A Sabbatical in Chile

Did you ever want to take over school from the teachers when you were a pupil?  This is exactly what happened to Roger Dunlop in Chile recently: “Social media encouraged all pupils across Chile to take over their schools on Saturday 9^th November, which meant that I was swiftly moved into a local hotel by the school.”

Roger Dunlop has just finished a sabbatical placement at a Methodist School in Iquique, situated in northern Chile. A non Spanish speaker, Roger went to support the English department at the oldest Methodist School in Chile, Colegio Ingles. He arrived just as the political unrest started in mid October, and so was not able to do much teaching. Roger sent us this report a few days ago from Iquique, “At that point there were a few pupils in the school but outnumbered by staff. The focus was on working with Colegio Ingles’ own pupils to keep out any others or troublemakers. Staff were bringing in food for the pupils and I donated the contents of my fridge and freezer! I think a rota of staff was worked out to stay with the pupils. Next morning I heard the pupils were only allowing 6 staff who they felt were on their side to be with them. Later in the day I was told that had gone down to zero staff. The main entrance had been barricaded and access is by the back entrance.

A small private school had not been affected at all by the unrest and I was due to go there on Monday to teach, do some magic tricks, etc. On Sunday they took the decision to close on Monday, Tuesday and then review the situation, thinking the school might be attacked by outsiders if they dared to open.

I still feel safe out and about as long as I avoid crowds, military and police. The protest marches that I have seen in the last couple of days have been good humoured including impressive brass bands, clowns, unicycles and the like. There are still plenty of people enjoying the beach. Today a general strike has been called so I think things will be more tense. The hope is we will have the school back tomorrow which is the day I leave.

Pray for the government to be more responsive to the requests for a more equal society. Pray also for the protestors to recognise that it is impossible to have everything they want at once. Pray for the school to be able to get back to a normal timetable. In my 4 weeks I think there have been 2 days of fairly normal timetable and attendance so the pupils are missing out and there is a sense of it becoming increasingly wearisome- when and how can it end?”

Luis Sepulveda, President of the Laity
of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Chile
and the Revd Roger Dunlop

Roger told the Global Relationships office that he was nevertheless very warmly welcomed and supported by the school Principal and other staff. He was able to visit different churches on Sundays and share his gifts in singing and performing magic tricks! Despite the political situation, he found it to be a positive and inspiring time. 

Are you interested in finding out more about overseas sabbatical opportunities?