We started off the final week in Chile with a workshop looking at interculturality and creating our own diagrams on what different aspects make up interculturality. It was a good activity to help collate all the skills and topics that we’ve learned throughout the programme. After this workshop, I went on a trip to a…Continue Reading PMSLA: A Series of Life-Changing Experiences in Chile
We have now been home for just under a week. It has been a chance to catch up with family and friends, swim in the awa, and return to the garden. It has also been a chance to begin reflecting on what can only be described as a month of challenges, new learnings and memorable…Continue Reading Chile: Reflecting on a life-changing month
This week was a reminder that Indigenous peoples worldwide remain interconnected through Tino rangatiratanga! We started the week learning about the eleven indigenous communities recognised here in Chile by the amazing Dr. Gabriela Pina. Her lesson explaining the ‘processes’ involved in indigenous identity politics made me think of how people associate with indigeneity. Furthermore, it…Continue Reading The Moana connecting the Pacific to Chile
Our third week in Santiago, Chile, began with an amazing set of lectures on Indigenous worldviews and healthcare. These lectures gave us an important overview of the historical and current contexts of the different indigenous groups in Chile, mainly focusing on the two largest groups, the Mapuche and Aymara peoples. On Tuesday, we visited the Museum…Continue Reading Understanding, Education, and Worldviews
This past week has been very full-on but equally inspiring and enlightening! We started off the week with a class on One Health, which is an approach of attaining sustainability and balance of health through the idea that the health of humans, animals, plants, nature, and ecosystems are intrinsically interconnected. This approach was very interesting…Continue Reading Exploring Chilean Healthcare, Culture, History, People, and Nature
I’ve been thinking a lot about language recently. Whether it’s being taught innovative ways to string together Chilean slang words (no further details will be provided on this, for fear my blogging rights get revoked), trying to work out what someone is saying to me when I have an interaction with a local, or noting…Continue Reading Reckoning with Language
Today we toured a medical centre as part of our clinical observations. After class, we explored a local barrio and had dinner together!…Continue Reading Day in My Life | Summer Exchange Student in Chile
Magnificent mountains that tower in the sky. This was my first impression of Santiago which reminded me of home. I find comfort and nostalgia in seeing mountains, which was the main feature in my hometown in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and in Kyoto, Japan, where I lived before moving to Aotearoa. In Santiago, the distant snow-capped…Continue Reading Santiago, Chile: At the foothills of the Andes
Reflecting on my first week in Chile and writing this blog has made me imagine a theme or something to organise the disparate excitement, chaos and confusion that comes with being in a new place. Going overseas to another country is very much an act of disconnection, leaving a place that is entirely unfamiliar. Indeed,…Continue Reading Connecting in Santiago Week 1
