School this past week has been really interesting as we are seeing the speeches from the adult class really progress to the point of being almost finished. It's funny how when we decided to stay until the 10th of November for me it was to see the spelling bee and celebrate with everyone involved although now it appears that the most advance class has been the most challenging and actually the one that has demanded the most help and I'm excited to hear the final deliveries on Friday.
The younger classes got creative this week with the theme of Halloween or the more popular 'Day of the Dead'. We made some masks with them while talking in English and getting them to use English words to describe cutting out etc.
With the very youngest we made spiders and ghosts and hung them in the town square.
There was also a dance festival on Wednesday where all the students in the primary/middle school performed dances they had been learning in their Physical Education lessons from all over South America. After being part of 3 dance days at JRCS I know how much hard work goes into getting kids to learn the steps and also to perform in costume. They all did amazingly.
Wednesday evening was Marcelo and Denisa's last night so we went over to the hostel to share a meal with them, Hector, Kati and Ramòn.
We had a wonderful meal of ham, salad, pebre, pink pickled onions and pigs feet.
I learnt a very interesting phrase that in life 'pigs feet, chicken, corn and women should be taken with your hand!' So without going into too much detail about that phrase I attempted the pigs feet!
Very interesting! In my English job as a Religious Studies teacher I talk a lot about eating pork or should I say not eating pork as Christianity is the only religion out of the 6 major world religions that eat pork. It is generally seen as a dirty animal and in Judaism and Islam when preparing to eat an animal it is killed as a sacrifice to God and sacrificing a pig would be an insult. I couldn't help but think that eating pigs feet would be viewed as eating the dirtiest part of the dirtiest animal. I very much enjoyed trying something that I never would think of eating back home in the UK.
On Thursday evening after classes had finished we headed to catch our 8pm bus to spend the long weekend in Antofagasta, however it was an hour late. Now to give you all a sense of how small Taltal is but also what a friendly community we have been staying in for this last month in the hour that passed while we waiting on the side of the road we chatted or waved hello to around 20 people ranging from friends we have made, parents of students, students themselves, our housemates, our landlady's boyfriend, Hectors parents and nephew and the librarian! This is why this small town will stay in our hearts forever.
We boarded the bus and off we went into the darkness of the Atacama Desert! While everyone else settled down for there 3 and a half hours sleep I was like a kid up against the window with my hands surrounding my face blocking out any internal light from the bus because outside the window was stars like I had never experienced before. Imagine the desert hills, black in the night as far as the eye can see with a thick blanket of sky absolutely covered in the brightest stars! It was really beautiful.
We emerged from the desert and hit the edge of Antofagasta where Hector signalled for us to get off the bus (even though it was not the bus stop) he got the bus attendant to open the door and he hopped off and the door suddenly shut, leaving Nathan looking out of the bus window at Hector on the street and me on the stairs as the bus continued to move. Nathan quickly explained to he guy we were also getting off and eventually the door reopened.
Once on the streets of Antofagasta Hector explained this was closer to Paulina's apartment than going all the way to the bus station in the centre of town and with that he hauled down a taxi as it was almost 1am. We all jumped in the back and before we pulled away a guy jumped into the passenger seat and turned to the driver, I thought he was about to pull out a gun and rob us all!
No!!!! apparently this is something called a collectivo which is actually a pretty awesome idea it's taxi sharing and makes the whole thing a lot cheaper. So on route to Paulina's we dropped this guy off! Phew no robbery just a lack of the knowledge on my part about the taxi culture in this new city we had just arrived in!
We spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday night in Paulina's lovely apartment which had a beautiful sea view.
The main activity was going to be a BBQ cooked on the roof terrace for about 9 people so we went shopping on Friday and got all the food ready for the next day. Well you would think we were planning on feeding the 5000, as we ordered 7 chicken breasts from the meat counter and were given what was more like 7 whole chickens, considering there was 2 vegetarians coming we would be eating about a whole chicken each! We ended up using one of the chickens to make tacos for 5 on Friday evening.
Friday evening after dinner Paulina's friends came over for drinks and it was a great evening chatting and having fun.
When Saturday morning rolled around some of the BBQ guests were feeling hungover from Fridays festivities and we ended up having a BBQ for 4! It was amazing food but so so so so so so much!
Antofogasta is a port city and is closely linked to the mining activity in the area. Its an interesting place as until the late 1800's it was actually in Bolivia but during the War of the Pacific Chile claimed the area north of its boarders. Antofagasta has a great city centre that reminded of being in a Spanish shopping district.
On Sunday morning before getting on the bus back to Taltal we went to Plaza de Armas to see the small Big Ben which was given as a present to Antofagasta by Britain, it was really nice and obviously had to be visited by us British travellers.
The bus journey back to Taltal was totally different to the ride there as now it was daytime and I could see the hours and hours of desert that lay between the two destinations.
Walking through Taltal at 6.30pm on Sunday from the bus station to the place we currently live was stunningly silent. I had forgotten to appreciate this quiet place and a few days in the city made me realise how peaceful and relaxed Taltal is. No traffic lights, hardly any cars and just the sound of the waves crashing on rocks. I am ready to appreciate one final week here before the crazy 5 weeks of moving every few days begins.