I wish every weekend was 3 days long. Due to the National Teachers’ Appreciation Day, we had off school on Friday, which was also my birthday! On Thursday night all of the teachers from my school went out to this really nice Chinese place for dinner and everyone sang to me at midnight and gave me a birthday present.
My 22nd birthday was low-key, but wonderful. I decided to go for a nice long run and then spend the day with my amazing friends out in Caldera. Joy took me to lunch at Casa de Empanadas (which I found out has much better jaiva queso (crab and cheese) empanadas than Empanapolis. Then we spent the afternoon with Heinz, Donte and Ben at Ben’s house, because he broke his ankle last week playing soccer with his kids and has been bed-ridden ever since. We hung out, and they got me a cake and sang! It was my best foreign birthday ever, and spending it with friends was the best thing I could have done. That evening before I went back Joy, Heinz and I were driving around and found a 3 week-old kitten in the middle of the road! We decided to rescue it and after being rejected from the vet clinic and finding out the city building was closed, we were able to give it to one of Joy’s students who happened to be walking through the plaza at the same time.
Teaching has been going well, and the English Olympics are in full-swing. It’s crazy to think that we only have about a month left here in our schools and with our students. In some ways I´m excited for Christmas season and to be back home, and in other ways I really cannot imagine leaving this awesome place.
Prayer for the following things would be:
- That the last few weeks of classes would be productive, inspiring, and fun for the students
- Continued energy and motivation for me
- Prayer for my host family (host mom Gloria and 8 year-old sister Monserratt), that I´d be a really good witness to them my last month in their house
- Peace about the future.
God is good. All the time.
Thanks for all your prayers and support - please keep in touch!
- Steph -
Sunday, October 19, 2008
PERU
Last week I had the incredible opportunity to spend a week in Peru. I got permission to miss a few days of school and due to lack of interest and my impulsive decision, I made the trip alone.
I left Wednesday afternoon, and the 18 hour bus ride up to Arica (the northernmost city in Chile) was actually quite enjoyable due to the fact that I had 2 whole seats all to myself and slept very well.
I arrived in Arica and went to buy my bus ticket to cross the border into Tacna, Peru, and got my first shock. The ticket agents told me that because I didn’t have the right ID (I hadn’t yet picked up my Chilean id card) I could not go to Peru. It was like an awful flashback of July 25th in Philly when the lady at the Delta counter told me for almost 2 hours that I could not go to Chile. This time I was pretty sure they were wrong, but I had to ride with them to the International Police station to verify that, in fact, I could cross the border without a problem with my documentation. On the bus to Tacna I met a fellow gringo – he was an older gentleman originally from Massachusetts who, due to circumstances and some bad luck, is now working exporting used clothing from Peru and Chile to other parts of the world.
I got to Tacna and ended up on a VERY sketchy bus to ride the 6 hours up to Arequipa. There were about 8 women on my bus with ghastly amounts of used clothing, electronics and other things which they were smuggling up to Arequipa. One of them actually sat next to me and I had some newspaper-wrapped objects, that I’m still believing were books, hidden between my seat and the wall. Due to all the illegal paraphanalia on the bus we were stopped at the inspection station for almost 2 hours and I didn’t arrive in Arequipa until about 7pm that night.
I went to my hostel and then decided to explore the city a bit, eat dinner, etc. I was planning on doing a trek to the Colca Canyon (the 2nd deepest canyon in the world) on Sat/Sun., but when I passed by a tour agency that was still open my plans changed. They had a 2 day/1 night tour leaving the next morning, so I signed up. Now, when I say the next morning I mean that they arrived at my hostel at 12:15 am to pick me up…only 2 short hours after I had finally gone to bed.
We had a 5 hour bus ride to the canyon, and arrived at 6am to eat breakfast and prepare for the trek. Our group was very awesome. There were 2 Peruvian guides who were both in their early 20s, and 4 of us. My group included Milan, a 19 year-old Dutch guitar player, Eveline, a 23 year-old German girl who’s studying sociology, and Ohad, a 22 year-old Israeli guy who just got out of his 3 years in the Israeli Army. The group was a lot of fun, and we started hiking around 7am on Friday. The first day included about 4 hours of hiking down all the way into the canyon, stopping for lunch, and finishing with a 3 hour hike to the oasis. It was GORGEOUS. I’ve always been a greater advocate for the beauty of mountains, but I agree with what Donald Miller said in “Through Painted Deserts”, where he said that canyons are just as beautiful as mountains, but are less obviously so because they don’t rise above the rest of the land. The Colca Canyon is absolutely beautiful, and around every corner of the trail there’s a different view, a different magnificence to breathe in.
