Hello Everyone!
Quick travel update. Can't talk long because I'm using someone else's computer and I'm leaving for a tour in about 45 mins. Well, my plans have changed a little bit! After spending 2 nights in Calama I took a bus to San Pedro de Atacama. That day I booked a 3-day jeep tour of the Bolivian Altiplano including the Salar de Uyuni salt flats. It was an amazing experience and I have some pretty awesome pictures, but I won't be able to upload them until I get back. Anyways, the original plan was to return to San Pedro after the tour but I changed my mind and stayed in Bolivia instead. So, after taking a night bus from Uyuni I now find myself in Potosi, Bolivia. In 45 minutes I'm taking a tour through a silver mine...It sounds pretty wild and I'm sure I'll have some interesting stories to tell after that. Obviously plans change but what I'm thinking right now is this: I'll spend one more night in Potosi then take a bus to La Paz. I'll spend some time there, then go to Copacabana on the shores of lake Titicaca. I'll cross the lake to Puno, Peru and from there head up to Cuzco. After Cuzco I'll go to Arequipa, Peru and from there I'll head back down through the North of Chile with possible stops in Arica and Iquique. Wish me luck! I'll try to update again as soon as possible.
Dan
Friday, July 13, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
1st Semester Recap
Hello everyone! Sorry for the long time away; time has just been flying by and I can never seem to find a pause to sit down and write in this blog! The time's been flying so fast, in fact, that believe it or not only four days remain in the first semester! I can hardly believe it myself. Even though so much has happened and I've done so much since I got here, sometimes I still feel like I'm just getting settled in. But given that I'm approaching the halfway mark, I thought now would be a good time to recap how the first semester's been going.
Classes have been going pretty well for the most part. Teaching has so many ups and downs that I can't decide if I like it or not. It's been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride for me. When it's good, it's really good. A successful lesson or a thank you from a grateful student makes me feel like I could do this forever. On the other hand, failed lessons, loud classrooms and apathetic children get me so down in the dumps that I hardly feel like continuing. Most days are somewhere in between these two extremes, but it can change (and often does) even from class to class.
My experience so far with teaching has made me think a lot about education, but I would say that my thoughts can be boiled down to two reflections. First, I've never been so certain about the importance of education. It would be a worthy cause to dedicate a career to, whether through teaching or not. I've seen just what kind of effect education can have on a kid's life and how important it is especially in poor, high-risk, low-support areas like Alerce where my school is located. But my second observation has been that despite the enormous value of education, many kids squander it. They talk or don't pay attention in class, they don't bring their homework or materials, they never ask questions and they don't take any action to improve their grades. Sadly, this is the case the vast majority of my students. Many of them don't have the proper support or encouragement from their parents, who are mostly absent from the home or otherwise spend most of their time working. Also a lot of the kids don't see the point in their education since after high school they'll probably end up doing the same type of menial labor their parents do. Their classes (English above all) seem irrelevant to them.
It's frustrating because I really don't know how to reach them. I don't know how to engage them in class or how to get them to see the value of their schooling. But maybe that's too much to ask of them. After all they're just kids and I remember I was the exact same way in high school. I didn't start working in school until I felt like school could work for me, until there was more freedom and I was allowed to study what I wanted, when I wanted. But even still, my life at that age was much different from theirs. I didn't work because I was lazy, immature and thought everything would just come to me. They don't work because they don't see the point.
Still, I guess I expected something different before I arrived in Chile. I expected students who were eager to learn from a foreigner, students who would be curious about another language and inspired by their cross-cultural encounter to go seek out new things in the world. Have you ever those pictures of some schools in Africa where they have nothing but a chalkboard leaning against a tree, and yet despite the desperate lack of resources there are 50 kids crowded around the teacher, eagerly taking notes? I'm sure I'm guilty of romanticizing their struggle with that image, but I guess I imagined something a little more like that. I imagined kids who didn't have much but were eager to learn. I imagined kids who would at least meet me halfway. Maybe I was just being idealistic and naïve. It's pretty demoralizing to see how it really is. Sometimes I feel like I'm failing them, like there's more I could be doing or I'm just not the right guy for the job. I want to help them, I want to do something for them but I just don't know how. But anyway....
So a lot of you probably heard how I got into a car wreck not too long ago. I'm fine and so are the other two who were in the truck, but it was a pretty freaky experience. We were in Puyehue National Park heading up to a volcano to do a day hike. It was about 10 or 11 in the morning and still pretty cold outside, and as we were driving up the mountain we came around a curve and there was ice on the road. The truck skidded out and went head first off the side of the road off a bit of a ledge. We dropped about 15 feet in all, flipping over at some point and landing upside down on the roof. We had to crawl out of the driver-side window but once we climbed back up to the road we realized that we were all okay-not even a scratch on any one of us. Here are a few pictures of the wreck:
Thankfully nothing that intense has happened to me since then. It was a freaky experience, but you gotta get back on the horse so it's not going to stop me from traveling and seeing the sights around this beautiful region! Speaking of traveling, I have a big trip coming up this Friday. As I said earlier, this is our last week of classes before winter break, which will last from this Friday until July 30th. I've decided to take advantage of this huge block of time by escaping the cold, rainy South and heading up North to the Atacama Desert! I'll be taking an overnight bus Friday evening to Santiago, where I'll catch a flight to Calama, about 1,300 miles North of Puerto Montt. From there I'll spend the next 3 to 4 weeks hopping around the major sights and cities of the North, including San Pedro de Atacama, Salar de Uyuni, Iquique, Arica, and Parque Nacional Lauca, with a possible detour into Peru. I'm hoping to do a lot of camping while I'm up there so I can enjoy some of the clearest and driest night skies in the world. Apparently it gets pretty cold at night there, but the Atacama is the driest desert in the world so I at least know that it won't rain! I'll try to update my blog and Facebook while I'm away, but I won't be taking my computer so I'll be dependent on using whatever computer I can find. Wish me luck! I'll leave you with some pictures of the places I hope to visit.
