Validation

Debaters and winners all...just some more than others.

"Win as if you were used to it; lose as if you enjoyed it for a change."
-Ralph Waldo Emmerson

Thursday afternoon, the fourth of November saw me waking up and scrambling down to the Teatro Municpal in the center of Calama City.  The English Teacher's network in town was putting on a muestra, or a show of talent in English.  Many of the schools were participating, to include Luis Cruz Martinez, and the volunteers were expected to be there to judge the performances.  I dutifully showed up and cast my votes that morning as kids struggled to sings songs, act out skits, and recite poetry (to include an absolute mutilation of Robert Frost's "The Road Less Travel.")  It was, unequivocally, a waste of my time.  Meanwhile, my debate team was assembling at the school to do some last minute practice.

All of Team Lucho gathered later that afternoon at the main bus terminal to catch a ride to Antofagsta, just as we had twice before.  However, this time, I was not excited.  The school had refused to support our efforts, and as such I was painfully aware that my team was not nearly as prepared as they needed to be or even had been before the last competition.  The debate finale would cover both previous topics, which was an ill-advised mandate leaving my best kids with the responsibility of memorizing four different arguments; pro and con for both themes. For reasons I never came to understand, I could not motivate Mena or Ivan to share the workload so as to take pressure off of Jorge and Hristo. Thus, by the time we arrived once more at Casa Codelco, neither of them had anything prepared, and it didn't t look like they were ever going to.  Since all that was left for the kids to do was memorize and practice, I didn't feel like my presence that night was relevant.  Lorna came by after her classes and we went to see Ben Affleck's The Town, which I had been eagerly awaiting for some time.  The film didn't disappoint, and I returned to the hostel that night thinking that the movie might be the highlight of the trip.

The semi-final round of the debates started early on Friday morning, with all eight teams assembled in the auditorium of the Fundación Minera Escondia.  A sorting was held and each team was assigned a topic, a position, and an opponent.  We were praying to get pro on either topic, both of which we were satisfactorily  set to argue, but if we drew con on the "Immigration" theme, we were effectively screwed.  Long story short, we drew exactly that.  Not only did we draw the topic and position worst for our team, but we also ended up having to go first.  Our opponent was Ryan's school, and Rio (our regional coordinator and a former volunteer herself) came up to us and smiled telling Ryan and I to shake hands.  Ivan was supposed to be our third speaker, but of course he was absolutely unprepared and I was forced to send Hristo up.  He had nothing to go on but his memory, a few notes from his old speech, and his ability to converse freely in English. I figured that the lid had been nailed onto the coffin and we were as good as buried..  Thus, the same four team members ascended the stage and debated while I sat by and grimaced at the thought of having to admit defeat to Ryan.

In reality, I had little cause to be concerned.  My team was drilled, and they were sharp.  I should never have doubted their performance, because as soon as Paulina stepped up and fired the opening salvo it became clear that even an under-practiced Lucho was still a tornado of talent.  Paulina's opening was as impassioned and clearly delivered as ever, and she didn't miss a single beat.  Then Jorge stood up and made use of the podium this time, assuming a casual air as he perfectly articulated his points as though he'd been discoursing in English from s stage his entire life.  Ryan's team, by contrast, stuttered and drew blanks, and displayed an overall lack of public-speaking ability.  Jorge and Paulina had executed their parts perfectly, and I knew that Rodrigo would come through, but Hristo was a wild card.  By no fault of his own, he was thrown up on stage comparatively ill-prepared.  He too used the podium, because I had told him that if all else failed to simply read from his old speech.  However, to his infinite credit, he mostly spoke from memory.  Before the first debate, I had taught the team a handful of keywords, and it paid off.  Hristo threw out every one he could think off, combining them with ideas taken from Paulina and Jorge's speeches and a few lines he pulled and adapted from his con argument for street dogs.  He repeated things like "it is erroneous to believe", "this is fallacy", "how can we belive these erroneous ideas", etc.  In the end, what he offered wasn't much of an argument, but it well-spoken, cleverly improvised, and convincing.  Finally, Rodrigo took his place at the podium, opened with another well-received joke, and proceeded to summarize Team Lucho's position with a confident and deft handling of both the material and the language.  I told him later that the Rodrigo I'd seen during the first debate and the one I saw that day at the finals were completely unrecognizable.  All told, despite our handicap, Luis Cruz Martinez gave a fine showing and handily beat Ryan's school.

