Vamos a la playa!

View of El Quisco from the beach

The final few days of my trip to Chile were spent in El Quisco, a small city on the Pacific coast.  We used the time to relax and prepare for the transition back home.  Like everything else on the trip, there were delays and setbacks.

The original plan was to take a van and truck from the Sede to the coast, so we were supposed to be at the Sede 9:30 that morning.  As usual, we left the hostel late, but we still beat the van.  It didn't show up until around 11, so we played with the boys for a while and went to get some coffee and snacks for the trip.  While we were gone, the van came, but the truck wouldn't start.  Nathan spent a while trying to fix it, switching the battery with the one from another car, trying to jump it, all to no avail.  After a while, Chen (the ministry supporter who took us to his restaurant earlier in the trip and who rented the van for us) took the van and the people inside it to rent another car for us to take, and apparently pick up some things he had forgotten.  After a really long time that included some singing on the part of those of us who stayed at the Sede, the group came back with a two door sedan, which needed to hold four people and luggage, so it was a little cramped.  It was the same in the van, especially in the back row, which had absolutely no leg room.

Trying to fix the battery

Cleaning off the jumper
cables with Coke

 

Our extra car

 

Becky and I stuffed into the back seat

Before leaving Santiago, Chen took everyone to lunch at a very authentic Chinese restaurant.  Belinda loved it, since it was similar to the food her family makes, and it was really good.

The view from our porch

It rained all day, so we didn't get to see much of the town and spent lots of time sitting around the fire in our cabin.  During dinner, we talked a little about our favorite parts of the trip and what God had taught us through it.  Afterwards, we got to learn how to heat the girls' cabin and turn on the water heater.  Both were rather dangerous, so we had to shut everything off at night and when no one was in the cabin.

The guys' cabin

The girls' cabin

The next day didn't start on time either.  Omar was still getting ready when our meeting was supposed to start, and we heard one of the showers starting up, so we assumed it was him.  Thinking that it would speed Omar along, Nathan decided to turn off the water heater.  Unfortunately, it was Chen in the shower, not Omar.  Nathan tried to relight the water heater, but it didn't work.  It was funny, but we all felt bad for Chen.

Part of Casa de Isla Negra

There was much better weather that day, so we went to visit another of Pablo Neruda's homes, Casa de Isla Negra, which was in a nearby town.  We didn't go through this one, but walked around the gardens, which had a beautiful view of the ocean.  In the afternoon, Belinda, Becky and I went on a walk around the town, looking around and getting a few more souvenirs.  Becky left a little early to meet with Kelly, and Belinda and I went down to the beach and watched the sun set, which was absolutely gorgeous.

Since the trip was about getting us prepared to come home, we had typical American dinners: Mexican and Italian food.  Coming home and how to describe the trip was what we focused on in our meetings, too, talking about how many people we had gotten to talk to at the universities we went to.  I had pictures of this, but they disappeared somewhere.

We went back to Santiago on the 2nd of July, going to the Sede to have one last coffee break with the staff, which included real coffee!  We talked for a while, and prayed for one another after that, then went to the airport.  There, a bunch of our Chilean friends met us to say goodbye.  Juan Carlos had drawn pictures for each of us, so we had everyone write us notes on the back.  We also played a few more games of ninja just before going through security.

 The flight home was pretty good, but it was a little delayed.  The lighting wasn't working, so there wasn't much we could do other than sleep or watch the movie.  I decided to sleep, and got at least a few hours.  Since we left late, a couple of the guys on our team missed their flights home, but were able to get on later ones.  Tanner thought he could make his flight, so he had to run off as soon as we got through customs.  After that, we said our last goodbyes and the Kansas City group left to drive home and Becky went to catch her flight.  The rest of us had a few hours, so we decided to hang out and get lunch.  The rest of the afternoon, we dropped people off as they went to their gates.  I was one of the last to leave, so I got to go all over the airport to say goodbye to everyone.  My flight home was good, and so was the drive back from the airport.

Thanks for reading, everyone, and all the prayers and support for my trip.  I'm not sure what's going to happen with the blog now that I'm home, but I'm going to try and keep it going.  Thanks again!

