jugando en el campo

digging for treasure...

here are some of the things I found while digging the hole for the compost pile :)

greenhouse

REMEMBER TO VOTE!!!

So it's pretty obvious to everyone around that I'm from the United States.  Everywhere I go, someone will invariably ask who I am going to vote for, and who I think will win the elections in the U.S.  Of course I respond with a resounding "OBAMA," and the questioner always cheers.  EVERYONE in Chile that I've talked to - the women at the Casa, strangers on the street, vendors at the market, mechanics, neighbors, park employees, etc etc etc - is rooting for Obama.

For better or for worse, U.S. policies have a huge impact on the rest of the world.  Now is our chance to decide what kind of impact we want to have!  We are so fortunate to live in a country where we can vote without fear of persecution, and where we actually have some kind of choice.  Let's all make that choice and participate in the democratic process.  The world is waiting and hoping for change!

mi vida normal

So much to catch up on!

The weekend before this past one, Andrea and David and I went dancing Saturday night.  We stayed out all night and then went back to David's house in Chillan to talk and rest for a few hours before heading to his house in the campo to ride horses all day!  Dancing was.... fun... I guess...  We went to this place called Bronco, where we were surrounded by a younger, chain-smoking crowd illuminated by erratic strobe lights and smoke machines.  We were also treated to several young women shaking their bare asses on the stage.  We almost slipped on all the drool from the men in the audience hahaha:)

Riding horses was a different story, though.  We rode through vineyards, fields of cattle grazing (including the tiniest calf I have ever seen!), and pine forests.  After a while we got off our horses and scaled a large rock to check out the view.  When it started raining we hurried down and mounted the horses again.  As we galloped down the hill it started hailing!  We were all hooting and hollering as the rain and hail pelted down, and it was truly exhilarating!  Needless to say, we returned to Chillan completely exhausted but feeling enriched and fulfilled.

This past weekend we spent several hours hanging out with a couple of the women who come to yoga and danza circular, and ended up going to a stunning dance performance.  We also went to a fiesta costumbrista (like a traditional festival thing) on Saturday, and back to the town of Lota and the botanic garden on Sunday.  Andrea and I are hoping to have a quiet weekend sometime soon!

So I realized that I've only been talking about weekend excursions.  For those of you who think all I do here is party and go to festivals and ride horses, here's an idea of what my days look like:

MONDAY

breakfast at 8:30

I go to Carola's to practice Spanish for a couple of hours

Lunch

Reflection and Art class (right now the women in this class are making Christmas cards to send to our donors, but last semester they made some absolutely beautiful books of art projects).

English class for the girls at the Casa - Kristy and Caryn do this, but we sometimes help out or sit in on the class.

Dinner

Kill slugs

TUESDAY

breakfast

go to Libertador (the school nearby) to teach English to 1 and 2 grade with Kristy and Caryn

Andrea and I make lunch, and we are really amazing cooks

lunch

Yoga

work in the greenhouse

dinner

Kill slugs

WEDNESDAY

breakfast

Carola's for Spanish, and as of tomorrow the other volunteers and Ruth and I will be going over there to learn how to do macrame.

Andrea and I make lunch

lunch

Go to the church to hang out with elderly adults and play games

danza circular

Ursulina meeting (this is where all of the women who are really involved with the Casa come together to reflect and discuss any important issues or upcoming events, and eat onces - a light dinner).

Kill slugs

THURSDAY

breakfast

Libertador to teach grades 3 and 4

Lunch

Reflection/baking class

Dinner

Kill slugs

FRIDAY

breakfast - on Fridays we eat garlicky scrambled eggs with bread

House meeting

Carola's for Spanish

Lunch

weaving/photo project with girls

dinner

Kill slugs

In the free hours we weave, work in the greenhouse, devise new ways to kill slugs, run errands for the house, and do anything else that needs to be done.

