Public Transportation (6/11)

Well, life goes on. So does the World Cup. And I have to admit, when I am not forced to watch it, it does interest me. Among the teams in the selection are the iddy-biddy countries of Trinidad and the Ivory Coast. How they managed to rank so competitively one can only guess. But they do very well. These soccer games are filled with drama; the ups and downs, the almost goals, the amazing shot, all the while sprinting like madmen. I have a renewed respect for the game. In American football, you run and tackle, but you get a break every down. In soccer, the only break the players get is 45 minutes into the game, and they still have another 45 minute half to complete. That takes a wee bit of endurance.

Well, I have to tell you about public transportation. Deb and I went to see the DaVinci Code at a local mall. (I know, that doesn't sound very "Chilean". But you will have to trust me when I say it is.) After the movie, we got some coffee and walked around the mall. When we finally headed out to the bus stop it was about 10:15. Now, busses run until an undefined time at night. I have been unable to pin down the exact time, mostly because I don't want to get stuck somewhere. We have taken busses up til 11pm, but that is risky. Some people say that it's dangerous to be out that late at night. But I say you are never sure if the bus in gonna come or not. In any case, we try to avoid relying on public transportation that late. Well. A bus came around 10:30pm, but it was sooo full we left it go by and waited for the next one. Fortunately, there were loads of people at the stop or we would have worried a bit. We knew there had to be more busses coming. The next one came at about 10:50pm. We were tired of waiting and a little worried about passing up another bus, so....

When the bus pulled up we could see it was crowded. Some people from our stop got on, but there wasn't any room to go up the steps. I stepped up onto the bus while holding onto the door. Deb, looking apprehensive, hesitated. When the bus lurched, she made up her mind and hopped up too. With my arm around her, she held onto a railing, and we both hung out the door while the bus progressed up the street. Thankfully, this driver didn't "fly with reckless abandon" as some drivers do. We were fine like this until the driver, who we never really saw through all the people, tried to shut the doors of the bus. For the next 5 or so stops, we had to get off the bus in order for exiting passangers to get down off the bus. When we were within walking distance we got off and walked the rest of the way. But, this was definitely a grand adventures to check off our list of things to do in Chile.

Presbyterian Evangelism? (6/7+10)

As a way of celebrating the 135th year anniversary the First Presbyterian Church of Santiago Young Adults group decided to put on an evangelism service. We invited the congregation, other Pres. Churches, and everyone was supposed to invite someone from outside our church. Deb and I sang in the Young Adult choir. We went to church in the evening on Wednesday to practice and attend a special anniversary service, then we sang in the Evangelism service on Friday. While at the anniversary service, Deb and I sat next to a family with five sons. They were quite well-behaved really, but bored I could tell. So to help them keep quiet and entertained I started playing Tic-Tac-Toe with ten-year-old Josue. Soon his eight-year-old brother, Aron, was involved too. So, I made an Ultimate Tic-Tac-Toe board (copyrighted by David B, Inc.) and we passed the time quite contentedly. This family came to the Evangelismo as well. There I spent a little more time getting to know them. Ignacio, Carmen Gloria, Claudio (14), Josue (10), Aron (8), Jacob (6), and Isac (1). They’re not shy and lots of fun, and have been coming ever since.

Poetry Recitation (6/7)

Fourth Grade here at Lincoln was charged to learn poetry and recite it for an assembly. So my students and I searched in books and on the internet some poetry we all liked. We spent a lot of time making sure it was memorized and adding some drama. And when the day came I think I was more nervous than they were. I had to welcome everybody to the assembly and introduce the students and their poems. Then the students did their thing. And they were great! Some of the language escaped the little kids, but most thought the poems and their staging were hilarious. Actually, I am kind of proud. We got loads of compliments.

I have to include one of the poems for you. It was hard to pick, they were all so funny! (“How to Torture Your Teacher” by Bruce Lansky, “The Toad and the Kangaroo” by Shel Silverstein, “Lucky Trade” by Matthew L. Fredericks, just to name a few.) But this is the one I chose -- “Mirror, Mirror, O’er the Sink” by Kimberly Norman performed by two children, one on a desk acting the part of a dog, the other next to it as the mirror.

