Los gritos de Dios

On February 27, 2010 God shouted down upon middle Chile, sending a ripple of 8.8 magnitude throughout the towns, structures and fields. 80 per cent of Chilean inhabitants felt the wrath of his mighty voice. It even awakened the dormant sea, which then licked the earth and swallowed buildings whole. Blackness consumed 93 per cent of the nation's population and lasted for several days in some locations. The force was so strong that seismologists estimate that 1.26 microseconds disappeared from one of God's six days of hard work.

As we sat in the office months later, my student told me about one of his Jumbo supermarket managers who had died during one of the consecutive Tsunamis that began to hit numerous coastal towns of Chile just some 30 minutes after the initial shock.

Jumbo supermarkets offer its cliental fresh bakery each morning as well as various daily product specials. This requires a small selection of Jumbo staff members to come into work in the small hours of the morning. After having experienced the earthquake late at night, the manager of Jumbo in the town of Constitución fretted about his employees and so he set off from his home, located about half an hour from town, to check up on them.

Little did he know as he drove along the highway that curved around the coastal edge of Chile that a giant wave was approaching. Before he could escape, he was engulfed by the combining elements of both water and land. As the wave drew back into the ocean so did the dear Manager draw his last breathe.

He was later found still within his car buried 3 metres deep into the ground, for the water and land mix had solidified, encasing numerous people and their belongings.

And he was only going out to check up on his daybreak staff members...

Today I hear many remnants of stories but as I look out the window of the bus each day on the way to class, I can see little evidence of the tragedy this country experienced so little ago. That is not to say that Santiago was not affected, as that would be a blatant lie. No, it is more appropriate to say that Santiaguinos have shown fantastic effort in continuing their lives as per normal. Sure, you might turn the wrong way in the corridor of an apartment complex and see a great big gaping hole in the wall or you might enter a house and it looks like a dinosaur has ripped his claws through its inside, but out on the street, the flower beds have been re-planted and the statues turned the right way up.

It just amazes me what people can do if they just put on a brave face, even if they are at the mercy of the almighty God.

Un fin de semana en Horcon

Roughly 2 hours from Santiago towards the Pacific coast one can escape the cage of smog and get lost to the open shore and congregating pelicans of Horcon. One can also find the small resort of holiday homes where we spent the weekend. A mid-August day meant for chilly sea breezes and greying skies but a calmness unbeknown to the hustle and bustle of the great city.

We arrived midday and took the lift down the sheer cliff to la pequeña playa below. We followed the trail of colourful shells to the centre of the fishing pueblo, where young and old men fished amongst crowds of large throat pouches. For almuerzo we ate at the local seafood restaurant and treated ourselves to homemade, fried empanadas filled with creamy cheese and prawns, followed by Chupe de Jaiba (crab). Chube is one of my favourite Chilean soups or stews, depending on what you prefer to call it. I first came across this ‘preparation’ while living in Punta Arenas but down by Antarctica’s doorstep, Centolla (king crab) is bountiful and cheap and so I sunk my teeth many times into Chupe de Centolla. Unfortunately, further north king crab becomes expensive and so the poor average crab is consumed instead. Nevertheless, Chupe makes any crustacean taste succulent and flavoursome in your mouth.

That evening my handsome local man and I walked around the gardens of the resort, hand and hand, escaping into each other’s thoughts and opinions. We sat wrapped in our winter coats under the starry sky and looked out into the night horizon, into our own unknown horizon with keen and hopeful eyes. The following day, we enjoyed a home-cooked meal with the in-laws or should I say our chauffeurs for this weekend away. And then it was back to the bright lights and traffic jams of a late Sunday evening.

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Chupe de Centolla Recipe : Cook shellfish (King Crab) in water in a pot; reserve the juice. Clean shellfish and discard the shells then cut into small pieces and set aside.

In a separate saucepan, add (1 cup) milk and (2 cups) fresh bread crumbs and cook over medium heat until thick. Add the reserved juice and cook sauce until it forms a medium to thick texture. Remove from heat and stir in (1/4 lbs) cheese, (4 tbs) butter, (2) egg yolks and (to taste) salt and pepper, and mix well.

In an oven-proof dish, place shellfish and cover with the cheese sauce. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 180ºC for 20-30 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cumplí un mes en Chile

Did you know that it wasn't until after the First World War that the pocketwatch went out of fashion and that both genders began to wear the wristwatch? It makes me wonder how people determined the process of time before then and how the simple minute hand has become a subconscious commander of our modern lives. And yet I find that time in fact has no tangible essence in my life as I think back to only a matter of weeks ago when I was sitting at my desk in a cold office space in Sydney and now I am constantly being stimulated by the pleasures and struggles of living in Santiago, Chile.

Yes, one month ago I quit my comfortable life and travelled to South America where I was greeted by a local handsome young man who welcomed me with open arms into his Chilean home. My first week here was spent meeting my new Chilean family and revisiting old friends from my previous travels. I certainly have experienced mucha suerte in these initial stages of my journey down a new and unpredictable road as everyone has been most hospitable.

If only the Chilean work environment was so accommodating. Ok so I cheated a little in coming to Chile as a tourist but this fact only made for a smooth entrance into the country and a limited choice of job possibilities. I found a Language Institute that will help me gain a working visa as part of my contract of 60 hours per month of English teaching. Sounds like hardly any work, doesn't it? Well I can assure you that the money is almost not worth it and then the amount of times I have already travelled a fair distance to a classroom void of students because of plain bad communication is shocking! So the search continues for more work and for the moment, I try not to think about money and try to focus more on the intriguing personal stories I am learning about everyday from my students.

And of course my spare time is consumed with touristy pleasures as well as social gatherings. Sushi is the latest phenomenon in cuisine here, which means the first suggestion of what to eat is of course these sticky rice rolls stuffed with sweet cream cheese (no Chilean dares touch the wasabi or the ginger), although I have now managed to get my hands on some empanadas and other traditional Chilean dishes. In addition to this, I am trying to introduce new platos to my Chilean family - add a little bit of spice and variation with a Thai curry, Tandoori chicken or apple tart washed down with a Chai Tea. So far it's going pretty well, although finding ingredients here has proven to be quite tricky. It makes me miss the black bean sauces and other stir-fry mixes one can easily find in the supermarkets of Australia, not to mention that Asian food is so expensive here! Or even finding puff pastry wasn't easy!

Not to worry, my local handsome young man is taking good care of me. I am struggling to understand how I have only been here for one month because so much has happened already. I now know the metro system like the back of my hand, although it is going to take me some more time to get used to the disorderly way of life here. It's not the manana mentality of Mexico; it's more like if you don't push for something to happen, it never will. And I mean never...