Run, Don't Walk

2/9/08 – 7/9/08
Haven’t written in several days because we started class and I’ve been pretty busy getting used to the new schedule. I’ve been living with my host family for a week now, and things finally seem to be settling in. I spend 4 hours a day in Spanish classes, and then depending on the day, I either have seminars at one of the universities in Valparaiso, field study seminars, or I do community work. I’m working for a group that is helping families who live in “a toma” or who we would call squatters. We are working in a community that lives way at the top of one of the hills. All of the “houses” are just one room boxes, and there isn’t electricity or running water. I’ll try to take some pictures, but it isn’t really the place to go flashing around a nice camera, which actually holds true for my neighborhood too. Our goal is to install a dry toilet or outhouse and to build a wood oven for one of the families. I’m really looking forward to getting started on the projects next week, the people we are working with are supernice (they like to attach super to lots of words here), and the work should be fun as well.

Like many other cities around the world, Valparaiso has a huge dog problem. They are literally everywhere. It’s really sad, but at the same time there isn’t much you can do when you are walking down the street. The scariest part, is that for many of the dogs, their favorite thing to do is to chase cars. There will literally be packs running at full speed in major streets trying to bite the cars. Inevitably, many of the dogs I see walking around have distinct limps, that I can only assume from getting hit by a car. The only slightly amusing part, is the other night Catherine and I were sitting in the plaza by her house pretty late, and the dogs that live in that plaza had wrapped it up for the day. Most were sleeping in the street, which they also do during the day, but every once in a while, one of the dogs would sleepily get up and give a pseudo attempt at biting the cars that were passing by.

Friday night we went out to one of the more popular clubs in town, El Huevo (The Egg). I took a collectivo (fixed route taxi) from my house down to the plaza. I live pretty close to the top of the cerro, and we were driving along the top when we came across another collectivo driver who was broken down on the side of the road. He flagged us down, and began to discuss what he should do with our driver. All of a sudden, he yells out “Push me!” So we did. He gets back in his car, pops it into neutral, and my driver proceeds to start driving forward until he is pushing the other collectivo with his car. He does this, uphill by the way, for the next 50 meters or so until we reach the section of the road where it starts heading downhill. The other driver then coasted the rest of the way down, and we were on our way. It was by far one of the funniest things I’ve witnessed in a long time; the driver, the one other passenger, and I were all dying laughing the entire time. We got to El Huevo and it was pretty cool. It has about 5 floors I think, and each floor plays a different type of music. We eventually worked our way up to the roof terrace where there was salsa. A class started shortly after we showed up so we did that for a while, which was pretty fun and hard at the same. I would like to do it again, so I may one day actually be able to dance. Maybe…

Chile has many cultural eccentricities. One of them is the Walk/Don’t Walk signs. There is nothing different between the ones here and the ones in the states, except for that right before the walk sign changes to don’t walk, it begins to flash. At first we didn’t realize that it only flashed for about 3 seconds, and we ended up getting caught in the middle of an intersection. Since they are so short, the flashing sign becomes a signal for people to just start running. Countless times I’ve approached an intersection, seen the walk sign start to flash, and then, simultaneously, everybody close enough starts sprinting across the intersection. It’s quite ridiculous looking but fun to do.

I’ve mentioned them before, but kites are HUGE here. Apparently September is the month that is best for kite flying because the wind is good, and they associate them with their Independence Day (Sep. 18). The kids here fly them all day, literally. Not only that, but they do battles. They grind up glass and put it on their strings. Once they have their kites in the air, they proceed to try to manipulate the kites to dive across, up, and down in hopes of slashing the other kites line with their own. The goal being to cut the other kite’s line. It’s illegal here, but the kids and some of the adults on my cerro did it for hours straight today. Apparently they have actual competitions once it gets close to independence day, and there is at least one story every year of some kid getting slashed by one of the lines and seriously injuring himself. In fact, according to my uncle, someone died recently because the line caught them around their neck. Nevertheless, it is a fascinating aspect of culture and a sight to behold. Tomorrow is the Chile versus Brazil soccer game, and I'm going to go over to my extended family's house to watch. The entire country is getting into a frenzy over it.

Kite running...
Take down. Most happen way high up, but this was right at street level.