Winter English Camp: Chanco

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I started my journey to winter camp on Monday afternoon after a nice gathering of family over pollo a la marinera at our favorite beachside restaurant. My favorite relative, Tio Sergio, the one I met in Vilchez was there and he dropped me off at the terminal. I was so afraid that I was going to miss the bus… anyway, the little bus started up it’s old engine and we putted (like 5 miles per hour maybe?) up the hills of Conti.



The journey was a new one for me so I got to see scenery I had never seen before: lots of forest and countryside with chickens, cows, horses, and sheep, old rickety homes, and some homes that were partially collapsed and abandoned. At one point, the view broke open to reveal the ocean – the glare of the bright sun made it difficult to look at it at times, but I didn’t care because the day was absolutely gorgeous. A little bit beyond the beachfront part of the journey I came to more cow pastures, but I could see the ocean beyond them. The bus, like all other little regional busses, made lots of stops to pick up travelers seemingly standing in the middle of no where or at their front doorsteps… in their homes in the middle of nowhere. At one such house, There were a couple people standing outside closer to the house, all gathered around an open fire with a great vat over it. By the delicious smell, I assumed they were cooking dinner. At another stop, as one man got on the bus, I noticed he was wearing a hat that said “Don’t mess with Texas.” I had to ask, “How do you have that hat?” to which he gave a questioning look – apparently unable to understand my question. I pointed to the hat and said “I’m from Texas! Texas!” to which a finally got a somewhat positive response of a smile and an “Oh!” Nothing more though.



Upon arriving in Chanco, I got off the bus and was immediately greeted by Juan, a Chilean volunteer for the English Camp. He had been on the same bus, but too shy to come sit with me he said. Soon after, Serati and Claire, other English Opens Doors volunteers came to meet us and we sat together in the plaza as the evening chill set in. The weather for the week proved to be quite similar for the most part: warm sunny days and very cold nights. I learned that Serati is from Botswana and was placed in Chanco. Claire is from Minnesota and lives in another small town in our region.



The others arrived throughout the rest of the evening: one more EOD volunteer, Dane from Arizona, and a handful of Chilean Volunteers: Cynthia, Silvana, Stefanie, Carolina, and our camp monitors, Olga and Jorge (the teacher or “profe” from the school in Chanco. While the earlier arrivals waited for the rest, we found a restaurant. We were a little worried there wouldn’t be one given the size of Chanco, but there’s always a place to grab a completo or churrasco. This little shop we found served a small variety of things listed on a menu on the wall. One item was called “Ass,” and of course I had to know what it was – nothing special turns out – just a complete with chopped pork instead of a hot dog. The Chileans there with us told us it should be spelled “as” which is “ace” in Spanish. I asked about another item on the menu too and the 2 ladies working answered that the owner of the restaurant made the sign. They didn’t even know what this particular item was. All seems a little sketch but the tiny room in which we ate was warmed by a gas heater and I saw them cook the meat and peel the tomatoes fresh, so it was quite the spot indeed.



To the contrary, the dormitory where us female volunteers were supposed to say was not much of a spot at all. Besides being extremely cold (no means of heating in the 30-40 degree nights), the mattresses were very worn with holes and stains, and the bathroom was ill-equipped. I could have stayed there though to endure the misery along with kids expect for the fact that we knew that in other camps across the country, volunteers were staying in hotels – some even as nice as 4 star. So Olga made a phonecall and for the first time since I arrived in Chile, the situation was resolved immediately. She got the go to search for a place to stay that would be more comfortable. Soon after, we were moving our things to a quaint little hostel near the plaza in town, a 5 minutes walk from the school as well.



The kids arrived Tuesday morning – the majority around 10 and a smattering after that. This is Chile after all. There were about 38 or so total. While they may not have known a whole lot of English, I could sense a difference in these kids: the biggest being their desire to try to learn the language, and also notable, a higher level of English than my students in Constitucion. Throughout the week I got to know many of them – for better for worse. I loved every time they’d make me smile – Luis and Fabian dancing Cueca together for example, but boy these kids sure leave an absolute mess behind! From what I’ve seen of teens here, it appears to be Chilean culture to not pick up after yourself.



I really grew to love my team: Chocolate Chicken! On the first day we were assigned our team and instructed to come up with a name. The vocabulary of the kids is limited, so I struggled to illicit words for team names from them. I finally asked what was their favorite food. The small variety of answers then yielded “chocolate chicken.” One girl said her favorite phrase in English was “shut up.” So we used it in our chant/cheer: “Check it out Chanco, Chocolate Chicken, the best team of campers… shut up!”



