Manifest Destiny and Sod Houses

When I agreed to come to Chile, I understood that I would be relocating myself to the very ends of South America, and I understood that the seasons were reversed here.  I also understood that Chile as a country was not as industrialized as the United States.  Moreover, I promulgated that we utilize a system of construction based on straw bales, loosely similar to the "soddies" of the early pioneers in the Midwestern United States.  However, what I didn´t know was that my entering Chile meant that I was entering a timewarp of what seems hundreds of years into a production culture similar to that of the days of Western Expansion in the United State.

Please do not be misled or deceived by this article, not parts of Chile exist in the year 1910.  In fact, Chile has made itself known as one of the most developed and stable Latinamerican countries (second of course to Brazil) and has recently announced it´s goal of being fully recognized as a developed nation by the year 2018.  However, the region of Chile to which I arrived is still somewhat organic in their style of production.  Here are a few details to give body to my claims:

1.  All of the wood for this project was cut  from the local forest by me and Fredy Torres.
2.  All of the wood for this project was removed from the local forest by me, Hector Paredes, and two oxen.
3.  All of the wood for this project was milled with a chainsaw by me and José Paredes.
4.  All of the wood for this project was brought to the site by me, Maña Marcegue (see photos below), two oxen, and a wooden cart.

Needless to say, the experience was a bit different than ordering lumber from a building supply company and having it delivered four hours later.

For those who still are interested in the more artisan facts of life, both the oxen and the yoking procedures are different in South America than those we are used to seeing in North America.  In North America we are used to seeing neck yokes (also called Withers okes), but here in South America they use a head yoke, which utilizes the strength of the oxen´s head and neck and less of the shoulders.

Panadero Gringo

Yesterday I learned a few things:
1.) The word for knead is "amasar"
2.) Men supposedly have an advantage in bread baking because they have more body strength to use while kneading the dough.
3.) Bread baking is rewarding, healthy, and easy to do.

Here is the proof that I can now make bread

Patagonia 101

Though the Chilean countryside can be lonely and there does not exist community like that to which we are accustomed in the United States, there does exist ample evidence of God´s presence here on earth.  Here is just a snippet of what I´ve been experiencing...

El Gallo y La Gallina

The 18th of September was Chile´s 200th anniversary.  This year was an extended celbration that impacted Chile in many ways.  To help boost patriotic sentiment, Chile´s national legislature ruled that no business other than hotels and bars could be open between the 17th and 20th of September.  This, indeed, boost nationalistic pride in the form of celebration, but it also led to a short-lived panick as the national population made a run on all grocery stores.  We were unaffected, and were able to celebrate in style over the weekend.

A favorite way to celebrate in Chile is through the national dance, Cueca.  Cueca is interesting in that it mixes latin american culture with African zoomorphic influences.  The structure of the dance is made to resemble a rooster who is trying to court a lady hen.  The dancers use handkerchiefs (panuelos) to resemble the red wattle on a rooster´s chin which is used to attract the female.  There are three different cueca dances, each representing a different stage in the mating process.  Males dance aggressively, while the women are supposed to be more passive and reserved.  Interestingly enough, touching is strictly prohibited in the Cueca until the last step in which the male offers the female his arm whereby she accepts, signifying the end of the dance.

I danced with this folkloric group after they performed, but struggled a bit to feel the rhythm.  These videos are good examples of how cueca should be danced.  The little boy in the first video is only 7 years old.   The second group has two national champions from the Chilean Cueca festival last year.  Impressive, no?