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.