This day started out like any other school day, but we all had big plans for after school. We were going to Lota, the home of an old mine called, Chiflon Del Diablo. I will get more into the Lota stuff later. First let me talk about the school day.
I got to my classroom this morning to be surprised by 3 different guys working on the Smart Board. This was great to see. They worked clear through our planning period and just before the bell rang the Smart Board was finally up and running. I would be able to use it for tomorrows lesson (And I’ll probably even play with it a little bit today to showoff to the students what it can do). I do not remember much of the rest of the day other than the oooos and aahhhhs that I received from the students as they were WOWED by the new toy (I mean tool).
Like last Wednesday, and every Wednesday, after lunch my teacher was in planning meetings that we are not required to attend so she asked that I show her as much as I can tomorrow. I promised her that it would be my pleasure. Also after lunch we were free to begin our adventure (I call it an adventure because we would be taking the public buses the entire way, and we were entering a town of very low economic status). So a large group of Gringos took off on the buses trying not to draw attention to themselves (Right!?!?).
The top steps to looking like a gringo
1. Run to the next bus stop because you are at the wrong one, only to find out that the bus stops at the first stop after it turns around. (Check)
2. Be loud on the bus, speaking nothing but English. (Check)
3. Look as lost as possible on the busy streets of Concepcion. (Check)
4. Walk the impoverished streets of Lota with no way of communication to help you find where you are going or what you are doing here. (And Check)
So the adventure is going great. I learned a lot about the mine, Chiflon Del Diablo, and also loved seeing this different side of Chile. The Chiflon Del Diablo means the Devils Whistle. They named the mine this because of a tunnel that put in to allow the gas created in the mine to escape. While the mine was active there was enough air movement out of the tunnel to create a very low whistling sound that could be heard for miles. The mine was closed in 1976 because it now cost too much to remove the coal from the mine due to the large distance it had to travel, when the mine closed the whistle silenced. We also learned that before 1930, this mine used child labor, and many of the tactics were quite cruel and disturbing. For example a child miners first job was gate keeper, and to break the children of the fear that comes with working in the mine they were tied to one of the pole supports to keep them from running away. If they misbehaved they would have their flame taken away which simply meant that they would have absolutely no light. We had the thrill of experiencing what this would be like for a full minute, and I can totally understand the severity of this punishment. We were sat down on a bench and instructed to turn our lights off so that we were in complete darkness. As I sat there, I kept waiting for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, but it never happened, there is absolutely no light. Cruel?
After our tour we took a quick walk around Lota to see what we could see. After a short time of walking we found a beach were there were several small children playing and several surfers enjoying the rising tide. I took off to explore a little bit and found several tide pools that had been created by the rocks. I had to do my science teacher mode quickly though because the tide was rising fast and the rock would all soon be underwater. There were all kinds of cool marine life to look at even though I really had no clue what I was looking at. Right as I was being drug away by the rest of the group I captured what I think is the best picture this far. It was a great shoot of a wave crashing on the rocks, and just exploding up through the cracks, and then it was time to get back on the bus and head back to Concepcion.
This was not the end of the day though. Marshall’s host family had invited us all over for dinner and drinks when we got back to Concepcion. This was great because we were all hungry and they were making us homemade Empanadas. To all of our surprises the Empanadas were just an appetizer they had also made us several pizzas. After several Empanadas, a few slices of pizza, and a taste of Pisco Sour it was not time to finally go home. While the day was a lot of fun and I do not wish it away at all, I am tired. It has been a very, very, long day.
