Mapuzugukantuayiñ

Mari Mari (hola),

Early yesterday morning I arrived back from my one week rural home stay in Chapod, Chile, it is a small country town outside of Temuco, a bigger, but still rather small and gritty city. I had the most incredible time during this past week and there is so much I want to share but for fear writing too much I will keep it as short as possible.

I will start in the beginning, when we left Santiago two Saturdays ago after Chile had just won a huge game which allows them to go to South Africa this coming summer for the Soccer World Cup, people went crazy! Trying to take the metro with my backpack and luggage for the week while people were screaming, singing, and jumping up and down was quite the adventure. After finally making it to the bus terminal a little overwhelmed we got onto our pimped out coach bus. The bus was a double-decker bus and each seat reclined, with a foot rest, to an almost perfectly horizontal position. We were given a blanket and a pillow, along with some snacks and we all quickly dozed off for the remainder of the 8 hour bus ride. We arrived in Temuco at about 6:30 am and headed to Chapod, about a 20 minute car ride where we were quickly taught how to say hello in Mapuzugukantuayiñ (we pronounce is as Mapundungun), which is Mari Mari. We were introduced to our host families for the week and all went our seperate ways with our families for the rest of the day.

I moved in with a papa named Estaban and a mama named Maria. They are both Mapuche, Chile's group of indigenous people. Although most chileans have Mapuche in their lineage and background many chose not to associate with it. This week all 15 of us in the program lived with Mapuche families. Unfortunately the Mapuche culture is quickly dying as the Evangelical church has become a big part of many of the Mapuche lives. Most families no longer speak Mapuzugukantuayiñ (or as we would pronounce it, Mapundungun) and there is only 2 hours of Mapundungun class a week for the children who live in Chapod. I was very lucky because my papa is one of the profesors of Mapundungun so he tried to teach me a lot during the week. The language is very different than any language I have ever heard, it has a mix of spanish and asian influence in its sound. During the week we were able to take a 2 hour Mapundungun class as well where we learned a few basic phrases and it was really cool to go back and impress my papa with what I had learned.

Throughout the week we partook in some really great activities. The first day we drove 2 hours west (towards the coast) and spent the day at Lago Budi, which was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking even though it was cloudy.

We spent the day learning about Mapuche culture, traditions, and religon, as well as the impact turism has had on these small Mapuche communities.

Tuesday we spent the day at the local school in Chapod, which only had 35 students. We observed some classes in the morning and then in the afternoon had the opportunity to teach the kids in our class english. My group and I had 6-9 year olds so we stuck to some pretty easy songs that we could translate back and forth from english to spanish. I am not sure if they actually retained anything but it was fun to work so directly with the kids.

Wednesday morning we helped build a ruka, a traditional Mapuche House, which are not really used as much for living in becaue most families have actual homes but are used for parties. We worked all morning just building the base of the ruka, which included digging up lots and lots of dirt for a 8 in. dirt floor. In the afternoon we learned how to play Palin, a traditional Mapuche sport, which is just the same as hockey, but with a few obscure rules. It was a lot of fun but quite dangerous, think flying wooden sticks at shins. After Palin we played soccer with a bunch of the adults and kids in the community...it was so amazing to play soccer and everyone was really good, even some of the old folks!

The first picture is what a real ruka looks like and the second one is as far as we had gotten on the Ruka that we helped start to build, it doesn't look like we did much, but it was a lot of work! The door to the ruka always opens up to face the sun rising in the morning.

Thursday we went to another rural town and visited a different school and then spent the afternoon shopping and exploring in Temuco. Friday we ate a traditional Mapuche feast, which included lots and lots of bread and lots and lots of meat...SO DELICOUS! In the afternoon we played more soccer and then in the evening we celebrated my friends 21st birthday in the pitch black, minus the stars, it was a really fun experience. Saturday was our last day which consisted of playing lots of basketball and a ton of soccer and of course another incredible Mapuche inspired feast! I ate so much food all week, and the biggest part of my diet was bread and sopapillas (aka fried dough)!

Although I only washed my hair once in a small bowl full of freezing water and never washed my body, and woke up each morning shivering it was absolutely incredible. The people were so warm and made me and the rest of the people on my program feel right at home and unbelievably comfortable. My favorite part of the trip was playing soccer with the community of Chapod and getting Here are a few more pictures from the wonderful adventure:

A waterfall near my house in Chapod
]

Mama Maria and I outside our house

The view from my backyard in Chapod.

I will be here in Santiago until Friday, I will be running around trying to get myself organized for the next 6 weeks in Buenos Aires, I am looking forward to the next chapter of my adventure but I am certain I will miss how comfortable I have become here in Santiago.

Besos y Abrazos,

Ana