Day 23

Happy Birthday Cynthia!!! Today was also our last day of the program, which was a bit sad, though it was not our last day of doing things as a group by any means. We had to leave at 8 this morning to catch a ferry to a nearby island. The drive to the ferry was a lot longer than we expected and we had to travel across many dirt roads which were fine except that the bus got really dusty, especially on the inside. The ferry was not like the ferries that you see in Seattle either. It was a boat that very few cars can drive on to and then there really is no place for you to get off and go get coffee or anything. We all got off the bus anyway and hung out on the deck, which was nice, but a bit chilly too. The ferry ride was pretty short and then we piled back on the bus to reach our destination in a nearby town where we met up with Dr. Cristian. Our group split in to two, one group staying with Cristian and the other heading further in the island with Jaime on the bus. My group was made up of Emily G, Marijke, Alex, Jaideep, Sarah, Cameron, Brandon, Emily, Kelly, Jaime and me. When we arrived at our destination we were suppose to be attending a community meeting to discuss what they should do with the money that the government has given them to spend on public health programs. Unfortunately when we got there we found that the situation was not as we had imagined, so we were given a sheet of the programs and then asked to return later. The group decided that it would be a good idea to go get some empanadas, so we headed out on the bus in search of empanadas. We were able to find a little stand that sells them; they were heated in a toaster oven and were quite tasty. After our snack we headed back to the hospital where the meeting was being held but instead of going in to the hospital we played on a playground down the street and took pictures in front of the mountains. Jaime decided that it was not necessary for us to go back to the meeting and instead we went back to find the rest of the group. When we met up with every one else we headed over to the school where we saw students doing the quecca, which is the Chilean national dance. All of the students were coming up to us asking us if they could have our email addresses and one girl even asked me and Emily if our hair and eyes were natural. We were set to have a late lunch before we left the island and so Dr. Cristian escorted us to where we were to eat. There were two long tables set up in a room and just outside the door there were chickens, a lamb, a cat and a dog just wandering around. This was a very rural area on the island and it was a great way to experience it by having lunch there. For lunch we were served a huge plate of food that had muscles, chicken, pork, sausages, and two types of potatoes. I am not a huge shell fish eater but I ate three muscles which I am pretty proud of. Alex M. and Sam ate more than 20 muscles each which is quite impressive. After lunch we were served some coffee and then it was back on the bus for our departure back to Puerto Montt. With our luck we were able to catch the first ferry when we arrived at the ferry line and then the drive back to Puerto Montt was a lot shorter than the ride to the ferry. When we got back we set a time to meet to go out for Cynthia’s birthday. Kelly, Emily and I all took showers and set up our room to surprise Cynthia. When we came to borrow the hair dryer we had the lights off and then let her in, turned the lights on and yelled happy birthday while throwing balloons at her. We also had noise blowers so we were making a ton of noise and a couple of people from the program came over to see what was going on. Cynthia was completely surprised and very excited that we had done something special for her on her birthday. The group met in the lobby where we went to a nearby place for drinks and food. The place had a DJ which played songs that we requested and they were all in English which was great for us. After we ate they moved the tables and some of us danced around with other tables surrounding us just watching, but we didn’t care. That night we ended early, or at least some of us did. I was very tired so it was nice to go to bed before 4 am!