There have been numerous events and parties leading up to today that will carry over through the weekend.
Last Friday we went to El Libertador, the school where Kristy and Caryn teach English, for their celebrations. The event was held outdoors in their recess area, and everyone was seated around the edges in a square. In the middle of this square were 6 chairs, and we volunteers randomly had to sit there with the 2 school directors! As we had been planning on leaving early, we were a bit taken aback at being spontaneously made the guests of honor. Of course we stayed for the whole thing, and were treated to lots of music and cueca dancing. And yes, I did take the video that's in my last blog! The two little kids who won the cueca contest performed a few songs for us, and then each member of the pair chose a partner from the audience. The girl chose the school director, and the boy chose me! Believe me, I have no idea how to dance cueca, but I tried my best and everyone got a good laugh.
Saturday the Casa had its annual fundraising party, and we spent a couple of days getting ready for the event. All of the women who participate at the house were obligated to help, and so the house was full of women making empanadas, hanging up decorations, and preparing all of the other traditional foods. Hundreds of people came to the party, where we had live music and dancing and lots and lots of wine.
This entire week has been vacation time here at the Casa, and Andrea and I have been taking advantage of that in many ways. It's been good to sleep in and go for long walks, but we also took a trip to a little coastal town where we visited a botanic garden and went to the beach. Amazingly enough, we did not get lost at all!!! We had to find multiple buses and walk a lot, and I for one am very proud of us!
We'll be attempting to match that success tomorrow when we depart to the country to visit a family that Andrea stayed with when she was here before. We'll be in a little town outside of Linares from Friday until Monday, and from there we'll go straight to the town of Vilches, where we will stay until next Friday. Ted and Maruja, two Maryknoll missioners who until recently had an organic farm, live there. We'll be meeting and visiting them in order to learn more about Chilean history and culture. So keep your fingers crossed that we make it! It's times like these when having a cell phone would be helpful.... At least Andrea loves looking at maps, so between the two of us we should be able to work it out.
Other than that, it's just been a lot of partying! And Chileans know how to party! The fundraiser at the Casa went until 3:30, and last night we went to another party and got home again around 3:30. TOnight I will be going to - you guessed it - another party! This one is expected to last until tomorrow afternoon, but Andrea and I will have to leave earlier if we want to get any sleep before we take off tomorrow. I'm looking forward to another night of fried carbohydrates, booze, and dancing the night away:)
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