Autumn Redo

How great is it to be able to "Fall Back" twice in a six month period? Yes, Daylight Savings Time ends in Chile in a couple of weeks and we get that extra hour we didn't ever lose. We enjoyed our first rain here since we arrived and look forward to more. The dusty trees were thankful and another 40,000 or so are being planted before the cold weather hits. A few types of trees are losing their leaves and autumn colors are all around. My new fireplace is an electric heater I huddle around.

I just can't quite shake the thought, though, that with winter just around the bend, I need to start getting ready for Christmas. Someone gave us fresh brevas, aka figs, which I have enjoyed with blue cheese for a number of meals, but they were starting to spoil, so we made them into fig cookies with walnuts (which they call mariposas--butterflies--here, appropriate if you consider their shape) and it's hard not to eat them all at a sitting. Fresh figs are nothing like the dried variety--they are so delicate and mild. I love both kinds, but these were a first for us despite decades of enjoying fig newtons. Figgy pudding has to be just around the corner!

We gave a presentation Wednesday on "Why Learn English?" to a group of English students at a high school in town. It was so much fun. As we researched the topic, we became more aware of just how lucky we are to have grown up with English, and how universal it really is. It's the language that technology, medicine, science, international business, the media, news, politics and so many other fields depend on. I guess we can thank the British Empire for taking the language to places as far-flung as Australia, India and Africa; but we Americans have done our part to ensure that it's the agreed-upon language when people of the world need to communicate. When we first received this call I was afraid that people would think we were pushing our language on the unwilling. That is far from the truth. People realize that knowing English opens doors that they want to enter--career, travel, advancement in almost any field.....  The students were eager to hang around and visit with us after, begging us to come again. A couple of the boys said Jay was their hero because he was a pilot--their dream. Of course pilots communicate in English, so they are especially motivated. One of the things I jokingly told them that knowing English would do for them is allow them to know what the words on their T-shirts mean. They are almost all in English.

For my birthday, Jay took me out to eat at an Argentinian restaurant. Here's a picture of the carne platter that fed us for three delicious days: beef, pork, chicken, sausage and roasted potatoes over a charcoal fire on the table. Que rico!

Some church-y mission things:

• Outfitted the young Elders (oxymoron? Oxymormon?) with reflective vests and then busted them when we came upon them not wearing them while riding their bikes on a dark, dangerous road a few days later. We feed these yay-hoos every Tuesday and want to protect them like our own sons.
• Cleaned the church for a few hours--first time it had been cleaned since we arrived, I think--on a couple of Saturdays. Discouraging.
• Provided pocket-sized hymnals to the missionaries so that investigators and new members can sing along with those who know the words or have their own hymn books. We have ordered 100 of the bigger ones for the chapel and have determined ahead of time that if they walk off, that's okay. People need to be able to sing.
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• Had several groups of our students attend church two weeks ago to a special meeting where the Mission President and his wife were featured speakers. (They looked down at the congregation and saw us and wondered how the heck they didn't know about this never-before seen senior couple. Were were really missionaries? We don't belong to the Mission, but to the Presiding Bishop's Office and Farmland Reserve. Yes, we have the name-tag and everything.) Some of these not-yet-members also watched or listened to conference. Yay! It was such a good conference and the feedback has been very positive. We were glad the chapel was relatively clean.
• Between sessions of conference, we took home-made cinnamon and orange rolls around to most of the families we visit and teach. We first were just going to take them to the ones "on base" --the farm-- but kept extending our route. I think they now have a greater understanding of why Americans tend to be fatter than Chileans ; )
• I'm teaching a couple of our students to knit--well, helping them make baby blankets. They really knew how to knit but just hadn't done it since they were 12. It is a good chance for communication in both English and Spanish. We also have a Wednesday "craft" session with wives of some of the farm supervisors. They are some of our English students, too.
  
  

Barbie Dog

Dogs everywhere!

Jay and I see this dog regularly hanging around one of the employee eating pavilions. At the same moment I was thinking that it was the very image of a fashion model, Jay said out loud, "Barbie Dog." Synchronicity.

My Suede Pear is a Quince! That is all.

Except to ask, "What is a runcible spoon with which to eat this quince?"

Food! Are we in heaven?

Ceviche and crusty bread in a seaside town. Zoom in on all the deliciousness in this yummy dish: bits of all kinds of seafood in a tangy brine.

 Yes, those are green beans, not the bell peppers that I thought I was getting from the picture on the menu: twice! Liked them both times, too.

 Fresh juice everywhere. Just imagine raspberries blended up into a liquid. That's it. And pebre (pico de gallo--rather spicy) instead of fry sauce for those papas! 

 The mother of the farm's security guard made this "pan de campo" for us. Crusty, flavorful and baked in her horno. Smear avocado on a slice of this bread with tomatoes, onions, salt and pepper for a fabulous supper.

 The day's shopping trip--to one of the produce stands that line the roads here. Strawberries, raspberries, basil, potatoes, plums, lemons, avocado and melon jelly!

