Weeks 4 and 5 in Chile_Sarah Margolis

Leonardo (the physics teacher) and I at the group dinner

        Last week was my final week in Concepcion! Adjusting back to high school life after being at the conference was a little difficult! The 8^th grade physics class is not comfortable speaking English so it takes a lot of mental energy to stay engaged and help the students. However, my teacher is very patient with me and always makes sure I understand the material and vocabulary before we continue- shout out to Leonardo!! Monday’s physics was not very quantitative; the class was learning about electrical circuits, which I know nothing about, so I think I ended up learning more from the students instead of the other way around haha. The next day I gave a presentation to a different physics class on the use of on SONAR in the ocean. They are currently learning about the properties of sound and Leonardo wanted to supplement his lesson with the applications of sound in the ocean. Who woulda thunk the things you learned in school could actually be useful in the real world?! Crazy right. Another presentation I gave this week was to the 12^th grade elective physics class. I talked about thermodynamics in the ocean, focusing on thermohaline circulation and how it will be influenced by climate change. The kids were extremely interested and asked many questions! On Wednesday, all of the students from LSU and the teachers from Colegio Concepción had a group dinner. It was really nice to see everyone all together in a more relaxed setting- a lot of bonding can happen over some delicious meat! Thursday was a special day. Pam Blanchard, who is in charge of Coastal Roots in Louisiana, led a tree-planting day with some of the students from the school. These kids planted seeds 3 years ago and finally it was time to plant saplings out by the lake! Very cool :D For our last day in Concepción, the teachers and principal arranged a barbecue. The gym teachers showed us some cultural dances: the national dance of Chile (the Cueca) and a typical dance from Easter Island. It is nice to see how important dance is to the culture! 

          The following day, my friends and I left for Easter Island. It is a 5 hour flight from Santiago to Easter Island, with only one flight arriving and departing each day. Easter Island was absolutely incredible. There are over 1,000 Moai heads scattered all around the Island. Many near the main populated part of the Island, Hanga Roa, and a plethora on the other more isolated parts of the island. The Moai were carved from the Rano Raraku crater, considered a “megalithic workshop” and moved to different parts of the island via five routes. These main routes were marked by Maoai heads that were face down on the ground- I’m unsure if that was intentional or not haha. From the crater, you could see the most iconic Moai site, Ahu Tongariki, a set of 15 heads with their backs facing the ocean. 

15 Moai at Ahu Tongariki

Dos Ventanas

They were much bigger than I was expecting (average height 13 feet) and there was something very mystical about the site. The Rapa Nui people put so much hard work into carving these figures to worship their ancestors, that being in their presence almost takes you back to ancient times- like I said, mystical haha. Most of the island has dirt roads and is very empty- no lights, no buildings, no people. There are not many places in the world that feel this untouched by humans. One cool excursion we went on was climbing 300m up the Orongo Crater. There were some recreations of community of the Rapa Nui people because the original structures are now just piles of stones. The view up here was incredible. All you could see was bright blue ocean sounding the island. Another fun adventure we went on was Cuevas de Dos Ventanas. It is a very non-discreet hole in the middle of rocks in the ground that you must crawl through that leads to a cave. There are two “windows” peering out of the cave, holes in the side of a cliff that drops straight down about 50 meters. It incredible! I hope to one day return to this magical little island full of tradition.