El Medio Ambiente de Chile: Patagonia

After a month of waiting I am now starting my adventure with volunteering for organizations down here! What am I doing you ask??? Well I'm starting to work with an organization that works to save the beautiful flora and fauna of Chile named CODEFF (Comite Nacional Pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora)! This group works with many different cities around Chile, north and south, to help the environment surrounding the cities! So for Valaparaiso we are going to work in La Campana, which is a national park about an hour away from the city. I was super hesitant at first about volunteering here because it's in a whole different language... however I am now telling myself everyday, "Amelie you know Spanish. You can speak and understand this language!" I tell you it's all about courage in yourself to know that you have the vocab to get your point across.

So yesterday was my first day volunteering for CODEFF at a rally for Patagonia! The slogan was Patagonia! Sin Represas... This means Patagonia (famous wilderness region in South of Chile) without dams. This hits home because Fort Collins is really battling against daming the Poudre River! It was exciting to work at this rally that is really similar to the problem we're facing on the front range! We worked for about four hours getting people to sign a petition against these dams. There was all sorts of things going on with different organizations there fighting for the same cause (this included GreenPeace), there was different types of music from New Age jam band, Hip Hop Reggae (super sweet and I got a video of it so check it out), traditional music of Chile, and much more. Overall it was a very cool experience here in Chile and I'm excited to volunteer more.

Above: Our director Bernadita giving a pump up speech
Below: MC and background of all the banners
Above: Guys walking around with TV's on their heads pertaining to the ignorance people have with what is going on in Patagonia with the dams.
Below: Guy signing the Petition!
Tomorrow I have a meeting with the other organization I'm volunteering with. This volunteering will really relate to what I want to do with my psychology degree in the future. I will be working with kids who have problems with drugs and alcohol. It's going to be tough especially trying to get a relationship with the kids in a different language! But I'm excited for it even though it's going to be really sad and tough to work with kids with such problems. However if this is the direction I want to take my life then I need to start somewhere! Wish me luck! Abrazos y Besitos to all! (hugs and kisses)