Alumni Spotlight: Daniel Saver

VE is proud to present a new feature to the blog -- the alumni spotlight! Under this new category, past volunteers can blog about life post-VE. Daniel Saver, a volunteer from the September 2007 class, wrote this post for us back in January after his second return visit to Chile.

Daniel Saver
Florida, USA

When I left Santiago in May 2009, for as much as I knew that Chile would always retain a very special place in my heart, I believed that many years would pass before I would have the opportunity to return. I am as surprised as anyone by the fact that within a year and half, I have had the chance to return to Chile not once, but twice.

After 18 glorious months with VE, I returned to the States in order to study human rights at Harvard Law School. When I found out that the International Human Rights Clinic was developing a project about the rights of indigenous Mapuche communities in the south of Chile, I jumped at the chance to get involved. In September 2010 and January 2011, I traveled to Chile in order to perform investigations en terreno. As part of our investigation I was able to spend time with leaders from more than a dozen Mapuche communities in the 9^th and 10^th Regions, in addition to meeting with representatives of Chilean government and civil society, including the President of the Chilean Supreme Court. It has been a truly unique learning experience, and during the next few months I will write up a report that will, hopefully, contribute to the protection of indigenous rights in Chile. Not a small task, but then again, neither is trying to host a camping taller with 30 rambunctious children in La Granja, and somehow that turned out to work alright. . .

During my most recent trip to Chile I was able to visit Domingo Savio, where I had lived for the first six months of my stay in Santiago and worked at for the whole 18 months that I was with VE. It has been fascinating to see how some things change while others remain the same, striking an enjoyable balance between novelty and familiarity. In terms of the novelties, there is a wonderful new theater building at D-Sav and some of the kids have grown so much I could hardly recognize them. Nevertheless, continuities persisted as well, as the kids have not lost their love for the game of fútbol or alto ahí, nor can they help but end up with sticky faces and hands after munching on the peaches growing in the backyard (messy proof that Olga’s prohibition still can’t overcome the temptation of juicy summertime peaches!).

As I rode through the city on the Centropuerto bus on my way to the Santiago airport and then back to the US, my mind was flooded by all of the old memories that I collected during my time with VE. I feel pretty fortunate to have had the opportunity on two separate occasions to add more memories of Chile to my collection, and I am anxiously awaiting the next chance I get to continue creating new ones.