ET

Wow, this is not only my first blog in Chile, it's also my first blog ever and it's both fully lubricated and hindered by several glasses of Chile's cheapest red wine, so here we go.

And where to start? It's been an intense week with all the comings and goings of the induction. I've heard a lot about VE and all it's multiple facets dimensions, but today we went to our hogars and met the chicas for the first time. And as this will be the core of my experience here, it seems as good place as any.

I was proper nervous going into the institution for the first time. Obviously these girls have had a really, difficult lives and at the minute I'm on the Titanic setting off from Liverpool- the tip of the iceberg is far, far away. But I'd heard enough horror stories/reality checks to be more than a little aprehensive.

And as I wandered into my hogar for the first time this feeling wasn't alieviated. My reception ranged from muted welcome to general ambivalence to "who the fuck are you and why are you interrupting my telenovela?".

But as I meandered aimlessly from courtyard to kitchen the girls began to emerge from the intellectual mist of Venezuelan soap operas and offered such pearls of wisdom and incisive questions:

"Is it true that people from your country never wash?" and
"It looks like all your teeth are falling out" and sobre todas
"I haven't got any idea what you're saying"

And both despite and because of this I left the hogar feeling so excited about the 6+ months ahead. Whether I still have that ganas in a weeks time, I'll let you know. Ciao pescaos!