Me Encanta Esquiar!

This Saturday I went to skiing in the ANDES!  The Andes mountains are the highest mountains outside of Asia.  I hadn't been skiing since middle school, so I was a little anxious about my skiing ability.  The mountains are just about 15 minutes outside Santiago, but it took over an hour to drive up the mountain.  About 20 of my classmates came along.  At the end of the day, I was super tired and super sore, but I had so much fun! 

The view from the top of the hill was by far the most beautiful I've ever seen.  We were so high on the mountains that we could see the cloud layer way below us.  The pictures don't do the view justice, because when seen in person, it looks like the mountains and sky go on forever. 

I had been feeling a little distanced from God since I arrived here.  This is partly due to the fact that I'm so far away from all the familiar things that I normally associate with God--church, friends, home, etc., and partly due to the fact that things have been going so well and time is just flying by.  It's a dangerous thing for me--when things are going a bit too swimmingly--because I start to believe it's by my own doing, and not the Lord's.  When I am not actively facing a challenge in my life, I start to lose sight of God's sovereignty and control.  Does this make sense?

Once I recognized this issue in myself, I began spending even more time in Scripture and prayer, but nothing really seemed to speak to me.  It's been especially difficult to maintain my relationship with the Lord since I have not been able to go to church since I arrived in Chile and since I've been away from my InterVarsity community.

Being in such a beautiful place as the Andes was just what my heart had been looking for.  How can someone come to a place like this and deny the existence of God?  To say the mountains came about by random chance is somewhat understandable.  To say that humans developed eyes by random chance is also understandable.  To say, however, that something as awesome as the Andes and the ability to see them in such great detail exist solely by random chance and without the influence of our God is impossible.  The Lord did not have to create such beauty--he could have made earth a lot more boring.  He also did not have to give us eyes to see--we could have gotten along just fine in some other manner.  But he did both of these things, which is proof to me that he knew exactly what he was doing upon creating the earth and upon the creation of each human being.  As Psalm 139 says, "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." It's no mistake that these mountains are so beautiful, and it's no mistake that the Lord gave us eyes to see them.  God created such beauty for his and our enjoyment, to captivate our hearts, and give us just a taste of his majesty. 

I feel so thankful for the chance to go skiing on Saturday not just because it was fun, but because of the way it awakened my heart.  Again, it's no mistake that I went skiing when I did--the Lord knew it was just what I needed to captivate my heart again.

I am reminded of Psalm 139:

"Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast."

My First Week of Clinical Observation

I certainly saw and learned a lot this week!
I spent Monday and Tuesday at Hospital Sótero del Río, which is one of the biggest hospitals in Chile. It also serves a lot of the poorest population of Santiago. The first thing I noticed was all the people in the waiting rooms. They were super-packed and it was rather difficult just to make it down the hallway amidst the patients, families, and snack-vendors. As I have learned, the long wait is one of the biggest problems with the public health care system here. It is not uncommon for patients to wait 2-8 hours for a doctor.

The hospital buildings themselves didn’t really seem like those of a hospital; there were no sterile-looking white floors and walls and bright lighting, but rather dingy tile floors and dim rooms and hallways. Another thing that was a bit shocking was the ease in which we entered and traversed most of the building without any questioning. I did not see any types of guards or security within the hospital.

The first day at Sótero del Río, I was taken with a few other students up to the general medicine floor, which contained mostly elderly patients. We went to the cardiac wing and spoke a little with a doctor and some nurses there. We also attempted to speak to two male patients about their experience. This did not go so well, because I really didn’t understand more than 5% of what they said to us, but luckily a nurse was with us to translate everything into simpler Spanish. Both patients said they were very content with the health care they had received at this hospital; in fact, one patient said the only complaint he had was that he wasn’t going to get to watch the Chile v. Honduras game on Wednesday.