Acción Urbana

During the last weekend in June, Vida Estudiantil had service projects set up.  We lived and worked in some of the better neighborhoods of Santiago, so these activities showed us some of life in the rest of the city.

Sunday morning, we went to an orphanage, where we were going to play with the kids and have a little party for them.  The day got off to a pretty slow start, since we were waiting over an hour for everyone who said they were coming to arrive.  Admittedly, the plan had changed very abruptly when we had to change the orphanage we were visiting, so there was some reason for it.  While waiting, a bunch of the guys left to pick up speakers and other equipment from the Sede.  After finally getting to the orphanage, we still had to wait for them to get there before we could get started.

Nice and organized, before the
children descended

In the midst of the chaos

When we finally started, I found out that I was going to be helping paint nails and do makeup for the little girls, mostly since I'm one of two girls on the trip who wore makeup regularly.  I thought this would be fun, because I've done stuff like this with girls from church, but this was completely different.  There were bunches of little girls swarming the table and grabbing everything, so lots of my time was spent getting back the makeup, instead of putting it on.  It was still fun, though.

The results of the little girls getting a hold of the brushes

Later, we had the party with snacks and lots of dancing.  We also gave out the bracelets we had made and the kids seemed to really like them. 

Monday, we had a birthday party for Bridgette, a girl from the States who works with Vida Estudiantil.  It was a lot of fun to relax with our friends for an afternoon.  There was yummy food and guitar playing, as well as randomly singing the national anthems of all the countries represented (The US, Chile, and Germany).

Warming up by the grill

Random moments of patriotism

That night, we went out to give sandwiches and tea/coffee to homeless people.  We started a little late, so most of them had gone to sleep to conserve heat before we could offer them food.  At the very beginning, though, the group I was in talked with a woman who had studied engineering, and she kept asking us math questions.  People kept telling her to talk to me about it, but she was drunk, so she just kept repeating herself.

Tuesday, we went to help at a special needs school, and the day started by waiting an hour for everyone to show up because different meeting times had been said for this, too.  At the school, we split into groups to work on different projects, including fixing some of the doors, cementing new stones in the patio, and cleaning up their garden.  I volunteered for the last group, because I was expecting it to be overgrown, maybe with some trash or old equipment in it.  I was completely wrong.  The garden had been used more like a trash heap than anything else, with old construction materials, bus signs, and an old air compressor in it.  We had also been warned about extremely lethal spider that might be in the garden, which completely freaked me out, so I wasn't so useful after I found out.

Before lunch, a water pipe was cracked somehow, so we stayed later to make sure it was fixed.  While waiting, people worked on the arbor over the main walkway, securing the crossbeams, and we did the cha cha slide a few times.  It was finally fixed by gluing part of another pipe over the crack, so hopefully that holds.

The temporary fix

Since it was out last night in Santiago, a bunch of our friends came over to hang out for a while.  It was fun, but really sad, since it was the last time we were able to hang out with them.

That night, Belinda and Anne Marie made brownies and peanut butter squares, so we all chilled in the kitchen with the baked goods and watching our Chileans friends plan to surprise us at the airport, even though we'd heard about it earlier in the day and could see the Facebook event for it.  We also checked how long it would take to drive to everyone's homes so we could hang out back in the States.  Luckily for me, one of the other girls on the team lives in Maryland, so I should be able to visit her a lot.

Final Week on Campus

We finished up our campus ministry the week of June 20.  All week, we thought we wouldn't be able to work on campus for various reasons like the weather and protests, but it was a good week anyway.

Monday, we were warned that because of the rainy, cold weather, there might not be many students on campus and it was probably better to stay at the hostel to set up meetings with people we had met before.  My team had a prayer meeting at UNAB that morning, so we went out for that, planning to see what it was like on campus and maybe come back if no one was around.  We were able to find plenty of people to talk to, and had some encouraging conversations, especially with one girl at the end of the day.  (Unfortunately, we didn't get her info, so I couldn't try to talk to her again.)

