la roja, you did us proud

Sadly for me, all the teams I have personal associations with have been eliminated, with the US, Chile, and Japan sent packing early.  With Chile's 0-3 loss to Brazil on Monday, so ends their run in the 2010 World Cup South Africa.  We watched the game in a tiny, mud-walled restaurant with no roof in the middle of the northern desert pueblo of San Pedro de Atacama amongst eager and hopeful fans.  No one expected them to beat Switzerland, let alone advance past the first round.  And losing in the second round to the favorite to win the entire tournament ain't so bad either.  Apparently, Chile's national team isn't supposed to be very good, but you wouldn't know it being here and watching the games with the locals.  The Chileans cheered their homegrown on as if each game was the Final, celebrated each goal as if each was the winning penalty kick, danced in the streets afterwards as if Chile won it all, and cheered on the team as if they actually had a chance against powerhouse Brazil.
All I can say is that I feel so lucky to have been here and apart of it all.  Fuerza Chile!

chile and my students go wild

World Cup crazed Chile winning over the heavily favored Switzerland 1-0 on Monday brought about as much mayhem as it sounds.  I watched at school with my students and since the government mandated that they all be able to watch, everyone was in the lunch room where there is a flat screen TV and also that day, a projector set up.  After the game, the kids ran around the school, jumped on chairs, and yelled "Chi chi chi!  Le le le! Viva Chile!" and "Ole ole ole ole Chile Chile!" until the teachers rounded them back up for class.  Outside the school, everyone got in their cars, bikes, buses and drove around the streets of the country beeping their horns and waving the flag for the rest of the day.  In Santiago, mobs rushed the streets and created a bouncing sea of the Chile red, white, and blue.  Should Chile win against powerhouse Spain on Friday, watch out.

The day's festivities at Colegio Fernando Durán Villarreal...

My students go mad after the Chile goal...

Chi chi chi!  Le le le!  Vi-va Chile!

chile really likes its fútbol

Chile beat Honduras 1-0 today in their first match of the 2010 World Cup--and you would have known this even if you hadn't watched it.  After the stoppage time ran out and Chile claimed victory, possibly every Chilean in the country piled into their or their friends' cars, rolled down all the windows, blew plastic trumpets, and beeped their horns incessantly while dressed in colors of "La Roja," faces painted in the Chile red, white, and blue, and waving giant flags out the windows.  Those without cars paraded through the streets banging on anything that would make noise and yelling in unison, "Chi-chi-chi!  Le-le-le!  Vi-va Chi-le!"  Lost your eyesight for four seconds when your face paint smeared into your eye and missed Chile's goal?  No problem!  Every channel on TV replayed it and you could literally watch it over and over every five minutes.  All this went on ALL DAY.  The celebrations died down by the evening in Quilpué, but the stragglers certainly made themselves heard.  Talk about passion.  Here in Chile, the people celebrate anything that has to do with fútbol.  It doesn't even need to be a World Cup win for them to glue themselves to the television for 90+ minutes, although the glitz, glam, national pride, and pure love of the game factors do magnify these matches to a level that has everything in the country coming to a complete halt during this time frame.  Did I mention the game today started at 7:30AM and everyone from children to adults were excused from school and work until it was over at 10 o'clock?  At a school in Santiago, the students actually watched the game AT school and then afterwards, piled out and stormed the streets in celebration with no intention of returning the rest of the day.
In Chile, fútbol transcends responsibility, education, and the bare necessities of life.
In Chile, fútbol is life.

Some of my students after the Chile win.

A little Waka Waka of course!

Me joining in the Waka Waka

waka waka ¡eh! ¡eh! ¡esto es áfrica!

La Copa Mundial Sudafrica 2010 has begun!  The Cup, arguably the most important tournament in the world, is the one time every four years that every country stops for the love of one thing:  soccer.  We all know not too many people in the US would say that soccer is their sport of choice to watch, but I think most can agree that when an international event with the magnitude of the World Cup takes place, there is certainly a buzz of electricity in the air.  Now take that buzz and multiply it into a lightning storm during the Kansas tornado season and you've got the electricity in the air here in Chile.  As someone who loves sports in general and actually enjoys watching soccer games, I can't explain how happy I am to be in a country that really cares about the sport (fútbol as they say here) and how exciting it will be to watch games with the passionate locals.  You can't go anywhere without seeing an ad, hearing the Shakira song or someone yelling, "Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le! Viva Chile!!!"  I don't watch much TV but from what I've heard and have seen, pretty much every commercial and show has some kind of soccer related theme.  My students are running around the school with their 2010 Official Chile World Cup Sticker Books, and if there is one thing that keeps them semi-tame, it's crowding around the book and discussing each player's stats and how many goals "Chupete" will score.

Fellow volunteer, Annamarie from South Africa, and I were grabbing empanadas after Bikram yoga in Viña last night and the man at the cash register asked where we were from.  When she replied, his eyes looked like they were going to pop out of their sockets and with a huge smile, he yelled, "Sudafrica??  Sudafrica!  Johannesburgo es una ciudad hermosa!  Te gusta fútbol??" so that everyone in the shop turned and looked at us.  She's going to be pretty popular this month.

Chile will be playing their first game next Wednesday, June 16, against Honduras that will take place in the morning in Chilean time (also happens to be the same as East Coast time since Daylight Savings for those of you who didn't know).  And so the entire country will be at a standstill during the match.  No, I'm not kidding.  The government sent a memo to all the schools mandating that the students MUST be able to watch when Chile plays.  So next Wednesday and every game after, they aren't required to be in school until 10AM after the match ends and those who have to come on time will be able to watch on the TV in the lunchroom.  Many businesses are doing the same.  I, myself, will be cheering for Chile as well as the US, of course, and am super emocionada (excited) to watch the USA-England game on Saturday!

One of my 5th graders asked me who I was cheering for in the tournament.  I told him US and Chile and so he drew this for me before the end of class. :-)

Get into the World Cup spirit!

"Waving Flag" - The official FIFA World Cup Anthem


"Waka Waka" - Another song and dance of the tournament by Shakira (Spanish version)

Nike "Write the Future" Commercial