Arrival in Arica

It is difficult to believe that only one week has passed since my in arrival in Chile.  Every hour is packed with learning new things and time seems to be flying by! Ironically It was raining the day I left - quite possibly the last down pour I will see for a long while!

 After a couple of days orientation with AFS in Santiago, I came north to Arica (pronounced arrrriiiiiiiiica and is best said with the accent of that Mexican mouse cartoon Speedy Gonzales).  My introduction to this city has been nothing short of wonderful!  The flight path into Arica was guided by the incredible snow capped Andean Mountains on the right and the vast, deep blue Pacific ocean on the left. The sprawling town of flat rooved buildings, which will be my 'homebase' for the coming year, seem tiny and unimposing in the vast desertscape. As the plane descended from the early afternoon sky, it seemed as though it would land on the desert floor itself, as the tarmac was hardly to be seen.  

Paulina and Daniel greeted me with a genuine friendliness, beaming smiles and a generous willingness to help me integrate into life here in Arica.  With some nodding, smiling and questioning we seemed to bumble through conversation after conversation. My three word phrases in response to their 3 paragraph explanation seems to have worked, fortunately they are patient and interested people!  It seems to be that they are as close to 'normal' as I could wish for!  They are both psychologists who work with students who need help with their learning or behavior at school.  In short they are interesting people who are interested in others and I feel fortunate to be hosted in their home which is near 'to the downtown'.  We have labelled all the items in the house in Spanish, and already my 3 word phrases have extended into the odd compound sentence. I am stunned and encouraged by the improvement in my Spanish already.

Each moment of this week has been packed with new learning and expreriences, new sights, sounds, smells, feelings, words, perspectives, all too many to describe in one post.  However, in short I have;  been on a tour of Santiago, wandered the streets of down town Arica, jumped through paper hoops to register my visa, been to Peru to get my nails done, been shopping at the local fruit market, visited the local port and talked with the fishmonger at the local port.  Each of these experiences deserve a post of their own, so stay tuned.  I still learning the ins and outs of how to share photos and get my phone and computer connected, but be assured I have some great photos to come.