Buenos Tardes :)
Well, we´ve had gorgeous sunshine here again today and what a lovely couple of days we´ve had!
We´ve been finishing off some other parts inside the house, yesterday and today, painting and nailing up boards... all very health and safety concious of course ....yeeeah. But the rooms are now lovely yellow and lilac, ready for some other art work to go up... I think we might be painting actually footprints onto one wall, which´ll be wicked!
We´ve been making preparations for some community work as well. Saturday, Sunday and Monday we´re going to be going to 3 other churches to doing some outreach, door to door knocking and chatting with people in Spanish... wooo! Challenging or whaaaat! But its really good to be getting out into the community.
I think we´re going to try and get out in the community next week too, to offer to help people with gardening, painting their houses, or anything else they need. The people here are so generous even when they have nothing.
Luciano took us to see his house yesterday, that he´s built completely out of wood himself, and its just beautiful! He told us his testimony about how he was in a 85 mph crash when he was on a motorbike into a car... And he should have died. He only broke his nose... there were no other breaks on his body, even tho his helmet flew off and he was knocked unconcious. He even died for 15 minutes, but he´s still alive. He´s a walking miracle! Oh... and about a year later he had another crash... and again... he walked away without any injury. Incredible protection of God on his life!
He also took us to meet a poor family on the outskirts of Temuco, where a family live in a "house" that´s more like a small shed, that was no bigger that an average size bathroom. It was unreal. And even so... the man offer us food and drink, out of the kindness of his heart. It was amazing! We left him a cake instead so as not the eat all his food (I´m preet sure 11 of us would have!).
I hope that we get to work with some of these people more, because you just can´t avoid some of the things it says in the Bible when it´s in your face. We have so much and some of these people have so little, yet their hearts are also to bless others above themselves. If I can learn a little of the passion for people that this community has, I will be blessed!! And I hope that God can use me in an effective way to give back to this people.... to feed those who are hungry, give drink to those who are thirsty, and clothe those who have no clothes.
We have a day off tomorrow, so we´re off to visit Poucon (which is about 2 hours south of where we are) to see the volcanos and stuff :)
Hope everyone back home is doing well :)
Much love and buenos noches xxxxx
Thursday 24 March 2011
Monday 21 March 2011
Domestication....
Oh what a glorious day it is today...again.... Hmmm loving the sunshine!
Well yesterday, Dave and myself were on domestic duty, which meant rising early and cooking the standard porridge breakfast for everyone. We´re still trying to find a way of brightening it up... so far we´ve had manjar, honey, jam, bananas, apple, nectarine, sugar.... and tbh.... it stills tastes bland. BUT... it´s a good start to the day!
Everyone else headed off to do sunday school (escuela domical) whilst Dave and I cleaned whilst plotting what to have for lunch. Wé popped to the market for some lush fresh veg and into chicken world for a nice bita meat and headed back to cook a ...kinda... roast dinner... Well the best you can do with just two gas rings for cooking... it was pretty nice actually! Oh and I nearly forgot to say... We did all our cooking by headtorch light because the power went out LOL! How could I forget that!!!
In the afternoon, Luciano took us all out to the countryside just outside Temuco. And it as gorgeous! We went to an orchard and eat sooo many apples it was crazy, but they were so sweet and delicious... except for the SUPER sour ones. He the took us to a farm where they make fresh apple juice... and then on to meet a Mapuche lady and to see her land, in which there was a river was you can drink from. His such a generous man, he just keps on giving and giving us things, and every time we do something for him, he does about 5 things for us!!!
Today, we´ve been practicing a drama and some songs for a church service tonight which will hopefully go well! And getting a whole load of paint and equpiment for finishing the house this week.
Which we´ll get cracking on tomorrow!
So, until nest time, ciao and hasta luego xx
Well yesterday, Dave and myself were on domestic duty, which meant rising early and cooking the standard porridge breakfast for everyone. We´re still trying to find a way of brightening it up... so far we´ve had manjar, honey, jam, bananas, apple, nectarine, sugar.... and tbh.... it stills tastes bland. BUT... it´s a good start to the day!
