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Rotaract Club of Valparaiso activity with Hogar Los Sauces

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hannah

on March 9, 2008

in rotaract

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Saturday I went with the Rotaracters I had met on Thursday to an activity in Olmué, about 40 minutes north of the Viña/Valparaíso area. We went to a boarding house for special needs children called Hogar Los Sauces.

The home receives minimal funding from a government subsidy for youth.

We played with the children, danced, and distributed small snack packages with juice and other goodies. The packages were bought with an allowance given to Rotaract by their sponsor club. Due to the disabilities of many of the children, it was hard to play organized games with them. Most of the children are considered con riesgo social, or “social risk” children, meaning they were either abandoned or were taken from their families because of abuse or related reasons.

More pictures from this event may be found here.

One of the short videos I took at the event may be found here.

A video of the drive to Olmué can be found here.

At least for me, it has been almost 2 years since I last had the opportunity to work with special need children. Aside from being eye-opening I reflected on the type of impact I want to make on this area during my time here.

After leaving the hogar we went to a country house owned by the parents of one of the members, Mauricio.

This little guy lovvveedd being picked up!

Who knew there were Tiger fans in Chile?

Two girls from Valparaíso Rotaract’s sister club in Peru were visiting for the event. They were from the Lima area Rotaract Club of Monterrico Surco in District 4450.

Also a Rotaractor named José from the Rotaract Club of Azapa in Arica, Chile came for the event. The Azapa club is also in District 4320.

We spent some time near the pool and barbecued in the back yard of the house. Diego, who studies Multi-Media, was the resident DJ. The girls from Perú spoke and also gave everyone a pin so that we can show off our clubs sisterhood. The vice president of the Valparaíso club spoke, and I also said a few words.

Barbecue time–with coal instead of charcoal.

The Rotaract Club in Valparaíso meets on Fridays, I can’t wait to start attending meetings and become an active member of the club.

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Grocery Shopping in Chile, International Students at the PUCV…

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hannah

on March 8, 2008

in Chile

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Friday I signed up for my classes, which are as follows:

Advanced Spanish Grammar, 4 credits

Advanced Written Spanish, 3 credits

History of Modern Chile, 4 credits

Art and Society in Pre-Hispanic Chile, 3 credits

Environmental Law, 2 credits

These courses were the result of hours of drilling the “monitores”, students in charge of international students, on which classes would be the best for me. I am pleased with my selections and think they will help me not only to elevate my Spanish into an academic realm, but also improve my understanding of this rich country. Classes start Monday at 3:40.

After signing up for classes the PIIE, or Programa Internacional de Intercamio (International Students Office) organized some activities for the foreign students. We saw various types of Chilean dances while we enjoyed empanadas and juice. I hope to upload the videos from this event shortly.

After the event I went grocery shopping and notebook/school supplies shopping with a friend from my group, Matthieu, and my monitor Maria José. They have an escalator in the supermarket here that is magnetized to stick to the cart wheels so that you can bring your cart upstairs with you. I bought bread, cheese, yoghurt and some other breakfast essentials.

Maria José was great–I don’t know how I would have bought school supplies without her. For some reason in the university, students no longer write on notebooks with lines–only on graph paper. This was strange not only for me but also for Matthieu, who is Belgian. I kept trying to find ‘normal’ lined notebooks for my classes in different colors (a color for each class, of course!). It ended up that I bought lined notebooks intended for high school students. We’ll see if anyone laughs at me for not using graph paper. :)

In the evening all of the monitors threw a party for the international students in Viña. There was a lot Reggaeton, Salsa and maraca-drumbeat-latin music. I enjoyed myself.

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Apartment, Rotary

Published

hannah

on March 7, 2008

in Chile and Rotary

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Thursday I had the chance to attend a meeting with my host club, the Rotary Club of Valparaiso. I along with another scholar, Susan Owen, sat with some wonderful gentlemen and a few of the Rotaracters from the Rotaract Club of Valparaiso. On the agenda was a Bingo fund raiser that the club is planning in the nearby Casino del Mar (Viña), a Rotaract event with Hogar Los Sauces and celebration of World Rotaract Week, as well as songs, lunch and the type of conviviality I’ve come to expect from Rotary. The club meets in the Club Aleman or “German Club”, and reminds me a lot of the Rotary Club of Detroit that meets at the Detroit Athletic Club. It is located near Plaza Anibal Pinto, which brings me to my next topic–my apartment!

To see more pictures from the Rotary meeting, click here.

To see a video of Valparaisan Rotarians singing to their guests, click here.

I am living in front of Plaza Anibal Pinto in downtown Valparaíso. I live with a girl from Brazil named Priscila, a Swede named Gustav and a German, Christoff. I had actually talked with the renter when I was still in Michigan and assumed he had already found someone for the room. I went with a new Mexican friend Leonardo on Wednesday to look at the room, and moved in on Thursday evening. I was greeted very warmly by all of my new roommates and feel very much at home.

Kitchen and entrance of my apartment.

The same evening I went with my landlord, a young architect by the name of Daniel, and a group of other students (some from my university) to a place around the corner called “El Boliche”. There was a wonderful duo of Argentine girls singing old Tango songs. I seem to meet so many Swedes here. When we arrived at the venue almost everyone sitting at our table was Swedish, although there were a few Norwegians. I ordered something called a Churrasco Italiano–basically a sandwhich with tomate (tomato), vacuno (beef) and palta (avocado).

I left around 12:30, yet everyone was asking me why I was leaving early–can you imagine! They stay up so late here. Maybe I will get used to this…

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First Day in Chile!

