Waltonia

If you do not know what Waltonia is then you should read my post from last year. I will be there all this coming week and I am SO ready! It will be a week of reading, swimming, eating, playing games, walking, laughing and enjoying my family. You should be jealous!

Farmers Market

I have been wanting to go to the Abilene Farmers Market for about a year now and have just never gotten around to it until yesterday. I went to the FM in Golden a few times but it is quite different than here.

So Kelli and I got up early and got to the market by about 7:15am. We heard you have to get there early or all the good stuff will be gone. It was set up in a parking lot with about 10 or 12 pickup trucks. Most of them had tables or were showing their produce right out of the bed. These were true farmers!

They had all sorts of yummy veggies, although most people had the same stuff. It was so interesting to think about only cooking what is in season because when you shop at a grocery store most things are in season somewhere in the world so you can get just about anything (except for a few summer fruits).

The main items this morning were all types of squash and zucchini, various onions, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, herbs, cantaloupes, baby apples (probably just coming into season), okra, red potatoes, pumpkins, peas (black-eyed I think), green beans, and probably a few other items. So fun!

So Kelli got some okra and a cantaloupe and I got some cherry tomatoes and red potatoes. We decided we would cook dinner with the food we got. We ended up saving the tomatoes (which are delicious) and cantaloupe (not ready to eat yet), but we did roast the potatoes (super yummy) and fried the okra. It was wonderful! We also cooked some chicken and cheesy biscuits to go along with our dinner and invited a few friends over.

We felt so proud that we had shopped and cooked from the farmers market. Not only was it fun but it is healthy (except for the fried part), it is green, supports the local market and helps you enjoy God's yummy creations that are right down the road. Now who would not want to do that! I cant wait to go again. I just wish it were not so early but I guess farmers are early risers.

Colores de Chile

If you know me you know that I like bright colors. My room is decorated in bright colors and I love wearing bright colors. I have my share of black, brown, navy and neutral colored clothes, but bright colors make me happy. One of my favorite clothing items is my bright pink poofy vest. I even wrote a poem about it on a previous blog.

We heard about Chile, and noticed last time we were there, that they did not wear very bright colored clothing. Lots of blacks and browns and neutrals. This concerned me. On one hand I want to fit in as much as possible and not rock the boat too much with my clothing if it was super strange. On the other hand, loving bright colors is just a part of who I am and I don't know if I am willing to give that up. I think it might even be genetic because my brother loves bright yellows and greens and oranges (the manly bright colors).

So, on this trip us girls made a point to check out what women wore. This was not just because I want to wear bright colors but to see what styles they had, how fancy the were and even how much makeup they wore. The Chilean culture is a little more formal than US culture, especially young people in the US because we are very casual.

What did we discover? Well, pretty much what we expected, with a few little surprises! It was cold while we were there so whatever was underneath most jackets I cant say but most colors were dark and neutral. Looking out over a crowd it just looked like a sea of dark jackets. They were also, as expected, quite formal. There were some people wearing jeans and fleeces, but in general they wore nice pants and most women wore heals. (No thanks)

Despite the sea of dark, there were a few bright surprises and I took pictures of them when I could and would say, "I'm going to be friends with her!" Here are a few I captured!

Can't say I am going to wear a neon green shawl, but more power to her!

Nice orange jacket

Ahh! Yellow pants!

Now these jackets I could totally wear

And this one too- sorry for the blur

So I can't say I would wear all these things but I was just excited to see a few people breaking out of darkness into the brightness! :) An interesting trend we did pick up on was colorful and patterned pants. I have never been much of a bright pants wearer and I could not figure out if they wore bright on top and bottom but I like to balance my bright top with dark bottom. Who knows, maybe I will become a bright pants wearer! Watch out world!!!

Comida de Chile

Continuing posts about our trip to Chile I thought I would touch on a topic that we get asked a lot and you might be wondering as well. "What is the food like?" people want to know! To be honest, it is not the best. Most of the restaurants seem to serve all the same food, the main color of food on my plates were usually yellow and it was all so heavy.

Eating at a gyro restaurant near the university- this might become a regular place for me

I did eat some foods that I liked and I think I will just have to learn what tastes good to me. Typically I just picked something without really knowing what it was because I hated asking a billion questions. Can you imagine asking a waiter here something like "what is a steak?" They were dishes that were so normal to them that they were difficult to describe so I just went for it and ate what I could.

Tomato and pork sandwich - not too bad

Eating in the mall- it was the easiest place because we did not have to split the check between 11 people- waiters really had trouble understanding that concept

One food that I think I can get used to eating regularly is avocado. They eat it on everything and you can even order an avocado salad!

It's a pretty salad isn't it?

Another food I will never get used to is the hot dog. Chileans LOVE hot dogs! I HATE hot dogs! What makes it worse is all the stuff they load on top of it. The completo is sauerkraut, tomatoes, guacamole, and mayo and they do not just put a little of each on but a TON.

WOAH!

Need a tasty treat during your day? No problem! There are plenty of options. One that they really love is manjar (aka Dulce de leche). Ask for a desert and it will most likely be all over it. Or in the case of the picture below they will squirt it into some fried bread. Mmmm! Thankfully they also have ice cream. For the few days we were there we became regulars at this one place in the mall that used real fruit and some block of white stuff. They put it in a machine and out came ice cream! I do not really understand it but it tasted awesome so I did not ask questions.