After hiking all day we arrived around 4pm at the Oasis. The Oasis is located at the bottom of the canyon, and has different types of accommodations. Having only paid $40 for our entire 2 day trip, we were in the lowest level, but this was still pretty awesome. We got to take a dip in the beautiful swimming pool, ate a hot dinner, I taught my friends how to play poker and Blackjack, and we went to bed early at 8:30.
The next morning we awoke at 4am to start the hike at 4:30. one of our guides woke up with stomach pain and couldn’t continue, and Evelyn’s feet were hurting too much to make the trek, so the two of them had to ride up the hill on mulas (mules). About 20 minutes into the hike Milan got really dizzy and also had to get a mula, so just 3 of the 6 of us (Diego, Ohad, and I) finished the 3.5 hour hike (uphill the entire time). It was pretty difficult at times but when we did the final climb out of the canyon it felt great.
We got to watch a family of condors fly through the canyon and stopped in a small village for lunch on our way back to Arequipa, and though my body was in a lot of pain for the next 3 days it was one of the best things I’ve done in South America.
I spent the next day and a half exploring the city of Arequipa. It’s beautiful, and while it has a good amount of tourism it’s not quite so bad as Cusco farther to the north, and most of the tourism is actually people from other parts of Peru. One of the best (and worst upon my return to Chile) things about Peru was that it was SO cheap. I had dinner one night and got: a big bowl of cream of tomato soup, a large slice of lasagna, chocolate crepes, and a glass of wine for only $5. My roundtrip bus ticket (which was about 14 hrs on the bus) was only $15 to and from Arequipa. I almost didn’t want to leave. I did a bus tour in Arequipa and then got invited out to dinner with 2 of the ladies on my tour which was very fun – one of them was actually a Fulbright Scholar last year and did a year as a research assistant at Harvard. That night I also witnessed a fantastic, yet slighty scary fireworks show right in front of one of the catholic churches. It was beautiful and lasted about 25 minutes, but it was literally happening 5’ in front of the church, and at one point one of the wooden rings that launches the fireworks fell from the air and landed about 7 feet from where I was sitting.
On Monday I headed back to Tacna and crossed the border to Arica, where I was pretty excited to get to spend a full day there. For those who don’t know, my friends and I were originally supposed to be placed in Arica as teachers there, but at the last minute the government closed the program there and moved us to different cities further south. And I went to Arica hoping I could hate it, and be confidently glad that we’re not living there. Unfortunately, it was beautiful. I got to watch the sunset on the most beautiful beach I’ve seen yet in Chile. I explored the nightlife and got to experience the several blocks of pedestrian-only streets with shopping, dining, and tons of people. The next morning I explored the historical center of the city, climbed the famous hill that overlooks the city, and took it all in. It was slightly run-down, and there was no defined center of the city, so in some ways I was thankful to be returning to my smaller Copiapo.
The 18 hour bus ride back down to Copiapo was good until about 30 Chilean marines got on the bus in Iquique, and I no longer had a lot of space to myself. And we arrived back here at 6:30am…just in time for me to run home, change my clothes, and get to school in time for my first class at 8.
It was a great trip, and apart from a few slightly sketchy stories that I will not include in the blog, I had an absolutely amazing time.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Church, Repelling and an impulsive viaje!
Hey y´all!
Just thought I would shoot out an update before I head off travelling for about a week. The past week has been pretty good. On Sunday Joy, Heinz and Ben came into town for the day and we got to grab lunch. In the evening Terryl and I went to check out a church that, randomly enough, one of my 5th grade students told me about a few weeks ago. (That story goes....one of my students came up to me with the phrase ¨Lay down my pride¨ and asked me what it meant in Spanish. I told him, and asked him where he had heard it, and he told me it was a Hillsong song that he heard at home. Upon hearing that I asked if and where his family goes to church, and he said at Cristo, tu unica esperanza).