Everyone else headed off to do sunday school (escuela domical) whilst Dave and I cleaned whilst plotting what to have for lunch. Wé popped to the market for some lush fresh veg and into chicken world for a nice bita meat and headed back to cook a ...kinda... roast dinner... Well the best you can do with just two gas rings for cooking... it was pretty nice actually! Oh and I nearly forgot to say... We did all our cooking by headtorch light because the power went out LOL! How could I forget that!!!
In the afternoon, Luciano took us all out to the countryside just outside Temuco. And it as gorgeous! We went to an orchard and eat sooo many apples it was crazy, but they were so sweet and delicious... except for the SUPER sour ones. He the took us to a farm where they make fresh apple juice... and then on to meet a Mapuche lady and to see her land, in which there was a river was you can drink from. His such a generous man, he just keps on giving and giving us things, and every time we do something for him, he does about 5 things for us!!!
Today, we´ve been practicing a drama and some songs for a church service tonight which will hopefully go well! And getting a whole load of paint and equpiment for finishing the house this week.
Which we´ll get cracking on tomorrow!
So, until nest time, ciao and hasta luego xx
Saturday 19 March 2011
One Week In...
Hello,
It´s been a while since I´ve written and its hard quite hard to remember what´s happened!! We´ve been working in the community as well as painting the house that we´re staying in - lovely blue and yellow to be precise :) But so much more will have happened than I can remember!
So I´ll try my best to give you a flavour of life here at the moment!
Most mornings we have porridge for breakfast... which is fine... but.... lacks flavour! Even when you eat it with honey and manjar (dulce de leche - its kinda like caramel). Meals consist of a lot of carbohydrates and tomato sauce, but they´ve been very tasty... with the exception of the ´salt´ insistent where a whole load of rice suddenly tasted quite strongly of salt - but I guess thats what happens when an entire pot of salt is added... pucha!
Every day two people from the team are on´domestics´while the others have split into two teams - one working in the community and one working in the house. And the sun has been gorrrrrrgeous, and so so strong! I think we´re all burnt at least a bit and I´m pretty badly burnt - oops. But my spanish is improving, or at least my understanding of what people are saying, altho their accent is so strong and they constantly drop letters from words which is SO confusing!
What else has happened....? Erm... we´ve managed to block a sink and a toilet so Jonny is now our elected plumber and we´ve made good friends with our neighbour Luciano, who is so unbelievably generous that he just pops round with food for us all the time. He´s invited us to go to his house at some point to eat asado, which is like a massive bbq and Chile´s ´native´dish.
Today we did a funday for the kids... which was gooood-ish. The kids here are lovely, but they literally have no discipline and don´t care. They frequently climb over the gates to the church and throw things at our door. I actually find it really sad, because its so obviously a cry for attention, not that they actually trying to break stuff etc. At the moment, our padlock is broken tho, so it´s making it easy for them to come in, so prayers are appreciated for how to deal with that and for our protection.
Tomorrow, we´re running the sunday school and I think this next week we will be doing more of the same things.
I´ll try and get soem photos up soon and a bit more details about some things we´ve been up to.
Much love to everyone back home
Miss you all
xxx
It´s been a while since I´ve written and its hard quite hard to remember what´s happened!! We´ve been working in the community as well as painting the house that we´re staying in - lovely blue and yellow to be precise :) But so much more will have happened than I can remember!
So I´ll try my best to give you a flavour of life here at the moment!
Most mornings we have porridge for breakfast... which is fine... but.... lacks flavour! Even when you eat it with honey and manjar (dulce de leche - its kinda like caramel). Meals consist of a lot of carbohydrates and tomato sauce, but they´ve been very tasty... with the exception of the ´salt´ insistent where a whole load of rice suddenly tasted quite strongly of salt - but I guess thats what happens when an entire pot of salt is added... pucha!
Every day two people from the team are on´domestics´while the others have split into two teams - one working in the community and one working in the house. And the sun has been gorrrrrrgeous, and so so strong! I think we´re all burnt at least a bit and I´m pretty badly burnt - oops. But my spanish is improving, or at least my understanding of what people are saying, altho their accent is so strong and they constantly drop letters from words which is SO confusing!
