Chilean Shenanigans

It’s been a busy time since my last update. I hiked a mountain, visited another city by the ocean, helped students practice English, and did a ton of yard work.

Now that we’re only 5 days away from leaving Santiago and heading to debrief (in Vina del Mar), we’ve completed most of the reparation projects at the church. 

For the past 2 weeks, we have been spending three days a week at a local school to help twelfth grade students with their English. They invited us to their schoolwide graduation ceremony/ dance performance, which was today, and I have to say, those kids rocked it!

Last Friday, two of my teammates and I journeyed to Vina del Mar to check out a hostel and make reservations for our entire squad for debrief. We went to the beach for about ten minutes, accidentally soaked our sneakers and socks, and I ate rice and chili out of a Ziploc bag for lunch (Dear Training Camp, thank you for that preparation– I couldn’t have handled it without you). 

The next day, our hosts, James and Coletta, took us on a hike up a mountain. It has no name, but it deserves one. It was a nine-and-a-half hour day, and we walked about 13 miles and gained 6000 feet in elevation. It was tough, but everyone that came on the hike made it to the top! Coming down the mountain was a little hairy- parts were very steep, and we got lost for a little while and had to just hike through the bush.

We had church again on Sunday, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. 

Tuesday, which was Halloween, was a long (but fun) day. We left the church early to go to the school for English, and many of the students dressed up– including four very well-done Teletubby costumes. 

That night, we went to James and Coletta’s neighborhood to help them with their yearly event, Night of Lights. It includes a costume contest, games, and a story about Jesus. It went really well, and it was fun to help with the kids!

Wednesday was our personal day, which I spent at the church just relaxing. The rest of my team went out, and I had the whole place to myself. Although I love my team, it was really nice to have some alone time.

Thursday was spent pulling weeds in another one of the flower beds. It’s horribly tedious, but I got a lot done!

Today I went to the graduation ceremony for our students, then spent a lot of the afternoon working on a slideshow wrapping up our time in Chile to show during the Sunday service at church.

Tonight is our last Young Life meeting, and my teammate, Averi, is going to teach us all line dancing!

Thanks for reading this jam-packed, short update on what I’ve been doing this week and last week!

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