Okay, so I´m gona try and do a quick run down of the last few weeks since the 8th of April... :P
9-Apr Sat - We went to an area of Temuco to distrubute some boxes from Operation Christmas Child - totally amazing to see the end result of something I´ve been involved in at home! Then went round Luciano´s house to have asado disco (meat cooked on a massive hot disc over an open fire) which was deeeeelicious!
10-Apr Sun - Church for the kids in the morning and for adults in the evening, pretty full on day prepping and doing things
11-Apr Mon - We went with Yasmina round to some houses in the community and tidied their gardens, creating a path for one lady just generally making things tidier! Managed to hold a got hour long conversation with Luciano in Spanish :P wo0op!
12-Apr Tues - Day off! :D MAde lots of tiny fairy cakes and then went to Yasmina´s to watch a film :)
13-Apr Wed - We were meant to go with Pastor Ezekiel to the school that his wife works at...everyone was ready at 11 to go.... at 12 we got a phone call saying he wasn´t coming and we weren´t going there today... gota love Chilean timing :P So we went to the playgroup next door to the church and sang songs with them and played with them instead :)
14-Apr Thurs - Porridge for breakfast...as always, just thought I´d mention it again :P We went to the university and shared a bible study with some of the students, in English to help them inprove their language. Then jumped on a bus to Champulli... a village just outside Teodoro Schmitt, arrived and went straight into a service, before meeting Juanita, who was the girls host of the weekend - One of the most loveliest, warmest ladies I´ve ever met!!
15-Apr Fri - Got up and headed off to the church to start work on the kitchen there...only to find the kitchen was locked and the pastors had gone out.... soooooo we weeded the entire church garden :P And also were able to help with building a house nearby, and brought a load of stuff to start work on the kitchen tomorrow....
16-Apr Sat - did a bit of work on the kitchen and the garden of the church, and also visited a some ill people to pray with them and talk with their families. We´ve done that quite a bit, and it always amazes me to see Pastor Ezekiel´s hearts for these people, so reflective of God´s heart and of His love. We then had an 8 hour praise meeting from 8pm till 4am... wooooooooo..... that was mad!
17-Apr - Sun - Everyone was SO tired today! Shared breakfast with all the church members, and had to say goodbye... amazing how much they were saddened to see us go, it was like a member of their family was leaving... incredible love and warmth for people. Sarah, Emily, Jonny, Nathan and I travelled to Poucolon (another little village nearby) to visit a couple of families and pray with them, and then we went to a churhc service there to share with the people.
18-Apr - Mon - DAY OFF! wo0op!
And then we´re at today! We´ve been working in a school today, doing assemblies and getting mobbed by children as we tried to leave... that´s always fun! They all call us tia /tio (for girl /boy) and wouldn´t let go of us! Kinda scary LOL! But it was good fun.
We´re off to another village from tomorrow until Sunday called Haulpin, which is about 2 hours south of Temuco... and it´s gonna be cold! It was cold in Champulli, and Haulpin is further south... So thermal vests and mass amounts of layers me thinks! So the weather here´s been great, it´s so cold in the morning and at night! So glad I have a four season sleeping bag!!!
Anyway, hope that´s given a bit of an update to the events here :)
Much love
Sarah
xx
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Friday, 8 April 2011
Uppddaaaaaaaate....
Wow, sorry its been so long since I´ve written on here, it´s amazing how fast time goes and before you know it a week full of events has gone by and you haven´t written about anything!
I´ll try and give a rough overview of the last couple of weeks!
The good news is we now have a hot shower! Which means we all smell better and are generally cleaner! We´ve also now got a washing machine that works so we can get our clothes clean :D double yay!
We took a trip last weekend to Teodoro Schmitt, a village about an hour away, to work in a church there - a bit of painting and visiting people in their homes as well as singing a lot of songs at church services!
We´ve done a lot more painting in the place where we´re saying as well starting some work in the community more practically.
After the local kids trying to break in a few times, they seem to have calmed down a bit. They don´t come over the gate anymore, but I think they think we have loads of money...which I guess in comparison to them, we probably do. But I´ve found out that we´re actually in quite a tough area of Temuco, it´s called Santa Rosa, and a lot of the families have quite complicated lives - no dads around for a lot of them because they´ve either left or died. Which is really sad, and produces some pretty desperate kids.
But it´s hard to know what to do to help, but at the church we´re working with at the moment, there aren´t any young people and there´s no kids work at all. So anything we satar, will just fall on its ass unless someone here carries it on.... Ive been praying about what it is God wants us to do... and today I think we´ve seen the first fruit of that.
Last week we went out into the community to ask if we could do anything to help people (Love Horsham style :P) And we found a plot of land that is public land, but people have dumped stuff there and its overgrown. So we started cleaning it today and were discussing how it would be nice to do something with it, like make it into a park or something... when.... A random guy walked down the street who happens to work in the council... or with the council or summit... anyway, basically he was amazed by what we were doing and said that he has a groupd of young people who could help and would like to... so i think we´re gona talk to the pastor here and see if we can intiate this as a community project,. for and with the community :D
We´ve not got very long left at this project now, and the weeks are filling up fast, but hopefully we´ll be able to make a lasting difference here that goes beyond a group of westerns coming to take pictures and then leaving again.
I´ll try and get some more up to date news and events here in the next couple of days
Much love to all
xxxx
I´ll try and give a rough overview of the last couple of weeks!
The good news is we now have a hot shower! Which means we all smell better and are generally cleaner! We´ve also now got a washing machine that works so we can get our clothes clean :D double yay!
We took a trip last weekend to Teodoro Schmitt, a village about an hour away, to work in a church there - a bit of painting and visiting people in their homes as well as singing a lot of songs at church services!
We´ve done a lot more painting in the place where we´re saying as well starting some work in the community more practically.
After the local kids trying to break in a few times, they seem to have calmed down a bit. They don´t come over the gate anymore, but I think they think we have loads of money...which I guess in comparison to them, we probably do. But I´ve found out that we´re actually in quite a tough area of Temuco, it´s called Santa Rosa, and a lot of the families have quite complicated lives - no dads around for a lot of them because they´ve either left or died. Which is really sad, and produces some pretty desperate kids.
But it´s hard to know what to do to help, but at the church we´re working with at the moment, there aren´t any young people and there´s no kids work at all. So anything we satar, will just fall on its ass unless someone here carries it on.... Ive been praying about what it is God wants us to do... and today I think we´ve seen the first fruit of that.
Last week we went out into the community to ask if we could do anything to help people (Love Horsham style :P) And we found a plot of land that is public land, but people have dumped stuff there and its overgrown. So we started cleaning it today and were discussing how it would be nice to do something with it, like make it into a park or something... when.... A random guy walked down the street who happens to work in the council... or with the council or summit... anyway, basically he was amazed by what we were doing and said that he has a groupd of young people who could help and would like to... so i think we´re gona talk to the pastor here and see if we can intiate this as a community project,. for and with the community :D
We´ve not got very long left at this project now, and the weeks are filling up fast, but hopefully we´ll be able to make a lasting difference here that goes beyond a group of westerns coming to take pictures and then leaving again.
I´ll try and get some more up to date news and events here in the next couple of days
Much love to all
xxxx
Thursday, 24 March 2011
¡¡¡¡Agua Friaaaaaaa!!!!
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
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
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
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