I remain proud

I need to begin this with a disclaimer. I have met MANY open minded Chilenos. I have gotten to know and love many lovely people in this country. This story applies to only one person.

This man thinks it's ok to say that I have horns because I am Jewish. 

This man thinks it's ok to tell me that I killed Jesus if I so dare to say Merry Christmas. (which has now occurred multiple times considerig it's the christmas season)

This man thinks it's ok to tell me what I think about Palestine's countryhood because "i am Jewish and this is how Jews feel about Palestine." 

To this man: thank you for your generalizations. Thank you for your constant persecution and hatred. You remind me why I need to stand tall and be myself, all of myself at all times. Because people like this man are becoming less and less and less. The taller I stand the smaller he shrinks. 

Amen. 

New Words

Espantapajaros- scarecrow

el sauce- willow tree

Sweet Moments part 2

Sweet moment #5- Coming to school and having four kids immediately ask if we have el club de ingles (english club) this week becuase they enjoy it that much. I love what I do.

Sweet Moment: Having a student pull me over in class to see a picture of the pumpkin she carved. Halloween is still pretty new here so it was her first time. It looked great XD

Sweet Moment ·7- Having enough spanish to understand when one of my younger girls whispered to me that she had just gotten her first bra. Aw.

Meditate on it

Second hand clothing is called  ropa americana here because it comes from the states. There is also ropa europa, but everyone knows its less cool.

New Words

New spanish words for me at this point:

Mamut- Mammoth

Ornitorrinco-Platypus

Thank you to my intrepid fourth grader who forced me to learn them :)

Sweet Moments

I apologize for forgetting about this blog completely for two months. See my "living without internet" post for further explanation as to why. I have been posting sweet moments from my time in Chile on facebook though and I'd like to transfer them here.

Something sweet:
So I{ve been playing "deseos" with my three year old host sister. The game is the simple act of blowing dandelion seeds while making a wish. However, at some point we ran out of flowers. Don´t worry I told her, there are yellow ones over there, more yellow means more deseos to come. And its true. There will always be more deseos. 

Keep wishing :)

Sweet Moment Number 2: I regularly climb the local hill/mountain near my house. The entrance is at the library and often times the only other person there is a security guard at the library entrance. I always greet him and have thought for awhile that he has a kind smile. Low and behold he thought the same about me. Today he told me that I'm one of the nicest people that he sees climbing. I was so shocked and humbled that as I walked away I started to cry. Sweet moment number 2.

Sweet Moment #3: A student gave me a small stuffed lion today. In A LOT of my classes I use a small stuffed monkey. It is probably the most useful teaching aid since the invention of the whiteboard. He must have thought my monkey needed a friend. Tierno x D

Sweet Moment #4: I haven't seen my fourht graders in 3 weeks. THREE weeks. I spent two weeks being a substitute teacher in Pk, K and 1st grades, and then the third week they had state testing. I missed them, and apparently the feeling was mutual. When I left my hour with them the boys rallied together and blocked the door. They blocked the door because they didn't want me to leave. I almost cried I was so touched.

Bureacracy

I have so many compliments to give the schools and my experience in Chile. The students are so sweet. The teachers are so patient and take on very large loads. The administrators are very helpful and attentive. I have a lot of positive things to say. However, I am deeply frustrated by the bureaucracy here. Bureaucracy that has the teachers paying attention to the sacred black books rather than the students. Let me explain: each class has a black book that has attendance and a page for each student to mark behavioral comments. If a teacher marks anything incorrectly, apparently he/she will be fined an absurd amount by the government. However, they are expected to use pen and to mark it correctly the first time. My observation is that this leads to LARGE amounts of class time spent writing in these sacred books rather than teaching. What can a teacher do? It's not their fault and they do the best they can, but this system frustrates me so much. How can they give the students their best and how can the students receive the best when so much time is spent on such folly.