Leaving home, going home ~ by Grace Moody

     My last week in Chile felt like a day. Every moment I was focuses on being there and seeing everyone I could for as long as I could. There was no time to be preoccupied or tired. Over the three weeks of being there, my social circle in Concepcion involved a lot of people who had come to mean a lot to me. There was no easy way to make my last week a goodbye week, so I just tried to be present.

At the Coastal Roots tree planting with my girl power team. All of these beauties were in my classes.

     On monday I did a presentation and activity for my class on their value of the week, respect. Every week the school focuses on a value and has a meeting of all the kids to talk about it. In class we talked about what respect and tolerance means to each of the kids in class and they came up with some very sweet descriptions. I was proud of all of them. Teaching natural sciences to 9-10 years old Chileans was not something I had a plan for but it worked out, and I learned a lot from my professor Angelica and the kids. You don't have to be strict to have the attention of children in the classroom. You don't have to be cold in order to preserve your authoritative role. Angelica instructed seamlessly to a room full of bright young kids with the confidence that each of them had great ability to listen and learn. Her kindness extended to me the entire time. She worked so hard to converse with me about who I am, she brought me bananas almost everyday after the kids asked me what my favorite food was in class.

The lady herself giving us the run down on the physics of sound.

     In Chile I learned a lot about co-dependence. I lived a ways out and had to rely on the bus and people driving me. The whole time was missing busses and catching rides and taking walks and figuring it out. I had a very slight grasp on the language and needed help translating all of the time. I was relying on the kindness of my family the entire time just to eat and sleep and have clean laundry. This was a great study for me, a sociologist who has never spent extended time is a place where I was not part of the dominant group. Every day I experienced some form a shyness about speaking to someone in Spanish instead of English. Pesos confuse me. Watching kids run around at the school and people living their lives and having very different rules and norms all around me was perfect. Each day I had some new observation to take in and compare to my home. As a social scientist going into a program for education, I had new experiences in the classroom. But at home and in public, my field came into play all of the time.

Downtown

     My family was the best part of Chile. To me, my family is Chile. When I think of the time there I think of my new brother falling asleep next to me on the bus every morning. I think of the the Andes Mountains and how I could see them from both of the windows in my room. Chile is eating avocado toast with my sister at once every night and playing games on her phone with her in the car. Chile is dancing in the living room with my baby sister and helping her with the pronunciation of the "g" in my name. Chile smells like the wood smoke from the fire my host dad made to keep us warm at night. Chile feels like the bond my host mom and I formed over many different and extensive avenues of trying to communicate not only needs, but feelings.

Modern family at the airport.

     I can't really remember where my priorities were before I met these people. I still have many of the same as before but now my thoughts are flooded with ideas about how to return or bring them here. I wonder what each of them are doing at any given time. I know that tomorrow morning I won't wake up and get on the bus, sit next to my brother, and see him fall asleep in 30 seconds flat. But I think about it.  I think about the changes I can make to life here through what I learned there. I think about the love and compassion I can show to people because of the love and compassion that has been shown to me in Chile. There is a norm of inclusion in Chile. There is a sense of family in more aspects than the home and the blood family. There is patience with my lack of ability to communicate and a celebration when I get it right. I look forward to return to my family an my home, 5000 miles away from home.