The Legend of the Payachatas

The legend of the Payachatas tells of two families in the time of the Incas, enemies because of a long fight over the ownership of the land. The Prince and the Princess of each tribe, guided by destiny, met and fell deeply in love. However, the hate between the two tribes made this love impossible, and the families tried to separate the two, appealing to magic to separate them. However, their love was too powerful, and these measures had no effect. 

All of nature grieved for the separated lovers. The moon and the clouds cried, the wolves howled and torrential storms whirred in warning to the tribes, for the gods would punish such an error. 

The families did not heed the warning of nature, and tried everything to break their love, but all of their efforts were in vain. In face of their failure, the families decided to sacrifice the prince and the princess, so they could never be together. One completely dark night, without a moon, the young lovers were killed. 

The gods of the earth emptied all of their fury with torrential rain and crashing thunder which devastated the region. The floods destroyed the tribes, and they disappeared from the land. In their place appeared two beautiful lakes, Chungará and Cota-Cotani, where the prince and princess can be seen passing in their canoe, finally together. In honor of the young lovers, the earth gave them two tombs, the volcanoes Parinacota and Pomerape. Together they are the Payachatas, one the Prince and the other the Princess, together and in love for all of time. 

 

Sobre la vida sencilla

Right now I am in the town of Putre, way back in the mountain desert of northeastern Chile. The town only has 700 people, and the community 1,400. This morning we visited the next largest town of Socoroma, home to 70 people, 11 of which are the most adorable children, who all study in the same room, with the same teacher, sharing desks. To continue their education past sixth grade (which is required by the state), they go live in dorms in Putre or Arica. The nearest health center is a half hour drive, and the nearest hospital two and a half. After we visited the kids and taught them how to brush their teeth with the toothbrushes we gave them, we walked around the town, looking at the houses and the terraced fields that surround it. I was talking to my friend Ammar, and he was marveling at the fact that this town must die out; young people cannot stay, and the old people will die quickly without emergency care. Ammar and others commented that "this is not a life." This struck me as one of the points where our western culture clashes with what we are trying to learn here. For the people of Socoroma, this is what they know, this is their life. I do not see a problem with living your life off the land, spending your time with the ones you love, and dying when it is your time, without being sustained on handfuls of pills or machines. These people live off what they can get from their land, spend their time with their families and their community, and die without painfully prolonging the process. Especially after this trip, being away from the people I care about, I can see the beauty in living just with what and who you need. It saddens me to see that the other people on my trip are unable to open their minds to the other cultures we are getting to know.
Do not worry, I am not going to throw away my life and come live in the back country of Chile. Nor am I saying that people should not do whatever they can to prolong their own lives. I am just saying that we are here to learn about health and other cultures, and for that we need to have an open mind. Our method of confronting these kinds of situations is to send them money or try to move them to the cities where there are steady jobs, but helping people who do not want to be helped is hurting them. If these people enjoy their lives, then who are we to say that it "is not a life"?
I will end with this. To whom much is given, much is expected. I am so lucky to have the life I do, to know the people I do, and to be here learning these lessons. I do not get to run off into the backwoods to live only for myself. I will take what I am learning and use it to make the world a better place to be, and hopefully to help build understanding between people like us and people like the Socoromans.

Im not putting what day it is so you can't get mad at me for how long its been since I wrote...

Hey y'all, I am so sorry it has been so long since I wrote. I have been traveling alot and very very busy, which is not a good excuse, but anyway...
Today you are going to get a rant about public healthcare. I just got back from visiting the public hospital here and it was terrifying. I think anyone who is designing or wants a publicized health care system needs to come to Chile and check out what they have got. They would realize that publicizing US healthcare would be a huge step back for our country. Also let me note that this hospital I visited was brand new, and it is the only public hospital for hundreds of miles of Chile.
I have never seen an ER waiting room so full, nor an ER so empty and under-equipped. The only reason I recognized their defibrillator was from watching old EMT training videos from the eighties. They had a tiny triage room, capacity to treat 5 minor emergencies at a time, and only 2 beds in a room the size of my bedroom to treat serious problems like a cardiac emergency or trauma. If someone in one of the areas for more minor problems has a heart attack, they have to be moved into this room so they can treat them, and if there are more than 3 people in critical condition at a time, then tough luck. A few weeks ago a similar hospital in Santiago had a serious back up in their waiting room, so that people were waiting for over 24 hours without care. In an EMERGENCY ROOM.
After that we went upstairs to see the rest of the hospital. We asked about 8 times to clarify, but we heard right the first time that there are no doctors doing rounds or even on the floor most of the time. They come through once in the morning and once in the afternoon, and the rest of the time, if there is any sort of emergency, they have to call in a doctor from the emergency room or the one doctor in the ICU.
Unfortunately, I have seen problems such as these in the rest of the system as well. In the health centers the health professionals are overworked and underpaid, there are far too few doctors and especially specialists,  and they all work in tiny cubicles made out of parts of hallways. People wait months to be seen.
Though I think this may be the best that Chile can do as a recently developed and very economically unequal country, I know it would be a step back for America. I have studied our health system as well, and though I do not doubt that change is needed, I do not think this is the way to do it. Changing from what we have now to a system such as Chile's would be disempower people and lower the quality of care.
I hate getting into arguments about politics, but I had to write about this because I was honestly terrified to see this hospital today and to think that this could be in the future for me and my family. Please inform yourselves. Why would we follow in the footsteps of countries that are not successful with their public health systems? I know someone who almost died because she got mersa in the UK, and when she got to the waiting room of the ER she was told to take a number. It took them four days to figure out what the problem was. America is better than that, and there are better ways to fix our healthcare system. We should go through the laws and make sure we are protecting people from the insurance companies, instead of taking the quick way out and just publicizing everything.
I am sorry if this has offended anyone, but I hope you realize that it comes from a good place. Please inform yourselves, please vote, and please be proud of how different and special our country is and can continue to be.