Protests and Trekking

Sambo decided to climb a tree, we tried to get him down.

I feel like I spend a lot of time thinking here. Just sitting, looking around and thinking. I have come to the conclusion that that is why my mental health is a little better here. I don't even have time to think in the states, let alone think about my well being. I suspect that the slow pace of things is also helping, aka arriving half an hour late to everything. My friend got sassy with me the other day when I'd been waiting for him for half an hour, and we'd been in opposites sides of the plaza 'ayy pusiste Chilena' (you're so Chilean). Nobody had bothered to tell me where the Chileans meet in Plaza Anibal Pinto, fyi it's not by the fountain. This was one of many communication mishaps over the last week. The most epic one being my interview in Quillota, which is about an hour and a half bus ride from my house in Valpo.
Pancho's Birthday

Apparently there is more than one 'Paradero 3' in Quillota. Well, that's not fair. There is only one 'Paradero 3' IN quillota, but the locals at the other bus stop like to tell you that the paradero 3 you are at is the ONLY ONE. I eventually found my way to the 'real' paradero 3, arriving 1 hour late aka on time. Being a gringa, and being a gringa in Chile, I was promptly forgiven. From there I did two interviews with the director and social worker of a small NGO that is a new addition to SENAME (servicio nacional para menores, national service for minors). It was really interesting since it is a new type of program being launched, and currently there are only four of them running it.
Edwin y Anto, trying to find Cerro Mauco

The basic idea is to keep the child with their family, but with support from this program. They also are supporting more foster care families, but doing extensive check ups on them to make the whole process more legitimate and safer for the child. Also, Quillota is beautiful. It's right by the mountains and I went on a super sunny and warm day, so walking around being the lost gringa wasn't so bad.

Last weekend I needed to get my ya-yas out and recruited my friends to go trekking with me to 'Cerro mauco' which a friend of mine had told me was a nice day hike. [Sambo is currently protesting my typing since he wants to nap in my lap/arms] The day before I went to Yoga in an attempt to get more exercise, and boy did I ever get exercise. All of the other people in the class were clearly practiced in the Yogic ways and were tied up like pretzels while the instructor was telling me to 'estirate, estirate!' 'stretch, stretch!' Lady, I'm stretching as far as I can.
Andres at the August 9th protest

Needless to say the walk up my hill afterwards was a bit of a struggle. Anyways, hiking the next day. I resisted going out even though there were two birthday parties, one for my cousin Pancho and one for my housemate Jorge, so that I could get up early and go. At 6am my friend texts me to say he, and our other friends aren't coming. At 10 I call Edwin and we decide to give it a go, and his polola Anto comes with. Long story short, we get on a bus and realize that we in fact have NO IDEA where we are going and end up getting off and taking another micro back where we came from, walking in the direction of 'hills', asking people directions and finally getting to the base of the cerro around 3pm. And then it started to rain.
Ultimate Jenga

We ended the day with empanadas in Con Con and me falling asleep on the bus back to Valpo. Successful day I'd say.
other highlights of the week:
Playing Jenga with Jorge and Carlos
Teaching Allan English
Volunteering at Salvation Army, met the most interesting and smart homeless people here. Since homelessness is a reality here it was really cool to be able to talk to some of the people I see on the streets every day. One man collects Hershey's Chocolate tins, he was very excited to hear that my grandparent's live by the factory in Pennsylvania :)
National protest on August 9th that was meant to be peaceful and show the government how serious everyone is, but per usual ended with tear gas and arrests. More pots and pans that night.
I made Thai food for my housemates, it was a hit. I think...

Sambo: I blame him for my inability to work.