so my flight into Atlanta was delayed a few hours, I almost lost my carry-on luggage, and I made it to my connecting flight just in time to board. Andrea, however, did not. SO I flew solo to Santiago, where I met up with the other volunteers and explored the city a little bit.
Santiago has a European feel to it, with stately buildings and plazas filled with artists. There are orange and lemon trees laden with fruit, and you can see Spring budding on all the trees and pushing its way out of the earth with a green that almost glows.
Andrea flew in the following night, so we got her from the airport and took a bus to Chillan, about 4.5 hours south. The entire drive we were surrounded by mountains on both sides, although we cannot see them from here in Chillan.
We'll be staying at Casa Ursulina, the women's center, for the next several months before we move in with host families. I have a tiny room in back, painted bright sky blue with a window that looks out over the garden. Our part of the house has 2 small bedrooms for us, a little office, and a bathroom. The shower can get warm (thanks to some electrical contraption) although there is no water pressure to speak of. We have no heat in the house, but there is enough electricity for us to put our space heaters on low. Most of the rest of the rooms in the house are multi-use and almost always full of people. There are about 3 different classes going on here every afternoon that Andrea and I will be visiting for the next few weeks.
Ah yes, and we have 6 cats.
The houses in the neighborhood are mostly one-story and are painted bright colors. All of them have cement fences in front and decorative bars on the windows. There seem to be dogs and cats everywhere I look. It's been overcast here all week, but it seems like it's starting to warm up a little bit. Usually I wear long underwear, pants, wool socks, a tank top, a long-sleeved shirt, a couple sweaters, and a scarf.
At night we sleep with hot water bottles - of course, the first night in Chillan I woke up at about 3 am b/c I was soaked! Sure enough my water bottle had leaked everywhere. I thought about ignoring it, but realized that I might be an icicle by morning.... Since then, though, I have had no repeat incidents.
This weekend we went to a big fundraiser party where they had about 5 or 6 live folkloric bands and they performed the Cueca, which is their traditional dance. We also got together with some people for dinner and some card games. I'm realizing that I will be drinking lots of red wine and tea, and attempting to stuff as much food down as I can so I don't seem rude.
Believe it or not I went to Church this morning.... attempting to learn Chilean Spanish and get to know the community. THe priest is...hmmm... Interesting, shall I say? Started off his homily today talking about crosses, and how we have to bear them. for example, if a woman is married to an abusive alcoholic, he is her cross to bear. She doesn't necessarily have to be cheerful when he is beating her, but the next day she should make certain not to nag him about his behavior. Being angry with him, you see, would be unChristian! Men must also bear the cross of having lazy wives who neglect their housework.... AND, questioning the Church and Catholic faith will have terrible consequences because Catholicism is the only way to Jesus and eternal life.
the good news, I guess, is that some of the people seem to disagree with him.
