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Published: January 26th 2006
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Adrienne and Morgan
soooo great to see Adrienne for the weekend! It's about time for another update from sunny Viña del Mar...
Last weekend the Santiago group came to enjoy the beach with us in Viña, and you know what that means! Adrienne! She stayed with me with my host family and we had a blast. Friday night we explored some of my neck of the woods in Viña and then of course we went out dancing. I don't think I've ever had more fun dancing in my life than that night (well, maybe some nights in Madrid with Tia rival it). amazing!
Our late night was followed by an early morning; most of the Vina group headed to a girls' home about 15 minutes away in Vaparaiso where we played for a long time...reading, joking around, jump roping. What an experience. These girls (about 40 live there all the time) have no hot water, no fridge, and even soap is a scarcity. The saddest part of the experience was realizing that every single girl there had at least one parent, but there was so much abuse at home that they couldn't stay. We're going to be working with them some more in the next few weeks to see how
we can help further.
Saturday afternoon was spent at the beach until it was time for our big Furman group events. On our way to out first gathering guess who we saw! The President Lagos of Chile who was on his way to the presidential vacation house for the weekend. What a surprise. I really enjoyed catching up with Adrienne and seeing some new faces from the Santiago group. Man, I can't wait to head to Santiago to visit them in a few weekends.
Before we head over to Santiago, we are going to climb a mountain. I've heard that it will probably be the most vigorous climb I've ever done, so I've got some nervous excitement going on over here. We're gonna camp out on the mountain this Saturday night...I'll let you know how it goes. Dr. Powell told us, I guess as encouragement, that only one person has dies climbing this mountain so maybe it won't be that bad. haha.
This week has been busy...Monday we headed to a sewage plant for class...stinky. That's all I have to say about that. But that night Lindsay and Gabriel, one of our Chilean assistants, headed to the
Chorrillana!
Accordeon player and singer at a little restaurante where only chorrillana is served: french fries topped with onion rings topped with lamb...artery clogger! beach for some boxed wine and peanuts. Sooo fun. Tuesday was ocean kayaking. My plan to stay dry didn't last very long. Morgan flipped as soon as the kayak hit the water...way to go. We did get to see some HUGE sea lions just chilling on some rocks around the port. It was actually pretty scary to think that those huge carnivores were swimming in the water underneath us...a thought which made my scramble to get back on the kayak after my second spill pretty quick. Real coffee in Valparaiso afterwards warmed me right up (I say real coffee because everyone here drinks powdered Nescafe...something I will never get used to, yuck). Tuesday I said goodbye to Tito, my 22 year old brother, who headed to Spain for a month.
And Tuesday night was the earthquake...I don't know what time it was, but it woke me up. and if woke me up, it had to have been big. I think it was a 4 on the Richter scale, but I didn't check. I woke up, looked around the shaking room, thought "this must be an earthquake," and went back to sleep. It probably only lasted 30 seconds and I
roller coaster!
So it probably wasn't a good idea to ride the roller coaster at the travelling circus, but hey, we survived. was probably awake for 10.
Yesterday we visited a city called Casablanca and the surrounding pueblos. I made a few little friends who are my sister's age while touring a tiny clinic in a town of about 1000. Maybe Maggie and the girls can be penpals 😊 To finish up the day, some of us went to see a movie...I saw The Family Stone. Crazy to see a Christmas movie set in the Northeastern US while I'm here at the beach in the summer. Last week I spent a lot of time at the free film festival at the Teatro Municipal...documentaries, shorts, animation, galore!
The health system here, that we've been studying, is developing quickly. Chile is a hundred times more advanced than what I saw in Guatemala, and although still improving, is catching up to other developed countries. All of the health statistics and indicators are way ahead of the game as far as other Latin American countries go. And I think Bachelet, who will take her position as Presidenta in March will do a lot to imrove basic health care here. Yeah Chile!
So I guess it's time to go to class and I hope
sunset after vino
the view from the beach where we had some wine and peanuts to hear from you to see what's going on soon. Thanks for your comments on the other entries 😊
Saludos,
Morgan
Oh, it looks like I'm going to head to the north of Chile with Nadia and a few Chileans for my free travel at the end of the trip to see some of the Atacama Desert, the second driest desert in the world. Can't wait!
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Joan (Adrienne's Mom)
non-member comment
Greetings from Isle of Palms
Thank you, Morgan, for including me in your blog addresses. Sounds like you're having a great time. I'm so happy that you and Adrienne got together, and you had "a" time of your life!