Aloe, please?

I’ll begin by saying that I am, at this moment, possibly more sunburned than I’ve ever been in my entire life. Bending my legs and sitting down are simply out of the question. But these are small prices to pay for the weekend I just had! Five other volunteers and I traveled to Zapallar, a small beach town north of Viña del Mar, the most popular coastal destination in Central Chile. Friends warned us that Viña was overcrowded and dirty and recommended Zapallar, a much quieter and pristine town. We heeded their advice and found an oasis that seems practically undiscovered by mainstream tourists. Here’s the scene that greeted us:


Also per a recommendation from our friends, we spoke with a woman who owns the supermarket in town about renting the apartment above the store for the night. Because Zapallar is a fairly exclusive town complete with well-dressed, towheaded Chilean children, budget accommodations are non-existent, so for about $10 each, we were thrilled with the place. The apartment included a full bathroom (though they forgot to turn on the hot water heater for us until after we winced through cold showers), a semi-equipped kitchen, and enough bed space for the six of us.

We stayed on the beach until well after 8:00 last night and spent the majority of today there as well. We also took advantage of a beautiful walking path that wraps around the harbor and marveled at the mansions built into the sides of the steep hills along the water. Most of our time, however, was spent on our towels or in the [freezing!] water. Relaxing with our books, eating ice cream and listening to the sound of enormous waves crashing on the gold-flecked sand was the perfect reward for our first two intense weeks of work with VE.

Here we are after climbing a huge rock structure near the end of the walking path, and here are the rest of the pictures from the weekend:


And speaking of VE, I have a bit of exciting news! Last Thursday I had a brief meeting with Brooke, VE’s executive director, who told me that he and Daniel, the volunteer relations director, want to give me more responsibility within the organization, specifically within volunteer relations. First of all, it feels amazing to be recognized as having potential within an organization I feel so excited about, and secondly, the idea of working in volunteer relations feels really right. I’ll be learning the process of recruiting and accepting new volunteers as well as the process of orientating and supporting accepted volunteers. Excitement! I feel like something within my universe is aligning, telling me I’m doing something right. We’ll see how it goes!

Finally, my work with the girls at Entre Todas continues to challenge me. I feel impatient to develop a rapport with them but I know it will take time. On Tuesday I continued the sewing project by myself as the veteran volunteer for Entre Todas had headed back to the States for the holidays. I found myself sitting with seven girls (a record, for sure!), all stitching away at little felt snowmen. At first I felt great—without the veteran volunteer there for me to lean on, I was forced to use my Spanish and felt better about it than I had for days. However, as the girls grew increasingly excited about finishing the snowmen and therefore increasingly impatient, they each began pestering me for help, each wanting me to tie a knot or start a snowman eyeball or cut a different color hat. I began to panic slightly as they seemed to lack understanding about a human’s inability to do multiple things at once. The girl who on my first day showed me her poetry told me she didn’t like me, that I was annoying because I didn’t understand her. It began to feel that they were all talking about me and laughing and my brain was too fried to figure out what they were saying. The situation culminated with one of the girls stealing the snowman I had made. I don’t know who it was, but that small action made me feel like a huge outsider. The day was a bit brutal and I left the house feeling terrible, not knowing how I would ever grow skin thick enough to deal with the girls. The next day, of course, felt completely different as a group of volunteers from a local university came to throw a birthday party for all the girls born in November and December and actually managed to engage them in an hours-long sing-a-long with their guitar. Even the too-cool-for-school girls participated, showing their dramatic flair and well-honed senses of humor. It was amazing to see that side of those girls, to actually share belly laughs with them. If only every day garnered such participation. Sigh. It will get easier with time.

For now I’m still high on my gorgeous weekend, prickly red tooshie aside. Hopefully this coming week, the week of Christmas, will be a positive one for the girls. I’m spending both Christmas Eve day and Christmas day at Entre Todas, so likely I’ll have interesting tales to report! Though it feels nothing at all like Christmas here in the 80 degree weather, I hope you all are enjoying these days of anticipation!