One of these being unlimited amounts of power, every little bit we got was like gold. You needed to conserve every ounce of power for the classes you had and any project involving your laptop. Which most of these we learned to live without even writing 6 page papers all on loose leaf so you could turn it in. Now, that we’re back I doubt you don’t take a second thought about just plugging in your computer or phone. This is definitely a convenience-thing

The consumption of food we eat in America is absolutely ridiculous along with how much of it turns into trash anyway because we also throw away so much of it. The intake of watching how many people were just eating so much food at the airport was absolutely mind-blowing. All that food could’ve fed all those kids on the rocks we see everyday for months on end. Where does all that uneaten food go anyway? It doesn’t go to good use or get used; it just gets thrown in the trash. When there could be people for sure eating most of that food. A lot of it is still good such as, the bread they throw away at the grocery stores because it’s a day old in the bakery. There is nothing wrong with that bread yet it gets thrown away.

When we’re struggling through the airports with all our bags and boats and gear no one stops to help you when everything falls off your cart or in some airports you don’t even get a cart to make you life easier. Everyone just watches you struggle tremendously trying to maneuver your stuff around. I love when people will look right at you and not even offer you a helping hand. If you were in Africa or any place other than America someone would stop and go out of their way to assist you.

The lack of stuff everyone in Africa needs to be happy is absolutely amazing the have never seen an iPod nor heard of one yet they will leave the rest of their lives content and perfectly fine. They need very little to actually be happy. Everything there is a new experience or adventure for them. They appreciate the absolutely littlest things and take it all wonderfully and one day at a time. Everything is simple and right to the point it has its purpose and that’s that.  There is no need for extravagance. There is absolutely not enough money for that. Everything needs to do its purpose and cost as little as possible to get it done yet work and last for a long time.

The order maintained in our road systems is absolutely something to behold. There are rules that you need to follow and you need to keep a certain speed and control. There is no room for chaos; everyone would crash in our society the fact of “just going with it” is not existent. A tree in the road would block it for hours here. While there a group of people would work together and just move it or cut it up and again just move it. The mass of everyone moving down the streets in Uganda was mind-blowing how everyone gets to where they need to go without crashing is crazy.

Its also a comfort to see our society is in order like we’re not in a strife with our government. It’s also nice to know things aren’t rigged like they are there. Its lovely that people don’t just randomly start breaking out into riots and start getting tear gassed to keep it under control. The safety here or what you feel is more safety here is great. Guys aren’t just walking around with a big gun strapped to their back and you better hope the right guy is carrying it there. Here there in the US are forms and codes you have to maintain to keep it.

We do have our benefits and much more order to our society because we already went through many things to get to that order. While they are still trying to figure out how get up in the world and develop a modern society. But, do they really need to? The simplicity of everything there was absolutely phenomenal and those were some of the happiest people I’ve ever seen.

A llegar a la isla ‘Hairy Lemon’, tu tienes conducir en un autobus y pasar todos los ninos Africanos. Son reyendo a ti con dientas grandes y blancas. Duepues, la calle termina al rio y lamas para un barcito te llevas a la isla. Tu pones todos tus equipajes para remamos a la isla. Depues, tu llegas a la playa. Tu ves la cocina y mesas para comer. cuando nosotros llegamos lo y nosotros comemos almuerzo como un buffet. Tu puedes ver arboles tropicales y monos saltando de arbol y arbol. Cuando tu caminas de la cocina, primero que ver es el lugar de chill con sillas, hammocks, y sofas. Camina mas y verias las cabanas y una playa. Si camina sobre la subida, tu puedes hacer un lugar para tu carpa. Tu quieres elenier un lugar debajo de un arbol. Despues, pones todos tus ropas surfear. Yo surfeo a lado de muchachos Africanos y ninos en las piedras. Tu puedes tirar trucos imendros. Depues, tu vuelves y poner ropas altos y DEET para protejer los mosquitos. Despues, tu comes cena cual es sopa y una otra comida. Despues cena, es tiempo para dormir.

So far, every person we have seen or met here is very nice and always willing to help you any way possible. This country is a very beautiful, especially the little island paradise we are staying at for the next 4 weeks. The Hairy Lemon is a kayakers paradise for sure. We also play volleyball in the shallow water during our free periods and lunchtime. The Canadians always seem to win no matter how many people we put on the other team. We have school all throughout the day and it ends right when the Nile Special is coming in. How’s that for perfect timing?