Here's a woman baking empanadas in one of two adobe hornos (ovens). There's a little door near the ground where wood is placed and a fire heats the food above it. We went to a nearby town to see if we could find a huaso (cowboy) hat for our wall. We didn't find a hat, but there were many restaurants to choose from. We decided to stop at this little hole-in-the-wall place and were not disappointed. Just watching her make the empanadas and smelling the wood-fire baking the food was worth the trip there. I ordered the empanada and Jay ordered pan de choclo, a quiche-like dish with a yummy crust and a corn filling.

Now the tuna update: prickly pear fruit. They are in season now, and are juicy and fairly sweet. People buy them by the bagful. I understand they are picked in the morning when the thorny things are less thorny and then the gunny-sacks they put them in removes the small pricklies. The seeds are hard and many, but I think people just swallow them down. I've had many slices and quite like them. The sliced ones are on the plate beside a fruit called membrillo, which looks like a suede pear. The suede coating rubs off and then you can eat it like an apple. It's kind of sour and goes well with salt. It also has the texture of cellulose but with the mouth-puckering factor of alum. It must be an acquired taste. I'll keep trying as they get riper, but don't think they are going to be something I buy. We have plenTY on two trees!

"The world is so full of a number of things, I'm sure we should all be as happy as kings." Robert Louis Stevenson

My Little Redhead

Our Julianne is a big bargain shopper. Savers is her Nordstrom, and she finds some pretty good stuff, too. Once, at DownEast, she found the perfect pillowcases for her daughter's bedroom: perfect color, all cotton, very nice. The monogram didn't matter for their function, but when she got home and presented them to Claire, Claire wanted to know, "What does MLR stand for?" Just a quick as that, Julianne calmly said, "It stands for My Little Redhead." It has become a favorite nickname for this little redhead.

Well, Julianne is my little redhead, and she's likely going to lose that incomparable, gleaming, just curly enough strawberry-blonde hair to chemotherapy. She has been diagnosed with Hodgkins and we are celebrating at the prayers-answered miracle that this is. Nothing worse? Ha! We laugh at lymphoma. Seriously, the menu had nothing better and a lot worse options. 

She has tons of wonderful friends and neighbors and of course, six siblings who stand ready to help in every way they can....and have thought of things I wouldn't have already. We are so appreciative of your prayers and kindnesses and concern. Having served a mission herself, she wants us to stay here, and truly, we feel a new motivation to be the best missionaries we can be; to make this time away from our loved ones count, and to try to say thank you for the Lord's miracles--particularly this one--in our lives. 
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Here's a picture of the patient with the fabulous hair during her first chemotherapy, with Saundra, the doctor known for her glamor (and her gift of compassion) checking up on her. It's going to be a brutal six months, but this is the girl who runs marathons in downpours, jumps into a neighbors' yard with a snarling dog to get a runaway ball and prays our old van up the mountain in Colorado when nothing else would get it going. We know this territory. We can do this.

So What Exactly Are You Doing?

Exact is exactly what we are NOT doing, but here's the plan. 

                            Learning Center Hours

El Centro de Aprender Ingles

HORARIO / HOURS

Monday    (Lunes)        Learning Center  11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Tuesday    (Martes)       Learning Center          11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

                                                   Comedor Norte             12:30 p.m. –  1:15 p.m.                         

Wednesday (Miercoles)    Learning Center   11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Thursday    (Jueves)           Learning Center    11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

                                                   Comedor Norte            12:30 p.m. –  1:15 p.m

Friday    (Viernes)   Learning Center              11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Saturday    (Sabado)  Capilla Melipilla            3:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Sunday    (Domingo)  Capilla Melipilla             2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.   

Other Hours by Arrangement / Otras Horas de acuerdo con Misioneros

Home Visits Evenings / Visitas a su casa por la tarde de cita con Misioneros                  Fono 56.9 61248896

We try to be available at noon here at the Center three days, and in the field two days. The workers get an hour lunch, with whatever time isn't taken up by eating to do whatever they would like. We have a ping-pong table we take out every morning and it is getting more and more use. 

I wish I could say this is one of our classes--no, it's payday, but this is where we do some teaching, and some of the people we teach.

There is strong encouragement to learn English. Various people come in for lessons-- we have several "regulars," and some who seem interested but haven't stepped in, as yet. I decided to bring school to them and came up with, "Words for the Week." I write words and phrases on a window right by where some of the workers eat and we circulate among them and have them say the words. We give them a small piece of paper with the same words, so they can take them home, or have them in their pockets to refer to. We act things out and tease -they love it when Jay and I tease each other, so we make a game of it. Last week's sentence was, "I need__________" so we made cookies and made them say, "I need a cookie," before they could take one. There are certain sounds that are just practically tongue-twisters for native Spanish speakers. Words like, "could," "would" and "should" come out, "couth, wouth, shouth," with a soft 'th.' I'm sure I don't even hear the way I slaughter sounds from Spanish. 

We are here for drop-ins, but use the time for lesson preparation, studying Spanish, (and updating my blog!) but often have workers come in for lessons or to use the various language programs on the computers. 