What else has happened....? Erm... we´ve managed to block a sink and a toilet so Jonny is now our elected plumber and we´ve made good friends with our neighbour Luciano, who is so unbelievably generous that he just pops round with food for us all the time. He´s invited us to go to his house at some point to eat asado, which is like a massive bbq and Chile´s ´native´dish.
Today we did a funday for the kids... which was gooood-ish. The kids here are lovely, but they literally have no discipline and don´t care. They frequently climb over the gates to the church and throw things at our door. I actually find it really sad, because its so obviously a cry for attention, not that they actually trying to break stuff etc. At the moment, our padlock is broken tho, so it´s making it easy for them to come in, so prayers are appreciated for how to deal with that and for our protection.
Tomorrow, we´re running the sunday school and I think this next week we will be doing more of the same things.
I´ll try and get soem photos up soon and a bit more details about some things we´ve been up to.
Much love to everyone back home
Miss you all
xxx
Friday 11 March 2011
Rain Rain Go Away...
Happy Friday everyone :)
Yesterday we had a beautifully gorgeous day and we learnt a bit more about the culture here and about the projects we will be involved.
We´re spending the first two months working with Pastor Ezekiel in his church building (the place where we´re staying) and some relating churches. We´re gonna be doing some building of toilet blocks and helping paint peoples houses and doing gardening, as well as do up the place where we´re living.We´re also going to be involved in the children´s sunday school and possibly starting to run a childrens club for the kids in the community during the week - Friday Club comes to Chile!!! :P
The kids here are pretty much allowed to do what they like and parents don´t really ´believe´in discipline! The youth groups can also range from age 14 to 35 years old, as usually Chileans don´t move out until they get married... and even then, sometimes they move into the house with their new spouse!! Temuco has about 10 univercities in, so everybody goes to uni in their home town, and it usually takes 5 years minimum to complete the courses - hence the big youth group ages.
The people here are so generous, our neighbour - Luciano, has already brought us round an enormous watermelon...seriously, like the size of two people´s heads if not bigger!!! And his daughter is so cute!
Today, we spent the day in the city centre... after a night of horrendous rain and in fact all of this morning - we were soaked to the skin walking round the city, and going on a little bus tour. Oh and ...the whole in our bedroom roof? Yeah.... the rain came in last night.. although, it wasn´t too bad considering there was a torrential downpour, we only collected half an inch of water in a big tub.
Also, just to let you know, we´re all okay in terms of the earthquake in Japan. We´ve heard how awful its been, and this morning there was a warning of a tsunami sent out across Chile. But since, they´ve said that there is little risk and we´re not on the coast anyway so it wouldn´t affect us. But we are praying for those who have been affected.
We´ve been learning a bit of Chilean slang as well, which I will endevour to tell you about another time :P
Much love to you all... time to eat some empanadas! (chilean version of cornish pasties - but SO much nicer!!) Ciao xxxxx
Yesterday we had a beautifully gorgeous day and we learnt a bit more about the culture here and about the projects we will be involved.
We´re spending the first two months working with Pastor Ezekiel in his church building (the place where we´re staying) and some relating churches. We´re gonna be doing some building of toilet blocks and helping paint peoples houses and doing gardening, as well as do up the place where we´re living.We´re also going to be involved in the children´s sunday school and possibly starting to run a childrens club for the kids in the community during the week - Friday Club comes to Chile!!! :P
The kids here are pretty much allowed to do what they like and parents don´t really ´believe´in discipline! The youth groups can also range from age 14 to 35 years old, as usually Chileans don´t move out until they get married... and even then, sometimes they move into the house with their new spouse!! Temuco has about 10 univercities in, so everybody goes to uni in their home town, and it usually takes 5 years minimum to complete the courses - hence the big youth group ages.
The people here are so generous, our neighbour - Luciano, has already brought us round an enormous watermelon...seriously, like the size of two people´s heads if not bigger!!! And his daughter is so cute!
Today, we spent the day in the city centre... after a night of horrendous rain and in fact all of this morning - we were soaked to the skin walking round the city, and going on a little bus tour. Oh and ...the whole in our bedroom roof? Yeah.... the rain came in last night.. although, it wasn´t too bad considering there was a torrential downpour, we only collected half an inch of water in a big tub.
