Wednesday was the birthday of Perla, one of the university students; and Friday was Scott’s birthday. Wednesday we celebrated egg-free, Perla is allergic, with some delicious ice cream. Today we celebrated Scott’s birthday with an asado. Remember my dieciocho post? Chileans love bbqs; and I do too. It was quite good. I’ll let the photos do the talking. I finally loaded some. Enjoy.
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.
I came down to the retreat site with Scott and Holly Emery. A bit, over half the trip to the south we stopped at Salto del Laja. Salto del Laja is a waterfall in the eighth region of Chile, north of the town of Los Angeles. It’s a spectacular gem off the highway and was quite calming to fall asleep to. Our hotel room was probably 100 feet from the falling water.
The 18 of September is the day Chile celebrates their independence, it’s patria. It is the equivalent to Fourth of July. Celebrations usually last a week, some schools are out for two! Along with Christmas, it is one of the most important times of the year for Chileans.
It’s a great time of the year. Chileans seem to be happier and friendlier, not to say that they are not friendly people. I love it because we get together with some of the other congregations of Santiago and have a BIG BBQ. Choripan, pebre, and pollo asado, can I say more? It’s a wonderful time to fellowship.
What’s funny about Fiestas Patrias? Well, all apartment buildings have flag poles and Chilean law requires that the Chilean flag be flown during the dieciocho season. Odd.
Well the mission team is taking advantage of the holiday and going on a week long retreat to the south. Should be fun.
Feliz fiestas patrias!
Falling back in to place in my Chilean life was not so hard. I am in the same apartment working with the same people, so it’s not so difficult to hop back in the groove of things. Of course, it was a change of weather - it’s still a bit cool most of the days, but if the sun comes out it warms up nicely. It’s a bit like Texas in weather change sometimes - morning:cold, afternoon:warm, evening:cool.
I have a friend in town already. Well, that is, he’s here on business. Erich is my sister’s husband’s sister’s husband. As Erich said, If you told someone you were hanging out with your brother-in-law’s brother-in-law, it would sound as if you were just hanging out with yourself - loser! It’s been good getting to know him more since Meredith and Kelly wedded. His wife and he have two cute children. He’s been out of the country for going on three weeks now. Not easy I am sure being away from the family that long. Makes me think of my dad’s time on TDY in foreign places when I was younger. You miss him and are excited when he comes back with interesting stuff from abroad.
Yesterday was an excellent day. It was a long day, but an extraordinary day. The Deans, one of the five missionary families, announced their decision to return to the USA in March. It was impressive to hear Mark say, “No volvemos a nuestro hogar, porque no es nuestro hogar. Aquí, Chile es nuestro hogar. (We do not return home, because it (USA) is not home. Here, Chile is our home. That was quite an emotional time for many of the congregation - many tears. Afterwards, as we always do, the jóvenes (young people) lunch together and then we headed to a local children’s home on the other side of town called Luz de Cristo to make decorations and decorate the home for upcoming Fiestas Patrias or Dieciocho or Fiestas Dieciocheras or Celebraciones de la Chilenidad or whatever you want to call it. More to come as the holiday approaches. It was great fun playing and making the decorations with the kids. Afterwards we played a little Guitar Hero where I rocked out on Ballroom Blitz. Scott, one of the missionaries, did a pretty good job too. I thought he would crash. In the evening I was able to see Federer win the US Open and with all the male missionaries watch the Cowboys game - not my favorite thing to do, but it was a good to hang out together.
Mondays are my days off. So after bumming around at the apartment all day, I got out and bought some groceries. More importantly I carried them home in my cloth bags brought all the way with me so I don’t have to tote my groceries around in plastic. Plastic bags suck!
And at the moment, I am watching the Dean and Hatcher kids while they’re out dining with friends in town. Pride and Prejudice is on in the background.
Cheers.
