Nutrition Class and Research

Surveying kids in the elementary schools in Santiago.

My classmates.

I took classes in the Master's program in Nutrition at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and helped with an investigation associated with obesity in children. Next semester I plan to take classes in Global Health under the Dept of Public Health at Universidad Católica and help with health science classes at the local high schools.

Chilean Wine -- Concha y Toro

Chileans are very proud of their wines, and rightfully so. The best part of this wine tour was exploring the Casillero del Diablo -- the Devil's cellar. Legend states that a special cellar was designed to maintain the perfect ambient temperature to store the owner's best wines. After an incident of theft, the owner propagated a rumor that the cellar was haunted by a demon, and hence, it became known as the Casillero del Diablo, and remained free from intruders ever since.

Entrance to the Devil's Cellar

Barrels of wine in the Devil's Cellar

A visit to Pomaire

Pomaire is a small town known for its pottery making... and 1 kilo empanadas! Chances are if you are eating or cooking from clay pots in Chile, they may have been made and decorated in Pomaire. http://www.southamerica.cl/Chile/Pomaire.htm

Friends Tomas from France and Nima from Germany.

Meeting more Rotary Clubs in Santiago

I had the chance to meet and present at Rotary Ñuñoa and Rotary Las Condes in November. Rotary Las Condes hosted teachers from local high schools to celebrate the Day of the Professors, and acknowledge their contributions to the community. I'm planning to present about Rotary and help with health science classes at some of the high schools represented that night.

On another occasion, I met Rotary Las Condes President Bahamondes at the concert where the students from Santa Lucía (the school for the visually-impaired and blind where I teach dance lessons) took part in the show. I also had the chance to meet up with Rotary Ñuñoa member, Rómulo Vidal, who spent some time teaching me about his businesses involved with tree giving and civil engineering.

Rotary Ñuñoa

Rotary Las Condes

Salsa lessons

For my community service project, I adopted ideas from a unique dance program for the blind and visually-impaired. It was called Connecting Through Dance and was founded by Gene Russo and Joan Schubin in the San Francisco Bay Area, California .

Connecting Through Dance website and article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

http://www.freewebs.com/connectingthroughdance/index.htm

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/07/08/EBGIVDI8K91.DTL

The idea is to teach salsa dancing to students who are blind or visually-impaired, with the help of volunteers. The volunteers serve as guides for the dance lessons, and at the same time, they get the chance to learn about the lives and experiences of the blind or visually-impaired students.

We had volunteers from Interact, from the university -- including foreign exchange students, and from the community. The volunteers all told me that they had a great time getting to know the students of Santa Lucía and the students at Santa Lucía were always excited and persistent about learning how to dance. Personally, salsa dancing has been one of my interests for many years, so it was a lot of fun for me to teach the volunteers and students.

There's a clip of the final class attached with volunteer Natalia handing out music cd's that she made for the students.

Volunteers Tomas and Natalia.

Volunteers Pilar and Natalia with Physical Education teacher, Cesar.

Dance lessons for the school's staff.

School's staff.

Santa Lucía students.

Volunteers from interact, the university, and the community.

Students from Santa Lucía perform amazingly well in a concert with other high schools in Santiago.

Video from the final dance class of the year, and a clip of Natalia distributing salsa music cd's that she made for the students.

English Lessons

The teachers and a volunteer from Michigan.

I became a volunteer through the Languages Opens Doors program, a national program that recruits foreigners to assist with foreign language classes, including English, German, Chinese, and French. The program is part of a national initiative to encourage and inspire students in public schools to practice their language skills with native speakers.

I was assigned to Carmela Carvajal de Pratt, one of best public schools in Chile for girls, that includes middle and high school. I gave presentations in English about Rotary, the PolioPlus program, Interact, American and Indian culture, and about my cultural experiences in Chile. We held conversation groups where the girls had a chance to practice English and discuss a range of cultural similarities and differences between Chile and the US.

Surprise birthday party for the history teacher.

Attending Game Day with Interact

Interact's Game Day was a day for various Interact Clubs around Santiago to get to know each other through a friendly competition of fun games and sports including Tug-of-war, potato sack races, karaoke, and Rotary trivia -- if you get the answer wrong, you receive a free plate of lemon meringue pie smashed in your face.

Relaxing after lunch with singing to some popular Spanish songs

Tug-of-war losers fall into a sticky mix of egg yolks, soap, and water

To score points in Karaoke, you must first slip-n-slide across soap and water, and the first to reach the microphone gets the chance to sing the next verse of the song (if you know it)

Rotary Presentations

I've had the opportunity to talk about Rotary Point West and my personal background and experiences, with Rotary San Bernardo and Rotary Reina Alta this month. The presentations went smoothly and gave me a chance to share a little bit of Rotary Point West's projects (such as Brewfest and Festa di Vino, and Point West's participation in tutoring in the elementary schools and academies in Sacramento) and introduce myself and goals to the Rotary Clubs in Chile.

Setting up to present in Rotary Club San Bernardo

With the President and Secretary of Rotary Reina Alta

Presenting Point West's banner to Rotary Reina Alta

Rotary Reina Alta

Fiestas Patrias -- Celebration of Chilean Culture

Las Fiestas Patrias falls on September 18th and 19th, an occasion to celebrate the start of independence for Chile and the accomplishments of the Chilean army. Throughout the week, they celebrate with dancing Cueca (the traditional folkloric dance of Chile), barbecues, visiting relatives in other parts of Chile, and partying at the fondas. Fondas can be found throughout Chile during the week of Fiestas Patrias. The fondas are venues, often tents, where they celebrate with traditional dancing, eating Chilean foods, and watching musical and dance performances.

BBQ at home

My Chilean mom

My friend Pilar and I were on the news, a 3-second byte of us dancing Cueca in traditional outfits at a fonda in Santiago.

The huaso (similar to the American cowboy) is wearing a shawl called a chamanto, sombrero, and boots with spurs.

With my Chilean friend Pilar.

A concert in a fonda in Santiago

Travelling Valparaíso with students from Universidad Católica

Valparaíso is a port city about 1 and a half hours towards the coast from Santiago. It's beautiful architecture and hills are somewhat reminiscent of San Francisco. It's full of bright colors, has a beautiful view of the ocean and the vessels, and offers a lot of delicious seafood.

Rotary San Bernardo

San Bernardo is located in the southern sphere of Santiago. I had the chance to get to meet many of the Rotarians and they gave me a banner to bring back to Sacramento. I will be returning soon to give a formal presentation.

The officials of Rotary San Bernardo.

Oxiel Scheider is in charge of communications for the district. He is in the process of gathering information on all the district's service projects so that the scholars have an idea of all the projects out there for us to get involved in.

Traditional Chilean Seafood Dinner

Camila and Jorge, my good Chilean friends and incredible chefs who prepared a traditional feast for us to indulge.

Clams had with lemon, clams in a green salsa, another salsa similar to ceviche without seafood, empanadas, shish-kabobs (seen below), alfahores (dulce de leche sandwiched between biscuits), chicha (traditional Chilean liquor) and Chilean wines.

Camila, Jorge, Jorge's sister Pilar, and Nima, an exchange student from Canada and Germany who's family is originally from Iran. Camila is a law student, Jorge studies engineering, Pilar is an art professor, and Nima studies marketing/economics. We had a wonderful time talking about various cultures and languages including English, Spanish, Hindi, Farsi, and German. Jorge's family is orginally descended from Germany and Spain.