When I think upon Canadian history, I fall asleep.  I believe this is actually a great blessing.  Sure, it is boring and uneventful, however, it means that the Canadian people live with much less heartache in general than in other countries.  Jonathan and I have learned much more about international politics and history through our travels and what we found was a lot of violence and oppression, but also a lot of courage and resilience.   

As for Chile, they were ruled under the highly controlling and violent dictatorship of Pinochet in the 70’s and 80’s.  Under Pinochet’s rule, strict curfews were imposed, keeping people out of the streets in the late evenings until early morning.  The story goes that people started holding secret parties.  Parties that would start before the curfew was enforced at around 9:00pm and that would go on all night until 5:00am when the curfew was lifted.  Imagine such a party where none of your friends can leave because they are “tired’ or “have to work the next day” (that’s me by the way). This became such an underground phenomenon, that when even after Pinochet was no longer in power, such parties continued to be held.   

Last Saturday, we went to one of these parties in a warehouse with some other Endeavor volunteers (all sponsored by their employer), except Jon and I did not last at all until 5:00am.  We went mainly to see Caribou, a fantastic Canadian electronic band who is even better live.  The show was great and it was wonderful to see all the Chileans jumping up and down and cheering when their favourite song was played.  It reminded me of how small the world is and how easy it is to be exposed to things outside of our own little circle.  After the show we had a chance to chat with Dan, the man that is Caribou, from Dundas, Ontario.  He was very nice and Jonathan invited him to have brunch with all of us the next day.  He politely declined.

- joyce