Una semana de orientación

Orientation this past week in Arica, Chile was a surprisingly boring process. I am quite fortunate to have already made a close friend and get closer to other girls on the program (23 girls, 1 boy- it always seems this way in public health). Hotel El Paso was relatively nice as a place to stay for the orientation due to its location, we were able to walk 5 minutes into downtown in order to explore the city a little more without having to learn the bus system immediately. My only complaint was that all they ever served for dessert, at lunch and at dinner (way too much food to begin with), was some sort of fruity custard/mousse that had way too much sugar and weird fruity taste to eat.

 So far, Arica seems like a much different town than I expected. I came here thinking Arica was a far more developed city, with a commercial downtown and relatively well off neighborhoods. I did not expect what I saw when driving in from the airport- identically built shacks for lower income families built up the dusty hillside, roadside shacks to buy cell phone minutes and candy, and a transportation system with taxis, collectivos (shared taxis that have a route), and micros (buses).

Me with El Cristo on top of El Morro! (huge rock overlooking the city/ocean)

Leah, Eileen, Emily, Jen, y Stacey

The view from "El Morro"

We are just now getting ready to go and move in with our host families. Everyone is really excited to finally get out of the hotel and find out where they'll be living from now until November 1. In order to welcome us, our host families all gave Rossana (SIT Program Director) presents to give us before we met them. My family gave me a nice warm hat and a pencil pouch made out of leather from the region. Some people received more interesting presents, including Aleya from Tulane who received a "guardian angel"... see below! Hilarious.

Aleya and her ceramic angel

Thanks for reading! I hope you guys are enjoying reading about my adventure and feel free to email me at marisaw@gwmail.gwu.edu :)

- Marisa