A number of the managers who have pretty good English skills come in because they are working toward advanced certification or degrees. One young man is getting ready to go to BYU-Idaho, but was admitted provisionally because of his language deficits. He just started speaking English a year ago and has two years of college here in Chile. He is a returned missionary, as are many of the administrative staff. We are assigning him daily writing assignments and he is doing Kahn Academy chemistry courses on line. I'm having a great time refreshing my knowledge of the Periodic Table. (The president of the company says the periodic table is like scripture. To which I say, "Yeah, Leviticus.") Nontheless, I am learning and so is he.

Another of our students is an IT guy, prepping for  Cisco network certification. The study manual is full of idiomatic expressions like "dive right in" that are completely obscure to an English second-language learner. We press on, but wish technical writing could not try to be user-friendly in that way!

One of the farm administrators is Brazilian, doing well in Spanish, and doing pretty well in English, too, but he wants help with his writing. Mostly, it's been proof-reading. Another college-graduate young man is preparing to take the GRE hoping to attend a university in the States.

In the evenings, we have appointments to teach in people's homes. We have little kids and bigger kids, adults, dogs and cats and chickens. These are some of our favorite times. We do everything from workbook pages to songs, reading preschool board-books and playing with plastic animals and dice. One couple selected an English book about pirates to read together.

On Saturdays we are at the church building for anyone who wants to show up. We help kids with homework--although since school isn't in session yet, I'm wondering if it's last year's homework. 

We haven't figured out when our P-Day is, yet. 

Lots of Words in English..........

Now that we have been here almost three weeks, it feels like time for a mission update.

We love it!!!  Beautiful place, beautiful people, fantastic strawberries, melons, tomatoes, avocados….. Our little home is just that. It feels like home. We eat well. We sleep well. We have FaceTime to see the kids and grandkids at home. Every day is a good one.

We teach at the Learning Center, in the field and/or in homes Monday through Saturday. We have some regular scheduled home lessons and are finding addresses (directiones) rather un-straightforward, but have had some miracles in this regard. Also some total misses. We teach on Saturdays at the church building. At the farm's Learning Center, we have a number of computers with language programs loaded on them in addition to the Church's Daily Dose lessons and things we concoct. I brought some little plastic animals, which have provided a great starting-place with the children--and even the adults. One cow. Two cows. Brown cow. This is a cow. These are cows. How many white animals? It’s fun.

We have had some real "missionary" opportunities--as different from our teaching roles. We were asked by the Elders (there are 4 sets in our Branch!) to pick up some investigators and we are enjoying taking them to church. We also took a couple of the young returned missionary/farm manager trainees to a restaurant last week and the proprietor recognized our name badges and told us that he was a member of the Church who had recently moved here from the southern part of Chile but had not made contact with the Church. He was excited about the chance to get his kids to our English classes. We were expecting him on Thursday but so far he hasn’t shown up. (I think this calls for another dinner at his restaurant, don’t you?!) We teach a family on Saturday nights with their 4 children. They are members but not active. The mother cleans here at the Fundo and brings her kids for additional English lessons. We love them already. One young man is particularly eager to learn English—15 years old and bright and personable.  *** Late breaking news: they were at Church yesterday!!*** Could singing "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" at our lesson Saturday night have inspired them to attend?!

Our biggest miracle was when we were trying to meet up with this same family for the first time. We had a loose arrangement to go to their house on Saturday afternoon and to call first, but they didn’t answer the phone, so we decided to head to Melipilla for the appointment at the church. We knew they lived somewhere along that 34 km between here and there. At a wide spot in the road, Jay said, “I think we should call again,” and pulled the car over. The woman answered immediately and said she could see us. "Are you in a red Explorer?" Their home was just five minutes away! 

We are dazzled by the farm here. Every day there is great progress on getting the ground ready for planting the areas where they don't have trees yet. We love watching the different stages—turning over the earth, surveying, lining up stakes, laying out the irrigation hoses acre after acre. It is incredible the scope of this project. It is neat seeing the trees at different stages and then watching new areas being planted, the trees staked, plastic sleeves around the bottom of the trees, then the young trees tied to guide-wires—all requiring intensive man-hours. Someone here  is even working to invent and build an olive tree planting machine! Incredible. Eventually, they will have an olive oil processing plant right here on the farm. We are impressed by the way the company takes care of its employees—big pump bottles of sunblock, plenty of water and a nice shady pavilion for lunch for the workers plus a steam table arrangement and refrigerator for their lunches, big crates of fresh bread at lunch and rides to an from various places where they live or where they can get public transportation. Young college students and university graduates are given every opportunity to learn English, get further training and advance in the company. Quite a few have homes provided right on the property.

Wow. I had no idea I had so much to say. Maybe it’s because I’m almost mute in Spanish ; )

Every blog needs a picture, so now you get to see a totally different agricultural product. Tuna. No, not aceituna (olives), no, not the fish, tuna. Tuna. aka: prickly pear. Can you imagine harvesting this field? It is massive, with gigantic prickly pear plants packed tightly together in rows. Yikes! We understand that they do the picking in the morning with tough leather gloves when the spikes are not as long, put the fruit in gunny-sacks where they roll around and get de-prickled a bit, and after that, I don't know what. But I'll tell you when I learn more.