First, a brief introduction of the people I'll be working with this summer. There are eleven of us from all over the US, either in college or recently graduated. A married couple, Nathan and Kelly, is leading the project, and there are 4 other guys and 5 other girls. We'll be spending our days at some of the universities in the city sharing the Gospel and getting to know students there.
Last Thursday (May 26), I flew from Indy to Dallas, getting there around 3. The flight was delayed a little thanks to all the rain, but I was still able to meet up with my group on time. Our flight to Santiago was supposed to leave at 10:30 PM, so we had time to talk about what the trip would be like and get to know one another. Only it didn't leave then. When we went over to the gate, we found out that hail had damaged the plane and it wouldn't be leaving until the next morning at 9. We were given hotel rooms and breakfast the next day, so we spent the night in the most brightly decorated hotel I've ever seen. Everything was red, blue and yellow, there were gummy bears on the pillow and a rubber ducky in the bathroom. I think it was a preschool that was turned into a hotel without time to redecorate.
The next morning, we couldn't all fit in one shuttle back to the airport since all of the people from the flight had been sent to the same hotel, so we waited until the drivers got the hotel bus running. Getting out onto the street, someone pulled up next to the bus and said that bags were falling out of the back, so we stopped and picked them up. After we got a little further, someone else pulled up and said that other bags had fallen out at the hotel, so we had to go back for those. From our group, my bag and another girl's bag fell out.
Back at the airport, we only had an hour to get through security, so we were rushing a little, since we wanted to get our breakfasts there. But then the flight was delayed again, and then again after that. Around 10, twelve hours after we were originally supposed to leave, we finally got on the plane. Then we sat at the terminal while some bags were removed because the owners hadn't come back for the new flight. We finally took off around 11. The flight went really well. We saw some really cool scenery out our windows, including what could have been a volcano, and there was an adorable little boy sitting near us who kept talking to us in Spanish.
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| I think the one on the left is a volcano. |
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| My favorite painting in the hostel |
Some of the students who work with Crusade welcomed us at the hostel and gave us the typical Chilean dinner - sandwiches and coffee. Lunch is the biggest meal here, with a very small breakfast (cereal, bread and coffee), an afternoon snack and small dinner. The only coffee I've found here has been instant and not any good, which is surprising since Columbia is the next country over and has really good coffee. Since I found this out, I've been hunting for "cafe cafe", or real coffee, instead of instant. I have a few options, but I haven't had the chance to try them out yet. On the other hand, there is really good juice here. One day, I had what was basically a strained raspberry smoothie, which was great!
The next day, we learned about Chilean culture and history from Lisa and Bridgette, and two Chileans. We learned some common slang and why you shouldn't talk about politics here, because of the coup led by Augusto Pinochet in 1973. Even though he was responsible for torturing and killing many people, some people here still like him because his policies improved the economy; however, the families of the people tortured or worse hate him so much that some of them want to go back to the old economy and don't like the politicians who support anything he came up with.
That was the first few days. Soon, I post something on Cultural Heritage Day and what we've been doing this week.
