The Driest Desert in the World

On our way. Our destination is Bahia Salada, which is a beach in a section of the famous Atacama
desert- the driest desert in the world. This is a day of broken wheels and mantequilla montañas.
First, we must leave at 7am instead of 4am because my host grandpa’s boat trailer wheel breaks
as he is arriving to Santiago. We finally depart, and receive a call from my host aunt saying that
they are running late because their tire was popped. Not long after, I wake up to a hushed string
of swear words as my host father pulls carefully over to the wing of the highway-the bolts that hold
the tire in place have overheated and the wheel was seconds away from flying off. We spend hours
searching for a mechanic, but all the shops are on vacation or cannot do what we need. Finally, my
host dad decides to try and do it himself. We are back on the highway again, running late but with
high hopes of arriving before dark. Luckily my host dad had brought two spare wheels because
then the other trailer wheel pops, and we must stop to change it. This catastrophe also pops a
small hole in the boat which will have to be fixed tomorrow. After triple checking everything, we are
back on the highway again and driving through mountains which look like big hunks of butter, which
have been cleanly sliced in various places in order for the highway to pass through.

Arrival. This is a magical place. We are in the desert next to the clear blue ocean. Our tents fill a
space facing the ocean and with a backdrop of never ending sand dunes. In the morning
everything looks like powdered sugar. The morning clouds and haze blend in perfectly with the
sugar sand, and it almost looks like the blurry white heaven or dream land they show in movies. As
the day progresses, the clouds disappear and everything comes into focus. The desert reflects the
sun and becomes blinding. The ocean beats steadily on the shore and when I dive in it is the perfect
temperature to float on my back for hours. The days pass by quickly, filled with fishing, long runs,
delicious food, and endless conversations. In our group, we are 8 in total, but right next to us is my
aunts family of 8, and on the other side is a group of 20ish family friends. I have a lot of names to
remember. Everyone here is incredibly friendly.  

Settled in. We have our routine. A subsection of us wake up early to go fishing while the others sleep
another hour or two. My host dad, grandfather, and uncle always go fishing, and who else gets to go
with them rotates each day. Lazy mornings with bread and tea for breakfast are followed by reading
on the beach and playing a tennis-like-game which translated into English would be “small sticks.”
Sometimes I put on goggles and go searching the seafloor for crabs. When I spot one, I must quickly
scoop it up from behind to grab it by the legs before it can cut my fingers off. Sometimes they spot
me first and begin to do the typical crab dance-moving back and forth while snapping their claws
violently- in order to scare me away. We continue to go swimming as it heats up and then are cut
short when the fishermen come back with the catch of the day. While my uncle fillets the fish, my
aunt and I cook lunch. After eating lunch off paper plates in our laps, seated in camping chairs, I go
to the beach a kilómetro or so away to boogie board with some neighbors that are my age.
Sometimes my little brother comes looking for me and I teach him how to catch the waves. Soaked
in salt and feeling happy from flying on waves for a few hours, I head back to camp and convince a
different person everyday to go running with me because the viejos are worried about me going
alone. Running in the sand is much slower than normal, but the view and the air are perfect. One
day I get lucky and a seagull poops on me as I run.  Upon returning, I head right for the water and
there is nothing better than taking a long swim in the chill ocean after sweating in the desert for an
hour. One day we go on an afternoon boat ride to visit the seals, explore an island full of bones and
bird poop, and to snorkel where there are more things to see. Along the purple shell seabed, I spot
many creatures, which my marine biologist neighbor tells me all about. We eat dinner late and stay
up late playing cards, laughing, and sipping wine and piscolas(or water in my case). Before heading
to the tent to sleep better than ever on air mattresses which stay surprisingly firm, it is necessary to
walk away from the camp, far away in the dunes to watch the stars with my cousin and aunt. The
stars her are crazy and now I understand why its called the Milky Way. The sky seems bigger and
we stay there, paralyzed by the stars and talking about everything and anything, until someone gets
too cold and we head back to finally go to sleep

.

