These winding roads will never lead me back to the place where I belong.

On my first morning, I was introduced to the school and officially my first day of volunteering. San Luis Beltan is a local school about 20 minutes walk from our house, so it's quite convienient and it means that me and Charlotte get a gentle morning exercise, which is never a bad thing. It's a lovely school and when I arrived all the teachers started to intoduce themselves and say "ohhh, so you're la nueva". I was famous, or seemed to be. haha.
Sadly, the doorman at the school had passed away the day before so all the school was slightly downbeat. The was a memorial service held for him the playground complete with hymns and Bible passages. I hadn't met the man but I was honestly moved by the whole thing.
We did very little during the morning, some small jobs involving the creation of a last-minute powerpoint presentation for one of the english teachers and some general cuboard sorting out. After break I was introduced to my first class, well, it wasn't my class, but Miss Loreto (an english teacher) used us as assistants. I was introduced as "Miss Laura". I love being called "Miss Laura". The loud group of 12 year old boys one table were refering to me as "Miss Pretty" because of my blond hair, which I liked less. At least during that class, bar the whistling and name calling, I got to actually teach something help someone.
I was intoduced to Naomi, a ex-vulunteer who is back in Chile for a year as part of her university course. After school, we all went into the center to get me "Bip!" card. A "Bip!" card is basically like an Oyster card in London that you put credit on and then can therefore travel on the metros and buses without having to hunt for loose change.

The next day at school was a half-day as the town were holding the funeral in the schools chapel. That morning, aport from doing very little yet again, I met Oscar and Cathy, two university students also volunteering as San Luis Beltran. They are very nice and have invited both Charlotte and I to a barbeque at Cathy house in the coming weeks.
We left school at noon and headed into Santiago center again to see more of the city. We arrive in Baquedano and walked around the park there. It's amazing how the city can cahnge so dramatically within a half hour bus ride. We also took some nice photos of the scenary. :)
Dinner that evening was not the norm. The conversation took a turn into Chilean sexism. The women in Chile no longer accept the tradicional ways of living. They, like most cultures believe that men and women should share things like house chores and the cooking. Jorge (my host dad) has other views. He is very stubborn and won't accept change. He said and I quote "If the women of the house won't cook for me, then I will just go hungry." He pulled an amusing face and everyone else at the table starting giggling. It just shows that most Chileans are ready to move with the times, be it a little late.

Title.. If bigger scars make better stories, then you should see the scars on me - Search the city