Two Americans in Chile

Foundations and Futbol

So, the last few days have been way more active than our normal days in Portland. On Saturday, we went to Casablanca, which is about an hour or so outside of Santiago to the West. 15 of us went and built/dug a foundation for two small additions to small houses. We split up into two groups, going to two sites. There, we each dug out a 20″ deep trench stretching about 60 feet in diameter. It certainly wasn’t easy work, but it was also somewhat fun. Afterwards, we filled the trench with cement we made in a cement mixer, then brought in using wheel barrows. All-in, we worked hard for about 7 hours, and at the end, left something that didn’t exist before. At both sites, to call the existing houses modest would be generous, and it’s kind of cool that we’re able to leave something permanent in our wake that will help families here. However, it’s also somewhat vain to consider ourselves “helpers” of the community, knowing we only helped build a small part of what will become a small impact on the lives of those drastically different than ours. As wealthy Americans, visiting a different country, to somehow imagine that we’ve “done our duty” just because we volunteered for a few hours is worse than ignorant. Yet, I am glad that we engaged with the community rather than simply exploited it. We’ll have photos in a day or so.

Jump ahead to today, and Holly and I played futbol for about two hours with people from our school. There were people there from all over the world: Chileans, Swiss, Germans, Canadians, Americans, and Brits. Needless to say, those from other countries than the U.S. definitely did the dominating, although there were a few Yanks that held there own. After 2 hours, I was spent. But it was a great way to meet people and we had a really good time. Did I mention, it was Holly’s FIRST soccer match! She did great, although, definitely didn’t catch the full scope of where to be and what to do from the beginning. She did have some great passes and was getting a bit more aggressive at the end of the match. Unfortunately, we don’t have any photos of the game, but I’ll try and get some next week if we play again.

Keep coming back folks, as there will be more soon, and lots more photos when I have time to go through all that we’ve taken.