Ronaldo providing our after dinner entertainment

Tuesday, we went to UDP expecting not to have much to do, because we had been told by Ronaldo (our friend at UDP) that they were protesting.  We still went because some of the other protesting schools still had students milling around, so we decided to give it a shot.  It turned out to just be the humanities and social science students who were protesting, so we went to the medical and psychology buildings to talk to people.  This was a little harder than usual, since the students were less open to discussing spiritual things.  We got to meet Ronaldo's girlfriend for the first time, since she had just gotten back from studying in Argentina.  She was really nice, and brought out his playful side, which I didn't realize he had.  That night, we went to dinner at his home, which was a lot of fun.  It was the typical Chilean sandwiches and coffee, but we also had a cake with manjar in the middle that his mother had made us, which was great.

View from Ronaldo's apartment

Derek took a nap after dinner, and we wanted a picture,
 but he woke up before we could try again.

Wednesday was our usual day of English clubs, which went really well, but was sad because those were the last classes at two schools.  I also tried to teach some swing dance moves after the second one, and it didn't go great, mostly because I hadn't taught a swing lesson before, let alone in Spanish.

Walking from UNAB to AIEP for our second English Club of the day

Thursday was the last day at Alberto Hurtado and our last English Club.  We tried to set up meetings with some of our friends there to talk and share the gospel, but all of these were interrupted by another march by the students.  We were waiting for people around lunch time when a bunch of students came back and seemed to bring some pepper spray back with them.  This was even worse than what we felt the week before, making us all tear up and sneeze a lot, but we decided to stay since it was the last time we would be on campus.  During lunch and English Club, we had lots of good talks with our friends.

Friday, we tried to reconnect with people we'd talked to before, but only one of our meetings actually happened.  It was great, though.  We talked a lot to Sebastian (the guy on the right in the picture above), and got to share the gospel with him.  After we finished, he said he wanted to think more about it because no one had ever explained it to him like that before, which was really encouraging.

Friday night, we had a going away party, which was lots of fun, but made me realize how little time was left in Santiago.  It was lots of fun, which traditional Chilean foods and mate, a type of tea they have.  There was also a cuaca contest, which Becky won!

At the end, the Chilean staff gave us all Chilean flags as a parting gift and talked about what we had done while we were here, which was really sad, but nice to remember with everyone.



Saturday, we had a day completely free, which was great.  It started with breakfast made by the guys, which was really sweet of them.

Our Menu

My omelet, which was great

¿Tienes café café? Or, Please tell me you sell real coffee!

Strike one:  I've had this box
with 10 packets of coffee since
the first week and haven't used
it all yet

Coming to Chile, I thought there would be good coffee here, since Colombia is nearby and they have great coffee.  Upon arrival, I learned just how wrong I was.  Most places only serve instant coffee.  Having never tried instant coffee, I thought it might be okay.  I was wrong about that, too.  Since we got here, I've been looking for a decent cup of coffee and have had various amounts of success with espresso and similar drinks, as shown below.

First, I tried something from the grocery store similar to the International Coffeehouse flavored powders.  It wasn't great, so I tried to mix it with the instant coffee.  That was worse.  I kept asking people about where I could get real coffee, and everyone told me to go to Starbucks, which seems a little silly in a foreign country, since I can get that at home, or a Colombian chain cafe, but I haven't found one of those yet.  We have had some brewed coffee at meetings with the Crusade team here, but it's really, really weak.

During the first week here, I had an iced coffee that was decent, but after that, I didn't find anything good until last week, when I got a cappuccino while waiting for the bus to Valparaiso on Saturday.  Since it was a bus stop coffee stand, I had very low expectations, but it was really good.

Monday, I had to go buy a new plug adapter for my computer since I lost mine, and on the way, I stumbled upon a street full of coffee shops, including a Starbucks.  (I checked their website after getting back, and there are two right there, one on either side of the metro stop).  Since I finally had options, I decided to go to one of the local shops and got another cappuccino.  It was better than the first, and I got cookies with it!