Also, just to let you know, we´re all okay in terms of the earthquake in Japan. We´ve heard how awful its been, and this morning there was a warning of a tsunami sent out across Chile. But since, they´ve said that there is little risk and we´re not on the coast anyway so it wouldn´t affect us. But we are praying for those who have been affected.
We´ve been learning a bit of Chilean slang as well, which I will endevour to tell you about another time :P
Much love to you all... time to eat some empanadas! (chilean version of cornish pasties - but SO much nicer!!) Ciao xxxxx
Wednesday 9 March 2011
We Have Arrived...
Good Afternoon :) Well good evening to you back home,
We arrived at Temuco this morning, after one of the longest, and at points, most interesting journey of my life!
We left Heathrow airport at 8.45pm UK time and after a 12 hour flight filled with movies, games, and not much sleep, we landed in Sao Paulo, Brazil at about 5am - not the most exciting airport I´ve seen but it was nice to be able to walk around for 3 hours before hopping back onto the plane for another 4 hours to get to Santiago.
We arrived at Santiago at around 12pm and met up with Ruth...eventually! Everyone had their luggage and we all got onto the minibuses to travel to the city centre. We the had to move all the bags (two pieces of luggage per person roughly 20kg each plus hang luggage... that´s a lot of bags for 11 people!!) from the 1st floor... to the 9th floor... Thank the Lord for lifts! We freshen up a bit and went into town to find some dinner. Fast food is pretty big over here so Mucky Dees and BK, as well as Doggies - a hot dog restaurant where you can buy a hot dog with advocado and tomatoes on... I didn´t try that just yet :P but opted for pollo asado - kinda roast chicken - with chips and peas... which were then covered in vinegar and oil... First taste of Chilean food :P We took a walk around the city centre, seeing the huge cathedral and a beautiful old fort, which gave us a gorgeous view of the capital and the sun setting.
But soon it was time for us to get on with the nest part of the journey... so we headed back to the room with the bags, moved them all back down from the 9th floor to the 1st, struggled along the pavement with them to wait for a taxi to the bus station. And this was certainly an experience! 3 people, plus 9 or so bags crammed into a taxi so we were spread across 4 taxis, which were all to end up outside the bus station. We´d met and head inside together... or so was the plan! I was in a taxi with Emily M and Sarah, and we arrived first, paid the bill of 3000 pesos (about 4 quid) and found the two other taxis... but not the third :S
After waiting for quite a while, it was getting close to when the bus had to leave, so we had to head upstairs to the bus depot. With that amount of bags, we couldn´t all fit in the lñift, so Rocky and I were left downstairs... only to arrive upstairs where no one else was in sight... This was not a good part in the journey - sleep deprived, carrying 3 heavy bags and lost! Eventually we managed to find the rest of the group, with little time to spare... and loe and behold, the third taxi had dropped off the girls right next to the bus!
So we all got on the bus and 11pm and set off for Temuco, and 8 hour journey over night with honestly the NICEST seats ever! They´re practically beds! They have leg rests and can go back so their almost horizontal. I woke up at abvout 7am, well rested and ready for the next bit! We met the Pastor and set about moving all the bags again! This time to a pick up truck, which took half of us to the little church where we´d be staying.
Now... this is what I call modest accomadation... We´re staying in a newly built building... will wooden walls, electrical wires hanging off the wall, a bathroom with no light and no hot water and a gas camping stove to cook on. But it´s great! The church have provided the best that they can for us, and it´amazing that they´ve pulled this together.
The people here are so lovely and generous and the looks we get in the street are funny - I´ve never felt so white in all my life!!! We´ll be getting into the projects from Monday, so we have a couple of days to get used to life here. Oh and its lovely and warm, approx. 25 degrees C although apparently it will turn cold soon :(
Anyway, I will try and write again soon. Much love to you all, I am missing you all
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
We arrived at Temuco this morning, after one of the longest, and at points, most interesting journey of my life!
We left Heathrow airport at 8.45pm UK time and after a 12 hour flight filled with movies, games, and not much sleep, we landed in Sao Paulo, Brazil at about 5am - not the most exciting airport I´ve seen but it was nice to be able to walk around for 3 hours before hopping back onto the plane for another 4 hours to get to Santiago.
