Calama

Giving a good face to Calama

I was met at the bus station in Calama by my new host sisters, Ximena and Karina who are seventeen and fifteen respectively. Ximena came over to me I was unloading my bags and said, "are you Yohn?" When I said yes she smiled and said, "Oh, good. I am so nervous."

Ximena, who later asked me to call her simply Mena because "it's much nicer", speaks the best English out of anyone I've met yet in Calama, save for maybe one of the teachers. For this transitional period, having her around has been very helpful as she also is a student at my school. Besides translating for me in certain sticky situations we have begun a relationship where I improve her English and she attempts to improve my Spanish--no small feat. Karina on the other hand, speaks no English nor does her mother, also Ximena, or her father, Raul. Ximena Grande, as she jokingly called herself is a wonderful host mother, and having raised three boys already (the youngest, Pancho, is in university in Valparaiso) she is excellent at anticipating my needs (today she washed my clothes) and more or less forcing me to eat all the time. Raul...well, he drove me home from the bus station, showed me my bathroom and told me simply to "apague la luz" (turn of the light.) He works in the mines, which are two hours away, so I haven't really seen him much since,
There is also a mangy dog that the women love named mota (which is a brand name in Chile and not slang for marijuana).

I have my own room with a bunk bed (who wants to come visit?!), and a bathroom for myself that is in an odd location outside the back door. Ximena (henceforth referred to simply as my host mom) won't let me go out there, or anywhere for that matter, without shoes on because she is certain I will get sick. I must shower at night for the same reason. Here in Chile, showers are warmed using what they call a calefont (easy to see the root words there), which is (in most cases) a gas-powered water heater that must be lit and turned on at least five minutes prior to showering. I've heard there exist electric ones, and some that stay on constantly. Our particular calefont is solar powered, but you still have to light a pilot...so, maybe something is getting lost in translation here.
I've noticed that, and Mena has proudly confirmed such, Calama is attempting to implement a lot of solar technology. This makes perfect sense since it is sunny here todos los dias. Maybe two days or so out of the year are there clouds, as I gather from what everyone says to me.

Calama is pretty much a dust bowl. Outside of the "city" there is nothing. The one bright spot is the Rio Loa that flows through the southern part of town, just around the corner from my house. They have a nice park there and I took a couple of good photos the first day.

The Loa is the reason Calama exists, as this was a miniature oasis that the original miners used as their base camp. It has since then grown into a rather dirty little city that looks virtually the same anywhere you go. The sunsets are spectacular though, and at night the skies are so clear that the abundance of celestial bodies visible to the naked eye is breathtaking.
And there are dogs.
As with most of the other major cities in Chile, strays roam everywhere. They go where they please, crap where they please, harass whomever they please, bark at all ungodly hours of the night, etc. I'm fairly certain Mota was a stray that just decided to stay at the house, and the family took her in since she is white and most all other strays are a khaki brown.

The reality of Calama.

Oh, and there is a mall and movie theater that are the pride of the city (called MallPlaza, their signs reads "Mas, Cerca, Tuyo" or "more, close, yours"), complete with the South American version of Wal-Mart known here are Lider ("Leeder"). I took a stroll through and was thoroughly impressed. The theater is playing Clash of the Titans--pardon, Furia de Titanes--so I hope it is simply subtitled so I can watch it. Though perhaps with such a film you don't really need to know what they are saying.

Next up: My school and the problems that began one day one.