Published

hannah

on March 4, 2008

in Chile and Travels

. 1 Comment

This is an update e-mail I sent to my family last night:

Mom, Family and Friends,

I am on a different keyboard, so forgive me if i make a million mistakes.!
I arrived today, Pablo picked me up from the airport and we took a bus directly to Viña del Mar. We spent some time with his relatives, his grandma, his great aunts and uncles that live in the area,
and then went to my university with his cousin, Diego.
Diego showed me how to grab the “micro” which is tantamount to a local bus which runs between Viña and Valparaiso.
It costs about 80 cents, or less with a student ID, which I should get tomorrow.
(I missed the orientation in the morning because of my flight….it started at 9:30am and I wasn’t even off of the plane until 10am)

After I spent several hours in the university seeing what I had missed in the morning, Pablo and I went and got something to eat, and then I went with Isabel (Loretos sister) to her house. I am in an internet cafe at the moment, near Isabel’s house. Tomorrow I have to be in the University at 10am to finish up more paperwork. also tomorrow i have to figure out a cellular phone plan, a bank account, somewhere to live longer term, register my visa with the police, etc.

My Spanish seems to be doing fine, except I hear from many people that I sound Mexican. This doesn’t surprise me much, since I perpetually say “mande” (the equivalent of “excuse me”) in order to hear things correctly, pass by others in the street, ask questions, and I cannot seem to shake this mark of mexicanness–it is, however, just my first day!

Today there was a large fire between Santiago and Viña, covering some 17,000 hectares. The entire city is covered with a tinge of smoke and ashes have been falling lightly over us the whole day! It is a very strange occurrence, even for the locals. I took a video earlier of the smoke rising over the city from afar.

I am trying to type relatively fast, as well as cover a lot of material, in addition I am extremely tired. I want you to know that I am doing very well, I am optimistic for my classes and that everything will turn out alright. My classes actually start next Monday, so this week is just orientation. I will have this entire weekend to orient myself and figure out a place to live.

I cant wait to live somewhere with WiFi internet access so that i can start posting on my blog and showing everyone pictures.
in time…

besos y abrazos,

Hannah

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Buttery Rotaract E-mail

Published

hannah

on February 26, 2008

in rotaract

. 0 Comments

Wayne State’s Rotaract Club has been in contact with our twin club in Beirut, Lebanon since last semester. Rima Abou-Mrad is a Multi-Year Ambassadorial Scholar studying at Wayne State University. She is originally from Lebanon and has been instrumental in making the connection between Beirut and Detroit.

Here is a buttery update on a Rotaract Conference in Istanbul that we are trying to attend with the Beirut Club:

Fw: Trip to Istambul

From: Rima Abou Mrad Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 10:39 AM

To: VP WSU Rotaract Hannah, Katrina WSU Rotaract, Rotaract WSU

Dear all,

Please find below an email from the Rotaract Club of Beirut.

Please let me know what you think.

Take care

Rima

—– Forwarded Message From: Mona Karam <mona.karam@usj.edu.lb>
To: rimaaboumrad@yahoo.com
Cc: adibmounla@yahoo.com
Sent: Monday, February 25, 2008 3:17:56 AM
Subject: Trip to Istambul

Hello dearest Rima,

I am glad to get in touch with u after a long absence.
As Adib told u ill be organising with u our trip to Istambul

So i propose to u this plan :
As Easter will come from March 20 till the 24, it is the best time for us
to go there as we will be on vacations.
What about u ?

As for transportation, Adib told me that it will be by bus.

We need then to know where we will be hosted (if in rotaractors houses)
or in a youth hotel maybe we will charge the turkish rotaractors about
this issue

As for the project I will ask Adib about any ideas
U can do same from your side
and will update u of our findings

Rotaractly yours

Mona

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February 21st Meeting at Mt. Clemens Rotary Club

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hannah

on February 26, 2008

in rotaract

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On Thursday, February 21st a meeting was held at the Mt. Clemens Rotary Club to discuss the upcoming Peace Summit. I was invited to speak at the event to present on the Wayne State Rotaract Club’s role/involvement in the Student Convention to the International Peace Summit; this event takes place April 24th, a day before the main event, in the Community Arts Auditorium at Wayne State University.

The vision for the Student Convention is an all-youth run evening focused on peace issues.

I was joined on the panel by Dr. Fred Pearson, Director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State, District Governors Jennifer Jones (6400) and Audrey Chevalier (6380), Rotarian Bob Selwa and the President of Mt. Clemens Rotary.

Pictures of this meeting can be found here.

A video of Dr. Pearson addressing the meeting can be found here.

Left to Right: Bob Selwa, Jennifer Jones, Fred Pearson, Hannah Kelley, Audrey Chevalier, President of Mt. Clemens Rotary

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Dearborn Heights Rotary Meeting

Published

hannah

on February 25, 2008

in Rotary

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On February 20th I had the opportunity to speak to the Rotary Club of Dearborn Heights, Michigan. I knew several members previously from the set of the Good Company show (no longer aired) and my participation at this years RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) for District 6400.*

Katrina Fenton and I received a warm welcome by club president Lynne Killion. The program consisted of an update by Group Study Exchange participant Sean Payne– firefighter from Dearborn Heights who will be traveling to Finland, a representative from a local school where the club has sponsored a robotics team, an update for the Lobster Dinner fund raiser the club is hosting on March 15th, and my own program on my Ambassadorial Scholarship.

Pictures of the meeting can be found here. A video of Sean talking about his trip to Finland can be found here.

Left to Right: Mike Cutler, Mike Roy, Hannah Kelley, Derek Locke, Katrina Fenton, Lynne Killion

*At RYLA myself and another Rotaract member, Aisha Hunter, talked to students about Rotaract and how to start an Interact Club. I also spoke about my Ambassadorial Scholarship at the event.

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