This next picture is of 5 young boys in our little Branch. Each of them is 11 years old. During this year 2014 each of them will turn 12 and receive the priesthood. This picture was taken at a training meeting for them where they were introduced to the opportunities and privileges of holding the priesthood. It is fun and a challenge to coral these boys and keep them focused in the right direction, but they are doing really well.
Have I told you how much I do not like dogs here. We were driving down the canyon one day. It is a one lane road with houses, stores, etc. on the sides of the road. As I was driving this dog wanders out in front of us without warning or ability to stop. I hit the dog and he did this damage to the car. After hitting the dog I stopped the car to see what happened to him and the people at the bus stop said, "He ran off." So he gets a bruise and I get a $1,500 bill. These dogs do not care if a car is coming until you are right on top of them. They know they own the road and the people will stop for them. Sometimes they will not move at all and you have to go around them or run over them.
We have had problems with the Dogs getting into the yard. They would jump fences, crawl through holes, or anything they could to get in the yard and leave their >>>>. I have had to build up barriers, etc. this is a picture of our "Dog poop protection device" I had to make at the driveway.
These next two picture explain the mail system. There are no mail boxes in our city. If you mail something to our post office it will arrive, sometime. But then it will stay there unless you have paid extra or unless you call there each day to see if anything has arrived. So to mail things here is a waste. As for the utility bills, look first at the picture on the left. It is the front of our Church. On the left of the walkway almost to the building you can barely see a white spot. On the right I took a picture of the little spot. It is the electric bill, or the water bill. They come by each month and throw the bills over the fence onto the yard somewhere. It is your responsibility to find the bill and then go to their office and pay the bill. Everyone understands it but it is really dumb.
Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, but we have a young sister missionary from Montana who was a little homesick. The other sister is from Argentina. So we promised them we would prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal. What we did not realize was how difficult it is to find Turkey. We found one at a large grocery store for $6.00 per pound. That is no typo. So we found a pre-cooked turkey breast at $5.00 per pound. Bonnie got a squash and made pumpkin pie and we had a real feast. It was very tasty and the sisters thought they were in heaven. So we did have Thanksgiving.
It is summer here in December so we decided to plant a lawn. Rake the ground, smooth it out, plant the seed, and water, water, water. After 4 weeks we had the beginning of the lawn and then you have to cut it. So we buy a lawnmower. Here we are at the end of spring with the first cut of lawn. It is now filling in more and more. We found out later that we got a fescue lawn which is much more hardy in the cooler temperatures. So now in the summer it is struggling but we are making it.
This is a picture of the Quezada family. They had been very inactive in the church for many years. We started to visit with them and teach them. There son had not been baptized and was 10 years old. In the church we baptize youth when they are 8 years old because we believe they can be accountable for their actions at that age. Anyway we asked permission from the parents to teach their son. We told them though that is did not serve a good purpose if they were not going to become active. They granted permission and they are not fully active in the church. In this picture you mom, daughter, son who was baptized and dad who baptized his son. It was a great event and a real positive experience for the whole family.
For Christmas the celebration is much less here than in the US. They do celebrate but not the lights, or all the music in the stores or super sales. They really start celebrating about the 20th of December through the 8th of January. The 8th of January is their assumed date of the visit of the wisemen. That is when the decorations come down. In this picture is the Christmas tree we had in our home. Not many presents (1 each) but we remembered the purpose of the season.
In the branch here we celebrated the holidays also. We wanted the people to know we are Christians so we prepared a live Nativity presentation for the neighborhood. We made a Nativity scene and used some costuming and had the whole presentation. This is a picture of the participants. They had a great time and it was a fun time for all.
I mentioned the postal system, now for the garbage system. Garbage pick up is 2-3 times a week. They do a good job and it is real work for the workers. But they do not have garbage cans. Therefore they have to protect the garbage from the dogs. (man's best friend... right) If the garbage is left out for the morning pickup, the dogs will have gotten into it for the food scraps and scattered it all over the street by morning. So the people have to hang it high enough that the dogs cannot get to it. Her is a picture of one street on a morning just before garbage pick up. Hanging on the fences all down the street is sacks of garbage. The garbage men have to run down the street, collect the bags and throw them into the garbage truck as it is driving down the street.
San Cristobal is a large hill in the Northern section of Santiago. It is visible from all parts. In the early 1900 some guy had the idea of a funicular to give the people access to the top of the hill and vision of the city. Now it is a major tourist attraction because it gets you to the top and the view is magnificent. Here you can see the car coming up the hill as our car is going down the hill. The two cars will pass relatively close buy and you can touch each other. It is quite an incline. The cars hold about 40 people.
When you get to the top the view is wonderful. Santiago is a city of 8 million people. Almost twice the size of Dallas/Fort Worth combined. This picture is overlooking one section of the city. It goes on to touch the mountains in the background.
At the top of San Cristobal is this very large statue of the Virgin Mary. There is a significant space here with room for a Mass each sunday. People come from all over to see the statue daily. Since Chile is predominantly catholic, this statue is very important for them. It stands about 80 feet tall.
Shopping is a regular event here. There are few refrigerators in homes and those are small. So the people have to shop for food about every 2-3 days. This is a rich farm country and getting produce and fresh fruit from direct from the market is quite good. Below is the fruits and items we bought at the "feria" one day. We spent about $6 for all this food. It is corn on the left. It is about 50% cheaper to go to the "feria" than to to the store.
The feria is a Farmers market, but it has much more than just food. You can buy almost anything at the Feria, food to candy, to clothes, to hardware supplies. It moves though. These ferias are all over the place. It is not just one feria but many. So you go to the one that is closest to you that you like. Some are bigger than others. Here is a picture of one part of a smaller Feria. Each vendor has their thing. They have it all prepared and presented very well. They start about 9am and close up about 3pm. People walk and lots of people come to get their food for the few days. Everyone has their little cart you can see in the picture. It is fun.
When we say we are going to the river or the lake it is different for them. The people in this area are poor and all camping grounds charge a fee to enter or the same for lakes. this picture if of a riverbed that used to have lots of water. Now it flows but not as much. This picture is a Saturday and the people come by the hundreds. the riverbed is covered with people, tents, barbeques, etc. Where ever they can they put their feet in the water. At the bottom you can see where they have put up rocks to cause some dam effect. It is about 3 feet deep in the center. The come and spend the weekend here and have a wonderful time. They come here because it is free. Those with some money will go to the private campgrounds. Last weekend we decided to count the cars as we were coming up the canyon. In 20 minutes driving up the canyon we counted 700 cars coming down out of the canyon. It was towards the end of the day. That is 700 cars driving. It does not count the cars parked along the side or in restaurants. that is one car ever 1.6 seconds. yes this canyon gets a lot of tourist traffic but they do not spend a lot.
Finally, last Monday we had to take an unexpected trip almost to the coast. After taking care of what we needed to we asked the policeman where a good place to eat lunch was. They directed us to this winery. Wine is a big product her in Chile and it exported all over the world. This picture is of the entrance to the restaurant. The food was wonderful. No we did not taste the wine. Very relaxing and beautiful.
