La vida en Chile

May 13, 2008

Memories from Chile: Black Rain

As I walked to the mailbox last week I saw what appeared to be some kind of ant mosh-pit on our front porch. Hundreds of ants—maybe thousands?—we’re behaving like someone had dumped a truckload of Pixie sticks on the concrete. The sight whisked me back to Chile, to my first year living there when I had to contend with the Summer of Ants.

I actually wrote about it here at the time, but I can’t be sure that I conveyed the intense rage the situation provoked. Around February, probably the hottest month of the Chilean summer, there ceased to be any distinction between ants outside and ants inside. Our floors were covered with ants and there was no obvious solution. If ants are streaming into your house, forming a black river across your floor, or counter, or whatever, then your task is simple: find what’s at the end of the ant stream, probably an open jar of Smuckers or a torn bag of sugar, remove it, and destroy the ants. Our ants, however, were wandering aimlessly through the kitchen, living room, and bathroom. When the ants are aimless, that’s when you know you’re screwed. You could sweep them all up—they’d form a pile of dirt that moved—and throw them out of the house, but their cousins, or college roommates, or great-grandkids would be back half an hour later.

Continue reading "Memories from Chile: Black Rain"

Posted by Ryan at 12:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

March 8, 2008

Graffiti in Chile

One of my favorite parts of walking through Chilean cities was the eclectic street art and graffiti. Especially in Valparaiso and the Bellavista neighborhood of Santiago, areas brimming with color, I thought graffiti added to the streets’ quirkiness. Graffiti is often characterized by its free-form, unplanned, random expression, but many of the examples I saw were a kind of internal contradiction: stenciled graffiti—spray paint confined by plastic templates.

Some of the specimins I found were so entirely whimsical or strange that it was hard not to be charmed by them. Here are three of my favorites:

Men on pipes and tightropes This piece has probably the best placement of any I’ve seen.

An international outlaw. So, uh, where is he?

I love you umbrellas. I’m not sure why I like this one so much, but there’s something charming about the non sequitur replacement of “you” with a picture of an umbrella.

You can check out the rest of the graffiti photos I took over at Flickr (or in a slideshow!) Much of the graffiti expresses political messages, some of which may be particularly offensive to Americans. But I figure that if you’re not offended or shocked on a regular basis, then you’re living an insular life and you don’t really know what people around the world think. That said, take these photos with a grain of salt.

Posted by Ryan at 2:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

February 10, 2008

So much stuff

When I left America in 2005 to work in Chile I had two suitcases to hold everything I wanted to bring with me for a two years. It didn’t seem like much space. Even though I used every permitted ounce—my checked baggage was 100 pounds, on the nose—I was struck by how little fit in my bags. I wrote a manifest that included, among other things:

• 6 T-shirts
• 2 polo shirts
• 2 pairs of jeans
• 5 sweaters
• 5 pairs of shoes: Chaco sandals, sneakers, black dress shoes, slippers, and hiking boots
• 2 belts
• 1 raincoat

At the time having eight shirts seemed very few. After awhile, though, I forgot that eight wasn’t very many; I just wore whatever I found in the closet that was (mostly) clean. Some way into this transformation my friend Kate wrote once to ask, “Do you have any other shirts besides that red one?” Well, yeah, I said defensively. Though when I looked at the photos I shared online, I can see how she might have thought that.

Continue reading "So much stuff"

Posted by Ryan at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

December 18, 2007

Chile's Greatest Hits

Last year Tom and I talked about making a compilation of the best Chilean folklore songs from our favorite groups, like Illapu, Inti-Illimani, and Los Jaivas. I never progressed much beyond talking, but Tom reviewed song after song to assembled the list and sent me a copy. A few of my faves didn’t make the cut, but there’s always the possibility of a volume two.

Much of Chilean folk music sprung from the Nueva Canción movement, a creation native to South America. It was the fusion of numerous influences—Andean, Cuban, Spanish, African, the Chilean cueca—in both style and instrumentation. While guitars are omnipresent in the folklore, it’s also common for musicians to use typical Andean instruments like the charango, which looks like a tiny guitar, or zampoña and quena flutes. A lot the songs produced in the Nueva Canción style can be described as protest songs—some more explicit than others—against foreign intervention, dictatorships, and oppression. One of the key figures in the movement, Chilean singer Victor Jara, was tortured and assassinated in the aftermath of the September 11 coup in Chile. His death, though tragic, reaffirms both the power of his songs, and music’s power in general to motivate people.

I don’t know the story behind all of these songs, but I asked around and did some research. Here’s a little of what I do know about each one. I also cut 30-second samples that you can listen to. I tried to include a representative portion in the samples of each song, so they hopefully offer you a feel for the whole piece. Where possible I also have links to purchase the songs at the iTunes Store. Unfortunately, not all of the artists are available there. Chilean folk music hasn’t made it big yet online. I did note that you can watch performances of nearly all these songs on YouTube. Without further ado…

Continue reading "Chile's Greatest Hits"

Posted by Ryan at 2:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

December 10, 2007

Where to from here?

One week in Chile I was checking my site traffic logs and I noticed a strange surge in visitors. I couldn’t figure out the cause, so I did some poking around Google. After noticing some of the common search terms leading people here, I did a search for “Chile blog” and I was rather surprised to see the following results page:

I never set out to be a blog about Chile—in fact I started blogging years before I went to South America—so it was rather novel to find myself at the top of Google’s search rankings. However it happened, I don’t expect to occupy the spot for much longer, especially now that I’m not even living in the country. I have a few article ideas left that I ran out of time to develop in Chile; those will make an appearance here in the next few weeks. Apart from that, my writing affair with my one-time, long, thin home is over.

