My last day in Copiapo

I am leaving Copiapo tomorrow, well, technically today. As often as they say it, time really does fly by fast, especially the end of things.

This past week was a little bit different than the rest. A week and a half ago all of the public service workers in Chile (including teachers in public schools) went on a national strike, petitioning for a 14.5% raise for everyone. There was a 48 hour strike last week, and then this Monday the government hadn’t responded, so we went on strike again. This time it lasted for 4 days. It was very frustrating for me, only because I desperately wanted this final week with my kids and had a lot of fun plans for our last classes. But by the time Friday came and we got to go back to school I was thankful just to be able to say goodbye to a lot of my students.

On the good side, I did get a lot done this week, and a lot of sleep, running, etc. Also, CREMA TRUFA (my favorite flavor) gelato came back to my favorite gelato shop last week!!!!! I’d been waiting for a month for them to get it back in….such a great day. On Thursday night all of the teachers and principle threw me a Goodbye Tea at my school…it was really awesome….tons of awesome food, almost all of the teachers came, and the director said some really nice things. I was very blessed to be placed in a school with an incredibly supportive administration and colleagues.

Today all of the volunteers from Copiapo and Caldera (8 of us in all) went with our families to Playa Ramada (Ramada Beach) to celebrate Heinz’s 23rd birthday and to have a final hurrah with everyone. It was a GREAT time…a lot of our host families were meeting each other for the first time, all the kids were playing, Joy’s host family just got a new puppy, etc. We also successfully built a 10-person pyramid :-)

Tomorrow I need to finish packing, and my bus leaves from Copiapo at 8pm, to arrive in Santiago at 7am. I’m planning to spend 2 days out in Vina del Mar, then we have program wrap-up in Santiago. After that we’re headed to the Lakes Region for a week, and then I head down to Patagonia for a week to hike Torres del Paine. Might not get to a blog update for awhile, so please pray for the following:

- Safe travels for all, back to Santiago and throughout South America
- A productive and fun program closing ceremonies, success on the very painful BULATs exam
- Preparation for our hearts and minds to return home in the next few weeks.

- The job search...that all the hiring freezes would end and that when I get hom I´d have an interview with 1 or 2 of the 21 jobs I have so far applied for.

Thank you all for everything over the past few months, and I can’t wait to see some of you soon!

~Steph~

Fires, Strikes, etc. Typical Chile

The last few weeks have been fairly normal for life in Chile….that is, absolutely crazy :-)

Last week was a week of fires. On Tuesday a student knocked the fire extinguisher off the wall in my classroom, and within an hour a student in the next class set off a firecracker, which produced a flame, spark, and smoke, in my classroom in the middle of the class. That student was promptly suspended from school for three days. Then last Friday morning an entire corner burnt down in the middle of the city, with several offices being destroyed and a lot of people out of work. When I walked past the following day there was still smoke coming from the rubble. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but it doesn’t look like they’ll be rebuilding it any time soon.

Last Saturday was the huge English festival in the plaza here in Copiapo. I’ve been preparing my English Academias (English clubs) since September, and they performed “Breaking Free” to High school musical, singing and with complete choreography. I was so proud, and it went very well. It was also cool to see kids from all the other middle and high schools present songs and poems in English. One high school girl sang “You’re Still the One” by Shania Twain, and was absolutely incredible. Also, Terryl and I got to be the “Masters of Ceremony”, announcing all the acts, which was also very fun.

Last Sunday I went to Caldera for the day. Strange to think I might only be there one more time. Joy and I had decided to do a long run, and we ran for over 2 hours, to Bahia Inglesa and back…twice :-) It felt great, and afterwards we celebrated with a delicious lunch, and then hung out with Heinz and Ben and did our house church with worship and prayer, and also had an Office marathon.

This week has also been crazy. School was as normal on Monday, except that during lunch all the teachers packed into the teachers’ room to vote on whether or not we’d join the strike. The voted yes, and we, along with all the other public service workers in all of Chile, went on a 48 hour strike for all of Tuesday and Wednesday. I normally would have been slightly excited not to go to work, but it was pretty inconvenient, as ALL of my classes had tests this week so that we could just have fun next week….which is now a bit thrown off, but oh well. On Tuesday morning I went down with my family to the march in the center, and Terryl and Donte and I represented the gringos marching for better wages for the public service workers in Chile. It was pretty exciting, although apparently it’s illegal for foreigners to participate in government protests here? Well, we didn’t end up getting deported, so I guess they didn’t care TOO much.

