OK, I admit, I’m getting real lazy about writing on the blog. In my defense, I’ve also been very busy.
Days at the school are getting busier. I’m sitting in on many English classes and many students solicit my help during breaks. Dave and I, together with the Scouts, are also working on setting up a permanent recycling program at the school, which is difficult because it is hard to organize anything in Chile. I’m also doing a program called Companionship, kind of like the big brother/big sister mentor program, spending about 20 minutes a day or so with students at the school who are having academic/social/family difficulties. In addition to these things, I’ve also learned that a big part of what we do here is simply being here. That is, spending time with the kids at the school, being a positive role model and participating in the community that has been established at the school. Many of the kids come from broken homes and to many the school is like a second home. Most arrive at about 8:00am and stay until after 5:00pm (although the days are longer than those of most North American schools I feel like less is accomplished because the classes are chaotic…students yelling/talking/not paying attention…things that wouldn’t have been tolerated in the schools that I went to). Many participate in workshops or extracurricular activities or just hang out with friends afterwards.
There are also many activities for students to participate in on weekends and vacations. For example, the Manquehue Movement owns a farmhouse in Patagonia where they send students on retreats during the summer vacations in January. I think Dave and I will be going in the middle of January.
Also, a couple weekends ago there was a big procession of the Virgin Mary in Santiago. Dave and I trudged through the rain with students from San Lorenzo and students from Manquehue’s other two schools San Benito and San Anselmo and then went to mass at the Cathedral afterwards.
And then last weekend we went on a 27km hike/pilgrimage through the Andes with many students from San Lorenzo, along with 75,000 other young people. The event was sponsored by the Catholic Church in Santiago and many parishes and schools went in groups including all three of Manquehue Movement’s k-12 schools: San Lorenzo, San Benito and San Anselmo. We woke up at 4:00am on Saturday. I only slept 3.5 hours Friday night because I met up with a college friend of mine the night before for dinner…she was passing through Santiago after vacationing and visiting her sister in Chile. When people go out for dinner in Chile it is not until very late and I didn’t get to sleep until 12:30. Still, the hike was a pretty cool experience and a good way to get to know the students (we walked from 8:00am until after 5:00pm!!). There were 14 stations along the way, one for each station of the cross, where they had bands playing music and such. There was a mass at the end and then a big party with music and people jumping up and down…not sure how everyone had energy for that! Then we got to wait well over an hour in a hot bus as everyone vacated the place. It was all worth it and I slept like a baby Sat. night.
Instead of resting on Sunday, Dave and I went with some other tutors to repair a student’s family’s house that had a leaky roof. The house was the same one that I went and saw a month or so ago (see previous posts), very rudimentary. The family was very thankful and cooked a big lunch for all of us.
This past Saturday (24th) was the Day of the Family at the school. There were carnival rides and games and many of the students came with their families.
I’ve been impressed with the sense of community that has been established at San Lorenzo and all of the extracurricular activities that are available, but the sad reality is that at San Lorenzo very few of the students go to the university compared to almost all of the students in the other two more affluent schools that are run by Manquehue. While this is partly (maybe largely) due to financial difficulties, there also seems to be a big difference in the quality of education between the affluent schools and San Lorenzo. For example, at San Benito and San Anselmo (the affluent schools) I can carry on a conversation in English with almost all of the students. In San Lorenzo, there is not a single student who I can converse with in English and many who are about to graduate do not understand which of the following sentences are correct: “does he go to work” or “do he go to work.” Thus, the cycle of poverty continues and I think that someone needs to do something to level the playing field here.
In addition to the many community activities offered to the students, there is also a department at the school that is specifically dedicated to providing aid to the families. This is the same department that funded the materials to fix the previously mentioned roof.
Overall, still very content with everything here and greatly enjoy working with the kids at the school. It’s making me think about pursuing a career in teaching ESL.
Next weekend there is a retreat with the 8th grade at the school and I think Dave and I will be participating (ie. Sleeping at the school Friday and Saturday night).
This past week has been different because we’ve been staying at another house. There was a reunion of Benedictine Educators this past week and priests from England and the US have come, so we moved to another house that the Manquehue Movement owns, just for 8 days, so they could stay in the other house.
On Sunday those of us who were “displaced” for the week climbed Manquehue Hill, the tallest hill in Santiago. It was good exercize and had a gorgeous view of Santiago. Coming down was difficult because of loose rocks. That’s it for now. Will post again in a couple weeks or so.
