Región Dos Represent

"Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right;
Let's get together and feel all right."
--Bob Marley 

I arrived from my long journey back from the States on a Wednesday around lunch time.  I slept most of that day, and woke wearily to teach my first class in nearly two weeks.  The kids were happy to see me, and because my mind was still exhausted from my travels, I ran through a simple poem with them. Since the whole point of being a volunteer in Chilean schools is to actually get kids using the language, I find that things like simple rhymes are more effective then elaborately constructed lessons designed to enforce grammar or what-have-you.  There is nothing quite so satisfying as rapping up a class and actually having many of your students be able to recite the poem from memory.  After class, I ran around the school searching out my teachers and certain students trying to get caught up on everything I'd fallen behind with because of my absence.  I quickly figured out though that, as I had suspected, nothing was really going on. The debates are coming up at the end of September, and as such I had to register my team, but other than that it was as if I had never been gone.

Once I had everything in place, I buggered off back to the house and ate with Ximena, then went about packing things again for my trip that night back to Antofagasta; I had just been through the capital of the region the day before on my way back to Calama.  The reason for such a quick return was a ceremony and lunch that the Fundacion Minera Escondia was putting on for all the volunteers in the Antofagasta region.  Now that all of the various groups (year, 8 month, six month, five month, and four month) had arrived, it was time to bring us all together.  When I arrived Thursday night, the total of volunteers was at 38, but by Friday morning that number had dropped to 36.  I know this because we were standing outside Casa Codelco (the hostal they always put us up in) when the only two Calama volunteers I hadn't met came out toting loads of gear.  Apparently the two individuals were a couple who had come down together, had a rough go of it, and decided to bail.  Thus it was hello/goodbye forever all in the span of five minutes.

Courtesy of Mary Scallion

The ceremony was very formal, and mercifully quick.  We were all called on stage and presented a certificate and a notebook with an engraved copper binding (naturally).  Then, after a brief interlude in an exhibit of Picasso facsimiles that I still do not understand, we were taken next door to a fantastic restaurant and fed the most amazing meal I have yet had in this country.  I was given a plate with an enormous side of beef (short-rib) that had been slow roasted to perfection and actually seasoned with rosemary.  I was not even aware that Chileans knew of the existence of rosemary to be perfectly honest.  After the lunch, we were finished with our program duties for the weekend but as so many of us were together we decided to stay the weekend.  Our friend Peter, the Slovakian, had come all the way up from Coquimbo and we were obligated to show him everything that the seaside desert Paradise of Antofagasta had to offer.  First, we spent the day on the little man-made beach where the weather was exceptional and the water gorgeous.  However, the wind was such that even though the water was bearable, getting out was not.  Thus Lorna and I were the only ones who braved the seas.  It felt good to finally swim in the ocean after so long (it has been a year), and I was, in the moment in which I floated gently in the crystal waters of the pacific, utterly content. 
Having Peter with us also meant I finally got out to see La Portada, which is a giant naturally formed rock arch out in the ocean that serves as the symbol for Antofagasta.  Matt came with Peter, Ryan, and I as did Cameron, who is an enormous and extremely genial black man from Chicago who was a volunteer back in 2007 and now lives and works out of Calama where he goes around to the tiny desert towns to teach English.  He seems to know everybody, and we couldn't walk five feet in any direction in Antofagasta without him stopping to talk with an acquaintance.  To be fair, he is unmistakable.

It's really just a big rock with a hole in it.

I will now take a moment to elaborate extensively, and unnecessarily about my eating experiences. The day after our incredible, free meal at the expense of the Fundacion, a group of us found ourselves at a pizza place called Mundo pizza.  As I am seldom impressed with Chilean attempts at other country's cuisine, it is worth noting that Mundo pizza was delightful.  The pies were all themed by different countries and we decided on a half Peru, half Ecuador (since they are neighbors) and a half Argentina, half Germany (since all those Nazis fled to Argentina after the war.) Out of the four, the Argentina/Germany was agreed to be best, with strong favoritism toward the Argentine half.  That night, and the next afternoon as well, we ate at an amazing empanada joint where I sampled different kinds of fried empanadas filled with cheese and seafood (such as crab, shrimp, and a scallop-type mollusk called an ostion.)  Sunday was again spent at the beach, until Ryan and I finally bid goodbye to Mike, Peter, and Cameron (the only ones left by then) and dragged our butts back to the bus station to ride home to Calama.  Before leaving though, we stopped by McDonalds where I tried the "hamburger of the bicentennial" which was topped with tomato, mayo, and the Chilean equivalent to pico de gallo known here as pebre. 

The only downside to the weekend was our having to pay for lodging, which proved to be more expensive than anywhere I've yet been in South America.  The first night we remained in Casa Codelco in the rooms were had already been given, but on Saturday we were given the boot to accommodate a hoard of Argentinians.  We ended finding a room with three beds that four of us shared in a hostel that was also a Chinese restaurant.  Two of the beds were double and had only a box spring and thus were really no better then sleeping on the floor.  I finally experienced a bit of good fortune and scored a single bed with an actual mattress.  Monday it was back to teaching.