Can you really walk down the street without a crowd of 40 dogs?
Do people really have CARPET in their houses??
Was there a time when I didn't wake up drenched in blood from a night of fleas snacking?
Was there a time when I wasn't a missionary?
And sometimes it feels like I have only been here my whole life.
Either way...its going by super fast, but I love every moment dearly!!
First of all....HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!
All my companions agreed that based on your pictures you must be turning 25. One of my companions thought your picture (of you surfing or something) was of an american model and tried to tape it up in her study room. No joke. It was kind of awkward. Anyways....
One day at lunch a member mentioned that they have some Mormon movies....and we just happened to get a teeny tiny DVD player....so naturally we had to have a movie night!!
We also discovered (worst/best discovery ever) that there is a little food place that delivers! So we ordered a bunch of completos and french fries and watched The Other Side of Heaven on my bed. It was fun.
In case I havent talked about completos yet...they are basically hot dogs. Well...its a hot dog that is in a huge thing of bread. Kind of like a loaf of french bread or something. Not sure how to describe it...but they toast the bread around the hot dog and MOUNTAIN it with gaucemole, tomatoes, mayonnaise, ketchup and basically every thing possible. They are really good. Like really really good. We also eat french fries all the time. Everyone makes homemade french fries. They are also really good. Another thing I havent mentioned is that food is really cheap here. You can just walk by a little panaderia and but bread, empanaadas, ice cream, little pastels or anything for basically nothing.
And these little panaderias are about every 5 feet. People have them outside their houses...or just about everywhere. Like yesterday...we were walking down this random street in the cerro when we passed a sign that said "Calsone rotos...10 pesos". 10 pesos is like a penny. I said to my comp "what is that" and a lady out of no where came and invited us into her house where she had mountaisn of these scone things smothered in this sugar thing. We bought some and happily walked down the street eat heaven. One day we will be rolling down these streets eating..ahhh
One more quick thing about food....everyone here has tea parties! Its the best! Every night. And we CANNOT teach a lesson without sitting down and eating with them first. Lots of tea and this coffee type thing. Lots of bread with cheese, jams, manjar and sopa pies. Lots of scones...and little cakes. I love it. And hate it. But I do love how everyone just stops everything to sit down and eat...with whoever is there! Chile is so much more family and people centered than us. No one ever has their phones out....I never see computers or tvs or ipods. People are always just talking. Sitting on their porch talking...sitting around the table talking....eating...talking...cooking...talking.
And no one cares about getting fat. Most people are fat. But no one cares. And it makes eating time so much more enjoyable. People just eat what they want. There are no party downers who sit on the edge not eating because they are watching their weight or anything. Obviously there are good and bad parts to this...but its really refreshing. Here the value of peoples personalitys and hearts completely drowns out how someone looks. Which is good....because as my companion likes to tell me...my face is cresending. (growing).
A word about gorwing up in latin america. I have really been trying to figure out what growing up in Latin America is like. When I told my companions that school doesnt get out til 3:00 and after kids have to do homework...they were shocked! Down here school gets out at 12:00...for all ages. And after people dont really have homework. The whole family comes home for lunch and has a couple of hours together before the parents go back to work. Whole families live together...grandparents..cousins...and everyone gets along!
You can drop by someones house at midnight and they will immediately invite you in and feed you. I cant think of many people who would be happy with me dropping by their house unannounced at midnight.
One other kind of weird thing. My companions....who are into their 20s have never had a job! Apparently the parents are expected to pay for EVERYTHING until the children are married. Even if the family is poor...the kids aren't supposed to work or get jobs. Its a huge shame on the family if the kids have to get a job before their marriage. (Even after they pay for a lot too). So my question was..."what on earth did you do your whole life if you got done with school by noon?"....hang out with friends...help my grandma cook...sew...go to dances...
It sounds kind of crazy....but good. What a nice slow way of living. Nothing's rushed...no one is stressed...everyone just helps each other out and is just...nice and I don't know how to describe it. We can learn a lot from this culture. Not exactly the kids not working part (that is not what I am trying to get at here) but the slowing down thing. People care much more about spending time with their family than spending time working to make money.
I have gone on enough tangents this week.
A few more little tidbits....I started teaching piano classes! In the chapel. No one has pianos here or knows how to play. Its kind of hard to teach without books and in spanish but just the chance I have to touch a piano again (even if it isn't real) is priceless!!
I have been completely attacked by fleas this week. I wake up in blood and find little fleas dead all over my sheets. I spray everything...I wash my sheets all the time. I don't know what to do. I have little bites covering my entire body. It looks like I have the chicken pox or something. At night I can feel them crawling under my clothes and biting me. Its horrible. Pray I can find a solution. p.s....they only eat us americans!!
Alright....thats good for now. I´ll have a much more organized ermail next week.
Hermana Orchard
These grandmas were my first lesson here in Chile
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