We arrived at Santiago at around 12pm and met up with Ruth...eventually! Everyone had their luggage and we all got onto the minibuses to travel to the city centre. We the had to move all the bags (two pieces of luggage per person roughly 20kg each plus hang luggage... that´s a lot of bags for 11 people!!) from the 1st floor... to the 9th floor... Thank the Lord for lifts! We freshen up a bit and went into town to find some dinner. Fast food is pretty big over here so Mucky Dees and BK, as well as Doggies - a hot dog restaurant where you can buy a hot dog with advocado and tomatoes on... I didn´t try that just yet :P but opted for pollo asado - kinda roast chicken - with chips and peas... which were then covered in vinegar and oil... First taste of Chilean food :P We took a walk around the city centre, seeing the huge cathedral and a beautiful old fort, which gave us a gorgeous view of the capital and the sun setting.
But soon it was time for us to get on with the nest part of the journey... so we headed back to the room with the bags, moved them all back down from the 9th floor to the 1st, struggled along the pavement with them to wait for a taxi to the bus station. And this was certainly an experience! 3 people, plus 9 or so bags crammed into a taxi so we were spread across 4 taxis, which were all to end up outside the bus station. We´d met and head inside together... or so was the plan! I was in a taxi with Emily M and Sarah, and we arrived first, paid the bill of 3000 pesos (about 4 quid) and found the two other taxis... but not the third :S
After waiting for quite a while, it was getting close to when the bus had to leave, so we had to head upstairs to the bus depot. With that amount of bags, we couldn´t all fit in the lñift, so Rocky and I were left downstairs... only to arrive upstairs where no one else was in sight... This was not a good part in the journey - sleep deprived, carrying 3 heavy bags and lost! Eventually we managed to find the rest of the group, with little time to spare... and loe and behold, the third taxi had dropped off the girls right next to the bus!
So we all got on the bus and 11pm and set off for Temuco, and 8 hour journey over night with honestly the NICEST seats ever! They´re practically beds! They have leg rests and can go back so their almost horizontal. I woke up at abvout 7am, well rested and ready for the next bit! We met the Pastor and set about moving all the bags again! This time to a pick up truck, which took half of us to the little church where we´d be staying.
Now... this is what I call modest accomadation... We´re staying in a newly built building... will wooden walls, electrical wires hanging off the wall, a bathroom with no light and no hot water and a gas camping stove to cook on. But it´s great! The church have provided the best that they can for us, and it´amazing that they´ve pulled this together.
The people here are so lovely and generous and the looks we get in the street are funny - I´ve never felt so white in all my life!!! We´ll be getting into the projects from Monday, so we have a couple of days to get used to life here. Oh and its lovely and warm, approx. 25 degrees C although apparently it will turn cold soon :(
Anyway, I will try and write again soon. Much love to you all, I am missing you all
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Monday 7 March 2011
Today's The Day...
Well my lovely friends far and near,
Today's the day that I start my journey to Chile. My flight leaves London at quarter to 8 tonight and after nearly 12 hours, we will arrive in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We then have a 3 hour wait until we board our next flight tomorrow, which will take 4 hours to get over to Santiago in Chile. With my bags stretched to the limit and enough sweets to last 4 months, I think I'm ready to go...
Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored me and helped me to raise money, it's been amazing to see how people have given even out of what little they have. I'm so thankful for every bit of money that's been given and I know it's going towards helping some people who are in real need.
I'm gonna miss people back home, but I'm also excited about the new friends I'm going to make and the wonderful people I'm going to meet. It's going to be one awesome experience and I'll keep this blog as up to date as possible with stories and pictures and all the little adventures that we have!
Please do email me and keep raising money/sponsoring me if you can!
Much love to you all and I'll write as soon as I can when I arrive
Sarah xxxx
Today's the day that I start my journey to Chile. My flight leaves London at quarter to 8 tonight and after nearly 12 hours, we will arrive in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We then have a 3 hour wait until we board our next flight tomorrow, which will take 4 hours to get over to Santiago in Chile. With my bags stretched to the limit and enough sweets to last 4 months, I think I'm ready to go...
Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored me and helped me to raise money, it's been amazing to see how people have given even out of what little they have. I'm so thankful for every bit of money that's been given and I know it's going towards helping some people who are in real need.
