Santiago to Curanilahue

Orienting: The first three weeks of my time in Chile was a whirlwind of orientation – both in terms of training and exploring in Santiago. The training began right away with our sessions with WorldTeach. The quality of these sessions and our two instructors was outstanding. They’re both young, energetic and have previous experience teaching English in Chile. They provided an abundance of information and advice. We were fortunate enough to review videos of current volunteers and get an inside look at what our classrooms would be like and what to expect from the students, which proved to be a tremendous help as I mentally prepared for the task ahead. I’m feeling much more confident about teaching than I did before. Upon the conclusion of our training with WorldTeach, we dove right into the next round with the Chilean Ministry of Education, joining about 100 other Ministry volunteers assigned to teach in cities throughout the country. At that point, all of us were still anxiously waiting to hear where our placements would be, who we would be living with, and what grade level we would be teaching. It seemed as though so much was still unknown.

In our spare time, we got better acquainted with Santiago. I had a chance to explore Barrio Brasil, Bellavista, Santiago Centro, and a bit of Estación Central. We went on a Human Rights tour detailing the atrocities committed under Pinochet, visited Cerro Santa Lucia, explored the open markets, climbed Cerro San Cristóbal, went to a soccer game (quite an interesting experience to say the least), and visited a couple museums and churches. Due to the dense smog, there’s the occasional chance to catch glimpse of the snowcapped Andes. But when visible, they’re so close it’s breathtaking. For the most part, the people are very warm and easy to approach; however, most don’t speak much English. Crime is an issue in the city. Some volunteers had the misfortune of coming face to face with that reality, myself included, and for that reason, I think my impressions of Santiago are a little jaded. There’s a lot I could say about the city, both good and bad, but I haven’t been able to form a solid opinion on it. Perhaps when I return in November, things will be a little clearer.

A few words on the WorldTeach volunteer group: We're a group of 22 from all over the U.S. About half are recent graduates and the rest are in their early or mid careers. We represent many different fields of expertise: teaching, accounting, and law to name a few. Our levels of Spanish also vary. Not surprisingly, the majority of us are women. There are only 5 guys and they’ve aptly dubbed themselves “The Fab Five”. The camaraderie they’ve formed has become quite comical. Collectively, we’ve all become very close in such a short amount of time. I find myself inspired by their senses of humor, life stories, and commitment to our task here in Chile. I’m honored to know and volunteer with this group.

The importance of being “Liquid”: We finally received word of our placements two days prior to our scheduled departure, and it was quite a surprise. Originally, the plan was that the WorldTeach group would be sent to one of five cities in the Bío Bío region – Los Angeles, Chillán, Lebu or Laja. Instead, we were spread out all over Bío Bío with few volunteers in any of those five cities. I was bound for Curanilahue, a town I’d never heard of before with a population of about 30,000 and with two other members of our group (Erin and Heriberto). Now to digress for just a moment, “Liquid” is a term we learned during the WorldTeach orientation. We had the opportunity to have a Q&A session with a few current WorldTeach volunteers who started teaching back in March. One of them offered some very good advice: “Just be liquid!” In other words, be flexible; expect the unexpected; plan that things won’t go as planned; don’t sweat the small stuff; and learn to adjust to changes on a dime. The delay and then the surprise of our unanticipated destinations was the first of many “Liquid” moments. Proving that we had embraced this concept, we were all quite content with this change of events. We didn’t really know what to expect in the first place and were just glad to finally know where we were going. After a farewell celebration which involved bars and nightclubs in Bellavista, we left early Saturday morning, August 1st for Concepción.

It all starts here: Concepción – chaos, confusion, calamity. Ok, it definitely wasn’t that bad. But upon arrival and the bus station, things definitely went awry and the importance of liquidity resurfaced. As we stepped off the bus, our Ministry regional directors were there to greet us and commenced the ensuing madness. About half of us were informed that they were now being sent to a different city altogether. There was one person whose name didn’t even appear on the list and the directors weren’t sure where she was supposed to go. The rest of us were scurried out of the terminal and were met by host families or co-teachers from our assigned schools. Fortunately, I was not among those who were changing locations. However, I was informed that I was going to be sharing a host family with the two other volunteers also going to Curanilahue – Erin and Heriberto. Now, the Ministry was supposed to be responsible for finding each volunteer their own host family; this allows the opportunity for the volunteer to have an immersion experience, improve their Spanish, and get integrated into the community. Placing three American, English-speaking, volunteers under one roof was definitely unexpected and less than ideal. The same situation occurred with many other volunteers. Initially, we weren’t pleased but decided to go with the flow and make the best of the situation.

I think there are many ways to have an incredible experience here in Chile. It would be harder to accomplish that if I wasted energy trying to fight every obstacle. My purpose for taking on this adventure was to challenge myself; to help others and perhaps understand a different way of seeing things. It doesn’t matter if I’m in Curanilahue, Santiago, or Los Angeles; it doesn’t matter if my living situation isn’t quite what I expected. An adventure is a matter of taking what life throws at you and deciding what to make of it. I’m going to give this my best shot.