It is filled with nutritious vitamins I promise

Good ice cream is a must

We will never be short on candy either because these stands were everywhere- we loved their chocolate

One wonderful thing about the food that we rarely experienced in the restaurants but plan to take advantage of in our own cooking is the fresh produce. It was everywhere and not just in grocery stores. On most streets there were at least one fruit stand that had the most beautiful fruit. In another part of the city there was a produce truck that look liked it came to your door step. In Santiago we went into a few markets and I saw some of the biggest, most beautiful produce I have ever seen. I cannot wait to taste it all!!

Produce truck

Produce stand- so beautiful! They had some strange fruits too that will be fun to try

Mt. Rushmore

Haha! This is funny. Too bad the people who put it up go arrested. I would say they succeeded even if it did not stay up long. It will be all over the news now!

Universidades de Concepcion

Time for another survey trip snippet! We spent most of Monday visiting two of the university campuses in Conce. There are 5 or 6 universities in the city with Universidad de Concepcion being the biggest and nicest and best. That is where we began. We were joined by a family friend of Sara's, Katy, who is a professor and nuclear biologist or something crazy like that.

Ellen was mad and tried to punch Gary....JK!

Katy was so sweet and gave us a wonderful tour of the campus. She answered all of our questions and put up with us taking forever to get anywhere. We talk a lot and we were just soaking in the beauty of the campus, the energy of the students and the excitement of the possibilities of ministry there. The school has 26,000 students!!!

Aren't they such beautiful people! I could have sat around and people watched all day!

Education is very important to Chileans and getting into a good university is crucial for success in their society. Many of the jovenes (youth) also have a desire to help those in need. They do not see the church as an organization that helps so they find other ways. We dreamed about having tutoring to have fortunate students help less fortunate students get into a good university. Also, we hope to be involved in social justice ourselves and to also provide opportunities to walk alongside students in this.

This is a location on campus that students gather at for concerts, plays, rallies, and other activities. I have never seen a campus in Latin American look like this one, all spread out with tons of open space and landscaping. They are usually crammed into small buildings and spread out around the city.

Cannot miss an opportunity for a photo op. There are more to come I promise!!!

This is a beautiful view of the campus from on top of a hill. Katy knew all the good spots!!! By this point in the morning we were quite famished. We would eat breakfast at like 8:30am but in Chile they do not eat lunch till 2pm. By that time every day I was ready to bite my own arm off despite my many snacks!

I wonder what they are talking about!!! :)

Entrance to the campus

After U de Conce we headed to a smaller, more typical Latin university called Santo Tomas. It is pretty new, in university standards, and had much fewer students. It is private and less prestigious than U de Conce, but still a good school.

View from the outside

Here we met with sweet, warm, encouraging, positive, Nancy....NOT! I am pretty sure the term Negative Nancy was coined after her! But despite her coldness and discouragement of NA missionaries we learned A LOT from her. Sometimes it is difficult to hear that you are not needed and other people like you have screwed up so you are going to too and yet there was some truth to the words she spoke to us. It reminded us of the sensitive nature of working in a different culture and how quickly we can negatively influence people in a way that they will hold onto for years.


Despite her negativeness we also learned a lot from her. She gave us her perspective on being a middle class Protestant in a Catholic country where all the Protestant missionaries have gone to the poor. She mentioned over and over again the need for churches for the professional class and for a place for them to be involved in leadership and not just sit back and let the priests do all the work.

Nancy, I thank you for your honesty and bluntness. As scary as you were, your words will help us to remember the importance of partnership and not being saviors but walking alongside Chileans as brothers and sisters, as equals and and as sinners.

Breaking Air Law

So I think I will tell a few stories at a time of our trip and post pictures to go along with them instead one long huge ginormous post. Let's start at the beginning. This story really has nothing to do with the things we experience on our trip, but it sure was funny.

We flew Lan Chile airlines from Miami to Santiago and Santiago to Conce. Is is a super nice airline with beautiful flight attendants, yummy food, unlimited drinks and the most high tech airplane TV screens I have ever seen. I had 3 seats to myself so when I got so tired I could not keep my eyes open I laid down and got a few hours of sleep. One of the sweet flight attendants came by and covered me up with a blanket.

We were supposed to land around 7am and it was still really dark outside. In Spanish the announcer said we were landing in 25 min. and in English they said 55 min. So Chad, trusting his English and not being able to see got up to use the restroom. They made an announcement for everyone to stay in their seats but crazy Chad was in the bathroom when we landed the plane! I think the flight staff was not too happy.

The region Conce is in is called Bio Bio because of the Bio Bio river that runs through it

Then it was my turn. We were taxiing around at like 1 mph for what seemed like forever. I was getting nervous about the super short layover in Santiago where we had to get through customs super fast and I got nervous pee and HAD to go. I knew I would not have time to potty while in the airport so, while still taxiing I got up. They announced for everyone to sit down and then a flight attendant came and pounded on the door until I got out. I said nothing while she was pounding because I had no clue how to say "I'm peeing" in Spanish. I hurried up and she was NOT happy when I came out. She stood over me until I put my seat belt on. I could not say anything!

Waiting in Santiago after running through the airport to find our flight delayed

I think they were happy when we got off the plane. I am sure they thought we were just stupid Americans who thought we could do whatever we wanted. Really I just have to pee a lot.

We made it to Conce!! Brr it was cold!

We got into the airport and had to pay a tax and then went through customs. Ellen had a banana and she got in trouble. Fran had nuts and she got in trouble. Some scammers took our luggage and "helped" us run through the airport and get checked in. When I gave them a few dollar tip they told me it was not enough!!! We gave them a little more and left. We got in the security line and I did not have my boarding pass so we had to go back and get another. Rushing to the gate it turned out that our flight was delayed and we made it just fine. Whew!