Chile, at Last!

By request (Send pictures!)

The back of our casa looking east with some of the millions of olive trees in the foreground the day we arrived. There are familiar-looking hills surrounding us, and the farm is huge beyond belief.

Seeing our house for the first time--why so interested in the ground, I guess I am earthbound!?

 Paul, famous for cinnamon rolls, fire-bird turkey and other delights, created this apple pie 

for our last family Sunday dinner together. Isn't he clever?

 Here's the project that kept me grounded in the last hurried week before we left: a blessing dress for baby girl Stevenson: finished and mailed from the hotel right before boarding the plane. Whew!

Still in our traveling clothes after 20 hours, we couldn't resist a long walk through some of the farmland before calling it a day. These trees will become tall hedges with olives for mechanical picking in just a few years. You can see the different heights of trees in these pictures, and the drip irrigation system that puts the right amount of water in the right places.

These are some of the company's office and field workers in a field of newly planted trees. The South American AgReserves officials are moving their headquarters to this farm and we joined them on a tour yesterday. It is interesting the way they teach and train as they describe the operation and their vision for it. We are very impressed by the care that is shown for the workers--in fact, our purpose is to elevate lives by improving their literacy; but in addition there are countless little things: pump bottles of sunscreen and the expectation that they be used, baskets of rolls and bread for anyone to take for lunch, a quick lesson in the field about saving money while they are young so it can grow, explaining exactly why the branches are to be pruned above a certain level, or done by hand rather than machine, etc. There is the expectation that the North American managers will be replaced by some of these very young men and women.

Below are pictures of the Learning Center, where we will begin teaching English on Monday to the farm employees on their lunch break and other times.  In the past two days we have updated computers and set up Rosetta Stone for five users, organized books and labeled the new ones, created and put up a calendar and other posters. Kind of reminds me of my first teaching job after the 20 year maternity break! Very exciting, scary, intimidating.... Hope we can do this!