Winter has most definitely arrived in Santiago. As I write this I’m perfecting the art of typing with my sweet new alpaca fingerless gloves with mitten flaps from Bolivia! Fun, perhaps, but necessary more than anything else. I’m also writing this on a Saturday night, which normally wouldn’t happen, but I’m sitting home with what was a flu but morphed into a sinus infection with a bonus side of pink eye! Thanks, Santiago, your smog has done me well, yet again.
There is also positive news to report, however! We’ve just finished the orientation program for the June class of VE volunteers, a class of ten, none of whom were welcomed to Chile by an 8.8 earthquake. Orientation went smoothly and we’re all quite enamored with this set of newbies. Anther exciting newbie at VE is Josh Pilz, who will take over for Brooke as Executive Director. We LOVE him. As sad as it is to see Brooke go, we’re all thrilled that Josh is the replacement! I first met Josh on our earthquake relief trip to Retiro and was thoroughly impressed with him as a human being. He has started his training in the VE office, even taking part in the majority of the June class’s orientation week. He’s even excited about Vanessa and Edmondstone, the tiny little VE turtles he’ll inherit as ED.
A very exciting detail that deserves its own paragraph is that one of the newbies doesn’t eat gluten. !!! I’ve already taken her to one of my favorite restaurants, fed her my from-scratch gluten-free pizza, and generally overwhelmed her with my excitement about having another of my kind around VE. She has stated repeatedly her gratitude that I laid down all the groundwork in training the VE staff on the art of gluten-free cooking, which is valid considering I ate lettuce and rice with tomato paste sauce during my orientation week.
In other new news, I’ve moved! We decided it was time to move on from cozy apartment 1505 (one cushy block from the VE office) and venture into the world of living with Chileans. I’ve found myself a perfect little quirky apartment three metro stops from the office in the very happening area of Providecia. I live with Jose and Max, two wonderful/terribly cool Chileans who are both in film. (I know). The apartment is great fun—the two boys live upstairs and downstairs are the kitchen, living room/dining room, and my room, complete with my own bathroom. The rent is cheaper than 1505, and I get to speak Spanish every day. I moved the Monday of orientation week, so was literally in the apartment only to sleep for the rest of the week, but now that life is returning to normal, I think I’m on my way to figuring out the rhythm of the casa.
And, because apparently I forget to tell people, I’m staying a bit longer than planned here in Chile! I guess I meant to leave some time this month, but for many reasons, including that there’s no one to take over my job yet, I’m staying a few extra months. My priority is to do what I can to help the transition for whoever takes my job go smoothly, and since the huge transition from one Executive Director to the next is currently happening, I want to be around and help in any way I can with that as well. The plan as of right now is to find someone for my job sometime in July, train them for the month of August, help them with the orientation for the September class, then head off to a farm to WWOOF for a few months. WWOOF-ing is something I’ve always wanted to do, and something I would love to do in Chile or Argentina or Bolivia, so this seems like the time. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be home for Christmas and a great big reality check!
All in all life is going wonderfully, as usual! There’s never a dull moment with VE and rarely a free one (it took me staying home sick to blog, apparently), so time continues to pass at an alarmingly quick rate. There have been a few tough good-byes recently with long-term volunteers moving on, but this new class of volunteers has given me very high hopes for the next three months.
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