Encuentro Nacional de Jóvenes

A great opportunity to hook up with youth from all over Chile. Plus it was free!

Church Retreat

For three days and two nights the church went South of Santiago to Rosario. It was a good time relax and get to know others outside the jóvenes. Soccer and meditation, what more could you want.

Trip to southern Chile

Oh Jeff had the wonderful idea to take Mauricio, Camilo, and I to southern Chile for a couple of days to get to know each other better. Well, Camilo couldn’t go with us, so that was a drag. We went overnight by bus called “semi-cama” - YOU COULD LAY DOWN WHILE YOU RODE. Fantastic! We stayed in a top-notch hostelería in Villarrica owned by Americans. We hiked on the local volcano, hiked in Huequehue national park, and ate some delicious food. It was a great time out of the city.

Loss of my camera

Sadly I lost my camera in a river at a lovely place named Pucón. I proposed the idea of eating at a German restaurant outside of town, so we went and found the place, it was closed, but we looked around the grounds. We found a river and took some great shots and then it was out of the bag, on the ground, then in the river. It was a sad situation, but humbling. I got over it soon after.

Thai cooking with Jeff and Mark

Oh yes! Cooking with Jeff and Mark returned. We cooked some fantastic Thai food, with crudo, a Chilean raw beef dish, for an appetizer. Pad Thai, Tom Ka Gai, and curry chicken were delicious. Even though being taunted by Scott, he and John came over to crash thee party and eat our food. Oh well, it was fun.

More to come soon.

santiago, protesta martes 30 de mayo de 2006

Currently in Chile, students are protesting the federal government to spend more of the deficit on eliminating barriers to education, such as student bus fares and entrance exam fees. The protests were first met with resistance from the government, but a resolution seems to be coming.

These have been said to be the largest protests in Chile since the 1970’s. While travelling in South America last summer it seemed there was some thing cpnstatnly being marched, protested, demanded for and against. It’s just part of the culture.

More from Reuters.

Today was a beautiful day in Santiago and sadly our last full day. We didn’t spend it in Santiago proper, but headed up in to the mountains that surround the city.

The ski resort was sparsely populated, most Chileans are in school or working, so most of the people out today were foreigners. I heard/met Brazilian, Czecholovkian, American, Scot, Aussie, and others.

It was fun and a great way to end our time here in Chile. Ciao, Dios bendiga a Chile.

Several people have been contacted by parents about the recent earthquake in northern Chile. If you did not know Santiago, is in central Chile and only experienced a tremor, which was not even felt.

From Reuters:

Boulders littered city streets and highways in northern Chile on Tuesday after a 7.9-magnitude quake caused landslides and wrecked homes, killing at least 11 people and injuring 200.

We were in Vina del Mar at the time. I was in a local church building around noon yesterday when a tremor shook the doors and windows. Rocio was near and went to the door, she thought some one knocked, and a minister stepped out and told her to calm down and she had no idea what he was talking about. Interesting.

This past weekend some of the missionaries took us to Vina del Mar and Valparaiso on the coast Sunday to visit a local church and see some sights. We had a wonderful time and returned yesterday.

This morning was the 3rd bi-annual AFCSA: Missionary - AFC Futbol Game. Yes, we won 7-6 and I got some play. Fantastic fun, yet some took the game a bit seriously and others a tad sore. Any ill feelings, though, were dismissed after when we ate at a Viking-themed restaurant. I had to have the lengua (cow tongue). Delicioso.

Be sure to check aggiesforchrist.org for AFCSA updates, as well all the other trips out across the world.

Take care.

Chile won the game, that knocks Bolivia out of the World Cup run. By the way the situation in Bolivia is not getting any better - civil war may break out soon. Tonight, Chile plays Venezuela to determine which will progress, Brasil plays as well.

Chi-Chi-Chi Le-Le-Le Vive Chile

Today we returned from a fabulous retreat. On AFCO and AFCSA there are 42, a domino game, tournaments. Players are randomly selected in pairs and set up on a bracket system. The final losers after several rounds must eat some thing “nasty.” Well I was paired with Reid, one of our trip leaders, and we lost. Our prize was to eat cow tongue, lengua - I actually love lengua tacos, and cow rectum, potito.

The retreat was great to refresh the missionaries that don’t get English fellowship often. It also was a refresher for us in the middle of our trip. Late today, we are heading back out to several Santiago universities to make new contacts with students and invite students to the many activities we have this next week.

Take care.

Currently it’s 15°C (59°F).

Tonight we are all going to a World Cup qualifying match between Chile and Bolivia. I saw on the news several times in Brasil that Bolivia is having some problems. Natives are protesting in the capital for better energy resource prices.

From cnn.com:

Rumors of a coup have persisted as protests convulse South America’s poorest nation. Leftist peasant groups are calling for a new constitution and the nationalization of Bolivia’s natural gas reserves, while provinces rich in natural resources demand more regional autonomy.

Yesterday we visited a private British school, St. Gabriels, we had a grand time playing Jeopardy in English with two classes. There, we met a Brit, Sarah, who was very plesant and great to talk to about the recent elections in Britain.

Today was a day of activities for kids that we invited from the school visits. I think because we invited them so late in the day, only a few showed up. Oh well, we had a great time singing, acting, eating empanadas, eating bananas, and playing fútbol.

I hope all is well at home. Take care.

Dance

I am so excited, I had to grab Katie and dance.