Colina, Clue, and Encountering Christ

Hello again!  I was out of town all of last week so I apologize for the lack of post.  There will be two in a row here to make up for it.  To those of you that were on my case: thank you, and keep it up!

There is a giant foothill behind our house in Chicureo.  The town of Colina (which means "hill") is close by and it's easy to see why.  There are hills everywhere!

Naturally I had to climb this hill.  My host dad, Juan Pablo, has done it many times so we set out on the morning of Saturday Oct. 27 to do some exploring.  Clemente and his friend came along for the hike as well.

It started with climbing over a barbed wire fence (sorry, Mom).  I think the property is technically private land for breeding horses, but if that's the case I certainly never heard about it.

Here's the view of our condominium complex called Chicureo III.  The view from the top was spectacular.  The Andes were tough to make out because of clouds and pollution but the hills and landscapes were beautiful.

This is the view to the west and a little north.  It only took a few seconds of staring at this body of water to realize that it's a man-made lake designed for a water ski course.  There are islands at both ends to absorb rollers.  I was really excited at the prospect of having a ski lake only a couple miles away but it's a privately maintained course owned by the properties surrounding it.  Looks like I'll have to make some friends or find another lake.

The "top" of the hill that we saw from the ground wasn't really the top.  It connects to a series of other colinas by a ridge line.  We found all kinds of horses up here.  It's tough to see but on the left side of this picture there are 2 gauchos (Chilean cowboys) inspecting, feeding, and taking care of the horses.

Here we are at the peak you can see in the first picture.  We hiked up the second hill as well.  I'm hoping to make the hike with my dad on Christmas Day.  That will be quite the culture shock--it should be in the 90s with strong sun.

Here's a view of our hose from the top of the hill.  The yard is really beautiful.  Lots of trees and a great garden.  Apparently they have an army of plum trees and they're going to start blooming soon.  I love plums.  I can't wait.

Saturday night was the annual ChACE Halloween party.  Halloween is not yet a very big holiday in Chile although it's getting more popular.  To give the Chileans a taste of what it's like in the states the ChACErs always pull out all the stops.  Since there are 2 groups here now (the teachers that will finish in December and those like me who are just starting) we have something of an unspoken group costume contest.  We chose Clue.  Here I am as Colonel Mustard with the revolver.

The current group went with the batman villains, and they did a great job.  Here is Emily as the Joker.  Other villains included Two Face, Cat Woman, Bane, Penguin, Poison Ivy, and Batman himself.

Everyone had great costumes.  Greg and Eamon (former ChACErs) came as Epic Meal Time.  If you haven't heard of it, check it out on Youtube.  Basically they mix lots of "manly" foods together like bacon, meat, cheese, and whiskey (there is always whiskey) then it's consumed by the character "muscle glasses" pictured here.  The cuisine of choice tonight was an entire pizza folded around a churasco sandwich (sliced beef with avocado, tomato, cheese and mayo), 2 hot dogs with the same toppings, enough bacon to require 2 pigs, and a healthy dose of Jack Daniels.  It was actually pretty good.

For anyone that doesn't understand this costume, watch this video.  I think this was my favorite of the night.  Nice job, Phil!

The ND/Oklahoma game was on at the same time as the party so lots of us were watching periodically online.  What a game!  Irish were 8-0 after the big win.  Now of course we're 9-0 after a nail-biter against Pitt.  Why do we try to throw away the easy ones??  BC this weekend, I picked us to win as my highest confidence game on ESPN's pick-em.  Sure hope that was a good idea.  Go Irish!

Here's the whole Clue group.  Mustard, White, Plum, the dead body, Peacock, Scarlet, and Green (with the modern Hipster interpretation added by Dan Faas himself).

I was rather surprised at our school's reaction to halloween.  They take extreme precautions to tell the students that devil worship and pagan practices are wrong and shouldn't be taken lightly.  I think it's interesting that in the states Halloween has pretty much degenerated into trick-or-treating and parties and not much more.  If we're going to worry about pagan practices then we'll have to do away with Christmas trees and the Easter Bunny as well.

On Monday I taught the first 4 periods of the day then headed out to the coast for Octavo Adventura, the 8th grade retreat.  It was near the remote beach town of El Tabo, a YMCA camp called Guayopolis.  It was a great location.  Here's a view of the cabins.  The forest separates them from the beach.

The first activity after I arrived was a skit, testimony, and song.  I love retreats.  We had a great young team that was very dedicated to the 8th graders' experience and I got to know the pastoral ministry leaders a lot better.  I'm looking forward to working with them more.

I was promptly broght down to this part of the forest to be "initiated".  I had missed this activity and all the students wanted to see if I could get over the rod unassisted.  I made it, but I realized that I need to get back into the habit of going to the gym.  No pictures of me (sorry Mom) but you get the idea.

There were no explicit plans to be at the beach at sunset (thanks again to Justin and the ACE Commencement retreat team for making that happen over the summer) but I ran down to catch the end.  I love watching sunsets over water.

As we were heading down to the beach for the bonfire the moon was spectacular.  Here's a shot I got of it through a hole in the trees.  I also know the moon caused extra problems for those on the East Coast of the U.S.  I thought a lot about the hurricane over these three days.  My thoughts and prayers are still with you all.

The fire was nice--the nights were pretty cold.  I had to work for a while to get the angle right on this shot but I'm happy with the result.  Personally I find God most in nature and having the moon, the fire, and the ocean all in the same place was very spiritual.

I was very much in my wacky retreat mode.  I even gave a testimony about choosing God--in Spanish!  I think they understood the most of it.  It was great to experience faith in another language and I'm looking forward to more.

Another picture of me, Mom!  You're welcome :)

Having Gringos around the school is a pretty new concept to San Nicolás.  They've only had teachers from the U.S. for two years now.  On the last night we had a show where each of the three tribes had to prepare a presentation.  The theater group acted out what had been going on at retreat and Jordi was charged with the part of Noah.  He borrowed my hat and glasses and did a pretty good job.  His accent was appropriately atrocious.

Our tribe had the musical role.  They did a great job.  We performed three songs with Profe Juan leading us on guitar.  The gringo, yours truly, even danced some Gangnam Style.  Because I'm guessing the demographic reading this blog might not know what that is, you can see the original music video here.  The singer, Psy, has said the goal is to "Dress Classy and Dance Cheesy".

Rodrigo Montes is the head of pastoral ministry at all three Diacono schools.  He is a deacon and did a great job with the retreat.  He and his wife have been working in retreats for something like 20 years.  We had Eucharist every morning for all who wanted to participate and had 2 very moving services in the sand, the latter shown here.

Before leaving on Wednesday afternoon we went to the beach one more time to let the kids run around.  They have so much energy!  We had a group picture, packed up, and headed out.  Job well done.

To connect the dots a bit...Thursday and Friday the 1st and 2nd were days off from school for All Saints and All Souls days.  Thursday I went to mass with a group of ChACErs then we went to Costanera Center to see the new Bond movie which came out in Chile on the 1st.  I went back to the ChACE apartment, packed up, and flew off to San Pedro in the Atacama Desert for 4 days.  I'm working on that post now so stay tuned!