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

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