Weekend at the Nguillatun!

What an amazing weekends we had! Went to the countryside again where we have spent a few weekends now with the family of one of the teachers. They invited us to a Nguillatun which at the time I had no idea what it was! The maphuches have these every two years to "balance out the spirits of the earth". It happens over two days and they camp out for the night.We had to get up at half 6 and then we were driven to the Nguillatun. At first when we arrived in the field (in the middle of nowhere) it reminded me just a little of the many guide camps I have been to. Although there wasn´t canvas tents but small hut like things made out of wood. Inside all the different families had meat hanging from strings like washing on a washing line. They do this so the meat gets smoked from the fire. Many families had killed the animals the day before: we had watched our family cutting up the cow meat the night before. We had a quick breakfast of tea and sopaipillas which are like donuts but savary (they eat them all the time here.)I was interrupted eating my breakfats as I was hit by a stick. I turned round to see a man with a vey ugly mask and ripped clothes. I was told I had to go dance as when you are hit you have no choice. First we went down to the river where we wove branches while people sang and threw things such as grain and leaves into the water. I was told it was to please the spirits. After we circled round animals chanting and then started walking up and down the camp backwards in lines. The men with the sticks kept hitting people and making them change places, or slow down or speed up! As we were walking backward you would hear the odd person say watch out to the person infront as they were warning them about a hole in the ground! people came inbetween the lines offering food and this horrible drink that tasted of some sort of homebrew with milk! I was also a bit concerned that every one ( all 200 people) shared the same jug but i didn´t want to be rude and not drink it! After was the Maci who is like the head woman. The Maci went into some sort of trance and started singing in mapudungun what was going to happening in the next couple of years. The family had told me at another Nguillatun they had predicted the earthquake!But as it was all in mapudungun i didn´t understand any of it. I was totally exhusted after all of this but luckily it was lunch. All the families had cooked so much meat. It is a tradition to offer your families meat to other families so many people where going round giving and receiving meat. Im not sure how much we stood out as there was obviously no other foreigners there although everyone was very friendly and greated us in mapudungun. I loved the clothes that all the woman wore with colourful ribbons in their hair and amazing headdress and pendants made from silver. I would have loved to take pictures although taking any photos was not allow at such a spiritual celebration. In a way it was also nice because i didn´t need to worry about getting my camera out, I could just relax(maybe not the right word) and enjoy the mapuche culture and traditions!

   R xxx

Lonquimay

Last weekend we went to Lonquimay which is right next to the Argentinian border and 3 hours on the bus from here. The other english teacher (karina) comes from there. To get to Lonquimay we had to go through the longest tunnel in South America. It took about 5 minutes to get through and it was very tight, only room for one bus at a time! Lonquimay itself is quite small although it is alot bigger than CholChol. It is surrounded by mountains which in the winter are covered in snow although right now they have none. We spent Saturday with Karina´s godmother who is a mapuche woman. Karina mentioned how I like knitting and the woman went and got out all the things she had made. They were all amazing skirts, socks, jumpers. All had been made from scratch. she had spun the wool, then dyed it in natural dye. In her garden she had two bowls full of wool in natural dye. One with lemons and leaves, dying the wool a lime green and another with onion skins dying the wool a golden colour. I was fascinated. The next day we went horse riding in the countryside. The horses belonged to one of Karina´s friends who has a huge summer house in the countryside close to Loquimay. None of us knew how to ride a horse. I remember having two lessons at the sables and hoped it would come back to me. Although my horse just didn´t want to behave,maybe it was the fact i was speaking to it in english but it wouldn´t do a thing i wanted. I started to get visions of it jumping up and me falling off so i got a bit scared. I was very relieved when i managed to make it stop even if that was under a bee infested tree!After we ate goat which i´ve never had before. Everyone kept saying have much more healthy it is as it has less fat. Although i think they made up for it in the amount of salt that they put on it instead. But it was nice just needed less salt.
The other night Leona came through to tell me there was a spider in our bathroom and she was concerned it was a corner spider. Corner spider here are deadly you have about 2 hours after a bite to get to hospital. Silvia the woman who looks after the girls came through and confirmed that it was a corner spider! So that has freaked us a little!
R xxx

Skiing on Chile´s most active volcano!!!

On Monday I got an amazing opportunity to go with two friends from Chol-Chol to ski on Chile´s most active volcano-llaima. It was about 2 hours from Chol-Chol by car. I was slightly concern with the fact i hadn´t skiied since I was about 12 and only ever on hillend...never real snow! driving up to the slope was an adventure in itself as the road was a dirt track and was very rocky! All I could see was forrests until suddenly this white topped volcano popped into the horizon. Driving up to it was pretty surreal. So when we finally got all the kit on, and don´t forget the suncream as many of the other skiiers with half there faces white and the other white had, we headed for the slope. I wanted to go on the baby slope first to try out my skiing ability but my chilean friend insisted that we went straight to the top. So we got on the chair left and after enjoying the initial breathtaking views I started to realise the top was quite far up and I also had no idea how you got off the chair lift. When we finally got to the top on the chair lift I had to throw my skis to a man, jump off the seat and run for my life or the next chair would hit me. Again the initial views at the top were totally worth the scary exit off the chair lift although I started to question if I would actually be able to get myself down. I told the others to go as they all had experience and I didnt want them all watching me. But I really couldnt bring myself to throw myself down the steep hill with no idea how it would turn out. I decided I would just take the chair lift back down and try the baby slope. But when I tried to ask the man to let me back on the chair lift down, he must of been watching me pondering,  as he assigned me a personal teacher who helped me ski down the volcano. After that I found some skiing ability came back to me and after a while I started to really enjoy it rather than be scared that I would fall. I must of been working hard as I woke the next day with stiff legs and arms, but totally worth it:)

Rio Chol-Chol

Just finished many class with year4 which is a class of about 40 ten year olds.This is my favorite class as they respond best to the tasks I set and I am actually able to control them. Today I tried the whole ask for silence and don´t speak until there is silence and just stare at the kids who are making any noise and it worked! felt so good! But my other classes are another story... a work in progress. In my pre-kinder class I had them all stand on different coloured flowers and they then had to tell me what colour of flower they were standing on and once they saw a sticker was involved they seemed to get it! In other classes I help with the english teacher. The children see this as an opportunity to ask me what their names mean in english and don´t believe me when I tell them that it doesn´t exist! Another lesson an 11year old boy sat me down and starting doing my hair! He stole all the hairclips from the girl beside me and put them in my hair and told me how beautiful my hair was. He even stole the girls mirror to show me the finished product! But most of the kids like playing with my hair, I think the fact is is blonde is a novelty.Although all the children had to get their hair checked the other day for headlice. No pink letters here, they all had to get their hair individually checked by a teacher so i better watch out!
Spring is here now and the weather is getting better although the mornings are still sooo cold! The girls in the internado have to get up every morning at half six and they always make such a noise we are disturbed too! It is very strange at the weekends when they have all gone home and the place is quite. Although to be honest we don´t reallyspend that much time in the internado at the weekends. This weekend we walked up Rio Chol-Chol. When we first got to Chol-Chol the water in the river covered all the banks but now you are able to walk it´s full length. It was amazing weather and an amazing day!
R xxx