Blogs from Constitución, Maule, Chile, South America

The Adventure is not over yet!! We may have reached out destination goal,but now we have to get back to Vina Del Mar and prepare our bikes for the return shipping home. With the photo formalities done at Fin Deo Mundo , we made a run from Ushuaia to Gerardo's Estancia,just outside Punta Arenas, for our last night of the planned adventure with lamb on the spit, Chilean style,thanks to Gerardo and his farm team for such a great feast. This was a fairly big day at 611kms fighting the bloody Patagonia wind and our last border crossing into Chile, we arrived around 7.00pm. The following day, we rode into Punta Arenas to a grand welcome at the central Plaza with TV and the press, along with Gerardo's family and many friends, followed by a lunch ... read more

My last days of school continue to teach me so much. Some people are never going to appreciate the work I do for them, and they will never respect me as a teacher, but those that do express their gratitude both every day in class when they do their best and at the very end, make everything worthwhile. The love that I have received from so many here at Politecnico surpasses anything I could have asked for. One class of sophomores made a slideshow presentation complete with cute broken English phrases (thank you Google Translate) and photos of the students set to “Everyday it will rain” by Bruno Mars. Of course, they didn’t know what the lyrics meant, but hearing “if you walk away, everyday it’ll rain…” really broke my heart. They and their head teacher ... read more

I learned some new vocabulary: Huelga means strike. Early last week I was informed that the biannual negotiations with the administering corporation for the school were happening now. Satisfactory offers were not made and therefore, Thursday began the strike. Everyone showed up, but the teachers did not enter. They stayed outside (luckily in the sunshine) making signs, standing around, and later in the morning, eating breakfast. The cooking teacher made bread dough at home and cooked it over fire at the school. Always bread no matter the occasion! And boy, this hot dense bread with a generous dose of butter was delicious… Besides for the bread, I showed up to get a glimpse of what exactly was going down. I had the opportunity to talk to a bunch of people that I hadn’t talked to before, ... read more

I’m so fortunate to have such a great bunch of friends from school. I am having a ball with Sayuri, her boyfriend Juan, and the rest of the guys: Luis, David, Milton, Gonzalo, Sergio, Cristian, and Narciso. I’ve gotten to go out with them a couple times now, and I always learn a lot. Over some pollo marinera (delicious chicken, sausage, and shellfish cooked together and served in a massive family style casserole dish) we discussed my life’s love story and then the state of Chilean education. I know – intense dinner conversation. I got a little more insight to the brokenness of the educational system… for example, Politecnico has many resources that go unused – 2 smartboards and a handful of laptops for one! They sit in storage for fear of damage. This country has ... read more

I have one class that is extremely reminiscent of my 8th period boys choir at HMS... all guys (because this is a mechanics specialty class), all very noisy, and a handful that are really interested in learning while the others would rather be goofy the whole time. Only difference is age - 12/13 vs. 16/17 - and desire to please me... sometimes. I can at least get these Chilean boys to shut up by threatening to not return. They seem to relish every compliment I give. When I assign a task and a couple people start to do it, I praise them by name aloud, and the others start waving their work in the air seeking compliments too. If one student answers something correctly, and I give him a big "excellent! That's exactly right!" Then there ... read more