Til Til and Tah Tah

Hey everyone!  Greetings from very hot and sunny Chile!  We've approached or reached 100 degrees every day for the past week and we can all feel it.

Last week I went on a mission trip to Til Til with the students of San Esteban.  I arrived Friday morning and went right to work.  This picture is outside the house of Elizabeth, on the left, who made us lunch the first day.  We had porrotos, a bean/noodle/sausage soup.  It was delicious.

There were a few groups with different goals over the week.  Some students worked with the kids of the community, others cleaned up the school where we stayed, and our group transformed this plaza into what will become a playground.  Basically it was filled with trash and piles of dirt and the concrete slab on the right here.  We loaded all the dirt and concrete into a truck, leveled out the land, planted trees and flowers and painted the benches.  Hard work in extreme heat and dust.

The schedule every day was breakfast, work, lunch, rest, more work, dinner, sleep.  The cracks were filled in with cards, ping pong, soccer, and lots of Spanish conversation.  I was there with Sarah so we found some time for speaking English but for the most part it was all Spanish all the time.  We were in separate groups so on the job there was no English.  Great practice!

On Sunday we attended mass with the community.  We provided music.  The place was packed.  A great sense of love and involvement.

I mentioned ping pong as a way to pass the breaks.  These kids are intense about it.  They had a tournament which I stayed out of because I would have been quite embarrassed.  I find it fascinating that ping pong is such an international game.

Monday night I couldn't get a solid enough internet feed to stream the ND game so I watched it using ESPN's Gamecast.  Basically it would tell me what happened in each play.  That was plenty to know how badly we were beat.

The final result in the plaza was really quite nice.  We painted the benches bright primary colors and planted 36 plants all together including something like 10 trees.  The goal is to put in the playground style exercise equipment that is ubiquitous in South America.  The trees are to provide shade when they grow to maturity.

I'm not sure if post hole diggers don't exist in Chile or if our group didn't just have them, but we dug our holes with chisels.  A slow but effective process.  Then we lined the holes with manure to give the plants a shot.  They don't need much water which is good because the town of Til Til has been in drought for years.

I got back from Til Til this past Wednesday and immediately hit the pool to get all the dust off my body.  Thursday I traveled to the small town of Nogales where Lore's (my host mom) mother has her house.  This place was amazing.  They grow just about every fruit and vegetable imaginable on their property and it's beautiful.  You drive in under a trellis grown in with grape vines.

Lulu's husband passed away decades ago and she's been living with Alberto Carlos, or Charlie, for 19 years.  This bar is his pride and joy.  It's in a little shed behind the house.  It's a pretty cool spot.  It reminded me a little of Neruda's bar at the Isla Negra house.  There are collectibles all over the place, like that cash register on the right from the 20s that still works.

Charlie was in the military and it's evident in his organization.  His workshop and office are pristine.  Everything has its place and is impeccably labeled.

We had a great lunch out on their patio.  Charlie then proceeded, much to the chagrin of Lore and Lulu, to teach me some of the more colorful Chilean words and expressions.  He reminds me a little of my Uncle John Moebius.  Lots of life and interested in absolutely everything.

They gave me a tour of the grounds after we ate.  There are cool artifacts, statues, and fountains all over the place.  Lore's older sister rode in on this carriage on her wedding day and was married at the house.

They have a big avocado tree right in the front yard.  Cleme and I had some fun climbing the tree and yanking down the ripe ones with a long pole with a hook on the end.  Fresh avocados all summer?  I could get used to that.

Since coming to South America I  have become quite the fan of the avocado but I have never seen them growing on a tree.  There are hundreds and hundreds on them in the canopy.

While we mix guacamole in the states using onion, tomato, garlic and anything else you might want, down here it's most common to just mix the avocado with salt and put it on bread.

I love the old fashioned method they use to counterweight the door.  The bag of sand applies an inward force on the door via the pulley to close it.  Simple and effective.

Friday was my last day at San Nicolas for the year, so summer vacation has officially begun!  The plums in the Barrios' back yard are perfectly ripe so this weekend I've been helping myself to plenty of them.  It's just me and Clemente at the house so it's been very tranquilo, as the Chileans say.

Yesterday afternoon I picked about 50 plums (in the green bowl) and just lounged in the pool.  Summer has definitely arrived.

Today is my last day with the Barrios.  They have been so good to me.  My thanks go out to them for a really fantastic 3 months.  Tonight I'll be moving into my apartment in Santiago where I'll live for the year.  I'll only be there tonight though, then my travels begin.  As promised, here are my plans.


Tomorrow night I start a journey to Papeete, Tahiti via airports in Lima, Peru and Los Angeles.  I'll be taking a cruise of the French Polynesian islands.  The cruise is 11 days and will hit 9 of the most beautiful islands in the world.  Here's a map.  It's tough to imagine the expanse of the islands--apparently all together (including the Leeward Islands which we won't be visiting) they cover an area 18 times the size of California but have a land mass only slightly larger than Rhode Island.  I have 3 dives booked: Moorea, Bora Bora, and Rangiroa, which is supposed to have the best shark viewing in the world.  Keep your eyes open for blog posts.

After a 2 day rest back in Santiago, my South American travels begin.  Here's a map to  follow along.  I'm heading South to Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia Chile.  There I'll complete a 5 day hike known as "The W" with a fellow teacher at San Nicolas.  I then cross into Argentina to fly to Bariloche for a few days where I'll meet Caitlin, one of last year's ChACErs.  On Valentines Day we'll cross from Argentina to Chile via a system of 3 lakes nestled in the Andes to Puerto Varas.  After a couple days exploring the island of Chiloe, we'll fly from Puerto Montt to Rio de Janeiro Brazil.  We'll spend a week there, then hop to Iguazu Falls for one day before returning to Santiago on the 26th of February.  Professional days start at San Nicolas the 27th.  It's going to be a very full very fun summer.  Please know that you are all in my prayers, and I hope you'll keep me in yours.  I'll be in contact as much as possible while I'm traveling, but if I get backed up please know that I'll document everything here eventually.  Thanks for following along on all my adventures!  "Tah Tah" for now.