She gets it, now....

Carmen has never been a huge fan of her own name.

People have trouble saying it ("Carla?"), spelling it ("Karman"), and understanding it ("Thats a boy's name!"). She also never met anyone else named Carmen. When she was 6 or 7, she let some other kid at the playground call her "Carly," something that I guess sounded better to her little ears.

I tried to explain to her that I had wanted a Spanish name for her, something to reflect her background (which also includes Ukrainian, Polish, German and Mapuche Indian). Of course, being only 10 years old now, she didn't really understand my rationale... and just wanted a more common name.

Fast-forward to Chile, where "Carmen" is still as common down here as "Catherine" or "Anne," back at home. While the name has become a bit of a classic (like Catherine and Anne) and been supplanted by more modern -- and English-sounding -- names like "Ailin" and "Yuli," there are still LOTS of Carmens around.

Most notably, however, there are dozens of street names in Santiago with some version of Carmen in it. Driving around one day, we found ourselves on "Carmencita" Street. Carmencita is what I've called Carmen since she was little. It's an affectionate term, like Cathie or Annie.

So, all of a sudden, Carmen is not so foreign any more... and while I don't know if my daughter likes her name any more than she did before we came to Chile, she gets it now.

(Yes, darling, there was a method to my madness.)

Here are a few more pictures of my Carmencita:
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzannesoto03/MyCarmencita#

10 (more) things I love (and don't) about Chile

LOVE:
1. The scenery. Can't beat it, especially the mountains. They're everywhere you look. Big ones, little ones, looking all ethereal and misty. What I really, reallly love though is the contrast between Santiago's skyscrapers and the mountains in the background. Beautiful.

2. The historic architecture. It makes Santiago seem very European, but more Paris, than Madrid (probably because many of Santiago's early architects were French or French-inspired, like Emilio Jecquier and Felipe Duhart).  Newer architecture is gorgeous too. The street I'm living in -- Avenida Suecia -- is a long row of lovely buildings, all built in the 70s and 80s. An architectural tour all on its own!

3. The food and the wine. I've posted about the food before, but I haven't mentioned that you can get delicious street food just about anywhere -- empanadas, humitas, mote.... And wonderful bottles of the smoothest Carménère you've ever tasted, for about $3 a bottle!

4. The newspapers. Santiago still has 5 or 6 daily newspapers, appealing to all kinds of tastes, and readers. They sell out fast, too, so you'd better be the first in line, at the corner "kiosko"!

5. The fact that no one here knows me. No one knows me in Toronto either, but here, being anonymous feels different somehow. It feels free and transitory; like, yeah, my hair has a funny wave today and I'm not wearing any make-up... and I really could not care less. 

HATE:
6. The lack of respect between drivers and pedestrians. Pedestrians NEVER wait for walk/don't walk signs, to cross a street, even really busy ones. They always try to run it, while drivers sometimes barely miss pedestrians. (The kids and I always respect the "walk/don't walk" signs; most times we're the only ones, as Chilean moms with kids certainly don't wait!)

7. The lack of courtesy among people, sometimes. Examples: no one lets you in, when you need to merge in traffic. People behind you in a queue try to jump in front of you, if they get half a chance. If they dig baby-carriage wheels against your heels, they keep right on going, without a word of apology. (At the same time, I've been handed my bank card, just as I was walking away from an ATM; been warned to safeguard my camera against possible theft; and been given a 40-page mapbook, by a complete stranger at a gas station when I mentioned I kept getting lost in Santiago...)

8. That fact that everyone still smokes. Kids as young as 12 or 13 and seniors well in their 80s, light up, anywhere and everywhere, and most restaurants are not smoke-free.

9. The graffiti. It's mostly in the less wealthy parts of Chile, and of Santiago, but, it just makes buildings look run down, even when they aren't.