Anyways, we went on Sunday night at 8, and the service was awesome. The best worship music I´ve heard in Chile, and even though the pastor spoke kind of fast I understood most of it. The only drawback is that it´s from about 8-10:30pm on Sundays...which doesn´t SOUND late, but this week at least I was pretty tired by the middle of the service. I´m hoping to go back in a week or two though, so hopefully I´ll be more rested :-)
Today was Tuesday, which means the kids were especially difficult. I sent 4 kids out of class in one of my classes (the last one of the day), and it was very frustrating. BUT after work I got to go repelling for the first time here in Chile which was AMAZING. Definitely might be a hobby that I start up back in the States :-)
And, breaking news.....tomorrow I´m headed to PERU for a week!!! It was kind of an impulsive decision....I decided on Sunday to ask permission to take a long weekend (6 days) to travel up to Peru. I´m pretty excited, although slightly nervous, only because i´m travelling ALONE. I´ve heard it´s safe as long as I´m smart, but prayers for this would be very much appreciated. I´m leaving tomorrow (Wed.) in the afternoon and arrive back next Wednesday morning. I´ll be staying most of the time (outside of the 48 hours total of travel time) in the city of Arequipa, Peru. And of course will update with the experience upon my (hopefully safe) return :-)
That´s all from Chile now...I hope that everyone is doing well....I miss you all!
- Steph -
Just thought I would shoot out an update before I head off travelling for about a week. The past week has been pretty good. On Sunday Joy, Heinz and Ben came into town for the day and we got to grab lunch. In the evening Terryl and I went to check out a church that, randomly enough, one of my 5th grade students told me about a few weeks ago. (That story goes....one of my students came up to me with the phrase ¨Lay down my pride¨ and asked me what it meant in Spanish. I told him, and asked him where he had heard it, and he told me it was a Hillsong song that he heard at home. Upon hearing that I asked if and where his family goes to church, and he said at Cristo, tu unica esperanza).
Anyways, we went on Sunday night at 8, and the service was awesome. The best worship music I´ve heard in Chile, and even though the pastor spoke kind of fast I understood most of it. The only drawback is that it´s from about 8-10:30pm on Sundays...which doesn´t SOUND late, but this week at least I was pretty tired by the middle of the service. I´m hoping to go back in a week or two though, so hopefully I´ll be more rested :-)
Today was Tuesday, which means the kids were especially difficult. I sent 4 kids out of class in one of my classes (the last one of the day), and it was very frustrating. BUT after work I got to go repelling for the first time here in Chile which was AMAZING. Definitely might be a hobby that I start up back in the States :-)
And, breaking news.....tomorrow I´m headed to PERU for a week!!! It was kind of an impulsive decision....I decided on Sunday to ask permission to take a long weekend (6 days) to travel up to Peru. I´m pretty excited, although slightly nervous, only because i´m travelling ALONE. I´ve heard it´s safe as long as I´m smart, but prayers for this would be very much appreciated. I´m leaving tomorrow (Wed.) in the afternoon and arrive back next Wednesday morning. I´ll be staying most of the time (outside of the 48 hours total of travel time) in the city of Arequipa, Peru. And of course will update with the experience upon my (hopefully safe) return :-)
That´s all from Chile now...I hope that everyone is doing well....I miss you all!
- Steph -
Saturday, October 4, 2008
Some Highlights
More updates from the past 2 weeks:
Coming back to school after vacation was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I actually missed my kids a lot over the break, and the week off gave my patience a chance to come back, and has given me just a more relaxed attitude overall. Highlights from the last 2 weeks:
1. Last Friday after the 7th/8th grade English club I got to teach my 8th grade girls the dance to "Soldier Boy". They were so thrilled. And it was so fun.
2. This isn't necessarily a good highlight, but last week in the middle of the week my 8th grade girls were hanging out with me during a Recreo, and started talking about how much they're going to miss me when I leave. I told them it's not even halfway through my time here yet, so they'd better not be thinking about that anytime soon. But, it still made me sad.
3. This week I got to be a tutor! The girl who lives across the street from me is in Tercero Medio (11th grade) She's a GREAT English student but had a quiz and so i helped her prepare. It was pretty awesome to work with someone who both is: a. proficient in English and b. really wants to learn more. We also might hang out sometime soon, which would be awesome.
