I'll definitely be heading back a few times this semester to get some artisanal products (and essentially anything else I would need).

Well, that basically sums up my weekend!  Tomorrow morning we all have interviews with our Spanish language teachers to place us in the correct level of spanish class and then begin our regular classes in the afternoon.  I'm very ready to get back into a regular routine and am very, very excited to see what else this semester has in store for me!

Chao,

Brittany

Los primeros días, parte 3

Alright, I'm hoping I can finally finish talking about my first week in Arica! The last thing we did on Thursday as a group was head to El Morro.  El Morro de Arica is a giant rock formation that juts out into the city.  It was the location of the Battle of Arica, a battle between the Republic of Chile and the Republic of Peru in 1880. Once again, I don't really know the whole story, but Chile won the battle and consequently Arica.  El Morro is now Arica's pride and joy, signifying their victory of Peru (the two countries aren't exactly BFF's).  On top of the Morro there's a small museum dedicated to the battle, a giant statue of Jesus extending his peace to both countries, and an amazing overlook of the entire city.  We drove to the top, but you can walk up it in just a short amount of time as well.  Pictures(!):

Ex-Isla el Alacrán 

Fast forward to yesterday (Friday), we took an excursion to one of the two valleys outside Arica, Valle de Azapa.  Arica has two valleys on either side of it.  The valleys are interesting to see because compared to the rest of the city they are very lush - many farmers work there growing olives, spinach, tomatoes, and many other vegetables.  In addition, the valleys boast some really cool hieroglyphs thought to be formed into the mountainside by the Inca people thousands and thousands of years ago.  Apparently the total lack of rain here completely preserved them. 

I apologize for the lack of content in this post, but I feel like I've talked enough about my orientation time.  But, I met my family today and got all moved in, and will hopefully write all about that tomorrow!

Brittany

Los primeros días, parte 2

So I ended up going to bed pretty soon after meeting with my host family last night (which was really fun), but I want to make sure I tell about the rest of my week before I actually move in later this afternoon.

A small tienda en Ex-Isla el Alacrán

In addition to the usual orientation stuff we've been able to do some sight seeing/touristy things this week as well.  On Thursday at about 11:00 we headed to Ex-Isla el Alacrán.  I'm a little confused on the history of the place, but I know that it was declared a national monument and there's some old remains of colonial fortifications.  Now it's just a little peninsula (a former island that was connected to the mainland with a false road) where some of the more "hardcore" surfers come.  You can see a picture of the Isla from up above later in my pictures from the top of El Morro.

After spending a little time at the Ex-Isla we drove a few miles to Las Cuevas de Anzota and Playa Corazones.  It's an area of natural caves and beaches where guano was once fertilized.  This place was absolutely beautiful!  Once again, the stark contrast of the booming ocean against the dry, arid desert stone is just incredible.  As we walked along the beach and through the caves, Leo, a member of our program staff, refreshed us on the history of guano harvesting in the 1800's and it's cultural and economic significance in Chile.  Guano (which, yes, is the excrement of bats and sea birds and other creatures) has very high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen.  This, in combination with is lack of odor, made it an ideal material for fertilizer.  Guano harvesting can be traced as far back as the Andean people in Peru, where they used it to enrich their soil.  Here in northern Chile specifically, many Bolivians would come to the area to mine the guano.  It's a very, dangerous job -- essentially requires scaling the mountains with little protection.  It was a very important product in the Chilean economy for a large part of the 1800's but busted in the early 1900's with the discovery and rise of artificial fertilizers.  All in all, it was an absolutely beautiful place with an incredibly rich history.  Here's a few of my favorite photos!

Cross in remembrance of a Bolivian guano miner

The white rock formation in the center is same type of stone
as the rest, it's just completely coated in guano (a little gross, yes)

Late that afternoon a few of us went downtown to explore el centro of the city also, which is so pretty!  Everything is very very colorful, which is typical of Latin America, and everywhere you look there are little tiendas selling everything you can imagine.  I think it's all pretty self explanatory, but here's a few pictures!

El Morro de Arica - Arica's pride and joy! More on the story
behind this giant rock formation later.

Alright, so once again I gotta run - I have about an hour to shower and get all my stuff re-packed.  Today I move in with my family (and will finally not be living out of a suitcase for a while)!  But there's still a lot to tell about yesterday, so hopefully sometime today I get some free time to do that.  Cross your fingers that everything goes well!

Chao,

Brittany

p.s. all my photos are on flickr at www.flickr.com/photos/bliebhard. check them out!

¡Los primeros días en Arica!

