Homestay in Copiapo, Chile - Part 3: Trent Holbrook

      After about an hour and thirty minutes of flying, we landed in an airport outside of Copiapo. We claimed our baggage and boarded a bus to take an hour drive to the city to meet our host families. On the bus ride there, our whole group was talking about how nervous we were to actually live with a Chilean family. We also learned that whenever you greet or say goodbye to a Chilean woman, you have to kiss her on the cheek. That would make things somewhat interesting for our first time trying it out. Before we knew it, we had arrived at the meeting place and everyone piled out of the bus to look for their host family. To make things even more awkward when I first met my family, I really screwed up the kiss-on-the-cheek thing the first time I tried it, and they just kind of laughed at me. After all the meeting and greeting was done, I said goodbye to my group and my family drove me to their house. 

      I could not have asked for a nicer host family. Although my mother didn’t really slow down when she talked to me, she was so nice, and, by the end of the homestay, I really felt like a part of their family. As soon as we got home, my mother cooked me a big dinner, and I got to know them. My host mother was a math and physics teacher, my host sister works at the mall, and my father and brother are both firemen. During dinner, my brother, his wife, and one of his daughters came over along with more of my family’s friends. One of my sister’s friends told me she was going to take me sand boarding later in the week, which I was looking forward too. I was amazed at how late everyone stays at each other’s houses when they visit. It wasn’t until around midnight until everyone left. By that time, I was basically passed out from all of the travel during the day. Trying to understand Chileans when they are talking to each other is extremely tiring.

My host mother and her grandchildren 

During the weekdays of the homestay, we would have a schedule of activities to do with my group, but on the weekends, we would have free days, where the host family would decide what to do. During the weekdays, my normal schedule would consist of a breakfast which usually consisted of bread, a short Spanish lesson with my group, followed by walking around town until lunchtime, lunch (which is the biggest meal of the Chilean day), followed by a service project or interacting with children at a local school, “onces,” which is a meal in between lunch and dinner consisting of tea and more bread, dinner with more bread, and then our host families would pick us up and take us home.

Our service project took place at an organization called “Hogar de Cristo,” which is like our version of Room in the Inn. The first day we were there, our job was to clean the bathrooms and the bunk rooms. When we got there to do the work, the building was completely empty except for the man in the office. He showed us where to clean and we were off to work. When we were done, we walked outside to wait for our families, and a group of homeless walked over to us. They thought that just because we were gringos, we couldn’t understand what they were saying. They were wrong. While waiting, we became a little uncomfortable, because the men were talking about how much money we probably had. The fact that our service project took place in a sketchy part of town and other complications occurred, we were not able to go back to Hogar de Cristo and do more community service. So, from then on, our community service would be replaced by other activities.

Another activity that took place during the weekdays was our visiting a local school called El Colegio San Francisco de la Selva. At the school, we would interact with the students by helping them with their English. We also had a sports day, where we went onto their sports court and ran relay races, danced, played musical chairs, and my personal favorite: soccer. At the end of our sports day, we had a full court soccer game going. It was 7 gringos vs. 7 of the students. That game was the biggest workout I had had in a while. The kids were so good and the game was so fast paced. However talented the kids were, the gringos still pulled through with a win for the United States.

Some of the students at El Colegio San Francisco. They treated us like celebrities

An action shot of our intense soccer game with the students

One day during the week our group drove to the beach town of Caldera. On our way there, we stopped by the mine where the Chilean Miner Disaster happened. There really wasn’t much to see, because they had closed up the shaft where the miners had been extracted from. Once in Caldera, we walked around the beach for a while before a group of locals noticed we had a soccer ball and challenged us to a game. So, while the girls of our group were sea kayaking, the boys had an intense game of beach soccer with some locals. It was a very close game, but playing on sand really affected the gringo’s game, and we lost by one.

The beach in Caldera

On the free days, my host mother would take me to some of the museums in the city. I would also play with my brother’s daughters when they came over to my host mother’s house. On the second weekend, it rained in Copiapo, which never happens considering its being located in the driest desert in the world: the Atacama Desert. Unlike the streets in the U.S., the streets in Copiapo didn’t have drainage systems, so when it rained, all of the streets flooded and the city was basically shut down because you couldn’t go anywhere. The rainy days were the most boring because there was nothing to do but sit at home on the computer. It wasn’t too bad, because during the time that I was in Chile, a huge soccer tournament called La Copa America, which is like the World Cup for South America, was going on, so we would go over to my family’s friend’s house to watch Chile play.

During my homestay, I met so many great people that were very nice to me and always trying to help me with my Spanish. They were very understanding and patient with me when I was looking for words. Before I left with my family to go to the bus station for our 14 hour night-ride through the desert to our next city, I took pictures with my family, they gave me some gifts, and we said our goodbyes. They also told me that they would friend me on Facebook. I was very sad that I was leaving them so soon. It was really hard to find the right words to express my gratitude for their taking me into their family. All of the little things that my mom did for me like sneaking into my room while I was gone to do my laundry and buying clementines for me really made me enjoy my time with them so much. All of the other kids in my group felt the same about their host families. It was a great experience overall.