3. Last night I performed in public for the first time in my life. About a month ago an English professor from the University here in the city came to one of our English teacher meetings and asked if anyone could prepare something for this Open Mic/Talent show they were having. I said I would, but honestly COMPLETELY forgot until Donte called me yesterday to see if I was still going. I had no plans, and decided, why not? So i took my Martin with me, and on a stage by myself performed "Someday you'll see" (one of my songs), and Bethany Dillon's "All I Need". It was a ton of fun, and I think went pretty well too. The other performers were all English students, and performances ranged from slow gospel songs to Simple Plan, to Black Sabbath. One group of students actually performed the popular dance/drama to the Lifehouse song "Everything", which was absolutely amazing, and made me so very happy.
4. Today I got to go help pick up trash with a group of young adults on Cerro de la Cruz at sunset. They do it every few weeks, and last week I met the guy who organizes it, so he gave me a call today. Terryl came too, and it was a ton of fun, both meeting some new people, climbing Cerro de la Cruz (getting to see the city from the top at NIGHT was incredible), and helping out the community.
I feel like I'm missing a lot of highlights, but that's all I can think of right now. Oh yeah, the English Olympics started in my classes this week...each class is a country in which the people speak mostly English, and the teams compete until mid-november. They earn points by: 1. Bringing in English things for the walls (which ALSO helps me decorate!), 2. Bringing in things to read in English, 3. Reciting something in English or having a conversation with me. There are only 2 rules in the competition. 1 is that it is in English. And 2 is that it is about their country. So far most of the kids seek really into it, so hopefully this will help stimulate their learning outside of class a bit.
Prayers for continued patience, energy, and enthusiasm would be very much appreciated. Also, I might start helping out with some workshops with the English University students, which would be very awesome, and so I really hope it can work out. Thanks to everyone for your continued love and support - please keep in touch!!!
~Steph~
Coming back to school after vacation was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I actually missed my kids a lot over the break, and the week off gave my patience a chance to come back, and has given me just a more relaxed attitude overall. Highlights from the last 2 weeks:
1. Last Friday after the 7th/8th grade English club I got to teach my 8th grade girls the dance to "Soldier Boy". They were so thrilled. And it was so fun.
2. This isn't necessarily a good highlight, but last week in the middle of the week my 8th grade girls were hanging out with me during a Recreo, and started talking about how much they're going to miss me when I leave. I told them it's not even halfway through my time here yet, so they'd better not be thinking about that anytime soon. But, it still made me sad.
3. This week I got to be a tutor! The girl who lives across the street from me is in Tercero Medio (11th grade) She's a GREAT English student but had a quiz and so i helped her prepare. It was pretty awesome to work with someone who both is: a. proficient in English and b. really wants to learn more. We also might hang out sometime soon, which would be awesome.
3. Last night I performed in public for the first time in my life. About a month ago an English professor from the University here in the city came to one of our English teacher meetings and asked if anyone could prepare something for this Open Mic/Talent show they were having. I said I would, but honestly COMPLETELY forgot until Donte called me yesterday to see if I was still going. I had no plans, and decided, why not? So i took my Martin with me, and on a stage by myself performed "Someday you'll see" (one of my songs), and Bethany Dillon's "All I Need". It was a ton of fun, and I think went pretty well too. The other performers were all English students, and performances ranged from slow gospel songs to Simple Plan, to Black Sabbath. One group of students actually performed the popular dance/drama to the Lifehouse song "Everything", which was absolutely amazing, and made me so very happy.
4. Today I got to go help pick up trash with a group of young adults on Cerro de la Cruz at sunset. They do it every few weeks, and last week I met the guy who organizes it, so he gave me a call today. Terryl came too, and it was a ton of fun, both meeting some new people, climbing Cerro de la Cruz (getting to see the city from the top at NIGHT was incredible), and helping out the community.
I feel like I'm missing a lot of highlights, but that's all I can think of right now. Oh yeah, the English Olympics started in my classes this week...each class is a country in which the people speak mostly English, and the teams compete until mid-november. They earn points by: 1. Bringing in English things for the walls (which ALSO helps me decorate!), 2. Bringing in things to read in English, 3. Reciting something in English or having a conversation with me. There are only 2 rules in the competition. 1 is that it is in English. And 2 is that it is about their country. So far most of the kids seek really into it, so hopefully this will help stimulate their learning outside of class a bit.
Prayers for continued patience, energy, and enthusiasm would be very much appreciated. Also, I might start helping out with some workshops with the English University students, which would be very awesome, and so I really hope it can work out. Thanks to everyone for your continued love and support - please keep in touch!!!
~Steph~
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