Privacy is basically nonexistent here. There are six patients to a room, and the beds are not blocked off by any type of curtains. In addition, the patients’ full names are posted in bold print above their beds, and all of their charts are sitting at the foot of their bed for anyone to read. If this were to happen in the U.S., it would be a serious issue, but here it is no big deal. I really think a big reason for this difference is the culture; Chileans are much less individualistic and don’t seem to view confidentiality as something to be valued. Rather, they value community much more, and find worth in shared experiences. I think this is definitely something we can learn from—I’m not saying we need to start paper-planing patients’ charts around—but I’ve definitely observed and learned more about the merits of interdependence and community since arriving in Chile.

On the second day of observation, I got to go to with a group to the puerperio of the hospital. This is basically a post-natal unit, with eight beds per room. This means there’s a total minimum of sixteen people at one time, if you include the mothers and the babies, who always remain at their side. All of the babies were so adorable…all of that cuteness in one room is a bit overwhelming!

We first talked to a mom named Lisa who was only 19 years old. She was a member of FONASA level A, which is basically the level of public health insurance for the poorest group of Chileans. While the other levels of public health insurance require a monthly payment of 7% of your salary, level A requires nothing at all. Like in the U.S., teen pregnancy is a prevalent issue in Chile, especially among the lower economic class.

The next lady we talked had just had her first child, Franco. We talked to her about her birthing experience, her health insurance, and what she thought about the care she had received. We even got to see a midwife perform an entire checkup on the baby—it was really neat to see that. I really enjoyed the time I spent in the puerperio because I was able to have interesting conversations with the patients about their experiences and see how post-natal care is provided in a public Chilean hospital. Despite the hospital’s lack of resources, it provided an impressive quality of care to these women.

On the third day of observation, we went to Santa Clara, a home for children with HIV. Many of the children are living there because their family did not know how to handle their disease, or because they lived in abusive homes. It is very disheartening to know that these children have to live with a disease that they never deserved or asked for and that may have been prevented had the mother known she was HIV-positive or had she taken the proper clinical precautions to prevent transmission (taking proper medications, having a C-section, not breastfeeding). When all of these steps are taken, the chance of transmission is less than 2%. A big problem in Chile is the negative influence Catholicism has had on the people. Most Chileans, from what I have seen, are Catholic in culture but not in faith. Because of this, many are extremely conservative, prejudiced, and opposed to change. Chileans are also very homophobic, which is very unfortunate when it comes to HIV. If there weren’t such a stigma here attached to HIV and homosexuality, less people would feel ashamed or afraid of getting tested for HIV. It is, however, important to remember that Chile was just freed from the dictatorship of Pinochet in 1990. It seems like that dictatorship contributed to a culture of passivity in Chileans, and I think they do need more time to recover from that. For this reason, I realize it’s not quite fair to compare the receptiveness of the U.S. to homosexuals to that of Chile, since we never had to suffer such a dictatorship. I do hope and pray, however, that people here will become more open and loving towards each other—that could make a really big difference in so many ways.

"I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here"

First, a few random thoughts/feelings/observations:

I'm really surprised I haven't had much difficulty adjusting to life here.  I'm sure a lot of this has to do with the fact that I have an awesome host family, and I really like everyone in my program.  I suppose Santiago is much like the major cities in the US, but in my opinion, it's cleaner, more picturesque, and has WAY cheaper food.  You can get a heaping cup of gelato for just 500 pesos, which is about a dollar!  You can also buy empanadas and other types of "Chilean fast food" for about the same price.  My biggest difficulty here has probably been the smog.  Because of the cold weather and the mountains that line the city, the smog basically settles around Santiago and doesn't leave.  It's been giving me a cough and I've felt pretty congested for a solid week.  I've really only been able to get a clear view of the mountains from the city two times since I've been here.

My Spanish has improved so much in just two weeks.  I feel like I've learned more since I got here than I ever learned in one of my language classes.  It's amazing how much of a difference it makes to be immersed in the language--I'm so glad I'm living with a host family and that I'm getting a chance to really practice my Spanish. 