Dog: “Mirror, mirror, o’er the sink,
Tell me what you really think.
Do my lovely eyes of brown
Dazzle like a diamond crown?
Is my hair of gleaming gold
Beautiful, as I am told?”
Quoth the mirror,
Mirror: “Yes, it is true.
All these things are said of you.
Still, I beg you, back away.
Clearly, you’ve not flossed today.
Kibble breath has made me fog.
Off the sink you stupid dog!”

Enough is enough! (6-9)

OK! I am ready to go home now. It rain 3 times from Feb. to May. Then June came and the weather changed. It started raining Sunday, and, though it's off and on, it really hasn't stopped since. It's cold, wet, the children can't run around on the playground, and some places have flooded. From one extreme to the other. The only place I feel mostly warm is in my bed. And showers are torturous. Then, I think of summer and the warm weather back home. The mountains have completely morphed in these last few days. Here it is raining, but in the mountains... SNOW!!! They are covered and amazingly beautiful.

Another topic, similar thought. I knew that soccer was big here. And with the World Cup going on in Germany, I was actually getting kind of excited myself. But this excitement was killed today. I was trapped in a gym with about 600 students and made to watch the opening cerimonies and the first match between Germany and Costa Rica. Not everyone was interested, it was loud and impossible to controll, I had work to do, and I had to give up classtime I had already planned. Grrr... I can't believe they "wasted" all that school time like that. I guess I just went from one Football extremism to another. Hopefully, my impressions of soccer will improve as the championship gets closer.

Weather or not?!? (6/4)

Just in case anyone was in doubt. Autumn is here. The air is crisp and sometimes nippy. I thought I should take a picture of the lovely fall colors. It would seem just like a regular fall day in Ohio, except everyone around us speaks Spanish. With school ending in the States and reports of 90˚ weather, it felt so weird to try to rationalize the differences in climate. I guess if one moves to the southern hemisphere one is just inviting this sort of disequilibrium. When Deb and I woke up this morning (I was intending on running), we could hear the gentle slapping of rain on the balcony just off our bedroom. Everything was wet -- a rare change. Stepping out onto the balcony to admire the rain, I noticed that our usual mountainous vista had traded brown for white. I should have taken the picture early this morning before some of the snow melted and the smog was much less. But I waited untli this afternoon. So it is, whether we are confused or not, Autumn is here. By the looks of things, it won't be long until it's Winter.

Education Revolution (5/30-6/3)

This posting isn't so much about Deb and I as it is about current happenings here in Chile. Student uprisings are the center of media reports these days. Currently there are serious protests demanding educational reform. Actually, Chile is relatively fortunate because education is free and a right of everyone in the country. Granted, there are many complaints about the public school system. Facilities are often inadequate, teachers need better training and pay, student transportation isn't always free, and testing for university entrance is costly. Truthfully, the list goes on, but these are the major issues. So students are taking over the schools, rioting in the streets, and vandalizing in many sectors of Santiago and surrounding communities. So the national Educatioin Council is encouraging negotiations to work out the problems. While not everyone is participating, many are expressing their opinions about the needed changes. Signs have appeared, like "Our youth are our future.", "Education isn't a negotiation, it's a right.", and "If not us, who. If not now, when." Finally, on June first, President (Michelle) Bachelet appeared on a nationally televised news broadcast, making some promises to meet the needs/demands of the education system. This seems to have stopped the rioting, at least temporarily.

So how has this effected Deb and I. Well, my class was supposed to go on a field trip concerning meteorology and weather forecasting. But we cancelled it because of the rioting. The school sent out letters to all the staff at Lincoln empathizing with the needed reforms, but warning anyone against participating in ANY manner. Deb was given the reponsibility of showing some ADS people from the States around Santiago on June 2, but worried about taking them downtown before they knew for sure there was no rioting. They went anyway and saw lots of well armed police and trucks equipped with water cannons there "just in case" something happened. And today Deb and I took a walk past a new public school in our community. Apparently there had been student uprisings in this school too. We saw student desks piled as barricades, broken windows, and banners declaring a "take-over" and "students on strike". What a shame! I don't understand how destroying the facility improves education. Hopefully, the worst is over and negotiations will end the violence.