I only had two days of school this week because of the holiday on Tuesday--it is similar to Labor Day in the US. My friends and I walked around the Cerros and then saw what seemed to be a protest beginning. That is what all the pictures are from--that day. They weren't the education protests but some sort of history walk from what I understand. I went to school on Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday night I wasn't feeling well (it had gotten pretty cold and I was having some trouble breathing). Luckily, I have the best parents ever and Papa put the heater in my room for a little bit so it would be warm when I went to sleep--I am so blessed by them everyday.
On Friday I went to different history museums in Santiago where we learned about what happened during the reign of Pinochet. It is crazy for me to be here and know that it is still so recent. Many people here remember everything--it is something that I haven't ever seen before. I went to the Holocaust Museum in D.C. and that was also very sad but it isn't as fresh so to me it doesn't seem as real. In Chile, it is very real and very fresh--it's just shocking to think that these terrible things were happening here just thirty something years ago.
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| Each of the trees lies in the middle of a four by four square where the cells were. Four people were kept inside of these cells (SO TINY) and were only let out to go to the bathroom and be tortured. |
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| Names of all the missing. |
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| Just some of the missing people. |
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| This is where the people were taken just before they were put on planes and then went missing. After the war was over it was discovered that the people were tied to railroad tracks and thrown into the ocean that is a few miles from where I live. In the museum they had some of the train tracks that had been found at the bottom of the sea=there was a button stuck to one of the tracks. |
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| The grave of Pinochet's right hand man. |
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| The graves at this cemetery were all above ground. |
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| Allende's family grave. |
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| Missing on the left--dead on the right. |
Saturday was definitely a lighter day! We decided to celebrate my good friend's birthday on the rooftop of our other friend's apartment. It is easy to rent out the rooftop that comes complete with a sitting area and place to grill. It didn't take much planning--just creating a Facebook event and buying food. We had decided on Mexican food which was great considering it was Cinco de Mayo (the Chileans we were with wondered why we celebrated a Mexican holiday in the US). From the rooftop it is so easy to see all of Valpo and celebrating a birthday makes for a great night with good company!
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| Jack Jack :-) |
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| The other LeeAnn |
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| The hills are alive... |
Yesterday we went to Quilpué to celebrate both of my Chilean nephews' birthdays. There were a few other kids there and of course family! It started raining yesterday at about one so we walked in the rain which wasn't too bad and celebrated with cake, pizza, gifts, and a piñata for the kids.
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| Martinnnn-I love this little guy! |
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| Andres blowing out his candles. |
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| ¡Dulces! |
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| All the little kidos |
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| Hermanas y hermanos |
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| Santo hefe hormigo |
Like I said, it was a good day with family and friends. Oh! On our way home the micro broke down and we had to get on another one--that's what papá had said would go in the blog haha--just another day in Chile!
Today I am just catching up on homework and reading for school. Tomorrow I have to go to school bright and early--it's okay though because we're studying Neruda and it makes it worth it (hopefully I'll be saying this tomorrow at seven).
As for the SOTD...
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