And back again. After 11 beautiful days, we must take down our makeshift home in the desert, pack
it all in the truck, take one last dip in the ocean, and watch the most gorgeous beach I have ever
seen and mountains of golden sand disappear in the rear view mirror. It’s back to reality and showers
that don’t leave you with covered in sand and tasting like salt.

Mission Trip

This month I enjoyed going on a mission trip to the south of Chile with my school. Seeing as my school is catholic, there is a group called MOAEL every Wednesday, as well as a mission trip every summer.  I started going to MOAEL within my first few weeks at school, and there I learned about the mission trip. I didn't really know what it was before I went, but I said yes right away because I have loved all the mission trips I've gone on with my church in Ann Arbor, and I am certainly not going to turn down any chances to see different parts of Chile.

We did some fundraising beforehand, by selling chocolates and snacks etc, and departed in the morning on January second. It took around ten hours to arrive to Pitrufquen, which is in the ninth region. As the hours passed on the bus, the surroundings slowly got greener and colder until I felt like I could be looking out the window in Michigan. 

We stayed at a little chapel the whole week, with the girls sleeping in the dinning room next to the kitchen, the boys in a building across the road, and the teachers in the chapel. Each morning we got up in the freezing cold and set out to mission after having a breakfast of tea and bread. Including nine teachers, we were thirty-six people in total, divided into groups of six to eight people. Each group was assigned a section of Pitrufqun to mission. This was something completely new for me. All the mission trips I have been on were based around work projects, and this mission trip was based on getting to know the people in the area. As the day got warmer, we walked on the dirt road which winds through the farmland to travel from house to house. We would knock on the door and start out by saying we were missionaries in the area from Santiago, trying to share and learn about the people in this sector. After that, at almost every house we were immediately invited inside and offered tea, bread and sometimes lunch.

Aside from learning about these families and their history, we also learned from them how they made a living out there in the middle of no where. All the families lived off the land, and it was eye opening to learn how sacrificial that life is. One lady with a Raspberry crop, for example, works all day from dusk to dawn harvesting raspberries, to then drive them to town at night and sell them for almost nothing to exporters who make a fortune. For one kilo of raspberries, which is a LOT, she makes around 90 cents. She can sell them to the exporters for 1000 pesos, but she has to pay people to help her harvest so she doesn’t make all that money directly. We helped her harvest for a while and I was amazing by the hard work that it is to gain so little. Every ten minutes I would look at what I had and think, I still haven’t even made Luca (which is 1000 CLP). In fact, I ended the hour or so we were helping her in without making Luca. Keep in mind that Luca can’t even buy you three apples. When I think about how much money I make babysitting, which is fun and barely work, it blows my mind that people do this. This is something that I  knew before-that harvestors work all day in the beating sun but make almost nothing, but something I had never seen or understood before. They must also work regardless of holidays etc because as they said many times, the fruit doesn’t wait. On Christmas and New Years they still had to harvest because if not, it would be lost money. The fruit doesn’t wait.

When we weren’t visiting with the people in our sector, we were walking. All the houses are very far apart, and in some stretches we didn’t haven’t any luck so spent the whole day walking. That was part of the fun though because we passed the time in conversation and enjoying the beautiful surroundings. We also organized an activity for the whole community to do together at the end of the week. It ended up being a big success because we anticipated five people, and found ourselves with eighteen. The people were really grateful to be brought together for a little church activity, but more importantly expressed that it made them remember that they need to value their neighbors more and care more about each other. I was glad to hear that the community was grateful for our presence, because the whole week I keep on feeling like we were the only people benefiting from the visits. We were the ones who were offered lunch, given tours of the farm and taught about this life style, but I heard almost everyone express that this helped them too in a big mental way.

When we weren’t missioning, we were playing card games, soccer, talking and singing. This is always really fun because some of the games, for example, are only ever played on mission trips and overnight camps. It was also great for me because I got to know more people. The group consisted of students and ex-students of my school, but weirdly enough I am the only person in my year that participates in the religious school activities, so I didn’t know very many of the people beforehand. After a week of walking together, playing together, and freezing at night together, I made some really good friends. It was a great group of people.

I am also really happy to have gone on mission trip because I not only got to see a different part of Chile, but also experienced a new type of mission trip.