Student Protests: Rabble Rabble Rabble!

Chile has had a national "student strike" going on for about three weeks now, though I just found out about this last Thursday.  Apparently from time to time students get together, oftentimes with support and help from teachers, and march on the streets, picket outside schools, or straight up do lock-ins and force their schools to shut down.  From what I understand, this time around it started with students getting upset over the shut down of one of Santiago's smaller universities (though it may be more akin to a community college or trade school, but really I have no idea).  Point is, the way things work it seems each department votes on whether they want to support the protest, and then they decide to whether they will strike or not.  Once enough individual departments shut down (at which time students are meeting daily to draft petitions/lists of demands, and to march in the streets) the entire university freezes.  My host family's oldest daughter, who is 22 and finishing up her degree in education, hasn't had classes in around three weeks now, so she made the 17 hour commute back home to chill.  High school students followed suit, locked themselves in several of the city's biggest high schools, and people have been marching all over Santiago.  Joaquin Levin, the secretary of education, has even been punched in the face and attacked by crowds (apparently this is all very routine and business-as-usual; nothing to seek, keep it moving folks).  Though, since the tv's at home are in the parent's and sister's bedroom, and at work we rarely watch news during luch, I had absolutely no idea this was going on.  Until last Thursday that is.

Last week the high schoolers in Santiago called for a nation-wide solidarity movement, at which point students in Chiloe started to protest.  Our school is semi-private which means: a.) our school conditions are better (especially in a school small as ours with 10 student classrooms) so kids are less likely to march/skip class.  And more interestingly b.) unlike public school teachers that oftentimes openly support the students, teachers in this position are (unofficially) liable to lose their jobs if they do too much rabble-rousing or support the national strikes.  So folks here have understandably not been too vocal about it all, though it seems to me that the culture as well is such that politics/hot-button issues aren't discussed as often as in the states.

So last week the high school students arrived at school as spent the first hour or so of the day debating whether they were going to go join the local marches/demonstrations in the plaza here in Castro.  I had class with the seniors, during which we were supposed to practice for our English Show since they only have about 3 more classes with me before the performance.  In true Chile fashion, rather than maximize our 90 minutes of class time, the students lingered around the space heater while the teacher explained to me how student protests work.  I wasn't even sure if I could ask my students to work, since at the time I was under the impression that they were protesting, but still in class for whatever reason.  I may have gotten this impression when I asked my teacher why they were just standing there ten minutes into class and he said something along the lines of, "No, because....they are in a protest.  Did you know that?"  Or something.  But it turns out that they were just standing around rather than working because this is Chile, and we just happened to have protests going on elsewhere.  Point is, all's normal here but some fellow volunteers do have students striking at their schools.

One of these volunteers visited this weekend.  Monica from Chicago (she went to Stevenson High and Lake Forest College) and Sara from Connecticut.  Mauro, the English teacher, was awesome enough to let us all crash at his place while his roommates were out of town.  We spent the weekend drinking, wandering around town in the rain, and visiting the next town over, Chonchi, which I myself had not yet explored.  All three of us gringos ended up getting lots of little trinkets and handmade goods at the local artisan market (la feria) and I had that super fresh salmon again.  Pics should be up on facebook shortly.  Pictures are up.  This Friday two other gringas come visit, these ones will be staying at my place as my host mom was nice enough to offer up the spare bedroom.  Looking forward to the long weekend.  Quick anecdote to illustrate how Chile works:  Yesterday I went with my host mom and her three daughters (ages 5, 15, and 22) for haircuts.  We had an appointment at her friend's home salon at 6 pm.  She was with two other ladies and didn't get around to cutting our hair until 7:40.  No one seemed surprised or driven into a murderous rage by this, expect for me of course.  Good news: $3 hair cut.

-Paul

link to FB album:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.935928679314.2439136.5321418&l=776a216fd2