10. The poverty. Some people are still really, really poor in Chile, as the aftermath of the Feb. 27 continues to highlight. Maybe in another 30 years' time, the gap between Chile's rich and its working class/working poor will have narrowed even more, so that if I don't get to see it, hopefully my kids will.

One can only hope, right? .

This is Chile

Things are finally starting to settle (a bit) in Chile. For one, we're not having as many tremours any more. I think we're now down to three or four tremours a day in Santiago, and very mild (4 or 5 on the Richter), so I actually haven't felt one in about 3 days. Weird.

It's a different story in other parts of the country, where they're still having lots of shakes. And just this morning, Walter Mooney, here from the U.S. Geological Service, said on Chilean TV there's still a 30 percent chance of another quake happening, with a magnitude of about 7.

Thanks a lot, Walter.

(Interestingly, Mooney spoke English and Chilean TV added Spanish subtitles. A moment later, a Japanese geologist was also interviewed and, he spoke Spanish! No substitles required! I was so impressed... and imagined my two kids some day, requiring no subtitles, either).

On the positive side, other kinds of experts are predicting all this seismic activity will likely result in a ... baby boom! They're saying the country should prepare for a big spike in births in about 9 months's time. (Whatever gets you through the night.... right?) Already, about 70 percent of Chile's population is under 25 years old; guess that percentage will substantially increase.

Also on the positive side, psychologists are urging people to get out there and have some fun (guess they've haven't heard about the baby boom!). They're saying: "Go to a movie this weekend!" or "Eat out!" The point is to resume normal activities and find distraction from what's been going on which, by now, has everyone totally stressed and still scared. (Again, thanks a lot, Walter!).

This coming Monday, Nelly Furtado is giving a big concert in Santiago, with some proceeds going to earthquake relief efforts. I just might listen to those wise psychologists and go see Nelly...!

Finally, Chile is desperately trying to get tourists back, after the quake. They flew in travel journalists from all over the world and took them to parts undamaged by the quake so they can spread the word. Santiago's airport is also finally open and many hotels are offering discounts.

There is some good info (which can be translated to English), here (including a story about foreigners who experienced the quake):

http://www.thisischile.cl/

So... when can I expect you? ; )

"Neeesholaaas....!!!!"

Okay, so, this post must remain between you and me. Nicholas must never know.... as he'd be completely embarrassed and maybe a bit angry with me for telling you. (But I think this is totally cute, so, here it goes....)

Nick's 12 and still very much a kid, so, the fact that hordes of Chilean girls his age chase him all over the playground at school, during recess, as he if were "Nick Jonas" instead of Nick Skoretz, totally mortifies him.

He told me about this last week, that he'd spent an entire recess running away from half a dozen girls, chasing after him, shouting: "Neeesholaaas....!!!" (There are no silent letters in Spanish so the "ch" is pronounced as in "chocolate" instead of as in "cholera.") He said he'd stopped long enough to correct the girls on the pronunciation of his name, but, he added, they didn't care. They just wanted to get near him, the kid from Canada, the English-speaking one.

Well, today I got a chance to see this "live." I was at the school, waiting to meet with Nick's teacher, Mauricio, when Nick came by, all out of breath, his face completely red from running. He just managed to enter the classroom where I was and close the door behind him, when 5 or 6 little girls squished their faces to the glass window, shouting the funny version of Nick's name. I glanced at a couple of them and they had that adoring look that's usually reserved for pop stars. When Mauricio appeared, Nick had to go out there, to face the girls and I could see him struggling to break free from the pack.

Mauricio -- a really young teacher whom Nick really, really likes -- said the girls had come by his classroom the first or second day of school, and had asked him: "Are YOU the teacher who has that Canadian boy in his class??! He is so....DREAMY.....!" or something along those lines. Mauricio and I laughed... and agreed it's probably a good thing Nick's too young to appreciate any of this!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, a friend of Carmen's told her that "it's not really necessary" for her to go back home to Canada. Today, Mauricio told me the same thing, about Nick. When I reminded the teacher that Nick's only here for a short time, he was quite disappointed. "Too bad... he's a great kid and a really keen student. Are you sure he can't finish off the year?" 