Classes have been going pretty well for the most part. Teaching has so many ups and downs that I can't decide if I like it or not. It's been somewhat of a rollercoaster ride for me. When it's good, it's really good. A successful lesson or a thank you from a grateful student makes me feel like I could do this forever. On the other hand, failed lessons, loud classrooms and apathetic children get me so down in the dumps that I hardly feel like continuing. Most days are somewhere in between these two extremes, but it can change (and often does) even from class to class.
My experience so far with teaching has made me think a lot about education, but I would say that my thoughts can be boiled down to two reflections. First, I've never been so certain about the importance of education. It would be a worthy cause to dedicate a career to, whether through teaching or not. I've seen just what kind of effect education can have on a kid's life and how important it is especially in poor, high-risk, low-support areas like Alerce where my school is located. But my second observation has been that despite the enormous value of education, many kids squander it. They talk or don't pay attention in class, they don't bring their homework or materials, they never ask questions and they don't take any action to improve their grades. Sadly, this is the case the vast majority of my students. Many of them don't have the proper support or encouragement from their parents, who are mostly absent from the home or otherwise spend most of their time working. Also a lot of the kids don't see the point in their education since after high school they'll probably end up doing the same type of menial labor their parents do. Their classes (English above all) seem irrelevant to them.
It's frustrating because I really don't know how to reach them. I don't know how to engage them in class or how to get them to see the value of their schooling. But maybe that's too much to ask of them. After all they're just kids and I remember I was the exact same way in high school. I didn't start working in school until I felt like school could work for me, until there was more freedom and I was allowed to study what I wanted, when I wanted. But even still, my life at that age was much different from theirs. I didn't work because I was lazy, immature and thought everything would just come to me. They don't work because they don't see the point.
Still, I guess I expected something different before I arrived in Chile. I expected students who were eager to learn from a foreigner, students who would be curious about another language and inspired by their cross-cultural encounter to go seek out new things in the world. Have you ever those pictures of some schools in Africa where they have nothing but a chalkboard leaning against a tree, and yet despite the desperate lack of resources there are 50 kids crowded around the teacher, eagerly taking notes? I'm sure I'm guilty of romanticizing their struggle with that image, but I guess I imagined something a little more like that. I imagined kids who didn't have much but were eager to learn. I imagined kids who would at least meet me halfway. Maybe I was just being idealistic and naïve. It's pretty demoralizing to see how it really is. Sometimes I feel like I'm failing them, like there's more I could be doing or I'm just not the right guy for the job. I want to help them, I want to do something for them but I just don't know how. But anyway....
So a lot of you probably heard how I got into a car wreck not too long ago. I'm fine and so are the other two who were in the truck, but it was a pretty freaky experience. We were in Puyehue National Park heading up to a volcano to do a day hike. It was about 10 or 11 in the morning and still pretty cold outside, and as we were driving up the mountain we came around a curve and there was ice on the road. The truck skidded out and went head first off the side of the road off a bit of a ledge. We dropped about 15 feet in all, flipping over at some point and landing upside down on the roof. We had to crawl out of the driver-side window but once we climbed back up to the road we realized that we were all okay-not even a scratch on any one of us. Here are a few pictures of the wreck:
Thankfully nothing that intense has happened to me since then. It was a freaky experience, but you gotta get back on the horse so it's not going to stop me from traveling and seeing the sights around this beautiful region! Speaking of traveling, I have a big trip coming up this Friday. As I said earlier, this is our last week of classes before winter break, which will last from this Friday until July 30th. I've decided to take advantage of this huge block of time by escaping the cold, rainy South and heading up North to the Atacama Desert! I'll be taking an overnight bus Friday evening to Santiago, where I'll catch a flight to Calama, about 1,300 miles North of Puerto Montt. From there I'll spend the next 3 to 4 weeks hopping around the major sights and cities of the North, including San Pedro de Atacama, Salar de Uyuni, Iquique, Arica, and Parque Nacional Lauca, with a possible detour into Peru. I'm hoping to do a lot of camping while I'm up there so I can enjoy some of the clearest and driest night skies in the world. Apparently it gets pretty cold at night there, but the Atacama is the driest desert in the world so I at least know that it won't rain! I'll try to update my blog and Facebook while I'm away, but I won't be taking my computer so I'll be dependent on using whatever computer I can find. Wish me luck! I'll leave you with some pictures of the places I hope to visit.
Valle de La Luna, near San Pedro de Atacama
Iquique
Parque Nacional Lauca. MUST. GO.
San Pedro de Atacama
Salar de Uyuni, supposedly one of the biggest salt flats in the world
Talk to you later! Love and miss you all!
Dan
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