Santiago, Chile - School, 2nd Week - 2-6 de Marzo, 2020
I'm here to state once again, learning Espanol is difficult, muy deficil, especially in your seventy-third year of age. I somehow think my brain is still pretty sharp but when quizzed by the professor, suddenly my mind goes haywire like the drawing in the Peanuts cartoon where a crazy line goes round and round in an ugly tangle.
Words! My Lord, we have been introduced to so many new words and we have, indeed, learned many . . . words for days of the week, months of the year, numbers, descriptions of physical characteristics, descriptions of emotions and actions . . . not to mention the basic-basic: ser, estar, and tener. Then we progressed to possessives and plurals. Sheesh! Stan and I have not been exposed to so many new aspects of knowledge since we took personal finance and estate planning classes with John Fuller in 2002. We sometimes wake in the night conjugating verbs, reciting numbers and formulating preguntas.
Class each day is great, certainly, but it is clearly challenging! As we enter our daily class session, I say, "let the beatings begin!!!" We have magnificent professors, Sebastian and Jenny. Still we are in Basic Class, of course, and will probably in all likelihood, graduate on March 20 and still be in Basic Class . . . hopefully it will be Basic 1B instead of Basic 1A.
Class dismisses between 1:30 and 2 pm each day. The escuela offers afternoon activities. . . on Tuesday and Thursday, practice sessions are offered from 2:45 to 4:15 pm. We try to participate in these. This hour and a half is grueling in that participants ask each other questions and we all do our best to answer them in Espanol and pose a new question (pregunta) in turn. A professor mediates the conversations. Stan and I leave these sessions in an exhausted sweat!!! Nerves completely wracked!
On the other days, city-excursions, salsa lessons, cooking classes, etc. are offered after the 10 am-1:30 classes. On the weekend, a local tour company offers tours and excursions to nearby must-visit places. And the prices for the weekend trips are geared toward the hostel (young and broke) crowd. They are much, much cheaper than excursions we can find on our own. This week we are planning a cooking class on Friday for making ceviche. And this weekend we are thinking about a trip with fellow students trekking in the mountains and relaxing in the hot springs at Las Termas.
Today after class we gathered to take a walking tour to the Cementeria. Honestly, I must Google much we saw there because the information was far too random to comprehend the significance. The guide spoke entirely in Spanish. I could catch a phrase here and there but I gathered not nearly enough to know for sure if she was telling an important historical story or if she was talking about us. She laughed a lot.
It was hot outside! Muy calore! The cemetery was dry and dusty. Flowers brought to honor the dead appeared to have been freeze-dried in place. None lost petals. Stems just stood there in their containers, brown and leather-like. And the outing went on and on! And on! We left the school at about 1:40 pm and walked north for many blocks. The group had a very pleasant lunch and beers together then we set out on the rest of the trek to the Cementerio. We made it there about 4 pm . . walking very slowly, very slowly . . . . I thought I might die!!)
About 172 influential people and their families are buried at the Cementerio General de Santiago, including five Chilean presidents, government officials and several important folk singers who in their time played important roles in unifying the people against bad politics.
Until we gain much more skill in comprehending the spoken word in Espanole, we may not do these walking tours again . . . especially with daytime temperatures this hot and especially with this particular guide. --- I do hope I change my mind!
We stayed after class today (Friday) for a cooking class. We made ceviche! There were about 10 of us who signed-up for the session. We all took part in cutting fresh Reinata fish, finely chopping red onon, red and green bell peppers,and cilantro. Some students squeezed lemons and chopped garlic. It all came together with a little olive oil, white wine and water plus plenty of salt and pepper. We also made fiery hot salsa! Very much like the benefits of our trip to the Cementario, this activity gave us a chance to know students in other classes at our school. We were the only Americans but it is wonderful and super encouraging that we can all talk, understand each other (maybe in English, in broken Spanish or even sign-language—whatever it takes!) and create bonds and sweet memories. . . simply because we were here together today.
