Last Days in Chile

Hello! We are almost done here in Chile. I shall continue the blog where I left off yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon we went to a high risk area in La Serena. This is a large area of government subsidized housing. Just as in any similar place anywhere in the world, there is crime, drugs and gangs. I was shocked by the way that young children imitate American gangs' way of speaking, flashing signs,etc. There are about 600 children in this area, but there is no church at all. I was told that there are four different areas like this one in the city without church. Christ for the City rents a community recreational building for two hours every Friday. The whole team was there. One of our team members, Edner, brought a clown outfit, and two girls from the local church dressed as clowns also. The three clowns took some of the local children around the neighboorhood to invite others to come. There were about 70 children. There were games, a Bible story, cake and soda, and a gift for every child. We all had to help because these children are not as disciplined as children who attend church. Pray for the children of Puerta del Valle.

After the event, we all went to one of the church members' home for a BBQ to celebrate the end of the activities. One couple from our team was staying at this home. It is a big house, with five or six bedrooms, but only one bath. Eight people live there, plus our team members. That is 10 people with one bath. I don't know how many people were at the party, but I guess that there were 30 adults and quite a few children. I have already described the Chilean BBQ. They eat bread and sausage (chorizo, but not spicy like Mexican chorizo) BEFORE the BBQ. The meat was brought out in platter after platter, and people just helped themselves. You have to understand that by this time is was 9:00 pm, supper time in Chile. After dinner, somebody brought out a guitar, and we started singing Christian songs. Somehow the music changed to Chilean folk songs and the pastor and his daughter danced. Among the dances was a "guaracha." It is a very simple dance, so after watching them, I jumped up and started dancing also. You cannot keep a good Cuban down when there's dancing. The pastor was amazed that I got the dance perfectly. I told him that I am Cuban. That's all I needed to say. Then it was the Costa Ricans turn. They also started to dance the dances of Guanacaste, the province where we live when we are there. It is their custom to yell "BOMBA" and stop the music all of the sudden. Then somebody tells a couplet, which is a joke in verse. Then the music and the dances resumes until somebody yells "BOMBA" again. The only other American in the team is from Alabama, so I told everybody that he needed to sing "Dixie," which he did. Then the guitar player started playing the Guantanamera, and John and I danced. It was a lot of fun. At 10:30 all the young people left to play basketball, girls vs. guys. We left a little after 11:00 after saying our good-byes to all this dear people. They gave us a lot of presents. I will treasure them always. The team left this morning back to Santiago by bus. They will minister in two different churches there and will leave on Wednesday back to Costa Rica. We will stay here until Monday.

We have been driven back and forth sometimes by a hired taxi, who is a young woman. She decided to give us a free tour today on her day off. So, this morning she took us around the coast to many different towns. We had lunch at a fish place and got home at about 4:00 pm. Today is the first sunny day since we got here! It was a beautiful day for a drive. Tonight we might go to a concert at another local church.

I am going to have to wait to post pictures when we get home. It is hard with the connection they have here.

Until I connect again, still at the beach....