Arrival and World Cup

My journey began when my plane took off from Charlotte, NC at 11:45 am on Saturday, June 12. I flew through Miami, FL and Bogota, Colombia before finally reaching my destination in Santiago, Chile at 4:45 am the next morning. I sat between a Colombian and a Brazilian en route to Colombia and we had an interesting conversation in Spanish/English/Portuguese!

Upon arrival in Santiago, the 40 volunteers were provided with transportation to a hostel in the downtown area. Training ran from 9:00 am-5:30 pm each day during the week, and we took advantage of the free time to explore the city. Among the most popular sites were San Cristobol, Santa Lucia, and La Chascona (the house of famed Chilean Nobel Prize winner Pablo Neruda).



Above is La Moneda, the Chilean presidential palace. Americans who visit Santiago without some political background knowledge will be surprised to see a main street named "11 de Septiembre," which was the date that La Moneda was bombed in a 1973 military coup led by the up-and-coming dictator Augusto Pinochet. Socialist president Salvador Allende was killed in the attack. La Moneda was rebuilt in the following years, but now serves only as a working environment rather than the presidential residence.



On Wednesday, June 16 many of the volunteers chose to wake up early to watch the World Cup (Chile vs. Honduras) with the Chileans at 7:30 am. The match was projected onto a huge screen in front of La Moneda (a 10-minute walk from the hostel), and the turnout was amazing. The local schools had canceled early morning classes to allow the students to watch, and much of the crowd was composed of adolescent males (see the video below to assess the level of craziness). Many vulgarities were shouted, none of which I understood at the time (my host family has since filled me in), but loudest of all was the Chilean cheer "Chi-Chi-Chi, le-le-le, Vi-va Chi-le!" Most of us left to attend training before the match ended, but we knew Chile had won when the cars outside our building began honking crazily. The spirit lasted throughout the day, and a drunk young man behind our building proceeded to blast the same Chilean national song over and over from his apartment window for the duration of our training session from 10 am - 5:30 pm. It was the first time Chile had been eligible to compete in the World Cup in about 10 years, so it was a great week for all of us to be in the downtown area.

More to come!