Check out pictures on my facebook at http://www.facebook.com/cote.taylor

The settling of all these Germans went so well in 1846 that another group was asked to emigrate in 1848. Most of them were very willing because of possibility of starting a new life overseas. They were mostly craftsmen of many fields and university graduates consisting of beer-brewers, tanners, furniture makers, pharmacists, professors and scientific investigators. In 1852, Deutsche Player Maiten, Volcan and Puerto Octay and later the next year they settled in Puerto Montt, Llanquihue, Frutillar and Puerto Varas. They eventually moved as far south as the Biobio/Tolten area and into cities such as, Valparaiso, Santiago, Temuco, Conception, Ancud and Magellanes. Germans had to work hard then setting themselves up in that wilderness society but after awhile they became very respected members of Chilean community.

When we arrived we were greeted by the principal and some of the students were immediately rushed to an art class. The other half the group went off to a drama class. That was the funnest drama class I have had to date. The teacher was so outgoing and inviting. We first played a game called “Terremoto, Casa, y Incendio”(earthquake, house, and fire ) at first then went into a improvisation competition. Each team had a mix of us and the Chilean students. I would have to say Eric and Jacob were the funniest “improvers”. All throughout the room you would hear screams of what we would need to do for the next improve in that ten seconds we had been given to plan. The teacher would announce a “siguiente”(situation) and then we would set up for it. For example, we watched the other group set up for a plane ride to brazil and then the teacher would said the emotion for it like “nervioso”(nervous) and then the team would proceed. Eric being the pilot got on the loudspeaker and announced to all the passengers “Atencion pasjeros, viajamos a brazil!”(Attention passengers, we traveling to Brazil” and everyone responded with a uncertain yay. Zoe was walking down the aisles being the cautious stewardess trying to help all the passengers out. Then another announcement came “uh-oh saltandamos” (uh-oh we are falling) and Eric pretending to lose control of the plane. While all the people began screaming and throwing their arms up in the air. It was hilarious to watch all this happen and have this type of interactions.

Afterwards we ended with handshakes and ciao’s and moved back out into the open school yard waiting for our next Chilean high school experience.

El enseño verbos futuros y verbos pasados. En clase, nosotros miramos películas en español. Tambien, me gusta eschuchar regaeton. Otras personas en la clase son Jason y Errik. Mi actividad favorita era aprender la cueca. Reímos mucho. Errik es el mejor bailarín en la clase. También, aprendemos muchos vocabularios y conjugar verbos. Clase de español es mi clase favorita. ¡Yo amo español!

Everyday a week we have a morning workout devoted to safety and the beginning of an afternoon workout for it too. The most recent ones have involved river communication and all of NRA’s river signals. This lesson makes sure everyone is on the same page and can communicate through a rapid well to point out holes and hazards even if we cannot hear one another. This is especially useful when we start running all the beautiful rivers of Chile.

We also have had multiple activities working on accuracy and quickness with our throw ropes. We’ll have people a good distance away walk across in front of our lineup while one person tries to get their throw rope to them. If they get that first person, the “throw roper” will then have to quickly recoil and save the other “swimmer” walking past.

As part of NRA’s safety, when we are on the river we are required to always have 2 extra things. One thing is everyone must have a throw rope on them anytime we are on the river. Even if you exit your boat you must keep your rope on you. If you are caught without it when we’re out and about on the river you’ll have to do 25 pushups. This is instilling that into our minds that we need to have that with us always. The other thing is everyone needs to have foot wear. There are too many rocks everywhere that we don’t know about that it’s just a good precaution to preserve our feet.

So as you can see, Tino and Lorenzo are making sure to keep us all safe on the river. They’re giving us all the knowledge we need to know and helping us become better safer boaters.

I remember when we first all arrived in Chile, this new location for everyone, even the most seasoned traveler out of us all, Matti. All our eyes wide with excitement just soaking in all the hustle and bustle from the airport. We hadn’t even reached the outside yet and we were already so giddy for this new adventure. After that it was us learning our way around a totally different country, speaking a totally different language. The first time we were in Chile the language barrier was definitely a struggle for all of us. But, the next quarter when we arrived the group was prepped and ready. We seemed like pro’s navigating around the city, getting the meal or ice cream we wanted, and finding the laundromat.

I think one of my peers that has grown the most is Zoe. I remember when she first arrived at the school second quarter, she was introverted and always questioned herself. Oh, but how that did change! If you look at this lovely girl now she’s extroverted, bright, and has gained so much independence. She does what she wants and never second guesses herself anymore. Its amazing how much confidence she gained in herself and it’s all because of her time here. I think she’s pretty proud of all the knowledge she’s gained here too.

Many of us have also gained more knowledge and confidence about ourselves through our year or semester here. This school definitely helps you grow no matter how set in your ways, or sure of yourself you are. I’m so thankful of the time I’ve spent here this year with this group of people and all the knowledge I’ve gained. I would’ve never had anything of this impacting stature otherwise. “And that has made all the difference…”