Well the teachers strike is still going on. Apparently there are a few demands but the main one is about a “historic debt” owed to teachers throughout the country that came out of the Pinochet regime, a bill was passed sometime ago that stated this debt would be paid to the teachers it affected, but it has yet to be. There are other points I think pertaining to salaries, but I’m not positive. In Chile, teachers are paid hourly, so I would imagine they would want a salary instead. So strike yesterday and tomorrow, Wednesday it is possible that some schools will decide to start holding classes again but I don’t have classes on Wednesday anyways. Thursday could be my one day of classes this week because Friday I needed to take off anyways because we were invited to help with some kind of English celebration in Antofagasta at one of the universities and then in the afternoon there is an English spelling bee! Maximum of 1 day of work this week, possibly zero. I could go for another week of strike and travel but I think that is unlikely to occur.
The weekend was fun, we played American football in Antofagasta, drew quite a crowd, taught our Chilean friends how to play, and then the second day had about 15 kids want to learn. We tried to teach them how to play but they didn’t understand the concept of only one person being the quarterback and downs, so it ended up being a mixture between soccer, rugby and football – live ball, pass when necessary, but you get to tackle!!
Tomorrow we’re going to try to find Thanksgiving ingredients in the city then go see La Portada, this well-known rock formation in the ocean, and possibly look for Halloween costumes. Wednesday I think I’m going to go to Calama for a tour of the Chuquicamata mine, largest open pit copper mine in the world!
Nothing else to report except that I officially set my return flight date – June 30, 2010 from Quito, Ecuador!
Where's Whitney now? 