I'm gonna miss people back home, but I'm also excited about the new friends I'm going to make and the wonderful people I'm going to meet. It's going to be one awesome experience and I'll keep this blog as up to date as possible with stories and pictures and all the little adventures that we have!
Please do email me and keep raising money/sponsoring me if you can!
Much love to you all and I'll write as soon as I can when I arrive
Sarah xxxx
Saturday 5 March 2011
Full On Packing Commences...
I actually can't believe that I'm about to start packing everything for the trip - four months worth of clothes, essential foods (SWEETS!) and hair product contained in a rucksack! Little bit mad.
This whole week has been quite unreal, pottering around seeing people, making lots of phone calls, buying little bits and bobs, that I haven't really noticed that it's 2 days until I go.... It's really quite bizarre. I don't think I've quite realised what I'm letting myself in for! So the flight could be interesting!!!
It's such an honour and privilege to be able to go over to Chile and work over there, but I think I'm gonna miss everyone at home quite a lot. Still, chin up :) I know there will be lots of amazing people to meet and awesome stories to put up here! So though on one hand, I'm sad to be going, I'm also very excited about what I'm gonna experience over there - no doubt that it will be life changing in ways that I haven't even thought of!
Thank you so much to everyone who has given towards this trip, and please do continue to give if you can - literally every little helps! And actually still need to raise a couple of grand! Please let me know if you like more details about donating.
I'll probably write again on Monday :)
Much love xxx
This whole week has been quite unreal, pottering around seeing people, making lots of phone calls, buying little bits and bobs, that I haven't really noticed that it's 2 days until I go.... It's really quite bizarre. I don't think I've quite realised what I'm letting myself in for! So the flight could be interesting!!!
It's such an honour and privilege to be able to go over to Chile and work over there, but I think I'm gonna miss everyone at home quite a lot. Still, chin up :) I know there will be lots of amazing people to meet and awesome stories to put up here! So though on one hand, I'm sad to be going, I'm also very excited about what I'm gonna experience over there - no doubt that it will be life changing in ways that I haven't even thought of!
Thank you so much to everyone who has given towards this trip, and please do continue to give if you can - literally every little helps! And actually still need to raise a couple of grand! Please let me know if you like more details about donating.
I'll probably write again on Monday :)
Much love xxx
Tuesday 1 March 2011
6 days to go....
Wow! Only six more days to go until I fly off to Chile...
I spent the second half of last week in North London, meeting everyone from the team and getting to know them more - It's gonna be four very funny months! There was so much information to try and take in and process that I'm not sure I've got it all yet! Plus all the extra recommended items to take to Chile - it is gonna be cold, so get me some of them thermals!!
We spent a lot of time together as a team achieving tasks like our outing in London to collect photographs (which we all had to be in) doing various things, por ejemplo... everyone climbing inside a telephone box... playing football outside Wembley stadium... everyone in a tree.... wearing a random stranger's hat and shaking their hand... etc etc... It was such a laugh!
I honestly can't believe that it's only 6 days till I leave. It's going to be one amazing, life-changing adventure. From building toilet shacks to teaching in the churches, it's gonna be awesome! And hopefully I'll come back with some good language skills!!
Well... things to buy, people to see and stuff to pack, so hasta luego xxxx
I spent the second half of last week in North London, meeting everyone from the team and getting to know them more - It's gonna be four very funny months! There was so much information to try and take in and process that I'm not sure I've got it all yet! Plus all the extra recommended items to take to Chile - it is gonna be cold, so get me some of them thermals!!
We spent a lot of time together as a team achieving tasks like our outing in London to collect photographs (which we all had to be in) doing various things, por ejemplo... everyone climbing inside a telephone box... playing football outside Wembley stadium... everyone in a tree.... wearing a random stranger's hat and shaking their hand... etc etc... It was such a laugh!
I honestly can't believe that it's only 6 days till I leave. It's going to be one amazing, life-changing adventure. From building toilet shacks to teaching in the churches, it's gonna be awesome! And hopefully I'll come back with some good language skills!!
Well... things to buy, people to see and stuff to pack, so hasta luego xxxx
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