Day 12: aftermath & departure

Woah!  What an ending... a roller coaster of emotions!

We were dancing and chatting away through our despedidia (leaving party) when all of a sudden came a huge shock... two of our fellow beloved residents were thrown off of the residency by the brother of the organiser.  Separate to any ongoing disagreement between the couple and the family of the house was the shock of a decision made entirely outside of the communal way of working in the group that we were used to over the week, and the craziness of the hour at which it happened - 2am.

After the urgent issue of where the two would spend the night was settled we all sat around, re-woken from our drowsiness by the adrenaline triggered by the disruption, and discussed the situation for hours.

We were brought back again to the point of how we conduct ourselves in groups, and the importance of openly discussing any issues that have an impact on the group.  We also recognised that in certain circumstances (such as an encounter with the police) that it is not possible to act as a group, but that except in these extreme cases it is an essential part of working communally to include everyone in any discussions  Which also involves listening no matter how angry one might be.

One thing that delighted me during these long hours of chat was the discovery that Pablo knows Chilean sign language and we swapped the British alphabet for the Chilean one.  He'd learnt his at group workshops with the exhibition Canto Visual here in Santiago in January of this year.  He showed me an excellent music video produced during the workshops by dance troupe Nerven and Zellen:

Puré de Papas, Lengua de Señas Chilena from nerven&zellen on Vimeo.

So here, with the help of the lovely Katia, I say my goodbyes to Villa Alegre with the signs:

Love, Affection and Kisses :-)

Thank you to Ilze, Jorge, Alicia, Monica (in the photo below with one of the necklaces made during our weaving workshops!) Jorge Senior and all of the staff at la Casona.

Thank you also to the three neighbourhood groups, the Jefas, those of Valle, and those of Coibunga, for sharing the experiences of this residency with us... it has been brilliant!

Big love, 

:-)