Putre

Last week, I spent four days in a small town in the North of Chile called Putre. It's a common tourist destination for people looking to acclimate themselves to the high altitudes before going higher. The nearest city is Arica, and the majority of the youth from Putre leave for the big city to go to university and to launch their careers and as far as I can tell, pretty much never look back.

Kandice (another student in the program) and I were there learning about community organizations, hanging out in the Catholic Church during the preparations for Semana Santa and trying to contribute to the work on the farm. We were more or less useless on the farm and ended up spending more time in town but I did get to watch my host mother sort some potatoes into their various size categories and helped to herd some sheeps and cows so that they could graze on the grass.

We also learned a truly stunning amount about the community organizations. It really was a treasure hunt, with the last person we talked to always giving us directions to where we could find our next contact. (The directions usually included the phrase "por alla" which roughly translates to mean "over there," in other words, not exactly the type of directions we were expecting.)

Local politics are always fascinating and one organization in particular, "la junta de vecinos," had a great story about how they divided in the 80s into two distinct groups during the divisive Pinochet years and now only get together for important and pressing issues. We had the unique opportunity to attend one of those meetings. Apparently the townspeople were not getting along very well with a new doctor who came to Putre from outside (because none of the young people stick around long enough to have professionals who were born and raised in the area).

Spending time in the Catholic Church in town was also an unparalleled experience. We were there during Semana Santa or "Holy Week" which is more or less the week to be in church. It was a little weird for me as a Jew because even though Judaism and Catholicism aren't that far apart on the spectrum of religions, Easter is pretty much all about Jesus, a phenomenon I've never really understood and probably never will fully.

In our efforts to participate in the ritual, Kandice volunteered us for the job when the priest asked who would help "tomar el santo" or "take the saint." Now the verb "tomar" can mean anything from to eat, to drink and to carry, as we learned. We ended up carrying this huge statue of the Virgin Mary through the town square. She was super heavy and we were not half as strong as most of the people who spend their lives working on farms, but we took turns.

A lot of this made me think a lot about the role of various communities in my own life and the sacrifices people make to be part of a community. After all, if you want to do community organizing, you need to first be a part of one.

Last but not least, a llama jumped on my back and then wouldn't stop following me around town. Apparently a llama and alpaca in the town are friends and play together. It was terrifying and the llama even took a running start. Kandice tried to take a photo and her efforts were somewhat futile (she didn't want to get too close because she was even more scared that I was), but it's one of my favorite photos from Putre.