August 8: Yet Another Despedida

I'm almost glad I got sick on the last day, because it made it so much easier to leave. There were still so many things that I wanted to do that I didn't have the time, money or language skills to undertake. I wanted to talk more with Roberto (the hostel owner) and his family to better understand their lives. I'm so curious how they view the hourdes of tourists that come into San Pedro. There were still so many places I hadn't explored and since every second of the day looks different in the desert, I wouldn't have minded simply sitting in one spot for a long long while. But the most nagging thing that tempted me to stay was the urge to explore the reasons behind the overall poverty of the place, beneath its slick veneer. How can poverty exist in a place with obvious economic stimulus, $40 tours and restaurants at double Santiago prices? What I suppose is that it has a lot to do with lack of resources, education, discrimination against darker skinned people of Peruvian/indigenous descent (although I might be misapplying a US inspired race lens to the situation) and possibly even exploitation.

This trip (along with experiences from several others) has made me aware of how passionate I am about issues surrounding housing. The experiences I've had in the last year whether seeing the often brutal complexities of the US public housing system with LIFT, being in homes in rural Guatemala and now seeing the extreme variation in quality in Chilean homes has convinced me of the centrality of this issue in bettering peoples lives. Of course, these experiences have also made me extremely grateful for the incredible stability of my home life over the years I spent in my creaky, quirky, 18th century farmhouse. I'm very glad to announce that I will be most likely working on an internship with a Chilean NGO known as Un Techo para Chile (One Roof for Chile), which essentially works to better inadequate housing conditions. While I won't be working directly with housing issues but rather their effects, such as lack of access to education, I think it's going to be a great fit.