English Opens Doors

Last week I spent travelled to the North of Chile to volunteer my time at an English camp. These camps are run jointly by the Chilean Government and the United Nations to provide opportunities for high school students attending public schools to participate in a one-week camp free of charge. The camp, named ‘English Opens Doors’, has the objective to give students the opportunity to use English in stimulating activities, interacting with both Chilean and Native-English Speaking volunteers. Students can attend up to four camps in during their high-school years. Over 10,000 students applied to attend one of the many camps situated throughout Chile, and 2000 students were placed nationally.

Our camp ran with 1 Monitor, 5 Chilean Volunteers and 5 Native-English Speaking Volunteers and accommodated over 70 students (and one resident cat). The theme was Fashion – Show Your Style, and the majority of the activities incorporated this theme. Many arts and crafts activities were held including hat making, costume runway shows and of course poster making!

The day this photo was taken, I was also interview for a journalist (in Spanish!). The link is here:

http://www.elobservatodo.cl/noticia/sociedad/estudiantes-de-la-serena-y-ovalle-refuerzan-habilidades-en-ingles-summer-camps

We also made it to the print :)

Other activities included a scavenger hunt, sing-alongs, running dictation, wool-throwing and journaling.

There were also many ice-breaker games played to really encourage the team-spirit.

The highlight of each camp is the lip-dub video. It is a national competition, where each camp active at the same time are given the same song and the same timeframe to complete a video, demonstrating that the students understand the meaning of the song in one take. Posters, costumes, choreography and singing were a must! Underneath is the link to the lip-dub we prepared.

The program paid for the bus ticket to and from the camp back to Santiago, and put us up in the best hotel in the suburb for 6 nights. An included 3-course meal every night, and a buffet breakfast was a bonus I wasn’t counting on. Combined with the joy I get when working, I came back to Santiago one happy little camper!

 

The only non hotel/school food I ate was the delicious Papita Chips. A specialty of the area, with an incredible line at all hours of the day, they serve fried potato gems, with the most incredible home-made garlic-mayonnaise. What an absolute joy they were to eat. They are so remarkable that this was the designated treat we bought for the kids with their Friday lunch.

Volunteering for a week, also allowed me to cross of ‘Volunteer my time for a week’ off my ‘100 things to do before I’m 30’ list. I better get cracking on the list though – I only have 54 weeks to complete it!

I have since returned home, sleeping in a bed which frequently reminds me of The Princess and the Pea. Since we are renting a furnished apartment, we aren’t in a position to throw the old terrible mattress to accommodate our new, oh-so-amazingly soft mattress.

Since arriving to this apartment we have replaced the curtains with block-out curtains, and of course, bought the new mattress. These two things have provided a great environment to sleep upon well into the morning while Rubén goes and earns the money!

What is the only thing that has since ruined my perfect routine of sleeping all day?

My early birthday present:

Welcome to the family Calypso and Cielito (name may be changed shortly).

Calypso, at the age of 3 months, is a tiny blue and green ‘Australian Canary’. He spends his day rocking uncontrollably on his perch, much to my distress.

Cielito  is a sky coloured blue/white. At 5 months of age, he does not rock uncontrollably.

Both are eating happily inside their cage in their new home, proudly perched upon their new table we carried home on foot from a train-station away

The only other thing worth noting is that 2015 is the year that I began to read books in Spanish. Graduating from short-texts and fairytales, Bajo La Misma Estrella will be my first novel. Having watched the movie The Fault in our Stars on the plane to Chile (and crying my eyes out the entire time), I thought the Spanish-translated version will make the ideal first book. So far, I’m enjoying it just as much as the movie :)

With a wedding anniversary, birthday, Valentine’s Day, conclusion of Spanish classes and starting a new job happening in the next month – I imagine there may just be a little more news to come.

I hope all is well in your world!