October 1: Asi Es

Word of the Day: la huerta- small garden
Today's title translates to something like "it is how it is, such is life"

So my first day at the internship justified some of my initial feelings but made me feel even more naive.

I tried taking the metro/bus combo, which took just as long. In the end, it's not an easy thing to get across a city. Once you get used to the idea of the commute though, it's not really so bad. I read a ton. I looked out at scenery. I thought about things. I people watched. It was almost kind of relaxing.

Ultimately, I realized I was dressed inappropriately. Jeans would have been fine, probably even a good idea, but I had opted for the dark jeans and a collared shirt combo. Overdressed for sure. The supermarket by the bus stop really threw me off. One of the biggest problems facing poor neighborhoods in the US is often access to large supermarkets, so I sort of assumed that its presence meant that things couldn't be that bad. But as I walked down the street, I got a much better idea of what conditions in Villas San Luis were like. The entire street was closed off for a feria, a giant sale, in this case, of literally everything. Food, second hand clothes, gadgets, toys, basic tools, plastic...I had to skirt the feria at one point and then ended up walking through a residential area. Houses were of reasonable quality but there were no gardens or trees in sight. There was a lot of garbage in the streets and it wasn't clear if there was a disposal system in place.

I arrived at El Trampolin, which had a giant gate in front, to see a giant group of 3 or 4 year children waiting at the gate with their teacher. I don't think I will ever be able to forget their faces: they looked so expectant, big- eyed and vulnerable in their uniforms, little apron type coverings, worn over clothes that were for the most part less than clean.

I met Victoria, a member of the staff and talked with her for a bit about the type of activities that El Trampolin works on as well as the community itself. She explained to me that essentially 3 great transformations have taken place over time in the community, with less than positive results. Originally, the community was composed of less than permanent housing, known here as campamentos. Over time, assistance was provided to get people into permanent housing, which was certainly positive. However, without much improvement in the economic integration of the community, a wave of thefts began. The staff joked about how everything they'd have stolen would eventually end up resold in the feria not long after. In the last 5 years or so, drug trafficking has become the biggest problem in the community and threatens its cohesion since many of those involved in the trade are also users. At this point, the main source of work is either drug trafficking or the feria, neither of which really are enough. Obviously, both of these sources are part of the informal economy, which I'm assuming means community members are excluded from whatever workplace safety nets exist in Chile. Other problems in the community include high levels of violence, often within families but also in the community more broadly, for instance after soccer games.

Their biggest project is a jardin infantil (kindergarten) for over 70 kids, which is a ton given how small the physical space they work in is. However, even with a few other kindergartens run by other organizations, not all the children in the community are integrated into the early education system. SERNAME, the Servicio Nacional de Menores de Chile (National Service for Minors) doesn't provide for schooling until age 5. Children who don't go to jardin generally go with their parents to the feria all day, from as early as 5 am to as late as 7 or 8 pm and lack supervision and stimulation while they are there.
This was a problem I hadn't even thought about in educational equalities in Chile: not only is there a discrepancy in quality of education once children enter school, but there are essentially 5 years, some of the most crucial for later development, that children in poor areas miss out on relative to peers from richer families. The jardin provides meals, which in many cases are essential to making sure the kids are fed: they often have problems with kids getting adequate food over the weekends.

Additionally, they have workshops for older children on a variety of topics and for the women in the community as well. For now, I will be assisting in some capacity with these, specifically a Mapuche medicine workshop using herbs and plants from a small on site garden that also gives the children some exposure to plants. It seems like a fascinating project: it serves as a way to unite the female membership of the community, which is approximately 70% Mapuche, create cohesion, preserve tradition, and possibly create supplementary earnings from the sale of homeopathic medicines. This is going to be really interesting after having just finished up with a medical anthropology class last semester! Additionally, the staff has a monthly event in a central area in the community, usually with preventative messages, such as about the rights of children, the prevention of domestic/familial violence and basic public health.

After a little while, I met with Claudia, the director. Everyone on the time seemed very happy to have a new volunteer as well as the fact that I speak Spanish well relative to other volunteers they've had in the past. In the past couple years, Claudia commented, the number of volunteers has really declined, as they more or less only have volunteers from abroad. As Chile has become seen as no longer part of the 3rd world, international service organizations now tend to send people to other places in Latin America. Additionally, since everyone in Villa San Luis has stable housing, unlike so many areas in Chile, it's seen as better off. Claudia pointed out that this isn't necessarily the case. Unlike areas in the South where people may be able to grow their own food or burn wood/garbage for heat in the worst of circumstances, this isn't a possibility once you are in stable housing with very little space between houses. Housing is wonderful and necessary, but without stable jobs and skills, backsliding is to far too possible. I think in a lot of ways this is similar to why poverty in the US gets so little press: since better support systems exist than many other places in the world, it's often assumed that people are doing ok, even if their conditions are still extremely precarious due to the relatively high cost of living. Economic systems in the US are also so formalized that there isn't exactly the recourse of going to work at the feria, selling whatever you can. You can't just get on a bus and sell your music or pens or candies.

I spent a couple of hours with everyone, talking with them, seeing the different areas of the project and sharing coffee, a very Chilean ritual of welcome. Victoria and Claudia showed me all the pictures of different activities they put on. The ones that stuck with me the most were pictures of an outing some of the kids had been taken to some of the parks in Santiago. The sheer look of joy and liberation as they ran and twirled and jumped on the green green grass were wonderful to see.

I think that in a lot of ways this internship will be a much better fit than my original plan, since I will be observing much more than trying to do on my own work without real training. My main reason for wanting to work with a Chilean NGO was to see their thought process and action process when confronting issues, and the openess of the entire staff will definitely facilitate this. Additionally, I will have much more contact with the community as a whole than I would have teaching a workshop outside of the community itself. While I'm still not sure exactly what my role will be, I'm excited and challenged to see how I can be of use.