Happy Mothers' Day from Arica, Chile!

Recent weather: 70s-80s and sunny all week.
Recent reads: 2 Samuel, 1 Kings; "The Right Wrong Number" a short story by Barbara Delinsky

I arrived in Arica, Chile, on Sunday and have spent the last week living here with a family. Arica is almost as north as you can possibly get in Chile, right on the border of Peru and Bolivia so Arica is a cultural melting pot. The mother runs a local computer repair/internet/printing business and the father is starting a non-profit volunteer program in Huarmey, Peru. Their home is behind the computer business.

Every day I go with Magdalena for a few hours to visit clients in their homes and diagnose/fix their computer issues. Once you finish laughing at the idea of lil' ole me fixing computers, continue to read on. These in-home visits are usually pretty simple. Mostly we just reload ink cartridges or install anti-virus software or do basic diagnostics. For example, I diagnosed that a client's printer wasn't working because there was a barbie shoe stuck inside it. I removed the pink pump and it printed perfectly. 2000 pesos please. These visits have given me the inside scoop on Chilean houses. My biggest observation is that Chileans like stuff. Their homes are packed full of useless gadgets, old clothes, things they don't use or need but for some reason still continue to hold to. And yet the markets and stores are still full of people every day wanting to buy more. This goes along with what Magdalena has said, that Chileans are obsessed with buying things and buying them now and that the introduction of credit cards has changed the middle class forever.

For an hour each day, I teach the 12 year old English. This was something the mom just sprung on me the first day but I felt like I certainly couldn't say no. However, it's definitely more difficult than it sounds. Teaching kids is challenging enough but keeping this kid interested in English (which he is not at all interested in) has been really, really challenging. I've definitely stretched my imagination in thinking of ways to make the the longest hour of our lives go by faster which include a hand-drawn board game, Simon Says, and, of course, bribery. (We learned directions and I told him if he gave me proper directions in English to the ice cream shop, we'd go there and get a cone.)

My little board game invention, patent pending.

While Arica isn't on most people's must-see list, it's been a pretty great spot to chill. Magdalena making me 3 home-cooked meals every day doesn't hurt. I had to build up a few days' worth of courage to politely ask her to cut my portions in half. The highlights here have definitely been my time at the beach. Every other morning I run on the beach and use the exercise equipment conveniently located right on the sand (genius!) and every afternoon I take a walk on the beach too. There are always tons of people out running, walking, working out and Arica is very safe. I also had a surf lesson with local legend (everyone knows him or at least of him) Yoyo Sepulveda.

You say there are no sharks, but this makes me think otherwise!

You know what they say, "Let sleeping dogs lie..."

No membership fee but the pool's a little cold.

Watching the sunset.

I spent Mothers' Day climbing the Morro in downtown Arica which has an amazing view of the whole city. I spent the rest of the afternoon at a sports bar downtown, sipping beer with the local men as we yelled and screamed and chanted "Chi chi chi le le le" at the futbol matches going  on.

Just thought it was a pretty church.

The flag marks the Morro which juts out into the ocean.

Quite a hike up... 

But worth the view.

Arica

Me and Arica

From the Morro

Cristo de la paz at the top

From the top.

 My stay here in Arica is open-ended so I'll probably leave sometime this week. Gotta love the spontaneity of backpacking!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLL!!!!!

This week's weather: humid and rainy on-and-off week.
Recent reads: Exodus. Seriously, Israel, get it together.

Yesterday I had a chance to attend a futbol match in Cordoba!

Public service billboard on the street

Now let me just say that prior to coming to South America, I knew very little about futbol as I have never played the game and don't understand the positions and the strategy of each. Futbol matches are on 10 different TV channels at any given time of day here, but I am pretty much silent as I have absolutely nothing to contribute on this subject. On Saturday night the NCAA basketball semi-final games were on and I was all about it! (I was not heart-broken by Wisconsin's loss.) Everyone here was surprised by how knowledgeable I was about basketball based on my commentary during the games because due to my total ignorance about futbol, they assumed I knew absolutely nothing about all sports in general.

But, of course, here in South America and pretty much anywhere around the world (except the US), futbol is the only sport. One Argentino friend said that for poor kids all over the world, futbol is to them what hip-hop is to kids in the ghetto: a way out. Argentinos are no exception. For them, futbol is life.

Poster in the hostel in Buenos Aires

And if futbol is life, then Diego Maradona is king of Argentina. I can't describe to you the horror on my Argentino friend's face when he mentioned Diego Maradona and I ignorantly said, "who?" Diego Maradona led the Argentina futbol team to a World Cup victory in 1986 and has been a god ever since. More notable than the finals match vs Germany is the quarter finals match vs. England. Maradona single-handedly (pun intended) defeated the English 2-1 by scoring both goals. One of these goals is forever deemed "la mano de Dios" or "the hand of God" where Maradona obviously illegally used his hand but it was not called. This continues to be a tangible point of contention to this day between Argentinos and the English. Well, that and the battle over the Falkland Islands, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gK2z5-cceP4

Now this little anecdote does not mean I have instantly become an expert in futbol. But attending a match was a step in the right direction.

Even just purchasing the tickets was a task. Fellow Packer fans can relate to this but even for a Belgrano match here in Cordoba, you must be a member to buy tickets and each member can only buy two tickets per match. We got our hands on a club member's ID and I went to the stadium on Friday to purchase the sacred tickets for me and a coworker at the hostel. Considering the hoops we already had gone through to just get this far, I was praying that I didn't get robbed on the walk home, but if I did, I probably would have offered my wallet but leave me the futbol tickets!

This was a prime match to attend because the opposing team, River Plate, is ranked pretty highly in the league so it was sure to be well-attended. So much so that the local stadium just wouldn't do for this match and we bused it 40 minutes outside of town to the bigger, badder stadium.








We there a couple of hours early and got to watch the stadium slowly fill up and anticipation grow as game time approached. 

                        Let's get this started!

New this year, fans of the away team cannot purchase tickets due to too many fights between opposing fans. There go my chances of witnessing a futbol brawl! Simply observing debates among Belgrano fans about whether to sit down or stand up and the expletives that followed after a bad call lead me to believe that denying opposing fans to attend the matches, isn't such a bad ideal. 

Popular section with banners and the band.

       

Club Atletico Belgrano (CAB), Cordoba--CAB is CBA!

I loved the Belgrano team spirit! Team flags were very common and the band from the popular section led crowd chants which added to the experience.

                                      Note in the second part what I like to call the "Argentinian dead fish fist pump."

Despite the odds being against Belgrano, the local team, as they were trailing the opposing River Plate by 5+ points in the overall league standings, Belgrano came away with a 2-1 victory late in the game!

                                                                              Almost a goal by River Plate

The second goal is debatable, and whether it crossed the goal line or not will undoubtedly be reviewed on ESPN here for the next week but the fans loved it and the win still stands. 

http://espndeportes.espn.go.com/videohub/video/clipDeportes?id=deportes:2060757

The fans called it a goal for sure!

All in all, an awesome cultural experience and a great way to freshen up on my "tu madre" insults!