Osos en acción

The 4th of November marked the first of three days of something called osos en acción.  It literally translates to "bears in action", but what it actually is is a group of people (this time never more than 27, most often less than that) from the Adolfo Ibáñez school of business who get together and volunteer for a weekend.

This year they decided to help out in a poverty neighborhood called "mira flores alto".  What we did was build an extension onto a building in the area.  We put in a bathroom as well as some empty space and a window.  On the outside of the building there was a bunch of empty space, so we built a little plaza where the kids of the neighborhood can play.  There wasn't much that we built, a teeter-totter and a one person swing-set, but we only had three days and the vast majority of the work was spent leveling out the ground.

Something about Viña, more so Valparaíso (I have mentioned this before), is that it is incredibly hilly.  Many many of the houses are built on hills.  This meant that almost all of our time was spent by dividing up this area into three stair-like terraces.  In the first we built a couple benches so the parents can sit while watching their kids play.  The second terrace had the swing-set and teeter-totter on it.  Between the first and second terrace there was a drop of about three and a half feet, so we had to build a small wall to reenforce the earth.  Man oh man, I can't even tell you all about how much work we put into building that wall.  It was so difficult because we had to level off an incredible amount of land, as well as dig these pretty decent sized holes in the UNBELIEVABLY tough earth.  We had to use a lot of force and a lot of time to dig those holes.. and it cost me what I believe is turning into a scar on my right hand from where the skin had broken open while using the pics to make the holes.  Those kids better appreciate that wall is all I can say! :)

We were supposed to finish on Sunday around 1:00 in the afternoon, but we didn't end up finishing till 12:15 AM.  I left the scene at 9:30 PM however because I still had homework for the next day.  But it was a great experience and I'm very very glad I did it!

Here are some fun tales about my weekend:

You might or might not know how in Spanish a loving thing to say to your wife would be "mi gordita".  Well what that translates to in english is "my little fatty".  A funny thing happend that weekend... I ended up having a great time with the guys and girls there, so we got to joking around a lot.  How this particular joke came about was because we were exchanging words like "honey" in english, or "gordita" in spanish.  I asked them if they realized what that meant in spanish, and then told them.  One of the guys thought it was hilarious, so he from then on called me his fatty, and he then became mine.  So I now have a "fatty" in Chile :)

Friday night was a little rough for me.  At 5:00 on Friday night the buses loaded from the University to head to the school that we were going to be sleeping in... oh I think I forgot to mention that.  We literally volunteered the whole entire weekend.  We woke up early, started, worked till late, and then slept in a nearby school in two of the classrooms - one room male, one female.  Anyway, Friday night we didn't actually do anything.  It was only a night to start to get to know each other, and to have a good time.  The thing was, most of the Chileans had come with either their friends, or boy/girlfriends... so Friday night was a really fun night for them.  For me, it was something else.  I wouldn't have minded that nobody had told us we wouldn't be doing anything all of Friday, BUT for the fact that I had turned down many other things that Friday night for the opportunity to volunteer.  I was very upset, and panicking slightly when I found out that I could indeed have participated in the basketball 3x3 tournament, and gone to the basketball teams long anticipated carrete (party).  Some of the players on the team who were volunteering as well didn't even show up until Saturday.  So in a fit of desperation I walked about 8 blocks away from the school to find service to call someone, anyone, to see if they could help me get out of there and to the party that I had so been looking forward to for months.
I first tried multiple members of the basketball team, but nobody answered.  I then tried some of my girlfriends who are also on the basketball team, but the first of those didn't answer either!  Finally, my friend Co Co who plays for the women's UAI basketball team answered her phone.  The thing is, she couldn't really do anything what-so-ever. She didn't have a car, and had no way to get me out of there.  But I still vented to her anyway.
Apparently my plea for help was quite entertaining because she had told many of our other friends about it the very next day!  For the record, I would have done the exact same thing, I was freaking out and it must have been hilarious.
As it turned out, a rescue vehicle did NOT show up to take me away for the night, but that was okay.  I got to know the people who were volunteering a bit, which laid good grounds for the next two days to come.

Speaking of that, the great part of the weekend was the friends in general that I gained.  I met a lot of really great people and now when I go to school I can hardly pass in the halls without seeing and saying hi to someone who is either on the basketball team, or was an oso en acción.

Sadly I cannot post the pictures from osos en acción because I didn't take any with my camera.  The rest are on facebook, and unless you guys are friends with my Chilean friends, I don't think you'll be able to see them!