Redemption

"People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed; never throw out anyone."
--Audrey Hepburn

After the primer ronda of debates in Antofagasta, in which my team resulted in fifth place, my co-teacher Oscar ensured that each day leading up to the segunda ronda would be spent in preparation. This meant that neither the kids, nor I, attended regular classes.  Instead, we spent Monday through Thursday morning formulating arguments, turning them into speeches, and drilling them into memory.  Rodrigo returned and promised that he had learned his lesson from the first round and proceeded to prove his renewed dedication by practicing his speeches with the group.  The topic of round two was "Chile should maintain its open door policy on immigration," which led to incredibly racist discussions by my group.  On Monday, I spent most of the day convincing the kids that they must argue about immigration for all nationalities, and not specifically Peruvians.  They, in turn, spent all day trying to convince me of how awful Peruvians are and why I should, like them, personally hate the entire population of Perú.  By Tuesday, they had been able to come up with coherent speeches that were only partially xenophobic.

For the second round, we kept Paulina and Rodrigo as our opening and closing speakers respectively, with each of them preparing both sides of the argument.  We then had Jorge and Hristo prepare for the opposition and Mena and Ivan prepare for the proposition. Daniza again helped by doing fantastic research as well as preparing speeches.  She valiantly combed through the mess of incoherent jargon that is the existing Chilean immigration policy pulling out the vital points on which we would form our assault (principally on the opposition side.)  I found them immigration statistics that, surprisingly, the Chilean government has posted online in impressive detail.
By Thursday, we were once again prepared as well as we could be, to include Rodrigo who had, as he promised, spent the week memorizing his speeches and reciting them to the group for critique and analysis.  We all walked to the bus station and once more took the three hour ride through the desert to the coast.  Once in Antofagasta, I put us on the only micro that didn't go directly by the hostel and we ended up having to walk a few blocks.  However, we arrived just in time to eat the depressing fare that was given to us as "supper."  After eating, we took a short walk down to the shore where Oscar and I drilled the kids and made last minute pronunciation adjustments.

In the first round, we had competed in the afternoon and had had ample time to observe the other teams and further practice.  The second round was different.  We were positioned in the morning session, and as the draw went, we were competing in the second bracket.  Thankfully, however, the Tocopilla team that had finished first in the primer ronda went in the first bracket and, as fortune would have it, bombed.  All the sass and charisma they had displayed in the first round was gone and the poor girls clearly struggled the entire time to recall their speeches.  On the flip side, Lorna's motley crew improved dramatically.  Oscar and I laughed as her kids recited their speeches (clearly and admittedly written by Lorna herself) in which they unknowingly, albeit passively, insulted their own country's food, culture, and ignorant bureaucracy.  Then it was Team Lucho's turn to take the stage.

We had once again drawn the opposition, and as such the same speakers alighted upon the stage (Paulina, Jorge, Hristo, and Rodrigo in that order.)  The proposition was a weak Antofagasta school with a volunteer I had not really met yet, but who I knew was originally from Russia (by way of Canada.) Both Oscar and I had encouraged the group to use the microphone this time, but Paulina was in the zone and forgot to grab one.  Thus she walked right up to the edge of the stage, front and center, and dove headfirst into her passionate plea for Chile to change it's policy.  She was even better than she had been in round one, nailing the high points and setting the stage for the rest of the team to shine again.  Jorge followed and also forgot the mic, but he spoke with strength and charisma as he had before.  He strutted the stage, directed his assault at the enemy, and implored the judges.  Most impressively however, was how he managed to imperceptibly recover when he forgot a large chunk in the middle of this speech.  Instead of standing open mouthed trying to recall the information, he simply improvised a few lines and jumped ahead to what he could remember.  No one even noticed.  Hristo followed hard and fast, and he too upped his game.  He was pitch perfect, and had the entire auditorium laughing along with his exaggerated and smarmy delivery.  Though it really didn't matter, the other team was completely demoralized by the time Hristo returned to his seat.

We were once again given ten minutes to confer with our final speaker, and this time I could tell that Rodrigo was holding it together.  He was still nervous, but he planned to use the podium which (in light of the circumstances) Oscar and I both agreed was a good idea.  When it was his turn to speak, I watched on with my stomach in knots.  Because he was behind the podium, he had a mic and his fake British accent boomed out across the room as he opened with his joke.  As the laughter of the crowd (those who got the joke at least) subsided, Rodrigo went on to prove himself.  He powered through his speech with perfect timing and pronunciation, making it seem as though we was simply, and effortlessly having a discussion with the crowd.  The night before, he had come to me and very maturely apologized for his previous behaviour, and promised me he had learned the lesson that public humiliation had taught him.  That day, as he finished his speech and applause swept the room, it was clear that his words had been heartfelt and truthful and that he had indeed redeemed himself in everyday.  Our team finished with the highest score that morning.  With the scores from both rounds added together, we were a solid third over all.  After seeing Rodrigo perform at the fullness of his capabilities, I knew that we belonged in first--and would have been there otherwise.  No other team had exhibited the charisma and heart that Lucho had shown.  The other teams that made the cut had simply repeated memorized speeches.  Lucho had debated.

In the end, we only had to make the top eight teams to qualify to compete in the final.  The other seven included Ryan's school, which finished sixth, along with the other schools that had 8 Month volunteers (coincidence?).  The final takes place on the 5th of November (Guy Faulks Day).