Although it's only been two weeks, both Nick AND Carmen have been working really hard down here, wanting to learn, wanting to do their respective homework assigments every night, wanting to make friends and taking anything and everything that comes their way, very much in stride.

I told Mauricio today that our experiences down here (quake aside) have been everything I'd hoped for and more. I think it's been the same for Carmen and Nick, whom I hope will eventually remember his "fan club" fondly, once we're finally back at home.

Gracias a la vida

There's this classic Chilean folk song, titled Gracias a la vida and written in the late 1960s by Violeta Parra, but made famous by the Argentinian singer Mercedes Sosa. When translated, it goes something like this:

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It's given me two eyes, that when I open them,
Can perfectly distinguish black from white,
Can distinguish the starry sky above me,
And from the multitudes, can find the man I love.

Thanks to life, which has given me so much.
It's given me ears which record crickets and canaries
Hammers and turbines and bricks and storms,
And the tender voice of my beloved...

Here is Mercedes Sosa's version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHiotOgbUAI

There's LOTS lost in my translation (and in the video's), but basically, the song's an ode to life, and to love. I was reminded of it last week, when different versions of the title (i.e. colour, font, size) were posted in every one of the classrooms at the kids' new school, after the Feb. 27 quake.

And, Gracias a la vida is exactly how I'm feeling right now, after having celebrated another birthday this weekend.

I too am grateful, because I've had a really nice life, made all that much better by my very own beloved who, aside from the past six weeks, has been with me for over 25 years... and will join me here in Santiago, in just 12 days.

Can't wait.....!
p.s. Have posted some birthday pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/suzannesoto03/MyBirthday#

7.2 6.9 275+

So, I have to admit, it's finally getting more than just a little annoying.

It continues to shake, down here in Chile. The first two numbers in this post's title refer to the Richter Scale readings of the last two really strong tremours that just rocked the country this morning (which themselves were followed by at least three more immediate tremours, though not as strong as the ones that occurred at 11:39 and 11:55 a.m.)

Interestingly, all of these took place during the actual inauguration of Chile's next president, Sebastian Pinera. Here is one account:

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/11/chile.earthquake/index.html

Since the Feb. 27. 8.8 quake, there have been more than 275 (yes, that is correct, 275) follow-up tremours, with the strongest one being the 7.2 today. They come day... and night. I woke up at around 4 this morning, to what I thought was shaking in the apartment and sure enough, I found out later it had measured just 6 on the Richter Scale. (The quake that hit Turkey earlier this week was around 6, no?)

I also read in a local paper earlier this week that according to history, many big quakes are followed up by a second, big-scale tremour, days and sometimes even weeks after the actual quake, i.e. In 1985, following the 7.9 quake in Chile, a second one was felt 36 days later with a magnitude of 7.5. Following the 9.1 quake in Indonesia in 2004, another one measuring 8.7 was felt two days later, etc.

The paper implied that Chile was due for a second, big shake.

Wondering -- was the one this morning IT?

Sure hope so, though even as I write this, it continues to shake... and shake... and shake...

"AWESOME!"

As a parent, sometimes you make decisions for your kids even when you do not have all the information and you're not really sure, which can be much more frightening than any earth tremours (i.e."What if I made the totally wrong decision ... and it negatively affects them? ")

That's how I felt, when it came to finding the kids a school. I found one, but it's really far from where we live, and even though it's a private school and expensive, and located in a gorgeous area at the foot of the Andes mountains, it also borders on one of Santiago's most dangerous neighborhoods, Penalolen (the site of sometimes violent territorial/land claim disputes between native Chilean communities and local landowners, a la Caledonia, ON).

