Ay Dios Mio

O my goodness. I have done so much since the last time I posted. I will try to keep it short though.
Ok, so on Friday we went to La Victoria which a pueblo muy pobre cerca de Santiago. The town began as a community where the homeless in Santiago would move to illegally. The people began fighting for the right to live there and not too long ago they town became theirs. However, the town is still very very poor and has a very big problem with drug trafficing. We had to get up to go very early because the only time they felt that is was safe for us to travel there was in the morning. Although this town is struggle it was a really fun trip. The town has a lot of character and the children and teachers that we met there were super simpaticos (super nice, chileans use the word super a lot). The town and the school reminded me a lot of my trip to Canto Grande, Peru. Both were very very poor areas but with people who were so happy. The staff at the school was explaining that about 1/4 of the students' parents have issues with drugs or are in jail because of drugs and another 1/4 have both parents working full time so that they are not able to be involved in the kids lives as much as they would like. Half of the kids' parents for whatever reason can not be active in their kids lives. This creates a cycle of poverty and drug use. Its so sad when an entire society is struggling so much. But the kids were so funny asking questions about the US. Do you know Michael Jackson? What is your national dance? (La cueca the national dance of chile is taught in all the schools). They traded pens with us and exchanged emails. We also went to Padre Andre's house and a Jardin Infantil (kindergarten).
That night a group of us explored Plaza Nunoa which is an area in my barrio (neighborhood) that has a lot of Pubs and restaurants and a lot of young people at night. I had a lot of fun hanging out with the group and with Karina and Gaba (our chilean friends, Karina was a translator for us duringn orientation and is a university student).
Saturday night was La Roja which is a big soccer game versus Venezuela. Its bigger than the superbowl in the US. I went to my friend Quiana's house to watch the game and I had trouble calling a cab because most taxi places were not running that night because of the game. Quiana's family was all over, there were like 15 people. I had a lot of fun and found myself getting into it. Chile tied Venezuela. Afterwards we sat around and had tea. It was fun to talk to another family about the trip and where I should travel too in Chile. They were curious about what American prejudices are towards Latin America. It was something I had not thought about since coming here. I told them that many americans think that Latin America is very dangerous and there is fighting in the streets. They sort of laughed it off but it was weird for me to think about what people think of this country that I have found to be so hospitable, welcoming and ameable. There are a lot of robbers and I do have to be careful about going anywhere alone at night but I wouldnt go alone at night somewhere in a lot of parts of the US. And Chile is certainly one of the safer of the Latin American countries which I am very glad about but even still... I mean if you think about it all that we ever hear about South America on the news is when something bad happens. No wonder so many americans think of it as a dangerous place. I am glad that so far my trip has disproved the prejudices many Americans have of Latin America.
Ok so remember when I said this was going to be short? I lied. Its long and I didnt even catch up to this point. Ugh. But i gotta go to bed soon. I'll try to catch up soon. Ah.
Con Carino,
Kim