Greetings from Chile!
I have to say that my month in Peru was an experience I will never forget. It was filled with many, many wonderful memories, new friends, new language, new food, etc. After saying my good-byes to the school staff, friends from school and my Peruanas family, I flew from Lima to Santiago, Chile last Friday night. I arrived bright and early Saturday morning and then took a shuttle to the bus station. The bus station was not open yet, but fortunately the bus I needed was there and I could pay the driver directly. I took a bus from Santiago to Viña del Mar where my next school is located. Saturday was mainly a blur from being up most of the night!
I read somewhere that for every good-bye, God always provides a hello. But am I willing to totally put my arms around the next hello and make it all that God wants it to be - all that I hope it to be. As I say good-bye to Peru and everything/everyone I knew there, I say hello to Viña and everything/everyone I will come to know.
Sunday, I went with another guest from my house, Heikki, to Valparaiso. Valparaiso is an adjoining community to Viña del Mar or Viña, as the locals call it. It is a very artsy town and full of young people, graffiti, coffee shops, dogs and more dogs, and old, but beautiful architecture. Heikki’s wife died last summer and he wanted to take flowers to the cemetery and invited me to tag along. He also took me to the mercado where all of the fresh produce is available and showed me where the fresh fish market is located. It was a very good day and my travels also gave me a good grasp of the city! I posted some photos of Valparaiso.
It is absolutely beautiful here. Viña is located right on the Pacific Ocean. It has a population of around 300,000. I have found it very easy to get around on the micros, the city bus system. The temperature here is in the low 70’s with a nice sea breeze. If you want to see more about the city, I encourage you to google it.
I am well into my first week of school in Viña. I am finding that the language is finally starting to click. This week my ability to understand and to speak has been much better. Students from Germany make up almost half of the students here. One of my classmates from Germany is a teacher. She shared with me yesterday that she is on a one year paid sabbatical from her teaching position. She is traveling for quite some time in Chile alone and then her husband is joining her for some travel.
I had my first pilates session yesterday. Francesca, who owns the house where I am staying, also has a pilates studio in her home. She is meeting with me three times a week, using the pilates machines. I found it somewhat difficult to align myself correctly and begin to use muscles the way they are intended. It was very low impact, but it is going to take some practice to wake up those muscles I haven’t used for a bit. I’m looking forward to working with her over the next four weeks.
I experienced my first earthquake last night. I was in bed, reading, and all of a sudden my bed began to shake pretty good. It probably lasted 15-20 seconds - felt like much longer!! I got up and asked Heikki about it. He just shrugged and said it was no big deal if nothing fell off the walls or shelves. It was a 6.3 quake and the epicenter was about 350 km from here. They had five more tremors throughout the night. It is such a way of life here, no one gets too excited about it.
One of my favorite Scriptures is, “A man’s mind plans his way [as he journeys through life], But the Lord directs his steps and establishes them.” Proverbs 16:9 (Amp). The farther I am into this journey, the more I know that God has a very specific plan for me. I realize more and more how blessed I am to be able to travel and spend this much time in a culture I love so much. As I said in a previous blog, I want to really see what is around me, not missing things that I may think are insignificant, but important to God. I do not want this time to just be a time when I went to South America and learned a new language…to be able to dream and plan for what is next. I’m taking my time on this one. I’m in a period of waiting…waiting on God for the right next thing.