Colegio Altamira is also unlike any other Santiago school - extremely progessive and "open," as they say here, because it not religion-based and it mixes boys and girls, something that's become uncommon here, and not something many Chileans approve of .

So, with all that, I did not know what to expect yesterday, when we set out on the 45-minute drive to the school. When we arrived, however, the school looked fine and clean! The other parents seemed happy to be there! The teachers were friendly and welcoming! I left Nick and Carmen there but on the drive back to the apartment I still wondered if I had done the right thing.

Thank goodness, I need not have worried.

When I picked them up at the end of the school day, I was greeted by two smiley, happy faces. Their answer to my: "So, how was it?" was an extremely enthusiastic: "AWESOME!" almost in unison. A handful of the teachers spoke some English so the two had been able to communicate somewhat. Carmen had already made a friend in her class, a little girl who also spoke some English and who'd told Carmen that: "It is really not necessary for you to go back to Canada. Stay here forever! " And Nick had felt like a king in his English Lab class, because he'd been able to get through the work assigned, in a flash.

Gosh ... did that EVER feel good .... What a relief ... Now, I can worry about other things, like hoping they do not get too attached to their new surroundings, 'cause, despite what Carmen's little friend said, it is definitely necessary for her (and us!) to go back home to Canada, when our time here is up. Definitely.

I've posted more first day of school photos here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/suzannesoto03/NickyAndCarmenSFirstDayOfChileanSchool#

And more pics and info about their school, here:

http://architecturerevived.blogspot.com/2009/08/colegio-altamira-santiago-chile.html

Rina, on second thought, don't come.

A friend of a friend e-mailed me earlier this week, asking if she should post-pone her dream vacation to Chile,because of the current travel warnings to Chile, including to Santiago.

No, I told her. Come. Santiago remains the same as ever, I said. Yes, a 20-storey apartment tower in the neighbourhood of ÑuÑoa sank 20 cms, but everyone's been evacuated and the building is under watch. No large-scale buildings have fallen here in the capital. It’s fine.

Now, however, I’m reconsidering my advice, and it’s because of the never-ending tremours which, a week after the initial earthquake, are still a daily occurrence.

Like tonight – three in a row, starting at about 1:15 a.m. Strong enough to wake you; strong enough to make 35-year-old windows rattle. And even though there’s been dozens (hundreds?) since the actual quake, you never get used to them. Your heart still races, your senses immediately go to “fight or flight,” and your thoughts instantly to your children. (Fortunately, the kids slept through these last three... and most of the time, they hardly notice them.)

So, while I’m not quite ready to get on the next plane back to Canada (yet), my advice to Rina has definitely changed to Don’t come. While nothing will likely happen while you’re here, you’ll probably be very scared at times, and that’s no way to spend a dream vacation. So, please ignore my earlier email.  (Thanks…)

On a more positive note, the kids and I did get out to volunteer. We spent all Wednesday afternoon at a large warehouse in the city’s centre assembling cardboard boxes, filling them with food, toiletries and kitchen supplies, taping them shut, and then stacking them up so that they could be loaded onto large trucks headed for Chile’s south.

We joined hundreds of other Chileans in this endeavour, mostly high school students whose back-to-school was postponed to next Monday, but there were people of all ages also there, including very young, female “carabineras,” or police women, in full police gear. A few tried to talk to Nick and Carmen in English, and asked us where we were from; a couple had relatives in Canada.

We hope to get out to volunteer a couple more times, before my two start school, next Monday as well.

Which brings me to the next positive note -- I managed to find the kids a school! I’d seen this school on line, before I left Canada but because it’s private ($$$), I’d stayed away, hoping to find a public school that would accept them for the two or three months they’ll be here. I’ve had no luck with that because, I’m finding out, there’s an extreme shortage of schools in Chile.

Public classrooms are very overcrowded (40-45 students per class is the norm) and it’s very tough to get in, and especially now that some were damaged by the earthquake. Also, over the last three decades, in an effort to keep the young sexes separate, schools have become single-sex only, meaning even if I’d found space, Nick would have had to go to an all-boys school and Carmen to an all-girls school, and I didn’t want that.

