Only when it is dark enough, you can see the stars.

Yesterday was a great day. After much debate and lots of planning, we finally gave the girls in our hogar their christmas present that was donated by our family and friends. About a month ago, I had heard that many of the girls that live in the Hogar and we hang out with everyday had no families to go home to on Christmas, this is for a multitude of reasons. Court orders that say that they can not see their families, both parents are deceased or incarcerated, and so forth and so on.  The hogar stated that this year there was no extra money for Christmas presents. Shortly after hearing this, they had their bi-annual birthday party, where the girls with birthdays from June through November had one celebration in early December with an array of junk food, cumpletos, and each girl recieved a present, one bottle of shampoo. After witnessing their birthday party and seeing how happy they were even though they may have been celebrating their birthday months after it happened and only re...

"Some people walk in the rain, others just get wet." -Roger Miller It was just one of those nights. I sat in a bar after the Chile soccer game ended, with my blue cast propped under the table slowly sipping my very cold beer and once again realized I was surrounded by good people. Several hours later, my friend turned to me after our very deep conversation about our lives in Santiago, and said "I think the best reason that there are new volunteers here, is that it reinforces to me how many good people there are in the world." She was right. We didn't know each other four days ago. Four days ago, my foot wasn't broken, and I didn't know I would sit and have an incredibly hilarious deep conversation with new people that have ventured to Chile from all over the world. What an amazing place to be. Our conversation this night turned to this talk about... "calm." People told their stories, their dramas, we laughed and made fun of past relationshi...

I arrived in Santiago in September 2009, to make my life as a volunteer in a hogar with adolescent teenage girls. I had been working in the field of social work for the last 6 years, in a variety of jobs working with troubled children, teenagers and adults. While I wanted to live and work abroad, I also wanted to also have a purpose. I knew Chile had the biggest wealth gap in Latin America, but I didn't know what that looked like up close. I didn't know anyone's name, I didn't know how a child in a hogar in Santiago`s “worst neighborhood” liked to brush her hair, what colors she liked to paint with, or most importantly, what brought her happiness. So in coming to VE, I found myself in a new place very quickly. VE volunteers come from all over the world to work with children who may have faced some form of serious trauma. These traumas include but are not limited to sexual, mental, physical and emotional abuse, medical and educational neglect, homelessness, substance ...

I got sick about four weeks ago. It started when I taught at 7 in the morning and then I went to my Spanish class at ten and had to introduce myself and explain that I was teaching from 7-9, taking class from 10-1:30 and working from 2-8, and everyone in Chile, said "que??" Well I got out of class at 1:30 that day and my head was spinning, I thought I was gaining a migraine and as I walked to the metro for work, I knew I wouldn't make it. I had a few visions of romantic scenes of me fainting on the subway only to wake in a hospital with a lovely new Chilean stranger who carried me up the subway stairs and stayed with me. Then as the walk continued and the fantasy grew, as always, i remembered reality....I actually felt like i was about to faint. I knew that the ground was far away and I could faint in the crossroad and be killed by some crazy driver, I could fall into the metro tracks and that would be the end of me...and as my mind continued and I walked, I wondered, wha...

September Pictures in Santiago! Halloween in Santiago! Frenchy's video about some our life in Santiago (in French, but enjoyable!!) More to come!

So I arrived in Santiago, Chile on September 4, 2009. I was greeted at the airport by a very smiley friendly female, whom we now call Mariah. She was holding a hand drawn sign with "ve-global" on it. We said our greetings, made some small talk and waited for two other volunteers' flights to land, and soon I was greeted by two other Americans, Jessica (Ohio) and Annie (Minnesota). I called my mom from the payphone to say I had made it through the night and was now stationed in my new country (and later found out that this two minute and 43 second call would cost 27.00!). We ventured out into the very early morning to arrive at Hostel Sammy. Jessica, Annie and I had arrived in Santiago three days early. We were shown to our room of 8 bunkbeds and as you walked into the room the odor of smelly, dirty socks hit you in the face. I put my stuff down, expecting to see bugs and rats scurry from under the bed, but all looked well. I had a sudden frightening urge that I would not...

It took me a long time to get here. By a long time I do not mean the plane ride or the cab ride or even the weeks preceding my departure. I mean the years I spent dreaming...and wondering. So I have arrived and I realize now that this dream has only just begun. It is difficult to encompass my life here in Chile, but I will attempt to in the days and weeks to come. First I wanted to share a poem I wrote in my journal in my second week here on my third day working at the Hogar. It is true what they say, that you can only really learn and grow when you step outside your comfort zone, when you begin to experience something you have never known before. I realize now that there is so much left I have to know, so much left I have to learn and so much more I am capable of. I guess I the dream never really ends, even when you think you have arrived. The waves were crashing in and I asked them to subside But everyday I would dry, and then wake up soaking wet again. At times they were far away bu...