Semana+3


 * Sábado, 16 de octubre**

After a late night everyone slept in - except for Raúl**.** Sylvia had private classes to attend to in the morning so the rest of us did some housework and then I read in the sun until it got too hot. It was a lovely sunny day for a change. In the afternoon we did some food shopping at the local supermarket and I tried to get the ingredients for making biscotti for dessert for the asado with friends that evening. I couldn´t find any chocolate chips, cashew nuts or other things that I usually use so I ended up buying a block of chocolate to grate with the grater we had bought on Friday at the big Jumbo hypermarket. So I made the biscotti but had a bit of a problem with the gas oven. Although I was used to cooking with gas when I lived in France in the ´70s, I´m certainly out of practice now! The biscotti didn´t turn out quite like they do at home but they went down well later that evening when accompanied by the Columbian coffee I got at the Jumbo to go in the plunger I bought in a wonderful store of household knick knacks in the same complex called " Casa Ideas". Most people seem to use Nescafé here but the coffee in the cafés is very good.

Some friends came over for the asado - two other couples and their teenage daughters. Last Saturday I had been to the First Communion party of one of them. We ate outside but eventually it got too chilly and we came into the house. It was a very pleasant evening but was another late night.


 * Domingo, 17 de octubre**

Poor Raúl had to get up to go to work once again but the rest of us had a lazy morning. After lunch Diego and I got a micro to Machalí. We went as far as the foot of the Cerro San Juan where I had been for dinner on Friday night. Then we walked up a track up the hill until we came to a lake where we hired a rowboat and Diego rowed us around the lake. We got a bit splashed at times but at least he managed not to drown us! It was a lovely day and much hotter up the mountain than down where we live so it was very pleasant on the water. After that Diego had a go on a climbing wall and then we bought ice-creams to cool us down. Diego had a ride on a quad bike next which was both fun and exciting for him. After that we wandered down the hill to Machalí township where I took some photos in the town square. It is a quaint little place, although there is quite a lot of evidence from the earthquake. The government provided small, simple, pre-fabricated houses which were set up on the properties of those whose homes were inhabitable. We got the micro back home about 7pm feeling really hot and weary from being out in the hot sun.


 * Lunes, 18 de octubre**

This morning we had an exceptionally early start as Sylvia needed to drive me to Marcia´s to get a ride to her school - El Instituto Inglés. I spent part of a day there in my first week but I didn´t work with students then. From 8.00 to 8.10 they have a form period there and then the classes begin. I had a Year 9 English class to start with, folllowed by a Year 4 class. They were very excitable and noisy and required quite a bit of control. I did some activities with them which worked reasonably well. It´s hard to prepare appropriate activities as I don´t know what they actually know in the junior classes since we don´t teach languages seriously at that level. I had a brief visit to another group of littlies - Year 5s - before going to address a group of 4 Medio (Year 13). They were aged 17 and 18 and their level of English was very good. We talked about the differences between life in NZ and life in Chile. There was an Australian exchange student in the class so we engaged in some friendly rivalry.

I went home for lunch - Sylvia picked me up from the Instituto Inglés. After lunch I went to Saint John´s with her to work with the PET group who are preparing to take the Cambridge English Test.


 * Martes, 20 de octubre**

I was at Saint John´s all day today. The first class was Historia with 1 Medio (Year 10) and Ingrid, their teacher. They did "lectura silenciosa" to start with and we compared city life between Chile and NZ. Partway through the session we went to the computer lab (sala de computación) where I showed them the Wiki and also the MHS web site. One girl was clever enough to get the site translated into Spanish through Google Chrome. It was funny reading about something so familiar in Spanish. I was amused to see Briar March as Briar de Marzo as you usually leave proper nouns as they are when translating.

The second class was with English with Julieta. We also went to the computer lab. The third session was with Paola. She had 2 Medio (Year 11) for English and we discussed the environment which was interesting as we had done that topic in the Year 12 and 13 Spanish class this year. They were interested to hear about what we do to protect the environment at Massey High and in promoting recycling through the community.

School finished early as there was a talk by a priest from the University about Parents as first educators at 6pm. He spoke very well and I could understand him quite easily. Prior to the talk a student I had worked with earlier in the day talking about future plans and who had said he wanted to be a concert violinist with an orchestra played two pieces on the violin. I had told him when he was famous I would come back to Chile and expect free tickets to a concert he was playing. I did not expect to get my wish so soon!


