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November 26, 2003

Yesterday, we drove twenty minutes to a series of hot springs and enjoyed the afternoon playing in the relaxing pools by the river. Jennifer Chewning would baptize Grant Wildman and Emily Jackson. Luke Schurman climbed on the rafters to avoid the hot pools. Dan Simenc, Logan Meyer, and Conor Kelleher played in the creek with their foamy boaters. And I simply sat back and relaxed.

Today is the day before the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. This Thanksgiving our students will experience a different perspective on the holiday. The Huge Experiences students will not watch parades, football games, watch a movie about pilgrims, or any TV for that matter. Instead, they will wake to a series of balance games. Above our house on the Rio Liucura is a series of boards and ropes tied in the trees. Students walk from tree to tree and swing from one board to another with the strategically positioned ropes. Later, students will eat a feast prepared by a Veronica Knight with the assistance of our Chilean cook and our students. Veronica planned a menu and ingredients for our Chilean feast celebrating our holiday.

After the feast students will run their favorite run near Pucon. I imagine this will be the Ojos del Caburga section. After the paddling session we will drive to Pucon for students to call their families on the holiday.

Today's activities went something like the following - we awoke similar to most of our days outside of Pucon, Chile. The morning clouds had not yet burned off from the morning sun. Vic Simenc's mentor team - Dan Simenc, Grant Wildman, and Matt Fithian were awakened prior to everyone else for their day of duties. They gathered firewood at 7:00 am for the wood-fed oven and our fireplace. Then they put hot water on for coffee, tea, and oatmeal as they scrambled eggs. Later, they would slowly wake the remaining students for breakfast and a new day of classes.

The classes were shortened as Veronica Knight organized the celebration feast. Students took turns peeling potatoes and apples. Luke Schurman pointed out the safety concerns and utilized the net potato bags for hairnets in order that our bigger haired students did not lose hair in the prepared foods. Luke is always thinking of group safety, and in general a self-less individual.

The preparation for the feast was one of many group chores that has brought this particular group closer than any semester group I have observed. They laughed and worked together, and discussed the things they missed about the United States. Important things like -Jennifer Chewning- carpet, Ian Mickle-frappuccinos from Starbucks and Subway, Dan Simenc-Roundtable pizzas with ranch dressing, Veronica Knight-U.S. milk, Todd Baker-Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Luke Schurman- guitar books in English so he does not have to figure out the music in a different language, Logan Meyer-his mom, David Hughes-good coffee and U.S. ice cream.

After peeling potatoes and apples students went back to class, and did not grumble as much as normal. Possibly, Veronica discovered a new form of group motivation with her potato peeling. After classes students went paddling, and stayed up later. In our mountain cabin we nightly play card and dice games. And the group favorite has become the mystery game known as mafia.

In mafia our group of 18 receive a card from a deck. Four members draw an ace that represents a mafia member or a killer. One person draws a king and becomes the group doctor; another person will draw a queen and be the group sheriff. The remaining cards are townspeople. Now one knows the others' status within the group. A person announces for everyone to sleep as the group closes their eyes. Then, the mafia is asked to come out, and they then point at one person to "kill" or eliminate from the group. The mafia then close their eyes, and the doctor is asked to awake. The doctor can point out one person to save, and if he points to the same person that was killed the person is saved. Then, doctor closes his eyes. Next, the sheriff is asked to awake. The sheriff has the option to point at any one person he thinks is mafia. If he is correct he will let the sheriff know. Finally, all persons are awake.

The group accusations fly regarding who is mafia- "I heard Ian move, kill him." "Emily looks guilty, she's not talking, she's guilty, kill her." More than once during the game I have heard mobs of students and adults chanting to kill one person as the person pleas their innocence to stay alive. If the community votes to kill a person then they must identify their card. If they show an ace then they were mafia and everyone is happy. If they were anything else, then the community has voted to kill a townsperson and the mafia is now stronger as they have successfully killed, and the townspeople eliminated one of their own. It is a great game as the students interrogate, accuse, and kill each other during the mystery. The mafia killing off the townspeople or the townspeople discovering all mafia either wins the game.

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