The World Cup is EVERYWHERE here.  This is partly a cultural thing, since soccer is way more popular here than in the US, but it's also because it's been 12 years since Chile has made it to the world cup.  Every T.V. commercial is somehow related to the world cup--it's like a perpetual Super Bowl!  I feel really lucky to be here while Chile is playing in the Mundial--it is fun to be a part of it. 

This past week mostly consisted of going to classes and doing homework.  My general schedule consisted of going to public health classes from 9-12:15, and then medical Spanish classes from 2-3:30.  Tomorrow, however, I finally get to start the observation portion!  I get to wear my lab coat and act all doctor-y!

This weekend I took a 2-day trip to Valparaiso (again) and Viña del Mar with 6 other friends.  The 90 minute bus ride to Valpo is super cheap--I think we paid about 10 dollars for a round trip.  The first day was really rainy, but despite the rain, we had a wonderful time.

 

The group plus our doggie friend

The awesome seafood restaurant, El Rincón de Pancho.  Service includes: cat sitting under our table, old troubadour men playing from table to table, beautiful view of Valpo, and delicious fried fish.

Pescado frito y papas saltadas

A breathtaking view of Valparaiso

Casino Social J Cruz, a hole in the wall restaurant where we ate lunch and watched the US-England game the second day.

Chorrillana, a dish of french fries, onions, fried egg, and steak (AKA heart attack on a plate)

The next day we went to Vina del Mar, which is the city right next to Valparaiso. From this city, you can see and smell the ocean.  We took a hike up to Castillo Wulff. We spent an hour or two there taking pictures and watching the ocean.  We were lucky enough to be there during a really pretty sunset, too!

Castillo Wulff at Sunset

The sky doesn't even look real!

I think it's crazy that I've been able to see so much diversity in terms of cities, people, and landscapes, and I haven't even gone farther than 2 hours from Santiago!  That's why I love it here in Chile :-)

Valpo and Isla Negra

Last weekend our class went to Valparaiso and Isla Negra.  This trip has definitely been the most fun so far!

Valparaiso is the second major city of Chile. It is a port city on the coast and is only about 1-2 hours away from Santiago. Valpo reminds me a lot of San Francisco (although I've never been there), probably because of the quaintness and colors of the residential areas. There's also a lot of interesting graffiti. Most of the residential areas are located on the many "cerros," or hills. You can get to the top of many of these hills by riding one of the "ascensores," which is basically an old cable car on that holds about 6 people. These things are probably about 100 years old, so it was a little scary riding such a rickety car! The views from the cerro were really pretty. We ate at a restaurant there too, which was delicious. I don't really know what we ate...but I know it was good!

After Valparaiso we went to Isla Negra, where we got to tour one of Pablo Neruda's homes. These are some pictures from Isla Negra:

Villa Grimaldi

Last week, our class went to Villa Grimaldi, a park where political prisoners were tortured and interrogated during the government of Pinochet. Pinochet was a dictator who was in office from 1974 to 1990. About 5 thousand prisoners were brought to Villa Grimaldi to be tortured, and hundreds were killed. Most of the buildings in which torture occurred are now demolished, but this the original pool is still present. This prisoners were submerged in the pool until the point of almost-drowning as a means of torture. Ironically, the torturers' children and wives swam in this pool for fun on the weekends.

This was a really interesting place to visit, and I'm glad I got to learn more about Chile's history, even though it has a darker side to it.

Mi Casa, La Comida, y Mas!

Here are some pictures of my apartment, my bedroom, my balcony (yeah, I have a BALCONY!), and the IES center, which is where I go for most of my classes.

