I Work Hard for the Money

I know I told you in the last post, but in this one I can fully rejoice with you- I have officially entered the Chilean working world!!! I have now taught four classes at the Navy and two clases particulares (tutoring). I´ll start with the Navy. I was first told that I would have 11 students, then it went down to 10 and yet only 7 show up every class. One of the three who had never come before finally came last class and after missing only three he´s still quite behind the others. The men are all older than me, I would say between 28 and 55 years-old and they are all officers. They´re all very polite and most are very eager to learn- I would say they are an excellent first class to have. I teach them three days a week for two hours at a time and earn about $10/hour of which 10% will be taken out for taxes. The only slight drawback is that it´s quite a commute. With the micro (bus), it takes me about an hour to get there and then an hour and a half to get home (it takes more time on the return due to rush hour traffic). So if you take that $20 for every class to cover the two hours of teaching, the two and a half hour commute and the hour of lesson planning, it´s not $10/hour anymore. But I´m still thanking the Lord and the institute because I´m very greatful for this work and for something to fill my time. And I´m also praying and hoping that the institute will have some openings for more classes come up.


Now about my clases particulares. These are tutoring sessions and very soon I´m going to start posting flyers and such in public to advertise my mad English skills. But I already have two people I´m tutoring. One is a precious little five-year-old girl named J. J is only in kindergarten but she loves what she´s learned so far of English so her parents want to encourage her in that. She really reminds me of my niece P who is just a year older and who I´ve been told has the same desire to learn Spanish. I´ve had one class with J so far which went well, and there´s just two things I need to remember for next time- don´t expect to cover too much and to add in some more fun activities. Little girls cannot sit still at a table for an hour! I also have started tutoring a man (also with the initial J) who is this girl´s uncle and wants to learn for business purposes. I think we made progress in our first class and I think it will be interesting in the future coming up with his class material. It´ll be a challenge, but a good one I think.


And this brings me to my work visa. Now that I´m working, I have to have a visa. And I got it today! I had to go to the Extranjeria (Foreigner´s Office) twice and had to wait about an hour in line, but it wasn´t that bad. Especially since the visa was FREE! I think when I went to Austria I had to pay a pretty penny for my student visa, so this was a nice surprise. It also feels like an accomplishment because I went to the Extranjeria all by myself! Well, Andrés actually dropped me off, but he didn´t come in with me (he had to go take a final) and I was able to communicate my needs without any help. Whoohoo. Now this does mean that I don´t know what all the paperwork I was given is for, but I do know that I have my work visa that is valid for four months and that is what is most important.

My work visa! (All important and personal information hidden of course)

The other paper they gave me- I´m not quite sure what it´s for. It says something about residency...

After receiving my visa, I decided I wanted to celebrate by going to Starbucks for the first time in Chile. I have to say that it was worth it, but that Starbucks will be a once every three of four month treat- it´s so expensive! I got a grande white mocha, which admitedly is one of the most expensive drinks on the menu, but I did it for my mom. Well not for her, but to remember her and reminisce because it´s her favorite drink. When we´re together we usually share one. So I leave you with photos from my first Starbucks adventure here, a little piece of home. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for me and my work situation up until now. I REALLY appreciate it and feel free to keep those prayers coming.

Holy cow! 2750 pesos, that´s about $5.50!

Here´s my nonfat white mocha WITH whip cream :)

Here´s my cup with my name in all it´s glory! Many gringas have trouble with the baristas not understanding their names, but thankfully my name translates easily in Spanish- it´s the same!

Melting Pot, Salad Bowl

I got home from work at about 7:15pm tonight and I had... energy left! It was such a surprise. Work has been really stressful and draining this past month, yet also very rewarding. It reminds me that it ain't all about the money, money, money.

On Saturday evening we had the Spanish First Communion Mass. Our parish has a very large Hispanic population (mostly Mexican) and for at least the past three years we've given the families a choice: their children (who are completely bilingual and bicultural) can make their First Communion in English with Anglo/U.S. traditions or in Spanish with Mexican traditions. This year our class was split almost 50/50- 27 at the Spanish Mass and 29 at the English (almost 60 total! That's a huge number for us). While I'm so happy for the children that they got to receive Jesus in the Eucharist for the first time, it was a very trying time for me at both Masses, although for this post I'm going to focus on the Spanish Mass.