We went back to school yesterday and yesterday and today were probably the 2 craziest days I’ve had at school. All my kids from Tuesday and Wednesday were trying to make up their tests, and the English Olympics ended today at 1pm, so today during the recreos I literally had 60-70 students pouring into my classroom, all trying to get my attention for different things. Consequently I didn’t eat, drink, or leave my classroom until the end of the day. I’ll announce the winners of the Olympics in my next blog, because I’m not officially announcing it until Monday morning at the assembly.

It is pretty crazy to realize I only have 5 days left in the school. Every day I have a few students close to tears when it’s brought up, and I tell them I’m still trying not to think about it. As much as some of the kids drive me crazy, my students have, hands-down, been the best part of my experience here in Chile. They make me very proud, they make me work very hard, and they make me smile and laugh very much. I don’t know how I’m going to leave them next week.

My host family continues to be wonderful, but they also talk more and more about how I’m leaving soon. Tonight Monse told me she didn’t want me to leave for 2 reasons; 1. Because she’s going to miss me too muc, and 2. Because she doesn’t want to sleep by herself in her room. (She sleeps with her mom every night, but when I leave Gloria decided that she has to start sleeping by herself, all night, ever night). I’m going to miss having an 8 year old sister :-)

Well, that’s all for now. Thanks for all the prayers and support coming from back home and all over the world…God has been incredibly faithful, and he proves that to me more and more every day, even in my moments of weakness and doubt. Please continue to pray for the following things:

- My last week of classes – that the kids would have fun and goodbyes wouldn’t be too hard
- Continuing perseverance on the job search…I’m looking at stuff all over the country, hoping that something will come through.
- My host family – a good (and not too sad) last week together
- All the other volunteers in the program who are finishing up 4, 6, or 8 months of volunteering – that their last days would be a great time of fun and reflection on an incredible experience, and for safe travels for all back to Santiago

Thanks so much everyone!

~Steph~

P.S. For those I’m not in constant contact with…I’ll be back in the States on December 12th. As much as I’ve loved nearly every second of my time here, I’m also getting excited to be back, with family, friends, the SNOW, and Christmastime. God is good :-)

Halloweeeeen = very scary

This past weekend was slightly less amazing than the weekend before, and I can say very honestly I had the scariest Halloween night ever.

Due to a new national holiday, we didn’t have school (again) on Friday, so another long weekend! On Thursday night Terryl and I actually got to help plan and emcee the Halloween Party that the English Department at the University of Atacama was throwing. It was a lot of fun, and felt very much like running a Halloween (Young Life) Club….very crazy, and everyone got really into the games. Also, Terryl went as Weezer the Werewolf (a werewolf who’s, very unfortunately, allergic to humans), and I was Weazella the Witch (a witch who went to Hogwarts, formed a huge crush on Ron Weasley and changed her name to show her devotion, yet before she actually declared her love had to drop out because she was the secret daughter of Voldemort). We played “making the mummy”, “Balloon War”, Bobbing for Apples relay, had a costume fashion show, played Chubby Bunny (although re-named “Hocus Pocus for the occasion”) and hung out. It was a ton of fun, and we’re hopefully going to continue to help out every week or so in the English classes for the rest of our time here.

On Friday Nicole, Mike and I set out with our friend/guide Daniel on what was supposed to be a 2 day trip to explore Laguna Santa Rosa, Nevado Tres Cruces (some of the highest active volcanoes in the world) and Laguna Verde. What turned out to be an extreme disaster was the altitude. For the record, our city of Copiapo is basically at sea level. We had a great afternoon relaxing and eating at an altitude of about 1200 meters, in order to try and acclimate ourselves. In the evening we arrived at Laguna Santa Rosa, where you can see Nevado Tres Cruces across the lake. It was absolutely gorgeous, with lines of snow still visible on the volcanoes, wild guanacos running across the hills, and dozens of flamingoes swimming in the lake (am I the only one who thought flamingoes lived in warm weather?). Oh yes, and it was absolutely FRIGID. We arrived when the sun was still up and it was probably about 35 degrees, and it only got colder from there. Now, for all of you in the US, I know it’s getting cold there, but here in Copiapo we enjoy sunny weather and 75-85 degrees every afternoon.

