Intense.

For real.

Lets see… it feels like years since I last wrote. On Sunday Chile elected Michelle Bachelet, the first female president in the Americas (whoo hoo!).
So cool. I was on the NESsT staff retreat at an old monastery in Lo Vicuna.Our only company was the cows, horses and baby sheep out back – no internet, telephones, TVs - nothing. We had heard she was ahead in the polls on Sunday afternoon. When we heard horns blaring, alarms, shouts, and celebrations at about 11 that night we all looked up from our glasses of red wine and smiled at each other, sighed with relief and exchanged “¡que bueno!”s and “wow!”s. The election was quite close and she was running against billionaire right winger Sebastian Pinera, who owns nearly all of Chile through slightly suspicious monopolies. A pretty amazing woman, Bachelet is a socialist, a single mother (in a country where divorce was only legalized last year), a pediatrician, and the first female Minister of Defense. Her father was killed and she herself was a prisoner during the violent dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.Its been a recent return to democracy (1990) and it gives me a lot of hope to see a real person with real life experiences like Bachelet rise above big business and the plastic smiles of politics to assume such an important post in an emerging country. Of course she has a long road ahead but I was quite proud of Chile and excited to be a (tiny) part of history on Sunday.

Otherwise, I’ve been quite busy. We did a bunch of site visits to the organizations we work with in Valparaiso and Santiago for the board meeting last week. It was a vivid reminder of the reasons I came all the way the hell down here. Even though I felt like I sort of knew them from reading all of the business plans, writing investment briefs, and translating power point presentations, some of the people from the organizations really blew me away. And I was again blown away at the staff retreat this weekend… I’m realizing how much of a difference people can make when they are committed and determined. Not in an idealistic, bleeding heart kind of way, but by really looking hard at problems in their community or their country or society and saying “This has got to change” and then finding a way to do just that. Of course it’s a slow process but quite inspiring to be in a room full of people working towards a goal.

It was also really cool to spend time out of the office with the people I work with. I convinced most of them to do a hike/scramble up this cactus covered cerro before the retreat and we had to jump a fence and got chased by a fat woman and her dog. We scared ourselves by checking out the deserted monastery with headlamps and drank a bottle of horrible Hungarian Unicum which Eva brought from Budhapest, then played Cranium in three languages. By day we pounded out a year’s worth of planning and strategy. Well… they pounded it out. I sat quiet and slightly intimidated, but excited, by the process.

I’m looking forward to a weekend without commitments or things to wrap my brain around. There’s an outdoor jazz festival that’s been going on this week. I went last night with a couple of friends and a picnic dinner and we set up for free on beach towels across the river to watch this crazy Polish elektro-jazz band called “Pink Freud” rock out with a light show and everything. Sweet.

I owe you some photos to keep you entertained. Here are some of my recent favorites:

Ships in Valparaiso's Port

Cerro Alegre.Valparaiso is built into hills rising from the bay and each "cerro" is its own neighboorhood with winding staircases and ascensores which are little box elevators that go straight up the hill on traintracks

Inside an ascensor, I was pretty psyched

On the trail. This was before our run in with the fat lady and her dog

The beautiful walk back to our monastary

back on the caballo

Thanks guys for your nice emails and posts about my nasty bout with homesickness - its so nice to be reminded how supportive you are even when i feel like im floating out here. I realized i should end the pity party and after new years I attempted to rally out of my pink striped pajama pants and back into my routine and to my "normal" self. I'm still not quite there but trying to keep busy and aware of the opportunities ahead of me.

There have been some good distractions including the Love Parade in my last posting (crazy!) and a very busy NESsT life. I am finally starting to see the results of my contribution to NESsT, which makes me feel less like I'm struggling to keep up and more like I'm actually doing good work. Last week we had a team of NESsTERS from the MBA progam at Columbia University in the office to present a project they have been working on for the last couple of months. They were a dynamic group with some diverse backgrounds and about 4 or 5 years older than me so it was cool to pick their brains not only about school but about the different paths they took to get there. Heres a photo of a couple of friends from work and Columbia out at a fun tapas bar called Barcelona. Giselle, Stream, Loic, JuanJo, me, and Lauren.


We are also in the middle of the annual board meeting, so all of the NESsT board members are here for a week of meetings and site visits. They range from a social-issue documentary film maker who moved his family to Zimbabwe to a big wig investor from JP Morgan in NYC. Quite interesting to see them all standing in the office in an array of Chacos and button down shirts. But another opportunity to meet some great people and get some perspective on the work we do and - well - life in general. We travel to Valparaiso tomorrow to visit an organization that works to rehabilitate and integrate people with mental disabilities into their communities. Their social enterprise is a pottery and jewlery workshop where they provide on-the-job training and employ some of their patients. I'm looking forward to seeing the organization in action after working on their investment briefs and translating miles of power point presentations.

I guided a trip this week which got me out of the city and reminded me how much exploring there is to be done. It was a last minute call on Thursday night, my boss asked if I wanted to guide "a bunch of guys that are here filming a Budweiser commercial". Oh sure! It ended up not being the crazy party i anticipated but still fun and nice to revisit a favorite place in the mountains as the snow continues to melt. I really enjoy being able to watch something in a transformation process - in this case a glacial valley moving from spring to summer. As we walked along I was making little notes in my head of the new flowers that werent there a month ago or how much faster the water was running, the parts of the trail you could access now that the snow is receding, finally being able to see the lake...

Laguna Morado

Love Parade Santiago

A friend and i got pulled into Santiago's Love Parade this afternoon. The main city avenue of Alemeda was blocked off for the whole day from Plaza Italia, which is about 5 blocks from my house - I can still hear (and feel!) the music pumping and its nearly midnight. Wild! Kind of like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade only less clothes and more techno music. There were babies, dogs, the ubiquitous goths, crowd soaking water hoses, whistles, hot pants, and lots of confetti stuck to it all. Please note especially great mullet on the guy with the yellow ducky.




One of my favorite costumes all day. Bachelet is the socialist female presidential cantidate. Not even politics can escape the Love Parade!