 * Miércoles, 21 de octubre**

This morning I had English with Sylvia´s 5 Básico (Year 6). They were studying Daily Routine and pronoun objects. For the second session I went with Diego´s class to Art. The class was in a small room at the back of the gym - very much a make do affair. The art teacher, Carlos, must be a very organised person as there was surprising little mess with so much material having to be stored in so little space. The students were making mini looms to weave bracelets or something like that on. They had to supply all their own materials.

After that I trotted off to the market again. I indulged in buying some more gigantic strawberries and asparagus. Wish I could bring some home!

That evening the family went to a local Chinese restaurant as it got very late to start preparing dinner because we had some unexpected visitors. They were a family with one daughter going on the trip to the State with Sylvia in January next year and so there were visa issues to sort out for her and another coming to Auckand early next year to spend 8 months there studying English on the EF programme. She´ll living in a student residence in the university area but I hope to see a bit of her and be there for her if she needs any help.


 * Jueves, 22 de octubre**

Today I had a different experience as I went with Paola to another school where she teaches one day a week. It was in a poorer area of Rancagua, some distance away from Saint John´s. We drove through an area badly affected by the earthquake. The housing was something similar to state housing where people are assisted to buy their flats in low rise appartment buildings. They are all empty now. The inhabitants were moved into camps - like shanty towns. I don´t know how they survived the winter there. However, they have been moved elsewhere now. The school is called Colegio de las Raíces and only has two classes - Kinder (5 year olds)and Pre-Kinder (4 year olds). Paola´s sister and brother-in-law own it which is why we she goes there to teach English. the school is semi-private, being subsidised by the state. The children are transported to school free and fed there at lunchtime before they go home as they come from disadvantaged backgrounds. I worked with the Pre-Kinder first. There were only 12 children and they were really cute.They loved my kiwi puppet. I told them a story about a Maori myth in Spanish and English called the Battle of the Mountains. They later drew a mountain in the colour of their choice according to the story and I named them and put a kiwi sticker on the top of their mountains.

I did much the same thing after the break with the Kinder children. There were 26 of them.

Then we went back to Saint John´s doing a tiki tour through some poor areas on the way. There is a much bigger gap between the haves and have-nots here. The poor live in shacks that are barely standing up. There is no Social Welfare to rescue them. Back at Saint John´s I went with Julieta again. She had a 7 Básico class (Year 8) that I hadn´t met before Raúl came to collect Diego and me as Sylvia needed to stay until later. For lunch we had asparagus with mayonnaise followed by hamburger patties with mashed potatoes and salads of celery and of lettuce. The salads are most often dressed with lemon juice, olive oil and salt. For dessert Raúl grated some apples and mixed them with vanilla yogurt and sprinkled cinnamon on top. It was really yummy!

I did some gardening in the afternoon after lunch - about 5pm ish. The sun was still really hot as it was a sunny day today. The ground was really hard as it doesn´t rain much here. I haven´t seen any rain since I arrived - not that I´ve missed it! In the meantime Diego and Raúl took the puppies to have their tails cut off poor wee things! I cooked dinner tonight - a fish dish that is popular with my family and Diego made a fruit salad for dessert.


 * Viernes, 23 de octubre**

My first class was purely observation with Joana. She had 3 Básico (Year 4) and they were learning about places around town with there is a/ there are lots of/ many. The second session was with Sylvia and 4 Básico. They were studying comparing adjectives. For the third session I went to Kinder with Joana. They were also studying places in town - hospital and fire-station. There were 27 little ones and Joanna mainly used English with them. Towards the end I introduced them to Kiwi and he had a chat to them asking them their names. They all loved him. I´ve noticed that the little ones have hardly any Spanish accent with their English so it obviously pays dividends to start teaching them a foreign language while they are very young. Joana is a very enthusiastic and energetic teacher. The kids respond really well to her. She uses a lot of repetition - both aural and oral.

My farewell dinner with the AFS Rancagua Volunteer Committee was that evening at a Chinese restaurant. First of all we went to Yelda´s house. I hadn´t met her previously as her mother is sick and she had been tied up with her. Marcia and Vivi met us there. They had to finish off a poster about their AFS chapter´s activities for the conference next weekend. Yelda served us tea or coffee and a delicious cake with raspberries on top. After that we went to the restaurant where we met up with Ana Luisa. We had a very nice meal there. The menu included some dishes you might recognise: chaufán, chapsui, chaumín and wantan. It was a lovely evening and I enjoyed being with these special friends whom I met on my first night in Machalí. They gave me some lovely silver earrings as a farewell gift. I hope to see them in NZ one day. We had such fun together that I really look forward to being able to spend more time with them in the future.