El Proyecto

So I don´t know if y´all have noticed, but I´ve pretty much avoided describing my "job" or "internship" or "practica." Whatever you want to call it. Well its been two weeks of me flailing around the officina and I have a better idea of whats going on (but not a complete one) so I figure I should share. I am working for a three year project who´s name is Mapu Mawidan Ko. These three words mean earth, mountains, and water in the language of the Huilliche, the indigenous group in this area. We are sposored by a few organizations and seem to have an endless amount of money. Overall the goal is to raise the incomes of the families in the 17 communities we work with. The communities are all around Osorno in the two poorest comunas (counties?) in all of Chile. There is a focus on the sustainable use of resources of their bosques (forrests) which are aplenty. There a few componentes (components) that work in different ways with each community: Tourism and Artisenry, Forrestry, Agriculture, Commercialization and mine group-- committed to organizational development. Projects include: helping the development of the mining of leña, or firewood, which most chileans use to heat their stoves and homes; the establishment of tourist stops for camping and such; the development of handcrafts such as wool products and wooden carvings; and management of native forrests that the government gives subsidies for.

Phew. So after three days of a planning workshop, two days of reading documents, and a few days of hanging around going to meetings and asking questions to figure all that out, and more. Keep in mind, there is not only the trouble of following all the intricacies of the organization, but doing so in Spanish-- a language I have far from mastered. The tricky part, is what the fuck I´m going to do there. All the people that work their are experts in their field be it forrestry or agriculture or tourism. Or, the people in my componente are social scientists. Which is exactly why they stuck me where I am: I´m a sociologist, remember? Hah.

So needless to say, my role is still unclear. Carolina, mi jefa, wants me to see all the communities and get a feel for whats going on. So a usually day consists of me bumming around the office for a while checking my email, hanging out with the other interns (three chilean girls of my age) and completing a few tasks around the office until Carolina says ¡vamos! Then, I get in a truck with any variety of my very lovely office mates and we drive an hour or more into the beautiful countryside. Sometimes I doze off in the back and enjoy the view, and other times I attempt to carry on a conversation in spanish. Either way, I´m usually pretty happy. Then we arrive at some community center with our organizations name on it and wait around for at least a half hour but sometimes half the day until the meeting begins. Meanwhile I kiss and greet all of the people present, but rarely do I learn anyones name (a silly chilean tradition that I am still struggling with). I´ve witnessed a variety of meetings about a variety of topics. My comprehensition ranges greatly, depending on who is speaking. The campesinos speak softly and don´t enunciate very well. Needless to say its hard to understand them.

Anyway I am sort of supposed to help analyze community dynamics, help with the planning of workshops internally for the office and externally for the community members and help with organizational development. Or at least thats what my componente does. Right now it seems I might try and shape up our website, and translate it into english. Which is just fine with me. I might help make other tourist materials so they can add parts in english too. Its still tough to understand everything, and express myself how I want to in the office, but things are getting better. I´m okay bumming around but I feel guilty taking up everyone´s time, but even without speaking spanish or having any skills, they seem to be happy to have me around. Go figures. Like I said, they are all wonderfully nice.

Oy. I´ve already written so much. But in truth, its to make up for my new way of life where I have become a woman of few words. Imagine that! I keep warning everyone that when I finally speak with more fluency, they´ll see the real gregarious me. For now, I listen and nod a lot and often keep to myself. When I´m not laughing that is. Anyway its always a relief to be able to express myself intelligently again, which is why my blog entries are so long and detailed. I would shorten them (COUGH COUGH BLUNDERS) but I keep getting good reviews. Thanks for listening! I´m going away this weekend to another lake town with a co-worker and some of his friends. I´ll probably come back dyyying to write in english, so expect another entry then.