I am currently at a school where I volunteer weekly. I was talking to a friend, Isabel, about general discipline of students, the importance of parents’ active involvement in students’ lives, and so on. We started talking about the importance of teachers and how in England, Isabel’s home, and in the USA there is a general disrespect afforded to teachers. This is clearly reflected in their pay. Which is sad, because, as she said, “the teacher is more than just someone teaching the students something; they are their social workers and involved beyond the classroom.” She contrasted it to rural Indian teachers where they are some of the most important members of the villages; highly respected. It’s great that somewhere teachers are truly respected.

Who are YOU?

What are YOU doing here?

Last Sunday was a gathering of local churches to celebrate Fiestas Patrias, as I mentioned previously, worshiping together and with an ASADO! Woo! It was superb. Choripan (sausage in a roll) by the dozen! I love Chilean asados almost as much as Brazilian BBQ. I saw Melissa and Manuel Soto and their little new baby. I find myself saying to babies “Dame un beshito.” Rocío is to blame for that. That afternoon I headed out with Scott, Holly, and their kids to southern Chile. We had a good time. Scott can talk, so long car rides are perfect for some good discussion. He also has pretty good taste in music. We stayed the night at Salto del Laja.

The next day we went to Temuco to meet up with an old youth from the church that moved there with his family, Jean (’Jon’) Franco. Oh man, his mom made some excellent pino empanadas. Delicious! We hung out for a few hours and then took off to Trailanqui.

A typical day at Trailanqui was: waking up to a typical Chilean breakfast, a small devotional with the families, some activity with the kids, a round of disc golf, lunch, maybe more disc golf or kite flying or something, hanging with Mark and Jeff, card/dominoes games, devo prior to dinner, dinner, goodnight kids, then more games, bed. Yeah. It was fun. Sprinkle in an evening of prayer, two massages, Rook, Boggle, and Farkle - you’ve got a superb retreat.

We came back Friday. We listened to The Muppet Show, Paul Simon, that girl the sings “Put Your Record On,” and I think that was it. Oh we painted the youth room upstairs and installed some shelves in the intern office Saturday. Fun stuff.

So yesterday it was a comfortable 78°F most of the day. We had a small rain shower over night and at the moment it’s 47°F. At least it’s not like the Northeast where it dumped this past week. I hope there is enough show in CO for some great skiing and maybe the cherry blossoms will come early in DC.