Since I got here, I've been eating a TON of food.  At my house, I've been eating a lot of chicken, soup, and vegetables.  I've also been drinking an insane amount of juice--it's awesome!  My family makes their own juice so it tastes really good.  Here's a list of some of the typical Chilean food and drink we learned about:

Comidas:
Chacarero - a type of sandwich with green beans, beef, guacamole, tomato, and chili pepper.
Empanada - a stuffed bread that can be filled with a lot of things like meat, cheese, vegetables, seafood; the post popular kind is the pino, which contains beef, onion, olive, and egg
Completo - like a hot dog; it usually has tomato, avocado, mayonnaise, and sauerkraut
Barros Jarpa - melted ham and cheese sandwich
Barros Luco - basically a cheese steak sandwich
Sopaipilla - fried pastry made from squash and flour; can be sweet or savory

Bebidas:
Mote con huesillo - rehydrated peaches and barley kernels with peach juice
Pisco - sweet brandy made from grapes
Piscola - pisco and coke
Pisco sour - pisco, lime, and sugar
Vino navegado - wine heated with orange, cinnamon, and other spices
Fanschop- fanta and beer

My host mom loves pisco sours--she's made me 5 already this week! ;-)

...More to come on Villa Grimaldi, Valparaíso, and Isla Negra!

Orientation!

I'm just finishing up my 4th day in Santiago and my last day of orientation.  My flights went really well, but traveling for 24 hours straight really wore me out!  About 10 students from my program ended up on my same flight from Dallas/Fort Worth to Santiago.  One of the first things I did when I got off the plane was get some coffee...but it definitely wasn't the kind I was used to!  I had associated South America with good coffee...but I was mistaken.  Good coffee has to be imported to Chile and it's really expensive...so Nescafe is EVERYWHERE.  Even decent restaurants, etc. serve instant coffee, and you have to specify that you want "CAFE cafe" if you want to get the real thing.  Most people here drink tea, so I've been drinking a lot of that instead.

One of the other first things I noticed was the COLD!  It was super cold and foggy.  It's weird to experience summer one day, and to experience winter only 24 hours later!  It won't get nearly as cold as Baltimore, thankfully!

I spent Sunday with my host family.  Their names are Myriam and Esteban--they have an eight year old named Andres a 3 year old named Vincente.  They live right in the middle of Providencia, which is a pretty nice part of the city.  My room actually has a balcony where I can look out and see a lot of the city! 

I could only understand about half of what my family said to me the first day, but it's getting a little easier each day.  Chilean accents are really difficult to understand, but everyone keeps saying that if you can understand Chilean Spanish, you can understand any Spanish. 

During our first day of orientation, we went over a lot of the basics of Chile and our program, and we got to meet the whole group for the first time.  There's about 35 of us! 

On the second day, we had more orientation classes and a group of us went to La Moneda, which is the office of the President, Sebastián Piñera.  There were a lot of police (carabineros) there, which was intimidating, but I soon discovered that they're really friendly! They also are really fond of the stray dogs that roam around Santiago (I hope I don't try to smuggle one back home). 

Oh yeah, I also got lost on the second day.  I was taking the metro home for the first time and I got on the right line, but just went in the wrong direction.  It was pretty easy to get back on track, though, and now I think I've officially conquered the Santiago metro system!  It's pretty simple, actually...a lot easier than New York or D.C.

On the last day of orientation, got to visit Cerro Santa Lucia, which was really neat.  We got to walk up these small, winding stairways all the way to the top, where we got a really good view of the city (except for the fog/smog).

At the bottom of Cerro Santa Lucia

The view from only about 1/3 of the way up!

Tomorrow is our first official day of classes.  I'm taking the clinical observation seminar portion at La Pontificia Universidad Católica and the medical Spanish portion at the IES center.  The actual observation will start in about a week or so, and that will be at the Clínica Universidad Católica, which is, if I understood correctly, a private teaching hospital.  I'm excited!

I'll post some pictures of my homestay and the IES center and more soon!

Tengo que hacer mi tarea!