Hill. Beach.

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More fun stories!


So EAP (the program I’m with) wants us to see poverty in Chile. We all therefore made a 3-hour bus ride South on the weekend of October 10, to the city (more like a town) of Lebu, situated between both coast and hills. By midday Friday we arrived at the shore, got off the bus and walked to the end of the dock and back, trying very hard along the way to not be blown off by the tremendously powerful wind. We then walked up green hills, one of them covered in tombstones, and almost got blown down again. We got back on the bus and drove to the high school, where our temporary homestay hermanos were anxiously waiting for us. All of these brothers and sisters are students in the school (the only one in the town), ranging from fourteen to eighteen years old. Once we were all awkwardly introduced to our hermanos and were given welcoming hugs, we had no choice but to sit with their friends, along with their friends’ new gringos. I guess I had forgotten that in high school there is the phenomenon of a clique, that teenagers find it much too strange to hang out with anyone else other than their closest friends. So for the entire weekend I was forced to hangout with two other gringos, Claire and Evan (and others besides, but mostly these two), who I hadn’t talked to much before but am now extremely glad we all shared the experience.

So Claire, Evan and I, along with our hermanas, sat at the same table for every meal, which at first was a bit odd but by the end was a lot of fun. Fun, that is, to be at the table, not to eat there. I soon discovered, like the rest of the vegetarians in our group, that the only thing served for each meal (we ate every meal except breakfast in the high school) is some form of carbohydrate and meat. Therefore I ate a mixture of only bread, potatoes, and rice all weekend. Nice and healthy, yes?

After that first interesting lunch we all split off to go to our new temporary homes around the city. My hermanita, Natalia (“Natu”), is a sixteen year old who lives a bit far from the school (far for them, that is - I walk the same distance each day in Conce just to get to class). When we arrived at her house I first met her older sister Margarita - or “Maggie” after a Simpson’s character - who’s 24, studied at the University of Concepcion, now has a job in Lebu, and acts quite as teenager-like as her younger sister. Then the three of us and their father sat down for “onces,” which consisted of tea and sweets. And of course more bread. Then soon after it was time for dinner (yes, even more bread), but it was raining heavily so we took a cab. It was also VERY cold.

After dinner it was still cold, and many of us were tired. But all of our hermanos were tireless. Natu decided to throw a party at our house, although I still don’t understand how more than twenty of us fit into the living room which normally fits a maximum of five. We gringos were even more sleepy by the end of it, but the hermanos wanted to take us to a club to dance. So we went, because they had looks of pure excitement on their faces, but the directors of our program themselves came into the club and told us we should all go to bed. Thank you Emilio and Juana! But then Natu told me we need to get up at eight.

So yes, we got up quite early and met with the same group of friends, wandered through the feria (market), and climbed the Cerro de la Cruz (the hill of the cross). This is the largest hill in town, from which you can see the whole valley and ocean. It turned out that many of the hermanos had the same plan, because by the time we reached the top we found all the gringos in the program. There isn’t actually a whole lot to do in Lebu, so there wasn’t much choice but to take your gringo up the hill. It was a perfect day of sun and breeze, and even more perfect because I got to see my good friends from the program once again (I really didn’t like this trip at first because of that - because we had to follow our hermanas and couldn’t see our friends, we never knew what was going on, and it seemed pretty similar to Conce so I didn’t understand what we were doing there. But by the end I guess I realized otherwise).

By midday we trekked back down to the high school for another wonderful meal of bread, then the entire group walked to the beach, where a few of us ran back and forth through the waves and unfortunately soaked our pants. But we walked and walked, stopped sometimes for staring and thinking and pictures, and ended up at some caves. Then our clique found a small bar (strangely enough that sells ice cream) equipped with a playground out back. We opted for more playing and ice cream than drinking. Then we took a cab to a dinner of potatoes, after which the students put on a sort of talent show between the different parties.

Later that night many of us went back to that beachside bar, which also happens to be a restaurant/discoteque/hostel. Since everyone knew the gringos were in town, this club was throwing a dance party in which all of us got in for free! So we all danced with our hermanas, most of the time getting snickers for the crazy ways we dance. Then somehow I managed to agree to go to another party of Maggie’s, and didn’t get to bed till about six (mind you, the time also changed by an hour that night, so we are now four hours apart instead of three).

Thank goodness I convinced Natu we should sleep late that morning. She really wanted to take me to the other beach with Claire and Evan, but she eventually agreed we should get our sleep. So Natu and I slept till eleven (if you can call it sleeping. I was wearing all the clothes I had brought - about seven layers - and still thought I was going to freeze to death), and went straight to lunch at the high school. Then it was time to take pictures and give a million hugs (because we actually did form good friendships by that time), the hermanas did some crying, and we left on the busses.


In terms of “poverty” and things I noticed about the city and family, this is what I observed: The town is quite small, as I’ve stated previously. There are two things to do, both of which we did over the weekend (hill. beach). Unfortunately this has led a lot of teenagers in the town to do drugs and drink alcohol, which I’ve heard also happens a lot in the countryside in the U.S., so perhaps it is not so different in that way. One thing that for some reason really got on my nerves in the beginning was how childish all our hermanas seem. They listen to American pop, talk about cute boys, t.v. shows, and commercials, and constantly watch television…but then I realized I was also like that when I was their age. But what got to me even more, what really made me angry, was how easily they accept American culture, how they revere it and copy it, without questioning it or instead accepting their own culture. But I also found that that has become their culture…. The first thing Natu did in the morning was turn on the t.v. Then it would still be on while we ate breakfast, when people were over, and when we returned at night. I got so annoyed with the high pitched chatter in the background of our breakfast, and how Natu and Maggie would turn away from the table to watch the mix of terrible nonsense American and Chilean shows and commercials. Once Maggie said she didn’t like the show that was on. So I asked her why not turn it off, and she just shrugged. I think I realized then that it’s their main source of information from the rest of the world, so they try to get whatever they can…. But I still didn’t get why they didn’t at least change the channel to something better. So later, when I was alone in the room, I tried to change the channel myself. And I discovered why much of what they talk about is bad American and Chilean pop culture: There was only one channel! I think that was the biggest culture shock I got of the place. I didn’t even consider the possibility that there wouldn’t be more than one channel; I guess I’m just used to there being so many! I had to forgive them then, because perhaps that is all they know…. I just wanted to tell them that mainstream American pop culture isn’t exactly worth drooling over.

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