It seems that every time I write a blog post I am saying that we are staying in Taltal longer and longer. We have now decided to stay until the 10th of November so that we can see the spelling bee tournament and also hear the top class read their speeches. It makes sense to us to see out a project and leave once it is over, it must be the teacher within us that has to work a half term before having a break and by the time we leave we would have been here 3 days short of 6 weeks. We also have Hector to thank for letting us stay that long!
The youngest group were learning about directions this week which was good fun as we blindfolded them one at a time and had the others giving directions like go, stop, turn right, turn left.
The rest of the classes are working on learning the words for the spelling bee. I have started to try and learn the Spanish definitions for all the English words they are learning which is proving pretty difficult!
We have a really good laugh in all our classes about how funny accents are and it is more obvious here than it has ever been that Nathan and I pronounce words differently.
When helping Carol with her speech this week I used the word abroad. When I tried to explain it she said she had never heard of the word, then Valou the French girl working with us (who is excellent in English) said that she too had never heard of this word, so I called Hector up to the second floor of library and I asked when he was last abroad! After a confused few minutes we realised that it was my Essex accent that was causing the issue and he thought I had asked when he was last a board! Woops.
Another language incident happened the second day that Marcelo and Denisa were here. (They are the new volunteers, a married couple who live in Prague, but Marcelo is originally from Brazil and Denisa is from Slovakia, they are lovely) Anyway we said we would meet back at the cafe at 10 to 9 to walk to an office opening together for a drinks and food reception. At 8.50 Hector, Nathan and I were all sitting at the cafe, at 8.55 Hector said 'No worries they will be here soon.' At 9.05 Hector gave Marcelo a call. Marcelos reply to Hector's question of 'Are you guys coming?' Was 'I thought you said 10 tonight not 10 to 9!' This was probably another incident due to my Essex accent!
So we have been up to lots of things outside of teaching hours this week. Martha who we are living with, her boyfriend Diego has just started a new business in Taltal, mountain bike treks! He has some fantastic new mountain bikes and wants to take people off on all different cycle treks depending on their ability. Tuesday morning the volunteers got to go off on a cycle with him. Nathan, Valou and Thomas made it to the top of the mountain.
I had a lovely leisurely cycle along the coast!
This is a great new business in Taltal and is a must do activity for anyone in this town as you can do a hard mountain trek like the others did or a beautiful coastal ride like I opted to do. You can find details about his new business on Facebook by searching Kamanchaka ecotour.
Thursday was the best night of basketball so far, I actually managed to make contact with the ball a few times which was great. Afterwards we headed to the bar for our weekly after basketball refreshments and to have our final goodbye drinks for Valou! Funny how in 10 days you can become great friends with someone I will definitely miss my gossip partner, it's the first time I've had a chance to gossip in about 3 months!
Friday night was a great and total random evening. Firstly we headed off to see a new office being opened. It is a house that has been converted into a shop and office and it is lovely. We saw Angelo one of our students cut the rope and declare his new office officially open! Then we had some sparking wine with a pineapple flavour which was lovely, followed by a ridiculously sweet drink called Ponche a la Romana which is a mixture of sweet sparking wine with pineapple ice cream. About 11pm we headed off to the brand new hostel that Marcelo and Denisa are staying in. The couple building it are friends of Hector's and invited us for opening night Pisco Sours.
Pisco sours have an interesting history as both Peru and Chile claim the drink to originally be theirs! We had the Chilean version which was amazing, Pisco, lemon juice and egg whites are all mixed up in a food processor and poured into a glass making a gorgeous foamy drink. After 2 of these and a bottle of red wine we realised it was 4am and time to go home.
Saturday we got up early (well it definitely felt early considering we went to bed around 5am) to go to a country fair type event which consisted of several stalls selling different items such a bracelets made of cotton and homemade cakes and a stage. On the stage there were several performances throughout the 5 hours ranging from a high school band to traditional Chilean dancing to Nathan performing 2 songs on the guitar. He sang Oasis, Wonderwall and Coldplay, yellow, he was really good.
He received a certificate for being a part of the event.
When the children were doing their traditional Chilean dance one of the little boys came over and took my arm to dance with him, probably everyone there except for us volunteers would know how to dance to this music.
I had no clue what I was doing but he was a little gentleman and tried to help me.
This is how it should look.
On Saturday I had my first try of ceviche which is extremely popular in Chile and Peru. Ceviche is raw fish which is cured in citrus juices and spiced with chilli and coriander. The acid in the lemon and limes changes the proteins in the fish making it look and taste as if it has been cooked. It is delicious, so fresh and has an amazing texture!
During the day on Sunday Nathan headed to Lago Azul (the bar for football games) with Daniel. They made an agreement they would talk English to each other during the first half and Spanish in the second.
In true Taltal style Sunday evening saw us all heading down to the beach for another gorgeous sunset, possibly the best yet.