Fue la raja

I was a candidate in Adelante's Chile program for three months in early 2017. At the risk of sounding hacknied, the experience was utterly transformative, thanks in large part to Adelante.

After a friendly chat with the feller sent to pick me up from the airport, I arrived to the candidate apartment. Strangely, it was way nicer than it looked in the pictures. Classes at the International Center (Adelante's in-country fixer organization, which also maintains the apartment and a network of homestay families) started a few days later. They were daily group lessons taught by the wonderful Marcela, who took us on excursions in Viña and Valpo as part of the lessons, and advised us extensively on where to buy meat, how to navigate the streets and slang, etc. The International Center crew was not only extremely communicative (and able to speak English, in large part), they took us out and were generally good buddies. I was traveling alone, so that gracious friendliness kept a certain amount of loneliness at bay.

In my second month I moved to a family homestay. There was some confusion here in regard to communication between the International Center and Adelante, but I still ended up in the right place. The host family was extremely accomodating, but a bit controlling. I decided that I wanted to try a different host family a month later, and the Adelante/IC folks had me in a new house the next day. Despite small problems with the host families themselves, Adelante/IC was adament about holding them accountable, and urged me to report any issue that came up.

My internship assignment was spot on. Marcela made sure I knew how to get there and who to talk to (although the beautiful madness of Chilean Spanish made it difficult to chat at first). I was allowed to work at my own pace and take as many tourism days off as I needed. The staff was endlessly cool... if you end up in the area, I recommend you tune in to Radio Valentín Letelier for a (really) broad mix of alternative music.

There are countless wonderful details about the experience that I don't have time to impart, but I gotta mention the excursions to a local vineyard (the first included as part of lessons, the second offered for free when my parents came to visit me) and Charlie (a sweet street dog often accompanied by "the yellow dog," both of whom followed me into supermarkets, churches, and anywhere else). Generally, the atmosphere of the Adelante/IC was one of helpful kindness, and that made good things happen.

I'm omitting a lot of difficult experiences, which were equally essential to the emotional and lingual growth I achieved down there, but none of those were Adelante's fault. In retrospect, I'm awfully grateful for those negative experiences, but pleased to say that they didn't stem from the organization to which I paid $4000.

Adelante is trustworthy and Chile is indescribably worthwhile. Buen viaje, folks. Pick up a slang dictionary on your way.

-Arlo