were hitting the rocks and splashing over the boardwalk which was about 10 feet up from the beach . It was crazy and a lot of fun. I've never seen such big waves. The pic above is from that night. On Wednesday I went to a school with my group in social geography. Each Wednesday we will be playing games with the kids and teaching them about Valpo. It was quite an experience. Many of them had never seen anyone from the US before and consequently I was swarmed by 30 eight -year olds. Literally had kids hanging on my arms and around my waist asking me to speak english. It was fun but a bit overwhelming for our first visit. Its funny what people think of the US after watching many movies in english as well as MTV. I've talked with at least 2 chileans about what it is really like in the US. People really think that we live like MTV, big houses, parties, romantic dramas, and in general obnoxious. Its interesting to hear their perspectives.
Today was a great day. I went to Santiago with ISA to visit 3 important places in the history of the country. First we went to a center that holds the majority of the accounts and records of the disappeared. The disappeared are people who were taken during the dictatorship (1973-1990) and their bodies were never found. There are still families today looking for their lost loved ones. The next place we went to was the national cemetery. It was probably one of the most impressive sights I've seen in chile. The family tombs were HUGE and beautiful. Many dated back to the 1800s. It was interesting to see the change in social class as we walked through the cemetery. Slowly the tombs got smaller and smaller until they were just piles of dirt with rusted crosses. One area was covered in crosses and during the dictatorship had been a hole where bodies were thrown. The government did their best to identify the bodies but many of the crosses do not pertain to the correct body. The last place we went was a concentration camp in santiago. Our tour guide was tortured for 30 days when he had 19 years and was put in prison for 3 years following the concentration camp. I got goosebumps being in a place where so many people had suffered and died . I won't include details, but some of the torture tactics were unbelievable....and to think it was only 16 years ago that the dictatorship ended. The longest anyone lasted in this camp (which was known as the worst camp) was 16 months. Our guide said that one day of torture in the camp was worse than 3 years in prison. The camp was in a neighborhood and the neighbors thought that it was a institute for the mentally ill. It was only 3 years after when they started to question what really happened in the area now known as the park of peace. I talked to the director for a while about the attitudes today towards the dictatorship. She said that it is not talked about as a part of the history of Chile. It is kept out of the news, out of schools, and in general out of public discussions....something that I find sad. I've attached some pictures in the next blog of the places we visited
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