"Why Chile?" by Kenny Varner

About a week before coming someone I was talking to said "why Chile?" You could go lots of places to learn about being a teacher, and certainly there is a whole world, why would you want to bring groups to Chile.  Today is EXACTLY WHY Chile, and no where else in the world.  Watching family after family swoop their "Gringo/a" (an affectionate term here) up and embrace them with love, kindness, and open hearts is what keeps me coming back to Chile.  There are schools elsewhere, there are beautiful places elsewhere (though Chile is really beautiful), and there are people around the world who take other in, BUT nothing is the class-act that is Chile.  How many of us open our homes, regularly, to complete strangers with nothing more than the expectation that you speak English with their children?



We had a host mother say "No no no, we'll go to Santiago to make sure she gets here ok," when she found out that Maddy's flight had cancelled. We had family after family waiting with excitement to welcome someone to their family. We built cross-cultural understanding at every turn.


Today, the day the families come to the airport to pick up their gringa, is by far my favorite day of the trip.  Sure, it is not terribly exciting to think that you will meet 5 flights in 24 hours, but really it is an awesome experience.  In the US we are challenged politically, socially, and economically with immigration, and may of those challenges have created deficit perspectives and deficit images, organized to negatively impact perceptions of Spanish speakers.  Meeting these families here you encounter a polar opposite to those narratives and images, which I think is really healthy for our soon to be in-service teachers to see.

Today was a long day, but it sure was a good one in my book...

Desiree and her son Luukas blending right into the Chilean family, with Ricardo Jr., Antonio, and Matilde!

Signs ready to great Whitney!

 

After picking up at the airport, headed to get some food.  Look close and you see Green Tabasco!