Wow, what a week it has been!  By some miracle I actually made it to Arica with all my luggage, on time, with no delays or set backs.  It was a long, long two days of very little sleep but I can only be thankful that it went so well.  There was a bit of anxiety during my stopovers in Lima and Santiago during the processes of customs, re-checking bags, paying entrance fees, etc (I didn't want to do anything wrong!) but in retrospect it all went very smoothly.  Once I arrived in Santiago and found the right gate I ran into a bunch of the girls from my program (they suggested which final flight to take so we'd all end up in Arica at the same time) so we all started chatting a bit.  Before I knew it, I was in Arica!  Once we all found our baggage and walked out of the airport we saw our program director, Rossana, and the rest of the SIT team and were greeted with the warmest welcome imaginable!  Lots of abrazos and besitos all around.  It was a great way to step foot into the country for the first time.  After that we drove a few miles into the city and got the first look at the desert we all decided to spend the next semester in, and I have to say that I've never seen anything like it.  So barren and beautiful at the same time.  The stark contrast between the dry, arid, brown landscape and the pastel blue sky is incredible.

From there on we drove to our hotel which became our home for the week.  It's a very nice place, there's a catering service (which is where we've been eating all of our meals this week) and even an outdoor pool.  We had a little while to get situated in our rooms and started with orientation almost right away - learning about customs of the Chilean culture, the city, safety/security, our classes, the excursions we'll be taking, etc - and have slowly been continuing that throughout the week.  Not that anybody actually enjoys orientation, but it's a necessary thing.

On the afternoon of the second day a group of young Chileans (ages 17-21) came in to talk to us about Arica from their point of view (aka teenage/young adult culture, the best bars/clubs/restaurants, where to go shopping, etc) which was really, really great.  They were so helpful and excited to tell us about their city, and obviously were very relatable!  It was also interesting because it was our first time hearing young Chileans speak, which can be very, very difficult to understand.  The Chilean dialect is very relaxed; not all letters and syllables are distinctly pronounced (as they are in the "textbook Spanish" that we all learned in school) and there are many chilenismos, or Spanish words that are unique to Chile and Chilean culture.  I definitely didn't quite catch everything that they said, but they made us all really excited about the semester ahead of us.

"Free Education for All"

After the presentation by the jovenes we were able to watch one of the protest marches going past the hotel.  Chile as a country is going through a very important time right now - students and other citizens alike are actively protesting the education system.  Higher education in Chile has turned into a business, even public schools in the country are very, very expensive -- the cost of education in Chile is the second highest in the world, only next to the US.  Not only that, but the quality isn't there and resources for the students are highly unavailable.  The integrity of the education isn't there, people are more-so cranked out of universities as "degree holders" than as people who have received a high quality education.  It has now come to the point where not only professors and students are boycotting the universities, but many primary and secondary schools are closed as well -- in some places classes haven't gone on for 2 or 3 months because of the protests and strikes.  Wednesday and Thursday of this week have been a two-day strike in the capital, Santiago, against President Sebastian Pinera.   There, things are very intense and for a large part violent.  Here in Arica we watched a march that was equally passionate yet organized and peaceful.  Thousands and thousands of people marching down the street united to fight for their right to an affordable education - students, workers, children, adults, elderly, everybody alike.  It was an amazing thing to witness, and you can't help but compare their passion to the lack of fire in the majority of American citizens.

I have to run now, time to go meet my host siblings!  Two boys, Mateo (16) and Lukas (12).  I'll tell all about my host family and the rest of my week later tonight when I get back!

Chao,
Brittany

¡Adiós, Minnesota!

Arica is on located on the coast in Northern Chile
near the Peruvian border.

The time has finally come to say goodbye to Minnesota and hello to Chile!  I have been thinking about this day since I decided 5 months ago to spend the semester in Arica, Chile through SIT's program Public Health, Traditional Medicine, and Community Empowerment.  So for the next 4-ish months I will be in various areas of Chile (primarily in Arica, a port city on the coast about 15 miles from the Peruvian border), along with a few excursions to Peru and Argentina, learning all about the Chilean Health System, indigenous medicine, health inequalities, alternative health practices, accessibility, community empowerment, and public health planning -- all, while of course, improving my Spanish and experiencing Latin American culture to the fullest!

On this map you can see Arica's
surrounding area - there's Tacna to the north
and Putre/Parque Nacional Lauca to the East --
a few of the places I'll be visiting this semester. 

My journey begins early tomorrow morning, with my first flight leaving the Twin Cities at 9:10am.  From there I continue on to Houston, Texas; Lima, Peru; Santiago, Chile; and finally to Arica.  Yes, that's four flights - with a total travel time of (hopefully) 25 hours 40 minutes.  Keep your fingers crossed that I make it there on time and with my bags, because I don't exactly have the best of luck when it comes to traveling.  But, considering all goes well, I should be arriving in Arica on Tuesday at 11:50am Eastern time!

That's all for now, check back in a few days for some photos of my first few days in Chile!

Brittany