51 fantastic individuals

You get to know people pretty well when you spend an entire week training together, eating together, drinking together, exploring together, and just hanging out in a new country together.  So was the case with our group of Ministry volunteers staying in Hostelling International in the heart of Santiago.  Already we had a bit in common--we all speak English (important here!), we're all new to Chile, and we were all willing to leave our comfortable lives behind and come teach as volunteers in a foreign country.

Each person had their own experiences in life to bring to the mix.  Some have been teaching for years, some have some years teaching abroad already, and many have never taught at all.  Most of us are from all over the US:  California, Massachusetts, New York, Florida, Kentucky, Arizona, Washington, Georgia, Arkansas, Minnesota and more.  Annamarie is from South Africa, Paul and Nathanial are from Australia, and Peter is from Slovakia.  

A few more random tidbits of many about our group:
Nereida from New Jersey is on her 2nd stint for teaching in Chile.  
John is a filmmaker from Atlanta.
Carol owned an art gallery in Soho for years.
Mike is a surfer from Queens.
Samina was born in Germany and lives in Ohio.
Chris from San Fran practices Zen and Aikido.
Allison from Virginia worked in relief of New Orleans post-Katrina.
Kevin from Georgia taught in Japan for 7 years in the same city as I did.
Marie from Alabama just graduated from college last year along with many others.
Chris is a rock climber from Arkansas.
Leighann used to professionally dance for Disneyworld's Animal Kingdom.
Randall is a snowboarder from Crested Butte.
Vanessa from Long Island sings like an angel.
Stephen from Pittsburg is an English explosion.

Here in Chile, we are again going to be all over the map, in big cities, in small pueblitos, next to the ocean, in the mountains, and in the middle of the desert.  We will be living with different kinds of families in very different homes, working in environments from large schools of young children to small schools of technical study, but each one of us will be doing the same thing:  learning how to live and work in our new Chilean homes.

I'm really thankful that we all had our time together in Santiago because being able to talk to everyone now that we have split up and hear that I'm not the only one without a classroom or that other host mothers are scolding them for not wearing shoes has been essential to my own adjustment--knowing we're all together on the same big boat of English teachers in Chile.