The next three match-ups passed quickly, with our arch-rivals Lazaetta (the Catholic school from Calama where Mary is a volunteer) finally showing their inherent weakness.  North College also flopped after a valiant showing.  That left Sagrada Famila, San Jose, and Marta Narea (Matt's school) all strong contenders for the final round.  There was a brief intermission for snacks after the semi-final and then we all reconvened in the auditorium to hear the scores read.  I was fairly confident after watching all the matches that Lucho would make it through to the final throwdown, but it was still an electric atmosphere waiting to hear the numbers tallied.  The results were San Jose, Sagrada Famila, Marta Narea, and Luis Cruz Martinez.  Paulina was practically in tears as they called our name.  Ryan simply shrugged and gave me a congratulatory handshake, admitting that his team had totally let him down and that mine had done better, clearly deserving to advance.
Another sorting was held and once again my team was set to go first.  The opponent was Sagrada Famila and the topic was once again immigration.  Then, to the complete surprise of no one, we drew con a second time.  Both teams were effectively going to have to do the same exact debate they had done in the first round that morning.  The event organizers from the Fundación were justing going to let that roll saying, "Es un sorteo" with a shrug.  Thankfully for everyone, the judges intervened and suggested that we change things up.  After much discussion between the teachers of both schools, the judges, and the organizers it was decided that both teams were to switch positions, but still argue the Immigration topic.  Secretly, this is exactly what my team wanted.

Unlike in the semi-finals, Team Lucho was prepared to battle when they went up against Sagrada Famila.  It was an even match, but I must say that Paulina and Rodrigo both delivered their best performances.  They somehow managed to reach down inside themselves and pull out debaters that seemed for all the world skilled professionals.  Jorge and Hristo both managed to top themselves as well.  Jorge had an incredibly tight argument and he fired it at Sagrada Famila without a hint of pronunciation error.  Hristo was more prepared the second time around, and he was able to forgo the podium and prance around the stage with his signature charisma.  Unfortunately, and I don't know how I didn't catch it beforehand, his argument was weak and filled more with jokes than with facts.  At one point, he said the following,
"As real live immigrant, John Ford Milton once said 'Immigration is vital to the lifeblood of a country.'" I had jokingly handed him that quote because I couldn't find one to fit his speech, and he busted it out as though it was gospel.  I was amused, and the judges obviously didn't catch it, but I'm sure it didn't do us any favors.
Sagrada Famila was equal to Lucho in skill and English-speaking ability, though simply based on performance I would have put Lucho over them.  My kids were enjoying themselves, and actually winning over the crowd.

The final match-up of Matt's school, Marta Narea, and San Jose (a self proclaimed "English school") was definitively one-sided.  San Jose dominated and because of which, they ended up winning first place over all.  They were all girls, who spoke nearly perfect English and had sound, fact-filled arguments.  However, they lacked personality and their performance, though excellent, certainly wasn't memorable.  Probably due to the weakness of Hristo's argument, we ended up being beat by Sagrada Famila by a very, very slim margin.  Thus, Team Lucho ended its improbable run in third place, which by all rights is an extremely impressive accomplishment.  We beat every school in Calama--public and private--and were the only public school to make it into the top three.  My team had received no support from the school and had virtually pulled victory from the jaws of defeat based solely on their merit as individuals (and considerable help from a certain "real live immigrant.")  Each of the winning teams was called up on stage and presented with medals (made out of copper, of course) to keep, a trophy for the school, and a prize (fancy cell phones for third, digital cameras for second, iPods for first.)  I too was awarded a medal for my efforts, though I didn't get a prize.  However, the most important thing Team Lucho's victory afforded was the ability for me to bring you this image:

Calama, you have your gringo champion.

Team Lucho winning third place was by far the culmination of my efforts as a volunteer in Calama.  The victory was a very visible validation of my time as an English teacher.  I got to see real development in the English skills of a group of kids who actually cared enough to learn, to take advantage of my presence.  Especially in Rodrigo, who was already better at English than I may ever be in Spanish, I had the pleasure of witnessing a maturation and an increase of character; a change far beyond language skill acquisition.  I can leave Calama honestly knowing that my time was well spent, and that lives were affected for the better because God saw fit to dump me off in the desert for a spell.  I realize too that such results are not common, and that many of my volunteer compatriots will no doubt never have the same blessing of seeing actual fruits of their labours.  For this, and for many other things, I consider myself fortunate and ultimately give the credit to the Lord because I know that I personally would have cut and run at the first opportunity otherwise (and tried to, from the school at least), and thereby would have missed getting to join my kids on stage as victors.