Santiago, more week 2 - Secrets of Santiago & Teaching in Chile.

Hello everybody! Well I never thought I´d be writing a second blog post this week, but the last two days have been nothing short of incredible. The sights, sounds and smells of this city range from, mundane to bizarre. I have seen a woman pushing an improvised BBQ of lovely smelling meat, through the busy streets in a shopping trolley. Further uses of a shopping trolley have included young kids pushing their (possibly homeless) immobile relatives along the road, and there are coffee shops here where the waitresses can be wearing anything from tight fitting short dresses, to much much less (of course I have not yet ventured into such places). Santiago is anything but boring, you just need to scratch the surface a little.
So, where to start, well, a few street scenes from this never dull city are always a good place to start, so here are a couple of street shots...





The most memorable experiences have come at the University de Chile, where I have been entertained and enthused by the staff and students for two days! Not only have I learned a great deal about OT and education here in Chile, the students have been showing me sides of Santiago that no guide book can direct you to. Now just bear with me for a second or two whilst I make the next link. Football was always going to feature heavily in my blog, as the world cup looms and I am here in South America, I just didn´t expect Chilean football to give me such fun memories. One of the Uni de Chile students (Consuelo)

, had invited me to watch a big football match (University De Chile vs Flamengo - Brazil) in a bar somewhere in the city. I was not expecting to be led by Consuelo and two of her class mates into what looked like quite a heavy rock bar! With low lighting, lots of long hair, and dress code of ´black´, it was not a sight I´d ever see in the UK. As the game went on, and the unfancied team from Chile took a 0-2 lead, the bar was going wild!

As the game approached half time the Chilean team had a player sent off at 1-2 up, but within a minute of the second half, the unthinkable happened, University De Chile scored to make the score 1-3! More celebrations occurred, and you friendships were made over beers and hugs! See Below. Despite a late Brazilian goal, the celebrations were long and lasted into the night, which is more than can be said for me, as I staggered home, picking up of the many strangely filled hot dogs from a night stand, to help sober me up!


So onto Friday, a day which was equally as exhilarating, but in such a different way. One of the OT lecturers (Gaby)
had invited me to join her and some OT students (many of who I had met at the conference)at a local community project. The project was about how a local community group had come together to stop the government and business developers from destroying their part of town. It was a very inspiring story. We then headed back to the University, to have lunch, and for my afternoon lecture. Gaby and her colleagues, were very hospitable, making me cups of tea, and even speaking with a ´Mary Poppins´ English accent, which was first class entertainment! A few other staff members joined the fun, including Diego, who was to be my translator for the afternoon session.

I don´t have photos from the afternoon session / lecture at presnt, but I´ll add them at a later point, but I just wanted to say a huge thanks to the University staff for letting me give the lecture about my work in Vietnam, and to Diego for translating my presentation. The students appeared interested, and asked some great questions, considering they were first level. This lecture served as a good warm up for a second lecture I am giving on my return to Santiago, before flying home in July.

The day didn´t stop there though, as I had arranged to meet one of the students (Tamara) to discuss her proposed work in South Chile. There have been so many opportunities to meet and discuss OT (Occupational Therapy) related work and experiences that my mind is working overtime. We stopped for a pizza and a beer, but only after seeing another spectacular sunset over Santiago, despite cloudy conditions, have a look for yourself!











Regards from Santiago!
Dan

Week 2 - Santiago, sunsets and sneaking into hospitals!

Ok, so Week 2 is not yet half over, but there is just so much to tell you all that I had to start working on this blog now - (Wednesday afternoon) Since Saturday afternoon, I have been to a Symphony concert, (with no electricity), sneaked around a private hospital to find the ´OT´ department, and been to visit local University to discuss delivering lectures. I have also enjoyed some random moments and fun with some of my room mates in the hostel, (8 people to a room). I´ll start with some more random street scenes from Santiago to give you a flavour of life here,




I also want to show you some sunset pictures from the ´White Virgin´ statue and Santa Lucia hill....






The next picture I must explain, because if you think there is lots of romance and kissing in Paris, then by comparison to here, it´s nothing! Everywhere you go thee are people kissing, on the street, on the metro, in bars, around public places, and old or young there is kissing everywhere! So at night anywhere slightly romantic there are lots of couples everywhere, and last night (Tuesday I quite randomly went for a walk into town with a room mate of mine from France, called NC. I would refer to her as a ´young´ lady, but despite her insistence she was 22, she was neither young or a lady! (oh I make her sound really bad here, but she was a very interesting and fun person- really!) Indeed, on our walk to the top of Santa Lucia, there were couples 'at it' getting in the way of our taking pictures, so I did the only thing possible - I got all the couples, who did not know each other to get in a big group and have a picture taken! It stopped them kissing and we got some nice pictures! Here are the kissing couples!



