Putting a little more meat on my volunteer title

I was asked by the Ministry of Education of Chile, or more specifically by the English Open Doors Program to help write the curriculum for next year's English teaching volunteers. I was honored to be one of the three volunteers out of about 200 to help on this project. And I will be getting a little extra pocket change and padding for my resume as well!

I love the idea that I will be a small, but essencial ingredient to the development of this young program by helping to improve the quality of english language instruction... and by making a stronger impact overall.

If only this project could give me a good lead...I'm still in deep thought about what i will do when this program ends.

Numb to the bizzareness: nothing is shocking anymore

"And it was just another day in Chile....". Petra was eating a picnic lunch withanother Chilean family in a park near a dried-up lake, clearly deprived of its beauty and luster, but for some reason, a boat arrived to the scene. Her and the family watched 2 men take a small, inflatable boat into the middle of the mud-flat surrounded lake. It became known later that neither of these men knew how to swim nor were they properly prepared for what was to come: a puncture in the boat. The picnic-ers were all watching the two non-swimmers slap the water, the panicked mother cry, and the multitude of volunteer-rescuers that jumped into the dirty waters to save them. Petra noticed that no one was really very alarmed at the sight of 2 grown men nearly drowning in the lake. Petra wasn't alarmed either.

All of us North American volunteers have come to accept the unusual in Chile.

The other day, when I was walking home with Nicole at around midnight, I looked back and saw a car behind me. I thought, "oh, its just a car". But I was on the sidewalk. In the United States, i might have had a heart attack. Here, in Chile, coming across things like this is quite normal.
And the list goes on....

It was almost normal to see a woman dancing with a shish kabob meat stick the other day at the anniversary of Curico city fair. no wait, that was still pretty surprising. and funny.

mi vida personal (or not so personal)

My students like to ask me personal questions.

"Estas usando ropa interior?" (are you wearing underwear?)
"Miss, tienes un pololo?" (do you have a boyfriend?)
etc etc etc

Whatever i do outside of the school is noticed, passed ear to ear, and somehow gets back to me. For example, if i go out to the grocery store, i always run into a student. If i am walking on the street, the next day 5 students will tell me they saw me. I am constantly being watched. I am a gringa-celebrity-teacher.

I was asked an even more surprising question this past week during taller
(though not entirely alarming)
"Miss, estas embarazada?" (are you pregnant...not to be confused with are you embarrassed?)

I was standing with my stomach forward (my horrid posture) and looking at my tummy when my student asked me. I burst into laughter...thinking that i have put on some weight (damn chilean bread and yummy sweets!) and that i had missed 2 weeks of school.

1 hour later, I was walking back from buying a sackful of bread for the family to have once. A frazzled woman in her 40s asked me in passing: "Como esta su gua gua?" (How is your baby?)

"Que?! No tengo una gua gua!" (What! i dont have a baby!)
*some spanish sound like "hmp or ohh!" and then she continued on her way.

What an odd coincidence! My Chilean family tried to comfort me by explaining that she must have confused me with someone else....but what other gringa is in my neighborhood?

true or false. the stories of my life are not so personal anymore.

Have I enticed you to come yet?...

Mis padres en Chile.

My parents came to visit and it was fantastic. I was so thrilled to see them that i was actually running around the airport like a child, jumping to peek at them through the windows of the second floor airport landing. It was emotional for me to see them, especially when my parents greeted me in Spanish with "hola hija" (hello daughter). And my parents couldn't speak Spanish if their lives depended on it! haha

We had a special time together. It was short but sweet. We went to the beach, a winery, waterfalls, and the German town as planned. We also hung around Curico so that my parents could get to know my Chilean family, friends, and see my every-day life. The best part of their trip was to see the interaction between both sets of parents: permanent and temporary.

If i was in the other room, for example using the bathroom, both families would be calling for me to promptly return and translate. They were absolutely hopeless without me! But i wanted to give my parents a taste of what i went through for my first 2 months....

I also thoroughly enjoyed translating incorrectly to my parents on purpose. I would alter the meaning of my Spanish speaking friends´ words for fun. This was very amusing for me, because my parents were so clueless!

But sometimes i had to step-up as the Super Translator Daughter!!!

I think my most proud moment would be the night of my dad´s dog bite.

My parents, Nicole and I were all leaving our hotel in Valdivia our first morning there, and we were confronted with a ¨gang of dogs¨. My father was trailing behind the group, obviously not bothered by their ferocious barking and walked right into a dog´s mouth. The dog pinched his jeans and left 2 teeth holes in his sock. But it was more a scratch than a bite. There was no blood.

SO don't think we were being insensitive to his bite. But I say he was asking for it. Dad you should have kicked him..you should have walked faster..you should have...etc etc. I think we were more annoyed than worried for my father´s health. We continued our day as planned: went on a boat ride. It was later that night when i was sitting at a pleasant cafe with Nicole (because my parents had decided to stay in the hotel for dinner), drinking alcoholic coffee and reading magazines, when i received a call from my mother.

¨Cori, can you please come home!!?¨

¨Sure mom, whats up?¨

¨Its your father. I'm really worried about him. His dog bites looks worse...¨

So Nicole and i immediately went home (after stopping to buy a few cookies..haha apparently we thought his bite was VERY serious)

I found my parents frantic because they had read something about rabies in a travel book. *damn those overly helpful travel books! haha. but actually all possibilities went through my head and i couldn't have my father die of rabies in Chile! So i put on my Super Translator Cape, called a cab, and we rushed to the clinic.

My dad got a rabies shot and is now perfectly fine. However, he couldn't walk near the hotel without a stick in hand in case there was another dad-dog combat. My Spanish cant save him in that very rare circumstance. Or can it?...the dogs here must understand Spanish commands.

I felt very proud to translate for my parents, buy them food, pay for their bus tickets, save their lives etc. Of course my parents spoiled me while they were here, but it was more rewarding to share my Chilean experience with them, because hearing my stories on skype or reading them on this blog just doesn't do justice.