Monday again!!
What a week!!
A week a have waited for ALL of my mission! All I heard was meat meat meat and....well my wish was completed!
Did you know its a law that you have to have a chilean flag in your yard for the whole week of September 18? If you dont you get charged $200!! So we got a flag...went out to the woods to find a large branch to stick it to and looked like we lived in an abandoned ship.
The party lasted all week (month) long. Thursday morning we went to the church building and sang outside and sang the national anthem, raised the flag and watched everyone break into dancing. The national dance her is called the cueca and I´m pretty sure they teach it to kids here the day they are born.
Then we went and had the biggest lunch of my life. It started with huge suasages wrapped in huge bulks of french bread and then slathered in tomatoes and mayonnaise. Its different than a completo...I´ll explain how later. Then we ate two amazing deep fried empanadas (literally each empanada was the size of my face). That was followed by about half of a grilled chicken, potatoes, soup. And then for dessert..mote con huesillo...a peach that is dried...then put in water to expand..then put in a super sugary peach juice with cinammon and who knows what else...and then added a oatmeal, wheat type thing. We ate it about 10 times everyday this week.
I literally couldnt walk after. We all thought we were going to throw up and we had to lay down in the street for a bit. It didnt look unusual though. Everyone was sleeping in the streets this week (you had to watch where you stepped so you didnt walk on top of people...lots of drunks). The eating didnt stop there though! Everywhere we went we got more meat, empanadas and sweet breads stuffed on us. I think I literally gained 15 pounds in one week! Who knew that was even possible?? I did spend most of the night hours throwing up though...eww...
Friday we had another large lunch...the lunch of my dreams for my entire life! I was able to truly see how much meat I had the ability to eat. So we had a BBQ and unlike lame BBQs in the US where the main dish is salad (we dont understand food)..we ate MEAT and nothing else!! Literally...on my plate they put 12 pig ribs (so delicious!) about half a cows worth of steak, a whole chicken, half a bunny rabbit, and other meats that I was too afraid to ask about. I felt like an animal eating so much meat but I do admit I thoughouly enjoyed it! I will never be satisfied with the meat porcions we have in the US.
In the night we had the best ward party ever!! It lasted a total of 12 hours! Started at 2 in the afternoon and went til 2 in the morning. We ate a wonderful dinner of..you guessed it...meat! Then they started the dancing. Everyone danced the cueca..including little 2 year olds. There is nothing cuter than little 2 year old girls in their fluffy 18 dresses dancing around! Then they started the cumbia and it made me sad that we dont know how to dance in the US. All our parties could be so much more fun if we actually danced and ate better food (like lots of meat!!)
I know this was the lamest email ever because I only talked about food and how Chile is better than America...but thats all I have time for today.
Love you all! Thank you for all the prayers and everything! My leg is feeling a lot better!
Hermana Orchard