Yesterday was just the perfect example of how a potentially boring (and lonely) day can unexpectedly turn into a day of surreal memories! I started the day just waiting on some emails and thinking I should find my way to the University of Chile so I would know how long it would take me to travel there the following day for my meeting. After I found the Faculty of Medicine, I began walking to the metro stop. I suddenly noticed a fair sized hospital on my left, see picture below.


After casually wandering into the hospital, the very nice older reception lady helped me find out if and where the Occupational Therapy (Terapia Ocupacional) department was. I followed a long corridor in the basement to the end, where I found what I was looking for!



There was two therapists there (dressed in the green in above photo), and fortunately for me an English speaking OT student, (I must praise her English translation - thank you!) I learned lots about the hospital, the type of patients they see on site, including some hydro therapy work, and had a brief look around their department. The group of ladies were very hospitable, and here are some photos including some jewellery that is made by the patients and available for purchase!


After this random event, I returned to the hostel where I was just relaxing thinking what could I do that evening, when my already mentioned French roommate (NC) invited me for a walk into town. After our tour of kissing couples as I described, we were joined by another room mate (sorry memory for names in shocking!) and we headed round the corner for dinner and some hilarious conversations about mass stereotyping of people based on dress sense! I believed that my NC´s neck scarf screamed ´French´, which she found highly amusing, before she retorted with, "well I knew you were English because you were wearing T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops!" Touche I thought! The conversation was good natured, and more hilarity arouse when with her French accent NC appeared to be saying to me that I must pay for some things in Colombia with sex, but we quickly realised what she was referring to after we stopped howling with laughter!

So to today (Wednesday), the Internet cafe I am now sat in is playing the Beatles "she loves you, yeah yeah yeah" as I try and describe the best bit of networking I have managed since I got here. I made my way to the University of Chile, OT department this morning, where I was greeted by a student (Tamara), who wanted to discus some OT development issues, with me after seeing my presentation at the conference. We had a brief chat and arranged to meet later, so I went to meet my lovely contact Erna.. see picture below.


She was kind enough to show me around and, even bought me some tea and toast in the Faculty ´club room´, as we discussed the education system and OT work in Chile. She was a fascinating lady to listen to because she has international experience and understanding of OT, and retains a real passion for the profession. We agreed that I could present a formal lecture on July 2nd, (three days before my return to the UK), and then I was introduced to the other department members. As we discussed all kind of issues, one of the department staff wanted to discuss life in the UK, I was invited to attend a collaboration between the University and a community project tomorrow morning. Another lecturer then asked if I would like to give a lecture to her first year students tomorrow. Most of you that know me, know that I will never refuse an offer to talk, so I have presentation number one tomorrow! I agreed to pay the translator in beer, but he suggested I pay with an ´earthquake´ - a kind of drink apparently, though somewhat unfortunately named I thought!




So wow! so much to do, before I leave Santiago, and I didn´t even talk about the night at the symphony concert, which was highly amusing as the theatre had a blackout just before the performance. When lights came on, the rush & push at the box office was unbelievable! Good job both me and Kylee are small. People really don´t like to que here! On the metro when it was really busy, I was being too polite, and 4 bloody trains went past, before I could squeeze in! I thought the London tube was bad! See below...


Ok enough for now... on to the next adventure...
Regards from Santiago

The WFOT conference (Days & Nights!) Days 2,3 & 4

Well hello everybody! It´s Saturday afternoon, and I´m in a Santiago shopping centre Internet cafe with my OT (Occupational Therapist) friend Kylee. We moved from our conference hotel back into a backpacker hostel this morning, under warm sunny skies. There is so much to say about the last few days, that one post just won´t be enough, but lets see how we get on!

So we last left the blog after day one of the conference, and a very productive day it had been too... having filled almost the entire day attending workshops and presentations. I decided on day 2 to concentrate a little more on making useful connections and chatting with people about possible future working opportunities. I was quick to head to the little cafe at the rear of the conference centre, where some of the best networking was actually happening. I became engaged in discussions about use of social networking sites and media for therapists, OT in Israel, Taiwan, and Chile. These more informal meetings have led to some interesting possible further meetings in Rio (Brazil), Conception (badly hit earthquake town, Chile), and even as far as Colombia. Further collaboration with the students from Chile may even result in some guest lecturing at up to 3 Chilean Universities.


