Quiltros: It's illegal in Chile to kill dogs, and as a result the street across the entire country are overrun with stray dogs, or quiltros as they're known here. It's not uncommon for important soccer games to be interrupted by strays jumping on the field. This means every Chilean city has roves of random dogs: some laying half-dead idly on the sidewalk, others barking like assholes as you walk past, and others constantly jumping into traffic on the roads. You may expect to come across lots of dog crap, and you'd be right, but what you may not think about is the fleas. The fucking fleas. Pretty much everybody in the country seems to have fleas at home, whether they own a dog or not, due to the uncontrollable number of street dogs. At any given point, I have about 15 bites itching on my body.
Onces: People don't eat dinner in Chile. Breakfast and lunch are similar to the States--a quickly toasted bun with jam or a piece of fruit in the morning, and some kind of pasta, stew, or meat with potatoes or rice to be microwaved at 1 for lunch. But there is not main course at 6 or so after work. Families sit down anywhere between 6:30 and 9 for once (own-say) which consists of tea and bread. I'm lucky enough to be living with an amazing family, and thus everything including the meals seems to be above-average. Our onces usually will also include some boiled hot dogs or eggs with onions to accompany the tea and bread. We also will normally have like two or three home-made marmalades for the bread. Friday, for example, was quite interesting. We had an awesomely delicious lunch at around 2 and then at 8 we had rolls with a new type of cheese my host mom bought from some dude: a brick of Philadelphia cream cheese with a hole cut out in the center. Inside the hole: soy sauce. Yup, rolls with philly cream cheese and soy sauce for "dinner." As a result, almost all volunteers eat a whole lot less here than at home, but since all the foods are super-duper greasy and fatty (this coming from a guy who's rolled a hot dog up inside a slice of pizza) people can still gain weight while volunteering here. It's very weird.
The (little bit too) laid-back atmosphere at school: Classes never start on time. Ever. Teachers sit around chatting or getting their things together about five minutes after class is scheduled to start. Even if they do get into the room by the correct time, or close to it, neither the students nor the teacher are capable of simply diving into the lesson. Just last week in 6th grade, though they could have been reviewing for mid-term exams or rehearsing for the English Show, the teacher took an hour and fifteen minutes to slowly explain what would be on the exams, and then write down about ten example sentences on the board. We could have saved the thirty minutes it took them to copy the problems by simply handing out pre-written worksheets. But that would have required lesson planning on the teacher's half, which is simply unimaginable down here.
Disciplining your own kids (or there lack of): Judging by my own experiences with my host family, and what other volunteers have told me about their own families, parents here seem to rarely ever discipline their own kids. The five year old girl here constantly throws hissy fits, hollers at the top of her lungs at (or from underneath) the dinner table, ignores me when I say hello, and yells "dejame!!!" (Spanish for "leave me alone," but in the limited vocabulary of a five y/o that basically translates as "fuck off") at anybody ranging from me to her own father. Whereas back home a good ole fashioned ass-whooping would have set her straight months ago, here the folks just carry on eating like nothing is happening. I have no idea of this is how they dealt with their other kids, but if it is I'd be very surprised, seeing as how Ignacia and Camila (the 15 and 21 year olds) are actually good people and very well-mannered. Other gringos have told me similar stories about host brothers and sisters ranging from adolescent girls moaning and bitching to men in their 30s still living at home and having mommy literally wake up at 6 am when they come home from the bars to rub their back until they fall asleep. Yes, that's an actual story one of my friends told me.
There are plenty of other random quirky cultural differences I'll get into as I remember them. Contrary to the cynical tone this post may have, I'm having an absolute ball down here and am very excited about next semester. I've adjusted to the dogs, smaller dinners, slow-moving (lazy?) attitudes at school and the rude five-year-old, but the fleas bites are pissing me off now more than ever. Bright side: the first three days of July have been absolutely beautiful, though I've just stayed in and watched movies all weekend. However, now I'm sure the Chilote gods are cuing the heavy rain clouds. We had hail here last week, as I understand Chicago did too. Lightning, however, is rare here. Unlike downtown Chicago.
-Paul
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