However, Entre Todas knows how to beat the heat. The girls have a pool on their patio that’s some miracle of tarp-like material and PVC piping. It’s about six feet by ten feet and about three feet deep. Though the water becomes the color of phlegm within an hour of changing it, the girls spend hours swimming back and forth and splashing water onto unwitting passersby. One day last week, the tía who lives at Entre Todas led an activity with the girls using the pool for water games. The girls all whined and moaned about having to do an organized activity but it was amazing to see the benefits of the structure. The tía put on music and had the girls playing musical chairs with water balloons and running relays to find coins tossed on the bottom of the pool, etc. Though they’d never admit it, the girls loved the activity, and I was reminded that so much of their behavior is a result of the chaos of Entre Todas.
To supplement the little patio pool, we’ve taken a few pool-related field trips. The first took us to Peñaflor, a middle-of-nowhere town outside Santiago, to a bizarre camping/picnic site with a freezing, un-chlorinated pool. Tía Maggie, the cook at Entre Todas, came along and prepared an astounding feast for the girls on one of the little grills in the picnic area. Our next two trips were to a pool on Cerro San Cristobal (there are two pools on the hill, the other is the one my friend Ryan and I went to a few weekends ago). Entre Todas has some sort of deal with the pool people, so I think it was almost free for us to get in, but the pool normally costs almost ten U.S. dollars per person, so you can imagine the quality of the location and the excitement of the girls to be exposed to such a beautiful place. The girls behaved very well for the most part, with the exception of the six-year-old who started beating on a random little girl who clung to the edge of the pool, wide-eyed. When Chris and I tried to explain why she shouldn’t smack strangers, she went ahead and smacked us and splashed water in our faces. Warm fuzzies.
The second time we visited the pool, we took the teleférico (cable cars) up the hill with the girls as a special treat but the girls were all absolutely terrified. I'm sure they're all glad they got to experience the ride, but the two girls riding in my car clasped their hands together, screeching and frantically reciting prayers the entire time.
We got some big news at Entre Todas today during the tía’s meeting: one of the eighteen-year-olds is moving to a different hogar. She has severe learning disabilities and is frequently excluded and made fun of by the other girls, so Chris, Brooke, and I end up spending a lot of time with her. A change of location should be really good for her but trying to picture Entre Todas without her feels impossible. The tías called her into the meeting today to tell her and I couldn’t believe I was witnessing such a momentous announcement. She seemed overwhelmed but happy—I think living at Entre Todas has been really stressful for her. The tías said she’ll have the opportunity to go to school and maybe even work once she moves to the new hogar, so it’s truly an exciting time for her. We’ll miss her, though--none of the other girls ever talk about cannibalism or horror movies, it's a shame.
Chris, Brooke, and I have developed a schedule for the rest of the summer at Entre Todas that we’re all quite excited about. We’ve written project proposals and are in the process of acquiring funds from VE to execute the projects. On Mondays we’ll attend the tías’ meetings and work with the girls on VE’s reading program, “Vamos a Leer,” then on Tuesdays we’ll take six girls to a large park just outside the city center to play sports and generally get them out of the TV room and moving around. On Wednesdays we’ll do a cooking project with three girls at a time in the kitchen at Entre Todas, then Thursdays and Fridays will be consumed by R.O.A.R., a project designed to get the girls out of the hogar and into the city to help them learn about where they live. On Thursdays the girls will use the computers to research the week’s location, then on Fridays we’ll visit the locations. This week we’re going to a really cool interactive children’s museum, woot!
In non-Entre Todas news, this past weekend I had a joint birthday party with my roommate Julia and my friend Lindsay. Their birthdays are the 12th and 30th, both also in 1985. We lucked out on our location—the people who drove Lindsay and I to Valparaiso for New Year’s Eve live in an apartment building with a rooftop terrace outfitted for BBQ’s, complete with two huge grills, two sinks and a bathroom. They were kind enough to reserve the terrace for our party. The views from the terrace are amazing and the party was a huge success—we probably had forty-five or fifty people there. Those numbers just wouldn’t have fit in a tiny Chilean apartment! Below you’ll find pictures of the view and also of the birthday girls, complete with our matching MC Hammer pants. These types of pants are a) heinous, b) huge here in Santiago, and c) incredibly comfortable, so we decided having matching ones for our party was a must. The party also served as Julia’s goodbye party as she leaves for the States on the 22nd. But I don’t really want to talk about that.
That's all for now, I hope you all are doing well and staying warm!
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