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.