The altitude at Laguna Santa Rosa is a little over 12,000 ft, but we didn’t feel it too much at first as we were walking around. Apparently though, it is a very VERY bad idea to gain so much altitude in a day, and then sleep at the high altitude, without being acclimated before. This is something our friend/guide failed to mention, or perhaps was not smart enough, as an experienced outdoorsman, to know. We did get to watch a beautiful sunset and the mountains change to a deep pink and purple. After three hours of trying our guide and his friend were still unable to start a fire to cook dinner, and though they blamed it on the lack of oxygen (which would have been a valid point) we could clearly see three other fires burning across the lake, and so were skeptical. Finally at 10:30pm we decided to just eat some bread, drink plenty of water, and go to bed. Nicole was VERY cold when we arrived, so we opted to sleep in the refugio instead of the tent. Still freezing, we bundled up in our sleeping bags and went to sleep. It was a pretty horrible three hours of on and off sleep, and without going into too much detail, Nicole got some pretty bad altitude sickness in the middle of the night. When I got up to look for advil in my bag, something pretty awful happened, the details of which I am opting to skip in the blog.

But due to these and related circumstances, we were awake from 4:15 until 7am when we had to leave to come back to Copiapo, 12 hours ahead of schedule. It was an incredibly scary night, and I still have the fear of what happened, but I was able to rest the remainder of the weekend. And yesterday on Sunday Joy came to Copiapo to spend the day and night here, and we spent the afternoon hanging out with Nicole and Mike and having an Office: season 5 marathon and eating brownies that Nicole baked. It was just the relaxation we all needed.

In general things here in Chile have been fantastic, and I can’t believe I have less than 3 weeks left here in Copiapo, and less than 6 weeks left in Chile. My kids (in general) get better every week, and right now I can’t imagine leaving them. I think by the time Thanksgiving hits I’ll be excited to come back for Christmas, but right now I’m just enjoying living, and being, and experiencing this awesome place. And though many people in Chile don’t know where Copiapo is, I have come to love this city. It’s not incredibly beautiful, nor a hub for nightlife or culture, or anything. But it is a great city, and full of real people, living real lives. Right now I’m prepping my kids for their final evaluations and giving them pep-talks for some motivation to finish strong in the English Olympics.

Prayers would be great for the following in the next week or so:

1. Finishing strong with all my kids, smooth evaluations and a crazy final week of the Enlgish Olympics

2. Class discipline, especially for: 6A, 6B, and 7A

3. Peace for the future as I’m starting to apply for jobs back in the States

4. A few health concerns; peace about the fact that I probably won’t be able to have them checked out until January or February when I have a job and health insurance again.

5. That I’d give every day to God and be focused first and foremost on living each day for His glory.

Thank you all for your continuing prayers and support….feel free to email me if/when you get a chance!

~Steph~

Gringos go to Portofino!

Though my actual birthday was on October 17^th, I had the awesome privilege to celebrate for an entire weekend the following week. My host family has a house on the beach at Portofino, which is a TINY beach village about 15 minutes south of Chanarall (an hour and a half northwest of Copiapo). There are no stores, no electricity, and My host mom invited all of my friends up for the weekend, and all (minus Ben due to his ankle) were able to come and celebrate. On Friday Joy and I went up early with Gloria and Monserrat to open up the house and get it ready. We played cards and as Heinz was due to arrive sometime between 9pm and 1am, in the complete darkness, with no real idea where the house was, we made frequent walks out to the highway to look for him. Luckily on our last trip out before quitting for the night a bus stopped and our fellow gringo got off.

The next morning Joy and I caught a bus up to Chanarall to do some grocery shopping, and though we tried to hitch-hike back to Portofino my host mom ended up driving by before any other cars picked us up. We went for a run on the beach around noon, and by the time we got back ALL the other gringos had arrived! Joy, Heinz, Terryl, Donte, Nicole and Mike (along with Gloria and Monserrat) and I spent the afternoon on the beach relaxing, and the more adventurous of us got in the slightly frigid Pacific. The beach at Portofino is small but beautiful, with grand amounts of rocks jutting out into the water at various places, white sand and water that is clear/aqua colored close into the beach. It was a wonderful day spent together, eating lunch, relaxing and playing games, eating once, relaxing and watching the sunset, and eating a HUGE asado at about 10pm with all of us and a few of Gloria’s friends and family from Chanarall. Followed, of course, by delicious torta de chocolate (chocolate cake!) They made me get out the guitar and we sang songs for a few hours on the porch, relaxing and talking until some of us had to give into the pull of exhaustion.

On Sunday most left in the morning, but Donte, Terryl and I got to stay while my host mom closed up the house and spend another afternoon on the beach just thinking, praying, writing, etc. It was so wonderful. Though Portofino gets busy in the summer the whole weekend we saw about 5 other people in the whole place. It was an amazing birthday weekend (again), and made me very thankful for my host family and all the friends I have here in Chile.