Life feels pretty busy, but I know that it will only get busier as we start and become involved in our own projects.  Right now we are looking into volunteering at a residential home for teens who are addicted to drugs, as well as doing something at a special-ed school.  Some of the students came to visit the Casa and they were awesome, so it would be really great to go and do some art-therapy inspired projects there.  I think it would be beyond fantastic to do a vegetable garden at the residential facility!  We're going there on Friday for another meeting and to observe some of their activities.

small wonders

Following our recent trend, Andrea and I went to the campo this past weekend (albeit a different part of the campo).  On friday afternoon we left with Sandra and her daughter Valentina to visit Sandra's partner Juan, who lives in the campo just out of Chillan.  The purpose of the trip was to continue shearing the sheep; luckily we did not have to actually participate in that activity other than as spectators!  

This seriously was one of the best weekends ever!  I got to play with so many cute baby animals and took part in some really amazing experiences.  I fell in love at first sight with a baby goat who just romped around like crazy!  He was so fuzzy and soft and just beautiful!  We watched some eggs hatch - the hen already had chicks and wouldn't stick around to hatch these, so we had to keep them warm and safe while they fluffed out their feathers.  I spent much of the weekend with my "pollito" snuggled safe and sound in my hands. By the end of the weekend he was trying to climb all over me!

The lambs were also beautiful, and although watching the the sheep being sheared was difficult for me, I thought about how wonderful it will be to have all of the wool at the Casa.  Some of the women here clean and card the wool and then spin it into yarn.  

After the sheep were sheared, we went to town for ice cream and some shopping.  Back at Juan's house we learned how to tell, by looking at the eggs, whether they will hatch into chickens or roosters, and what color they will be.  While walking through the campo we saw tons of what looked like little mud chimneys poking up from the ground.  Valentina told us that a species of shrimp live in them!  I never knew there were earth shrimp.  We also saw a kind of owl that lives underground.  So many miracles in this world that I never even knew existed!

On Sunday we went to San Nicolas for their cabalgata, a procession where everyone rides their horse for about 15 kilometers to the school, where they stop for a typical breakfast and some Cueca music and dancing.  From the school they ride 15 kilometers back into town for lunch and live music performances.  The event starts early in the morning, and the day started out chilly and windy.  We decided to ride in car to the school and meet up with the rest of the procession there.  There were over 600 horses in the cabalgata, as well as horses pulling carts for people to ride in.  David, our new friend here in Chile, found an extra horse for Andrea and I to ride.  For the first part of the trip I rode in a horse-cart, and for the second part I rode the horse.  The path was just a dirt and rock road, lined with cypress trees and the mountains in the distance.  I was nervous to ride the horse, since there were so many experienced riders swarming all around and I had to keep pulling over for cars to pass.  Luckily for me, my horse was extremely patient and did not go crazy even once - which for some reason they usually do when I ride them.  

After lunch we found David with some of his friends.  We started out listening to the music, but then decided to take a little ride on the horses again.  This ride was literally one of the coolest things I have ever done.  We rode through the town, passing through traffic, and down a hill to a river.  We got to ride our horses into the river as the sun began to set!  I learned how to gallop as we rode up huge hills covered in wildflowers.  It was completely exhilarating!    I can't even begin to describe how great this weekend was.  David told Andrea and I that we could come visit anytime, and he will teach us how to ride better.  He also said he would take us out dancing!  This is especially exciting because it's so difficult to form a peer group here in a community of older women with families and lives of their own.

On a side note, the greenhouse is going really well so far.  The other night, after it rained the entire day, all of the snails started sneaking out.  I was outside until almost 11 hunting them down, and in the end I had gathered a ton - probably at least a hundred!  They are so cute, but they will kill all of our plants.  In the morning I went to the corner store and bought beer - snails like beer so much that they will literally drown in it.  I have the dead ones stored in tupperware containers until I have time to build the compost pile:)

Also, I mentioned tonight that I wished I had my oil paints with me, and Mimi got really excited!  She has some supplies that I can use, and she said that it would be great if I could teach a class on oil painting!  Now, I'm certainly no expert but I could definitely teach a short course on the basics while incorporating a reflection and therapy aspect.

My Spanish is starting to improve (I hope!).  With all of these trips to the campo, I've had more chances to practice.  I'm also starting to meet with Carola, Kristy's host mom, to practice three times a week, and reading the newspaper and children's books.