Cappuccino Tuesday

Last week, I also found a Colombian cafe near our hostel.  They only have espresso drinks, even though they use french presses as decoration. I've been there three times this week (unfortunately, I don't have enough time for it to be a daily thing), and it's all really good, but the cappuccino was my favorite (and it's much prettier than the rest).  I still want a plain cup of coffee, though, and the only place I know has it is Starbucks, so I might have to break down and visit them.

Latte Thursday

Macchiato Friday

Colorful Houses, the Ocean, and Rain

Last Saturday, we took a bus to Valparaiso, which used to be the most important port in the country.  It is also the home of the Chilean national congress, which moved from Santiago at the end of the dictatorship of Pinochet.  The trip was for us to take a break and do a little sightseeing outside Santiago, and breath clean air after so long in Santiago.

The bus station in Santiago

My nice coffee

The day started out with problems.  We first got off the train at the wrong metro station, meaning that we'd only get to the buses right on time to board.  When we got to the bus stop, we found out that even though Nathan had called to confirm the time we were leaving, only two of our tickets had been confirmed.  This meant that those two had to take the first bus, and the rest of us had to wait for the next one, leaving 15 minutes later.  Luckily, one of the staff members here went with them because she had planned to show us around the city and her ticket was fine.  While waiting, I went and got a cappuccino, which was the nice cup of coffee I'd had until then.  (There's probably going to be a post soon comparing all of the different types of coffee I've had here, complete with pictures.)  The bus ride was pretty short (about an hour and a half) and it went through the mountains, so I took lots of pictures.

One of several vineyards we passed

When we got to Valparaiso, it was pouring, only the second time it had rained since we've been in Chile.  We went to a cafe nearby and had lunch while we waited for the rain to stop.  I had cazuela, a traditional soup with a quarter of a chicken (complete with bones and skin), chunks of pumpkin (also with the skin on), a whole potato, and part of a cob of corn.  By the time we finished eating, the rain had stopped, so we walked through the city to our hostel.  On the way, we gathered a following of seven stray dogs who made sure no one got in our way, protected us from the cars around us, and made sure we all stayed together.

This house was in tons of the postcards
I saw around the city

The hostel was really nice.  The owners are Christian couple who decided to turn their home into a hostel after their children moved out because they didn't need all of the space anymore.  Saturday afternoon, we were only there long enough to put our stuff away and pay for the rooms, but they were really nice to us.  Sunday, they made scrambled eggs with cheese and ham for us and gave us mil hojas, a cake kind of like baklava with manjar layers, which was a wonderful departure from the bread and cereal we have every morning in Santiago (the cake was a little sweet for breakfast, but good.)

The girls' room

La Sebastiana

We then wandered through the city down to the port.  The city was really cool to see, because all of the houses were bright colors and there are murals on the walls by the streets.  The city is built on hills, so all the streets are really steep and several of the alleys have staircases off to the side.  At the port, we looked through the souvenir shops a little before deciding to go to La Sebastiana, one of the homes of Pablo Neruda.  He had a very eclectic assortment of furniture and things he collected displayed throughout the house, so it was very interested to look through.

Afterwards, we went to dinner at J. Cruz, which was recommended by just about everyone we talked to as the best place to get chorriana, a dish with french fries, meat, onions and eggs.  Some people on the team had tried it before and it sounded good, but the dishes came out with pools of grease and fat on the bottom, so it wasn't very appealing.  It was a fun evening though, and we went back to the hostel to rest and chill.

Our guard dog for the day, Brutus
(as named by us)

Sunday, we had a church service where we watched a sermon by John Piper on evangelism and the hostel owners joined us.  Between then and lunch, most of the girls went to explore the city and pick out souvenirs and other things.  I got a new purse to replace the one I brought from the States that was falling apart.  The new one is really cute and seems really well made for as cheap as it was.  For lunch, we went to a very nice seafood restaurant in the port that was delicious and totally made up for dinner the night before.  I had grilled salmon with shrimp, and fruit salad with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate sauce for dessert.  So far, this has been my 3rd favorite meal, behind the sushi and the barbecue.

After lunch, we talked for a little while about what the next couple of weeks will be like, especially introducing the people we've met to members of the Chilean staff so they'll be connected after we leave.  Then we went to the bus station to come home.