You see my first year in the parish someone else totally took care of the Spanish First Communion Mass and I wasn't even able to attend because it was at the exact same time as the English. Then last year a wonderful, generous woman who had her two sons making their First Communion organized most of the Mass for me and led the parent meeting and all the rehearsals. This year that same wonderful, generous woman led the parent meeting and then showed up for the first rehearsal but I led it and then I did the second one on my own and also the day of I was on my own to get the children and families ready and lined-up. Let me tell you, that was really difficult because I'm not Mexican! It's a surprise, I know, but I'm cien por ciento (100%) gringa.


Last year I did not pay attention enough to the different traditions and customs the Mexicans have (because I did not think I would be going it solo) so this year I didn't know what the padrinos (godparents) were supposed to do, what the candle was for and when it was supposed to be lit, and what different things the children needed to bring and carry (Bible, rosary, possible armband for the boys). And to be honest, on Saturday after all was said and done, I was a bit frustrated and disappointed by the lack of help from the parents and padrinos. They all acted like they didn't know what was going on when all I wanted to do was say- These are your traditions! You should know and be able to guide the children way more than I should! Now that it's been a couple of days I'm able to see that yes, some of them should have helped more (and others from the community besides that one wonderful, generous woman), but also that many of them probably didn't know what was going on because it's been years since their First Communion.


But this led me to thinking (now I'm getting around to the purpose of this post and the reason behind the title) about how this seems like it would only happen in our country. The U.S. was founded by immigrants from different countries who brought their own traditions, including religious ones, and I'm sure they practiced them like they did in the Old Country when they first arrived here. We were like a salad bowl. But now a lot of those traditions have melted and melded together (and now I'm speaking specifically about Catholic religious traditions) and we pretty much have the same ones, even if my background is German and Polish and yours is Italian and Irish. But with this new wave of immigrants (which isn't so new) it seems they're keeping their customs more and more and it seems to me that it is both good and bad. Good because their customs can be beautiful and also I can understand that when you're in a foreign place it makes you feel more at home to get to keep old traditions and not have to lose everything from where you were from. It is bad in that sometimes I feel like it makes us divided. I mean just the fact that we have a "hispanic" and an "anglo" community in our parish doesn't seem totally right- shouldn't we all just be parishioners in one community? And that our kids who have been together in class together for nine months have to be split up to receive the Sacrament. And also it's not so good when they want to keep their traditions but expect someone not part of them or privy to them to lead them in it.


And this gets me to thinking, is this only in the U.S.? Take Chile for example. They are also made of immigrants- mainly Spanish at first but because they have many ports they were also settled by many other Europeans. I often see a lot of German influence in names and structures in the parts of Chile I visit. It is not too common but also not extremely odd to see a blonde or red headed Chilean, and it is common to see blue- green-  and hazel-eyed Chileans. And say a bunch of us gringos relocated to the town of Concon where I will be. Maybe the parish would start offering a Mass for us in English (I know of at least one that does so in Santiago) but I highly doubt they would start doing the Sacraments according to our U.S. traditions and I doubt that they lead us in it- if they did it they would have us form a committee or something to be in charge of it (from what Andres says, the parish seems to be really good at forming committees, hehe).


This post has been a little difficult to write. In the back of my mind is the worry that I will offend someone. I hope I haven't because I try not to be prejudiced and I am proponent of looser immigration laws in the U.S. I also realized that I talk about how both the U.S. and Chile were settled by immigrants and don't mention the Native Americans who were definitely here first with their own traditions. I want you to know that I recognize all this. Yet these difficult questions arise: what can rightfully be expected of people who immigrate to a new country? What should they keep of their old culture, their roots, and what should they assimilate to their new culture? Is it different between the public/political life and the private/religious life? I mean, faith can be a very personal aspect and so shouldn't people be able to celebrate it how they feel most comfortable? Yet as a Catholic catechist I know that it's not "Jesus and me" but "Jesus and we" and we will be saved as the Body of Christ and so shouldn't we adapt to the community we are with? I'm not sure of the answers at all. I can see both viewpoints and this is also all brought to a new light because I will soon be experiencing in person the other viewpoint.