Not so bad
Chile is not a third world country like many people believe. It~s many political revolutions, although terrible in many ways, brought radical changes in quality of life. Every home has a computer, every teenager has a cellphone, and all the newest movies are in theatre.
But in no way do I mean to say there isn~t poverty. Chile is not a poor country, it just has an extremely poor distribution of wealth. From the top of the tallest hill you can see a clear division between the massions of old money families and millionaires and the tiny houses and appartments where their servants live. The appartment I live in is on the poor side of Alvarez Avenue. My bedroom is the size of a walk in closet and the kitchen is like a hall, but this is not poverty. Although I do not live like an American here, I feel safe and comfortable.
One striking sign of poverty are the street vendors. Any street you walk down, there are people with begging eyes trying to sell handmade goods. Even on the busses, the vendors will come on and try to sell snacks, pens, or whatever. Other people just flat out begg, but I know there are beggers in every big city. Some people are extremely succesful at making a living as a street vendor, others end up homeless. Walking around town late at night I notice the little hobo towns that pop up under car ports and bus stations.
Anoher sign (or maybe not) of the poverty I noticed about Chile are the number of stray animals. Dogs roam the streets in packs; flee infested, garbage scavenging, dirty, "callejerons." As a dog lover myself, I feel really sad for these poor homeless creatures. Its hard not to pet them and some times I feed them food scraps, but these animals are not housepets. They're more like wild beasts.
It's hard to think that we have just as many stray animals in the United States, except we keep them locked up in the pound and when the pounds are to full, we kill them like pests with euthanasia. I'm bent between which is more humane- allowing animals to roam the streets in freedom, but in extreme neglect or keeping them locked up in tiny cages untill we kill them or untill someone adopts them (which is extremely unlikely for wild dogs).
Some of the smallest everyday things like washing clothes, taking showers, using the bathroom, or driving to school I will never take for granted again when I get back to the States. Here it takes two days for clothes to dry on the line on the balcony, the shower water has to be heated on a really expensive gass heater, you cannot flush toilet paper because the sewage system is to old, and its way too expensive to drive anywhere. I~v learned that even without these American comforts people can live just as happy lives. Its just strange to me because I am so used to a more lavish lifestyle, but you know what? I don't mind it.
Hasta Pronto,
Tara
PS I want to put up more pictures, but I dont know how! If anyone knows of a good (easy) website i can use to upload photos, please drop me a note and let me know.
- -- Posted by AD Mann on Fri, Aug 8, 2008, at 10:01 PM
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