Kayli Kirkegaard woke up on a Saturday morning expecting to enjoy one last day at home in the United States before she flew to spend a semester at La Pontificia Universidad Católica in Valparaiso, Chile. Instead, she arose to find that an earthquake had rocked the South American country, delaying her study abroad plans and causing other Oles who had previously studied in Chile to worry about the safety of their host families.
With the flow of news and images from earthquakes that have recently destroyed parts of Haiti and Chile, some St. Olaf students have found the disasters have hit close to regions they have studied abroad in, notably near Valparaiso.
“I was set to leave early Sunday morning from Minneapolis, meet up with our program for a few weeks of orientation and then start our semester,” Kirkegaard said. “Instead, I woke up Saturday to the news of one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded. It was really surreal watching the Chilean news and seeing this beautiful country where I was supposed to be in less than 48 hours in pieces and complete chaos.”
Kirkegaard said she is waiting to hear the new plans for the trip, and that she is still going to Chile when the program begins.
“It’s hard to be here, anxiously awaiting to start a study abroad experience, when we’re seeing Chileans who are still anxiously awaiting news from family,” she said. “We’re just hoping and waiting.”
Jessica Johnson ’11, Rebecca Logemann ‘11 and Natasha Hegmann ‘11 all studied in Chile first semester.
Johnson found out about the earthquake that hit the country through a Facebook wall message. She immediately e-mailed all of her friends there to make sure they were safe.
“It was 3:30 a.m. on a Saturday in Chile, everyone’s out,” Johnson said. “I was thinking if I would have been in one of the clubs and the power would have gone out, that would have been one of the most horrifying experiences of my life. Just the fact that it was on a weekend night makes it so much worse. Imagine being out with your friends and having everything start shaking.”
After getting in contact with her host family, she was told that they could feel their home intensely shaking for two minutes, and all of the power went out. After speaking to her host family, Johnson started trying to figure out what she could do to help.
“The first thing [I did] was look online to see how much flight tickets had gone down, because no one wants to go there,” she said. “But the airport is still closed. I wish so badly I could be there to help with the clean up and everything.”
Logemann was unable to get a hold of her host family until the following day.
“It was really hard to see it all happening and see all of the effects without being able to contact my family,” she said. “Even though I was only there for six months, they’re still a part of my family. It’s been hard being all the way up here and feeling like I couldn’t help.”
Logemann notes that she has friends whom she has yet to hear from, which she said could be because of the lack of electricity in parts of Chile or because of their proximity to the epicenter of the quake.
Johnson said she selected Chile because she wanted to be a student in an actual university, as opposed to studying with other Oles.
“It was very hard at first to cross those borders into their lives, but only because it’s very different,” Johnson said. “Their student life is very different. They live at home, they don’t live in dorms, they don’t have a cafeteria and they don’t have a lot of things we have that make us such a community. It was kind of hard at first to jump into their lives, but it was great when it actually happened.”
Logemann chose Chile after being waitlisted for a study abroad trip to Argentina.
“I went, but I knew nothing about the country before I went. But I just went to see what would happen,” she said. “It was amazing. I completely fell in love with Chile. I plan on going back there and teaching English for a year.”
Hegmann studied abroad in Chile the first semester of her senior year of high school. Because she didn’t speak very much Spanish at the time, she made it a goal to return to the nation to study at the university when she was able to communicate better.
The three students each reflected on how helpless they felt being so far away from a disaster they felt so connected to.
Hegmann said that while she experienced tremors during her time in Chile, people shouldn’t let the disaster – or potential risk of another earthquake – keep them from studying in Chile.
“I don’t think people should be afraid of this,” she said. “People won’t be depressed. I spoke to my host family yesterday. My host mom said everyone was ready to do this, ready to rebuild Chile, ready to recover. I don’t think the students who go there this semester will find Chileans in depression. They’ll find them as vital as before, but with a new kind of challenge.”
For students who want to help with the disaster relief efforts, there are opportunities.
“Currently the best thing students can do to help Chile is exactly the same as what we have been doing to assist Haiti – raise funds and awareness. We are also encouraging the student body to donate to reputable aid organizations such as the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and World Vision,” said Meghan Bodie ’13, one of the founding members of new student organization St. Olaf Disaster Relief Effort.
Kirkegaard, Katherine Fitzgerald ’11 and Sonja Midthun ’11 plan to leave for their semester in Chile on Monday, March 8. They will spend two to three (or more) weeks working on a service project to assist with relief efforts upon their arrival.
skaggs@stolaf.edu
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