Anyway, this past week, after a fruitless public school search, where we saw more than one “go away” face, we ended up at Colegio Altamira (www.colegioaltamira.cl), talking to the principal and wow, what a difference. We were made to feel welcome right away. The school itself is extremely progressive, with great programming, including art, music and after-school activities such as rock-climbing, chess and …. trapeze artistry!!! And best of all, the kids can attend together.

I knew this was the right place when I suggested to the principal that instead of the five hours a week of English instruction that the Chilean kids get at his school, my two should perhaps receive five hours of Spanish instruction a week.

Well, he said, how much Spanish do your kids know? Ummm, not much....yet!, I said, as we’ve only been here a month. Well, he said, then we should see how it goes. We do not want your children to feel like we’re throwing them into a pool when they don’t know how to swim… Let’s get them happy and comfortable here first, then we can see if they can handle the five hours of intense Spanish a week, in addition to all the Spanish they’ll be encountering in all their OTHER classes.

Right, I said. You’re absolutely right. Happy and comfortable, that’s exactly how I want my kids to be...

The view, from where we sit

They say the more things change, the more they remain the same, and this is what I'm finding in Chile -- like the huge divide between this country's rich and poor.

Sure, when I was growing up here in the 1970s there was a lot more poverty and many more people lived in cobbled-together adobe houses, with dirt for floors, cardboard for windows, and tin slabs for roofs (our house in the Santiago neighbourhood of Santa Olga was made of wood and I think we had actual windows, but the floor and roof were as I describe).

In the ensuing three decades, Chile became much more prosperous, thanks to all of its exports, so now, there are actually large supermarkets here, and malls, and credit cards (unheard of in the past). A large portion of the population also own vehicles and live in better homes, with dry wall and tiled floors.

Still... the difference between the "haves" and the "have nots" in Chile remains pretty stark, and this has really been brought to light by this weekend's earthquake.

For example, because I'm from Canada, I was able to rent a beautiful and large apartment in Providencia, one of Santiago's best neighbourhoods, which is itself adjacent to one of the city's wealthiest (Las Condes).

Providencia looks like any large and cosmopolitan area in North America or Europe: lots of shops, cute cafes, nice restaurants. As such, if you look around, you'd be hard-pressed to see any damage from this past weekend's earthquake. Apart from a nearby, very old church that lost its roof, the surrounding 20-storey buildings don't look at all like they'd withstood 8.8 on the Richter Scale. All the stores are still very busy with well-dressed customers, the outdoor cafes all have patrons, and Mercedes Benz's still circle the narrow streets in search of parking spots near the more popular area restaurants.

Drive out of this elite enclave, however, and it's a totally different story. The kids and I took a two-hour drive yesterday, in search of a school, and actually saw that there is much more damage in the rest of Santiago, in the poorer neighbourhoods. We saw lots of piled rubble, downed walls, broken windows, etc. We saw kilometre-long lineups for gasoline, and for food, at some stores. Apart from that, we saw how some of the rest of Chile lives -- run down, one-storey homes; graffitti everywhere you look; little kids selling boxes of laundry soap on the street; young women selling home-made bread at just cents a piece.

On television, too, we've also been seeing a lot of the devastation that happened in Chile's south. Again, I don't think it was the wealthier areas that suffered the hardest. No. It's the poor people who had little to begin with, that lost everything, including family members. Also, much of the country remains without power, water and other basic necessities, like food.

So, Nick, Carmen and I are realizing that the view, from where we sit, in Providencia, is quite skewed, and while we're not planning on moving, I decided that three of us are going to get out there, and help. One of the things I'll be doing today is finding out where we can volunteer, with relief efforts.

The three of us received a huge gift on the weekend. Now it's definitely time to give back.