Meanwhile, the beat goes on. Each evening hosts political demonstrations. Most are large and loud but not violent. Do understand, however, these Chilean people are angry. They are demanding a new constitution. Yes, awful things have happened in this effort. In October, a library was burned. Metro stations have been burned or damaged; some are now closed. And most visual and evident . . . political, anti-police, anti-government signs, graffiti, and memorials to the dead are everywhere!!! EVERYWHERE! These messages make the buildings appear ill-kept and abused, but It is clearly a way people have to make their sentiments known. As we talk to Chilean people we are learning that there is much suspicion concerning the burnings of public buildings and facilities which coincidentally are services used primarily by the people doing the protesting (services like the metro, for example. or the library). There is a strong belief that this kind of damage is actually done at the hands of the police. People suspect the police burned the library and metro stations all in an effort to denigrate the actions of the people. I don't know but it does sound plausible. We do know that in the October demonstrations, the police attacked demonstrators. They killed over thirty demonstrators and blinded over 300 people with rubber bullets fired pointblank into the faces of those trying to make their voices heard.
On this past Monday night in the demonstration, the police detained 283 people following clashes as protestors threw bricks and rocks at security forces. They say 76 policemen were injured. Not that throwing bricks or rocks is something I would ever condone but the police response might have been a little excessive. Why can't the police just get the juvenile vandals throwing the rocks and bricks . . .why focus on the peaceful marchers??
Today is Friday and already at 5 pm, huge crowds are gathering in public areas and in the parks. On our walk home from school, we saw smoke bombs being thrown by people in crowds near Plaza Italia and we saw big crowds forming in the parks. We saw police circling a plaza launching water cannons at the crowds. In my opinion, shooting the crowds with water cannons tantalizes and energizes the crowd much like toreros in a bullfight. Their stabbing the bull with swords antagonizes and agitates him to anger, preparing him for the fight.
Yep.
The Friday night crowd's activity will only grow more and more energetic, committed and demonstrative as the night goes on.
March 8 is said to be a very important date. March 8 is International Women's Day. Living in a very machismo society, Chilean women (and make no mistake, these people are educated!) are taking a hard stance in the revolutionary movement. Not only do they agree with the necessity of a new constitution, Chilean women are demanding to be a part of the creation of the new constitution and they demand respect from the rest of society. Other important items of change in the Chilean constitution are provisions for free public education, containment of public transportation fees (so that the non-rich can get to their jobs and school at a reasonable cost), and an overhaul to the current pension system. We hear over and over again that young people are demonstrating on behalf of their parents and grandparents to demand revision of the current egregious system of distribution of monthly government pensions . . . Pensions funded by years and years of employees' income taxes and then paid out at retirement based on expected lifetimes of over 100 years. (i.e. much like social security taxes).
In short, from what we understand, the people want a new constitution to be written not by the government but by an assembly of elected officials made up of representatives of the population. Twenty-percent of the assembly members will be indigenous people and the remainder would be 50% men and 50% women. Per Wikipedia: Should the process move forward, citizen elections to the convention would take place in October 2020, alongside local and regional elections. The convention would take up to a year to draft the document and pass it with a two-thirds majority. It would then require ratification in a nationwide referendum.
Monumental! Simply monumental!
Get this . . . over a million mujedes are expected to gather and march the streets and plazas of Santiago this Sunday. We haven't decided whether to leave the city this weekend or stay in town and witness this incredible event. There are lessons to be learned here. Maybe I should join the women in their campaign.
If we stay, we expect to see on the fringes, important moments of this amazing initiative. Please understand, while our apartment building is near the heart of the prime demonstration area, we are safe. We have purchased enough provisions for one week in the extreme, extreme instance that we will be boxed-in. And, our building is well secured. Plus our apartment is ten floors above street-level. No one has taken to burning private property yet, and I do not believe they will. We will, however, get a view of key actiivity from a bit of a distance and we will hear and see marches, songs and drums. Ta-Ta, ta-ta-ta!
Stay tuned.