A Rash and a New Experience

Well it's official. I have a rash. I tried to go see a doctor but I got on the wrong bus. As a result, I'm just going to wait till I get back to the US. I'm sure it won't spread too much.

If there is any silver lining in this storm cloud is that I got to see a totally different part of Chile. I got directions to the doctor from Paola but, as I am incompetent when it comes to directions, I got lost regardless.

I ended up taking the bus to the wrong part of town, the really wrong part of town. I didn't realize my mistake before it was too late and so I ended up having to ride the route until the bus got off the highway so I could catch a bus at the very end of the route in order to catch another bus going back.

Traveling in a part of town that I had never seen before, I quickly noticed that the quality of housing was deteriorating and when I finally disembarked at the bus depot, I found myself in an area that was devoid of grass and full of shacks. It was quite different than the affluent Los Condes I am residing in now. As I walked to the nearest bus stop, two miles away, I began to see how regular Chileans lived their lives, Chileans who were not as lucky as my neighbors. I felt as if I could taste the smog in the air. The neighborhood was filled with dilapidated houses.

While I tried not to stand out (luckily my host mom had bought me some Chilean clothes so I didn't stand out too much), I discretely peered into shacks whose roofs were covered with garbage bags to keep out the rain. It just stunned me that what appeared to be such a modern country can have such abject poverty. After seeing so much concentrated poverty, I realized that even though Chile has modernized tremendously there exists terrible inequality that many do not know about or simply overlook.

Going into that part of town was like entering a different world.