Spring Time in Chile

PHOTO ALBUM 1: Camilo's Birthday Party (link)
PHOTO ALBUM 2: Experimenta AIESEC Viña (link)


I returned to Chile to start classes back up and to meet our second trainee that arrived to Viña from Brazil. He was doing a DT in a local NGO working on the professionalization of the NGO, Cotra (link). I ended up taking the classes of Development Psychology, Political and Social Themes of Contemporary Chile, Cultural Anthropology, Latin American Short Stories, and Mountain Sports at the Pontificie Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (link). They worked out pretty well. This was also a time of many strikes from elementary and middle school teachers who were not happy with the salary that they were receiving. This is really bad for the children because they cannot go to school because there are no teachers. Elections of the student federation for 2010 were being held around this time where there were all out campaigns to be elected. They would go into each and every class and do a presentation to the class about why they should be the leaders of the federation. The culture of the classroom is very different than what I am accustomed to in the United States. There is much more of a relaxed atmosphere, the classes are canceled much more often without notice, the classes are more democratic about when we are going to take the tests, and every time someone enters the class late, the whole class erupts in an Ooooooooo starting at a low tone and going up. My Development Psychology professor uses anecdotal stories for each and everything that he teaches. The girl in my class gave that birth in September serves as the reference for things we are learning in class about the behavior of newborns. Sex education hardly does not exist in a country that is guided by the Catholic ideology. If you want to avoid STDs or pregnancy, abstinence is the only way to go. As seen in the United States as well as Chile, this teaching ideology serves not to reduce pregnancy rates but rather only to increase them it seems. The cafeterias within the university are run by contracted external business but do not have a brand name at all. Real coffee does not exist. Everything is powdered coffee with hot water added. Lunch foods at the university are mainly hotdogs.

I ride a Mercedes Benz to school everyday. Not what you normally think of but it's a Mercedes Benz nonetheless (link). It’s the type of buses that are used by the city’s public transportation. The public transportation is privatized to companies that have the best bid for the government. My host dad works for a company that bids to run the parking meters of the city each year. They are always coming up with bids to take on the running of different government operations. Privatization: Crazy.