Bienvenido a Santiagooooo!!

Three days in Santiago, and already it feels like home. We spent the first few days playing the role of tourists, spending time in all of the historical landmarks, ordering pisco sours (a traditional Chilean drink made with over fermented wine, egg whites, and I think a hint of cinammon, dont quote me on that), and trying to pick up Chilenismos such as taco= traffic jam, cachai=do you understand?, curado=drunk, cagado=too drunk, vacan, chori=super cool, and polol@=boyfriend or girlfriend depending on the ending.
Last night we met our host families for the first time and I was lucky enough to have two 24 year olds, a brother and sister, as my hosts. They´re extremely friendly people from southern Chile who keep an apartment in the center of Santiago. Needless to say, they have assured me that there are plenty of good times to be had in the coming weeks, I dont doubt them at all.
Today, however, we finally got down to business: it was our first day with our NGOs. I am working with Adopta a un herman@, a program that works under La Fundacion para Superar la Pobreza. Adopta´s work focuses around facilitating tutors and mediators, who are typically university students, who then are sent into schools serving marginalized populations in order to provide kids (between 8 and 9 years old) with projects that help them build the academic and social skills necessary to get ahead. Devika and I are neither tutors nor mediators, instead, we will be observing every facet of Adopta´s work, from the field work to the administrative work. Coupled with our own research into the Chilean education system, and the gross income inequality in this country, we are asked to develop a series of reflections of our time here that we have to, ultimately, make into a video. In short, it´s a type of research project that addresses Adopta´s work within the context of the issues in income inequality and Chilean educational policy. I am extremely excited about it because I find educational policy to be an extremely interesting subject.
I know this is long, but there was a lot to say. I have tons of pictures, but no means of putting them up yet. I will soon though! On a side note, there is a number of strikes happening around Santiago. From what I understand, university students, professors, and truck drivers are all on strike for different reasons. We saw some students today marching in front of the Adopta office today, chanting something and carrying different types of banners. Not quite sure what its all about, but I should find out soon enough.
Ciao
Mario