Continue reading "Where to from here?"

Posted by Ryan at 3:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

November 21, 2007

818

There used to be a little counter on this site that kept track of the days I’d been gone. It has stopped at 818 days because after more than two years outside the U.S., I finally made my way home yesterday. Roy and I finished our detour through Peru and Bolivia and flew home from Lima. It’s a little surreal to be back in America after so much time away. A few observations:

I’m not tall anymore. While I was living in Bolivia and Chile, people always commented on how tall I am. If I was on the subway, I could look around and usually I was the tallest person in the area. I certainly enjoyed the ride while it lasted because now that I’m back in the U.S., I’m an average Joe again.

It’s comforting to see different ethnic groups again. In Bolivia, for example, black people are very uncommon. So uncommon that, should you see one, Bolivians say you should pinch him or her for good luck. When I arrived in Miami I saw faces of all different colors. The man sitting across from me at the gate had a Haitian passport in his shirt pocket. I heard several languages that I don’t know. I saw a couple who had just arrived from Singapore. I can’t say exactly why, but it made me feel good to be back in America and see the tremendous diversity of people who make their home here.

Continue reading "818"

Posted by Ryan at 9:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

October 28, 2007

The big goodbyes

Last week I had a goodbye barbecue on Monday. On Tuesday my co-workers at Fundación Contigo threw a little surprise party at the end of the day. Wednesday the Holy Cross priests and brothers invited us to a lunch at their house. Thursday I rested, but Friday I went to a farewell Mass for Roy at Saint George. Saturday we said goodbye ourselves with a final celebration in our house. That left us with this week for more individual goodbyes, of which there have been plenty. In a way it’s a kind of final reminder of Chilean culture. People become fond of others very quickly here, and goodbyes can be extensive.

Since the Associate program is coming to the end of the current chapter, our goodbyes also involved a somewhat different twist. Instead of just leaving our house, we had to close it. The house at 1309 Ictinos has been home to associates for over a decade, and its a meaningful place for many members of the community as well. One woman commented that she had a retreat there, another said that the party for her grandaughter’s baptism was held there, and countless others passed by to hang out over the years.

Continue reading "The big goodbyes"

Posted by Ryan at 3:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

October 10, 2007

The socks on my feet

When I was packing to leave home I put two unopened 8-packs of Hanes socks in my suitcase. I planned on rationing them out over the years. That turned out to be a stroke of genius because after several dozen handwashings socks start to feel less like cotton and more like paper towels. Whenever I inaugurated a new pair my feet threw a little party. This past weekend I put on the last new pair. Other things are running out as well. I lost my last Bic pen a couple months ago. I am writing this with my last mechanical pencil. I have just one Gillette cartridge left. All of these serve to underscore a message that lingers in the back of my mind. It’s time to go home.

Of course I’m not going home because I ran out of socks. I could buy more of almost everything I need—pens, pencils, razors—with one important exception: I am running out of time. When I started with Holy Cross Associates in August 2005, my end date seemed an eternity away. I’m used to thinking of the finish as so distant that it’s a shock to have it suddenly waiting on my doorstep.

In my two-and-a-half years in South America I’ve seen things hidden from many visitors; I’ve not just been to attractions, I’ve been through experiences. I did my shopping at the feria, I went to community celebrations, I ate countless onces in friends’ houses. I also did things that most visitors wouldn’t want to. I washed my clothes by hand, I lived through the campo winter without heating, I lived in places where gringos don’t normally live. Though the experience carried more challenges than I imagined, I can only describe it as rich, and I can describe Chile as a home.

Continue reading "The socks on my feet"

Posted by Ryan at 3:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

September 25, 2007

Scenes from Sept. 18

The signs went up in the Lider supermarket: The 18th is here at last! That same day I saw a folklore band in traditional huaso dress singing on a street corner downtown. Kites had already started to appear in the skies. The Chilean national holiday centered on September 18 was in the air. The only peculiar detail was the date. It was August 18, not September.

Call it holiday creep. Chile’s national celebration, known simply as the Dieciocho, had slipped into August, much like Christmas into the pre-Thanksgiving slot. Perhaps the creep could be attributed to this year’s XXL rendition. Since Sept. 18 falls on a Tuesday, the government passed a resolution making Monday a holiday as well. Sept. 19 is, naturally, a day off as well, so many schools and workers decided that it wasn’t worth the hassle of working Thursday or Friday either. That’s the kind of thinking that got a holiday turned into a week of holidays. The Fourth of July has a lot to learn.

During the Dieciocho days there is a cultural explosion where you can’t turn around without encountering one of the typical elements of Chilean culture. There are cueca dances, flying kites, cowboys in costume, chicha, rodeos, giant barbeques, fireworks, parades, and empanadas. I tried to make the most of what will most likely be my last Dieciocho in Chile. Here are a few snapshots from my week.

Continue reading "Scenes from Sept. 18"

Posted by Ryan at 11:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

September 12, 2007

Chile is for lovers

Forget Virginia: Chile is for lovers. Let me break down the reasons for you.

First, the typical greeting between men and women is a kiss on the cheek, not a handshake. In this respect, the cultural transition is easier for women because they just kiss everyone. When greeting a group of people, we men have to make a dozen split-second decisions centered around the crucial question, do I kiss this person or not? It’s easy to make mistakes; I, unfortunately, would know. Anyway, think about the number of given handshakes you exchange in a given day and tally those in the kisses column.

Continue reading "Chile is for lovers"

Posted by Ryan at 5:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)