More to follow on this... Just the opportunity to sit and discuss what kinds of work, research and education was happening all over the world was really quite something. I must mention the lunch.... I should say lunch time, because whilst the lunch ´box´ that was provided was far from a culinary delight, (soggy sandwiches, and a muffin...)some of the lunch time entertainment was really quite special. See pictures below of some of the lunch entertainment. I must also mention the two very friendly ´tea ladies´ who I have also put a picture of... they were always full of smiles and helped to keep me awake as the long afternoon sessions required extra concentration!



Now onto day 3, (the big one). Actually lets back track just a few hours, because at the end of day 2, there was an official student party.. and having met so many enthusiastic, open minded and kind students, (special mention again for Pepe, Vanesa and Pamela- OT students from Chile)- I felt obliged to take up the invitation to tag along! My salsa dancing past has certainly allowed me to hold my own on the dance floor here, so far.. the fact that there was even some late 1980´s hit´s towards the end of the night meant I was in my element, (and alone on the dance floor!). The end of the night was really the early morning, with me finally getting back to the hotel after 0400! Pictures below are from the student party, with students and OT´s from Australia, Argentina, and Chile.



So Day 3 finally arrived, and I had the honour of having a poster on display all day in the lower floor concourse, and an afternoon presentation to fret over! More so as I was presenting alongside some very distinguished OT´s doing some very hard hitting thinking. Now I´d really thought about not doing the poster when I first was informed about it, but OMG! What brilliant way to meet people, I got rid of over half my business cards (thanks Mike!) in this one day, and met so many interesting and like minded people. I was also fortunate enough to have some great ´poster neighbours´- including a Brazilian lady (see picture below), who had me chuckling all day long!

My main presentation was in Don Albert 3 - and as I headed into the room for that afternoon session, I was seriously petrified... I always get very nervous in the build-up until I actually start talking. As my turn came, and I wondered just how was I going to follow on from the excellent previous presenters I looked up to see a sea of smiling familiar faces, beaming encouragement. I can´t really stress just how amazing a sight it was to see some of the people that I had only met two days prior to the event. Seeing familiar faces ranging from an OT I met in Vietnam 2 years ago, therapists who I had ate breakfast with at the hotel, a large number of Latin American and other students, or simply people I had briefly spoken with for 20 minutes over coffee, allowed me to relax instantly and get on with the presentation.


I had worried that by talking about experiences, emotions, feelings in a passionate style whilst I was being simultaneously translated into Spanish. But the translators (who I later spoke to) did an incredible job... I couldn't see the little clock that was supposed to guide my timing, but things just seemed to flow and people appeared to respond well to the images I was showing. I Had four questions/statements to answer afterwords, (which is always a reassuring sign that people were actively listening, even if they disagreed with any aspect of my presentation). Two questions/statements particularly stood out, as they brought a whole different perspective on the experience I had. This led to some really interesting discussions afterwards, which is what I really wanted to achieve as an outcome of the presentation. Many presentations were interesting, though many focused on research procedures, methodology and results. Retrospectively, I felt I had delivered my presentation in a style that did not sit well with a few members of my audience, but it did provoke thought and offered something a little different, which seemed to sit well with the majority, and the feedback received from people I spoke to said they has enjoyed the session. I loved the experience and could have talked for hours! (As most of you who have heard me talk about Vietnam know)!

Day 4 had me struggling to pay attention, as the preceding night had been the Gala Dinner, which had let to another very late night! I had been joined by Kylee and a couple from Brazil at our table, and I´ll let the pictures do the talking.. as I´ve typed enough!



Below are some ´goodbye´ shots from day 4 of the conference!





I was flagging in the early morning presentations, despite some really interesting discussions, so returned to the poster area to begin to say goodbyes to new friends, as many people were leaving straight from the conference, or going early. I discussed with some local Universities to hang around for another week, and at least participate in a little Q&A session with their students this coming week, if not a full lecture. I was lucky enough to catch up with most people I wanted to, and just as I managed to board the bus, I was informed of a possible night out (again), with a group from Colombia and Argentina. This night out started at 22:00 and finished around 0500! More Latino dancing and a nice few beers later had me ready for some serious sleep! I must say though, that the personal and professional links made at these kinds of events have been incredible! The top three possibilities, are to visit OT practices in Brazil, Colombia and visit educational establishments across Chile and possibly in Argentina,Peru and Brazil. Here are a final few pictures from the last night´s fun!




Thanks for reading if you still are!!! That was a long one!
Regards from Chile,
Dan