Elaboration

To elaborate a bit and to fulfill two of my promises, I figured I would take advantage of a lazy Sunday after my youth group (we talked about upcoming encuentro juvenil activities and the order of the liturgy - and things went smoothly, which was nice after the group split in two because of my other two co-leaders not being able to work together).

So first of all, the Fiestas de las Cruces in which my community mates did the whole dress-up-and-dance-with-a-group (see picture) thing was an incedible experience. On a side note, incredible is a word I catch myself using a lot here (increible). Anyhoo, it basically involved them dancing for long stretches of time (but the morenada dance is a very easy and not so tiring dance), all of us recieving food and bastante beer (at one point, a truck pulled up an unloaded fifty cases of beer that someone was giving as a gift to the padrino of the party. What I really enjoyed the most was the spirit of camaraderie and sharing that penetrated everything. People just had fun, talked for long hours, danced, watched others danced, listened to the band and just generally enjoyed life. The darker side I guess would be that drinking within this context is not just to enhance the enjoyment or to be social - for many, it is to get to the point where they are no longer in control of themselves. This leads to such problems as drunk driving - I, for example, tried to stop a random guy I saw getting on his motorcycle and tipping back and forth as he tried to drive away. I failed in preventing him from driving off drunk, though my friends said they saw him the next day (so at least he survived).

On a little bit less of a mixed note, Chile was a great trip and I loved getting a new stamp on my passport (it helps my little jokes that I am making my way south down the continent - the first country in SA that I ever visited was Colombia, then Ecuador, now Peru and Chile). Arica is right on the beach and has the aura of a beach town. The houses are all low and many are brightly colored (in some ways, it reminded me of Florida in this sense). It has its huge supermarket - and I later found out that the chain is in fact owned by Walmart since this past January. It has a nice strip right in the middle that is closed off the cars and ends in a McDonalds and Blockbuster (oh my god!). I shared the experience with Nate and my host family, and we probably walked over five miles all told in the day (wowy). But it did finish with a stop in an artesanal ice cream shop where we had some sick dessert and cracked open a bottle of beer - which was a great relaxing way to end the day.

On a last, completely random note, this song has made many many many appearances in my life here recently. I´ll leave it to you to figure out: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1328k_boy-george-karma-chameleon_music

Birthday and Continuous Parties

Lately, everything has seemed like it has been celebrations after celebrations. At times, I wonder how all of this celebration (and along with it partying, at times a bit of drinking - though mostly tasty homemade wine, and generally not working as much) fits in with my mission here, but I keep telling myself that I just need to enjoy the good times and embrace all of the cultural experiences that come with it.

My birthday went really well and I probably danced for about 5 hours. We had an afternoon party up in this chacra-farm and danced there. Then we had to end that to go to dance practice for the traditional cumbia dance that we performed at the big school party day on Saturday here at the school that is in the community where the JVI house is (this school is called Miguel Pro). From there, we went to a bar to drink a bit and then to a night club where we danced even more. I probably have danced more in the last five days then in the five years before it. Tiring, but fun for sure.

Saturday brought the birthday party of one of the volunteers who is leaving and the evening brought some cake baking and learning different dances and dancing around with the host family on their patio. There is one ridiculous one that is african influenced (I think) and is basically hips in and out and hands pumping the air - I definitely look the most ridiculous trying that one.

Sunday was the day of the big school party here and our traditional dance went off pretty well. I promise at some point to have pictures up from it (though I am finding it frustraitingly hard to get photos online). We did our little dance and then in the evening danced a whole bunch more when we were invited to the Promocion of the seniors (which is kind of like a mix of graduation ceremony and prom).

On a more reflective note, I have been noticing some of the growing pains of culture shock. I love the host family I am with and am really grateful for everything they do for me (and all the good times they are showing me), but am also starting to notice all the little things and how much they annoy me at times. Everything from how they taunt me about any mention of any female (long story, but trust me, it was nothing at all to do with a relationship and it was real frustrating to get it constantly from them) to how they tend to repeat a lot of times what I just finished saying without actually listening to it or how they call me Gabrielito all the time (especially annoying when they have nothing to say and just go ¨Gabrielito¨in this real cutsy voice). It feels a little nice right now to be able to just vent a bit, but like I said, I am very grateful and they have been awesome. For instance, after the dance, they were cool with taking me to the nicer chicken place in the center again so that this time I could try anticucho (cow´s heart). Man, that´s some tasty tasty grilled meat - probably my favorite.

I guess I just have to keep that in mind - new cultural experiences have to have their ups and downs and that even during the lows, those awesome moments that I would never have otherwise will return.