suerte

Yesterday morning, the two other WWOOF volunteers (a new one has arrived, from Oregon!), Steve (one of the farm managers), Larry (a caretaker), and I picked 500kg of avocados (or paltas, as they're called here). Oh shit, that's more than 1000 pounds of avocados, my friends. Needless to say, I passed un bueno tiempo that morning, climbing trees and finding so many beautiful fruits.

From our back field where the avocado trees grow, you can see La Campana, the mountain that Meg and I climbed, and the mountain range it sits in rising around. I felt like I was walking through an earthen bowl, carrying crates of avocados and trying not to step on any perros accompanying me.

It has been good, feeling the sun on my back, eating meals as a WWOOF family, learning Spanish from The Clinic (a leftist newspaper that makes fun of ... everything). It seems a little ironic, or at least unexpected, that the greater part of farming so far has meant tearing green things out of the earth (weeds) in order to let a small number grow. But I also feel like the sun is absorbing my creative energy... I just want to read and read and sleep and eat, but I think that's a good thing.

So, this weekend, vamos a Oktoberfest en Santiago, estoy emocionada! Meg and other WWOOFers are poised to join us next week. It's going to be a good time.

nueva dirección

For you letter writers (and potential letter writers), my new address is:

Jamie Chen
c/o Ismael Ami Igomberoff
Avenida Eastman 4890
Olmué, Region V
CHILE

I'll be here until at least early November. I believe it takes a little more than a week for mail to arrive here from NYC; your guess is as good as mine for other originating locations.

There is a festival this weekend for Columbus Day, how odd. Walking around Olmué is very peaceful, but I'm not sure I've found Jefferson's agrarian utopia, or whether that actually exists in tangible form. Still, I feel small and happy looking up at tree covered mountains and laurel.

Also, if you want a postcard or a letter, send me your address! I've got some stamps that need using.

Olmué Regala Vida

is the slogan of the town I am now living in. Olmué, about 30 miles west of Valparaiso, is a small town at the foot of the mountain called La Campana, or the bell, which Meg and I climbed with our attractive neighbor last week. It has a beautiful, tree-filled plaza, muy tranquilo, lots of easygoing bikers, an amazing pastry shop, and many farms. It gives life because apparently it is (or used to be) very dry, and asthmatic people would come here to live and... recover? whatever people do in resorts for medical conditions.

I am living now at a farm that grows avocados (qué perfecto para mí!), cuke-asauruses (an exotic fruit that I have yet to sample), kiwis, and some other things I haven't been able to figure out (still chipping away at that language barrier). There are 21 dogs who share our home, a swimming pool, three houses, many fruit trees, and some beautiful vistas of the mountains (a coastal range, not the Andes) in the background.

The work here has been pretty chill, but I think it will pick up next week... so far, we've done some weeding, some warehouse cleaning, some bag making, and some planting of starts. I've also done a lot of reading and chess playing, with the one other WWOOF volunteer, Jeremy, who is from Massachusetts and taking a year off before going to Oberlin (of course). Valpo is only a metro ride away, so I'm looking forward to visits and to going back as well.

I am still not sure what to make of people who ask me whether I've visited China and whether it is mystical and magical, like in the beautiful kung fu movies. Ah, Orientalism from the colonizer/colonized of another continent. I don't know how to explain essentialism in Spanish (though I have managed to have some interesting conversations about God and religion in Spanish), and I don't even know if these academic concepts will translate at all, especially in a country that prides itself in "chilenidad."

Also, one last fun fact for the day: apparently, both Salvador Allende AND Augustin Pinochet, who deposed Allende and commenced almost twenty years of military rule in Chile, were born in Valparaíso. Such a small city to launch such historical trajectories.

It's very odd to think that it is now October, and instead of taking chilly walks in Riverside Park while avoiding midterms and drinking tea in 616 and watching the nights get longer, I am eagerly anticipating springtime and planting and the sprouting of frutas in our courtyard. I will spend Halloween here, in rural Chile! At least there is good chocolate.