My team consisted of: Joaquin, always sleepy but with quite good English; Tatiana, a very bright young lady – probably the best English out of all the students; Benjamin – a quiet one, but he played an amazing McJagger in our LipDub project ; 2 Jorges – a small one, smiley, lovable, and always calling me “Miss May,” and one tall, slightly more serious one, who reminded me of a model; Daniela, a short stocky green-eyed beauty; her apparently close friend Francisca, even shorter but always full of sunshine (I gave her the perky award); Maria Jose – a little flakey, but sweet. She played Christina Aguilera for the LibDub; Diego was our male English star as well as our sole guitar player.



The LibDub project was a national competition between camps to produce a lip sync music video for moves like McJagger by Maroon 5.While we did not win, I feel like we had a really great product. I was impressed with my kids for the dancing they came up with, and a lot of the ideas were very clever. We showed off our little school very well. Watch the video on facebook.



While the activities were not exactly well planned – at least not in advance – several of them turned out to be a really good time for the campers. I enjoyed watching a relay race of sorts involving a series of tasks: finding candy in a bowl of flour with only your mouth, running piggyback from station to station, popping a balloon between 2 people, hopping to the next station, threading a needle (which proved to be the most difficult station), and a handful of others. I laughed a lot watching all those kids running piggyback… especially when poor Diego almost lost his pants while running with Taty on his back!



Some of the activities were provided and required by the ministry – not all of which were that great, but we had to do them because people from the ministry showed up at the camp several times during the week. I found it slightly irritating that on the first day, we couldn’t get going with activities because we had to take pictures with all these people from the ministry. For the activities that we were required to do, I did my best to make them entertaining. There was a reading activity that was a bit beyond the abilities of our kids, so I spent a majority of the time allotted for it doing a vocabulary building brainstorm. The board was full of words. And once we moved on to the next activity, I just kept writing in the blank spaces. It was a mess, so I was embarrassed when I cameraman from the local news came and took a shot of our classroom. Prof Jorge told me he had seen my writing on the board, "and when I saw that, I thought, she’s good.” That made me feel a little better at least.



Outside of the camp it was a pleasure getting to know the other volunteers. Serati is super fun and positive – not to mention, I love her accent. During our lunch hour one day, she Claire and I walked over to her house to get some things that Serati needed. The town is very country with Guasos (Chilean cowboys more or less) standing about and everything. Serati says she likes her family and house although she’s been having trouble with the shower being hot consistently. She’ll be giving her family English lessons soon though, and I advised her to start the vocabulary with “shower” and “cold!”



Friday night we had a dance which was a really great time. Dane started it off with some of his own music. He used to DJ parties in college. He loves music, and he loves to dance. There’s a particular shuffle dance that he does that all the kids were trying to learn – a couple quite successfully! We then put on the reggaeton to which I jammed out along with the rest. At one point, for the only time in my life I imagine, I had 4 or 5 students dancing around me. I preferred to dance with Juan though… got to love those great Latino dancers!



Saturday morning, I said my farewells to all the volunteers and campers too before catching the bus to Constitución where Señora Lucia was waiting with a most lovely and delicious lunch as Maria Gloria had offered and I gratefully accepted. After a week with too much white “pancito” or “bread” and not enough vegetables, I was so ready for some of her fabulous healthy cooking! The lunch was salmon with salad of lettuce, palmitos, avocado, and tomato relish, then a crema de verduras, and finally fruit – this time with a cream and blonde sugar topping. Señora Lucia prepared it all with special flair this time around, making it truly a gourmet meal. On top of that she presented me with some photos to take with me as well as a scarf she had made herself. I thanked her profusely for her gifts and everything during my time with the family. Having her as a nana was truly a super special treat.



I had invited Sayuri to have lunch with me, so we got to share one last hour together. At the door, she presented me with some dark chocolate! Always giving me yummy things to eat! While I don’t know if it can be called a gift, I left her with a couple things to enjoy – a “Life is good” shirt that I had brought as a part of my wardrobe (she mentioned that she really like the phrase a while back so I thought why not leave it with her), one of my Chile tourism guidebooks, and my favorite dark chocolate that mom sent me from the US. Regardless of what it’s called, I think she really liked it.



Once I had my five bags ready to go – giant suitcase, duffle bag, EOD messenger bag, shopping bag of fragile things, and overstuffed large purse – Sayuri took me to the bus terminal via the street along the riverside so as to have one more glance at it – just as beautiful on my last day as ever. We got my bags onto the bus at the terminal, and talked about how we hope to see each other again one day. As so many have told me, “you don’t have to have a reason, just come back and there is a place for you in our home.” La casa es chica pero el corazón es grande. As the bus pulled out, she waved a white “hanky” (tissue) and mouthed, “I’ll miss you!” I’ll miss you too Sayuri, and all of those I have come to know in the beautiful region of Maule.

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Photos

Mushrooms in the Reserve
I found many types of mushrooms growing in the forest, but these I found the most interesting