Pewkayal chaltumay– Mapundungun for goodbye and thank you. I’ve been procrastinating writing a closing blog post as it signals the official end of such an incredible summer (winter). As the normalcy of home has fully set in after a few weeks back in the states, I can’t help but echo earlier thoughts of sedentary as a foreign concept and familiarity has uncomfortable. Our DukeEngage Chile experience was one of newness, firsts, and trailblazing. A life on the road is certainly calling. For our last day in the sleepy town of Neltume ended much the same way it began– rain falling, fireplaces roaring, blankets scattered about, and Radio Neltume calmly playing in the background. We walked the same worn paths we had meandered a thousand times down to the falls and to nearby markets, overshadowed by the towering hill we had now climbed. Our neighbourhood dogs fell in our path. The town we now knew was clear and distinct, as the wandering roads which were once the great unknown had transformed into streets lined with homes we had been welcomed into. Sipping mate on a July morning, the sky had transformed from the bright blue of May to the foreboding grey it held as winter had set in. Beneath the rainy and hailing skies of Neltume, we witnessed our efforts come to fruition as the charts and data of neighbourhood demographics and the transitory state of the community were displayed before us. Yet so much of Neltume was more than the frequently walked paths, well-visited waterfalls, and worn in fireside couches, but rather the people along the way. We have gone and conquered volcanoes, rafted down rivers, traversed Patagonia, sat calmly on the rocks beneath pounding falls, visited countless homes within the community, delved into social science in the fullest, and completed our surveying efforts. We have traveled and ventured and explored and laughed and gotten lost and been poured on by the seemingly relentless rains of Puerto Varas along the way. So thank you all. Chile would be nothing without you. - Micaela Enjoy a video that Ashley, our go pro expert, put together!
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