Apply for a one year temporary resident visa to Chile – This requires sending a few things to the Chilean consulate in Chicago
A signed letter from my doctor stating that I am in good health
Results of an HIV blood test (negative)
FBI criminal background check – requiring the following
Fingerprints taken at Ramsey County Government Center (the first of many fingerprints)
$18 money order
Wait 3-4 weeks
3 passport sized photos
$131 money order
My passport
Application letter
Take a family trip to Chicago to pick up my visa in person and have my thumb print taken
Customs in Chile at the airport (duh)
Register within 30 days of arrival with the Chilean International Police
After registering, obtain an ID card from the communa where you will be living. This is where the fun starts and my memory gets a little hazy.
Applying for the ID card requires more fingerprints, photo, and about $6. Should take no more than 2 weeks
Go to Patagonia for 2 weeks, forget about the whole thing
Return to Santiago to find that the civil workers are on strike (this of course includes the people working on my ID)
Return after strike to pick up ID card only to find that it has been rejected. Apparently the last name on my visa – Sawyer III, because my full name is Charles Edmund Sawyer III – didn’t work in the computers so they rejected my application
Go to three different government buildings downtown to get the name on my visa changed to just Charles Edmund Sawyer
Return to the International Police to re-register
Return to the Vitacura community office to reapply for my ID card with my updated visa. More fingerprints
There was another civil workers strike in here somewhere
Discover that my card was rejected yet again
Return to the Vitacura office to find that they didn’t have my date of entry into Chile in my application, which they did have. The guy we talked to said my card would be ready in under a week
Celebrate Christmas and New Year’s with my sister here in Chile and forget about the whole thing.
Return on Jan 2 hoping to get my card. This time without Rodrigo, our contact guy, who talked to all the civil workers for me and was a real good sport about the whole thing.
Find out my card is not ready and go through the process of applying for an ID again – more fingerprints, another photo.
Return after a week and a half to the Vitacura office and finally get my ID, although it has the old photo and old ID number on it and says that it was issued on Dec 30. So my last visit was totally pointless.
But the point is, I have my ID card. Sorry if all that was confusing. This isnt meant to be a knock on the Chilean bureaucracy or government (well maybe a little), merely an observation or maybe a little venting.
But hey, on the bright side my sister Anne came to Chile between Christmas Eve and New Year's day and we had a great time together. Here's a few of the fun things we did.
- Went to Valparaiso for three nights and explored the entire city - hills, beautiful colored houses, delicious food, hills, the ocean, great food, ascensors, hills, one of Pablo Neruda's houses.
- While in Valparaiso we took a day trip to a nearby national park and climbed a nice hill (if it was in MN I would consider it a mountain, but since its in Chile its a hill) We didnt quite make it to the top but it was still great. Saw a huge spider
- Checked out various sites in Santiago - the central market, my school, parks, Plaza de Armas, another one of Pablo Neruda's houses (that guy sure knew how to live)
- Toured two vineyards (with tastings) just to the south of Santiago
- Rode in the teleferico (sky ride) that offered great views of Santiago and my neighborhood in particular. Anne was terrified.
- Spent New Year's (the rest of the nights in Santiago) in Bellavista, a hip, Bohemian part of town with great restaurants, bars and clubs.
After Anne left, Cole and I went to Trabajos (work missions) with about 30 of the high schoolers from San Lorenzo. We stayed in a school in Pabellon, a small town outside of Melipilla about an hour from Santiago. We slept on hard floors in the classrooms and had cold showers but we got to help the people in the area fix up their houses and we had a lot of fun with the students so it turned out great. I dont want to brag, but while we were there we played a few games and I won musical chairs, the dance contest, and the fun run (although one kid really pushed me and I was impressed with how fast he was, and also that all the kids ran and ran fairly fast. I couldnt help but think of how kids in America would react if they had to run 2-3 km, but these kids were all about it). We also hitch-hiked in Melipilla...twice...both Sundays we were there...to go to Mass! It was my first experience with hitch hiking but it went great. The people here in Chile are ridiculously friendly. Either someone would pick us up along the road, or the students would knock on the door of a house if they saw a truck in the driveway. And it worked!
Cole and I are leaving for Patagonia tomorrow. We are going on a work trip there with about 30 other kids our age who are involved with the Manquehue Movement and we will be in three different towns all close to the retreat center the Movement has in Patagonia. Not exactly sure what we will be doing. After that is over (about 2 weeks) we are planning on staying at the retreat center/farm for two weeks and hopefully working with some of the gauchos again. And then after that we are flying down to the end of Chile, Punta Arenas, and travelling around there for 8 days, including a few days in Torres del Paine, one of the best natioanl parks in Chile, if not anywhere, or so I have heard. Then by the time we come home in will almost be March and school will start again. Its a rough life down here. I guess I will probably miss the inaugruation and the Super Bowl too, but at least it isnt below zero.
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