I majored in Special Education and minored in
education graduating May 17, 1969. One week later - May 24th to be exact -
I was working again in my dear Chuqui as a kindergarten teacher. It was
wonderful to be there in another role: First as a child, then an
adolescent, a young adult and then in my first job. It was a wonderful
experience and I was able to keep on with my usual hobbies of bowling and
golf. I made new friends and traveled around Chile while participating in
bowling and golfing competitions. And, on Saturdays I kept on working at
the hospital helping retarded children with physical defects.
Once the company was chileanized and the "gringos" left, the Chilex School
was renamed "Escuela Particular No 8" and things changed drastically. In
April of 1973 I felt obligated to resign and left Chuqui with my heart
broken. When I left part of me stayed there and is still there: "Es mi
pampa serena, es un pais llamado espiritu". It is interesting to note that
had I managed to hang on another five months I might probably still be in
Chuqui teaching.
In partnership with another woman from Chuqui who had a little son I decided
to open a nursery and kindergarten school in Santiago: "Little Bears
School". After four years we decided to close the school and I decided to
try Vina del Mar for a while with my parents. That lasted three months and
I returned to Santiago to work in a new bowling center that had opened up
where I worked as an instructor then as manager. In 1981 the bowling
center closed as well.
In January of 1983 I tried my luck in Venezuela. I lived there for one year
with a Chilean girl and her mother. Unfortunately, I never got used to the
climate and the culture so I returned to Chile and started working as a
supervisor at a bowling center. In 1985 when my dad died suddenly I had to
take charge of my mother. In March of that year there was a terrible
terremoto and my mom decided to sell and leave Vina and move to Antofagasta.
She lived there for about 8 months with Rhoda and her family but eventually
returned to Santiago to live with me. By that time I was working at an
English institute where I worked for two years and then moved on as a
teacher to another English institute where I worked for 7 years.
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