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Published: June 30th 2006
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After staying in Santiago the past 3 weekends, it was about time to get outside of the city for just a little bit. I decided to go back and visit the host family that Laura and I stayed with back in February, and so Friday morning I caught a bus down to Linares and then San Dionisio with Laura, Preston, and Emelina. It was about a 3 hour ride.
This was the host family from rural Chile, the "campo," or country, that we stayed with for a week during our pre-program, before we even got to Santiago. In San Dioniso, this tiny tiny little town, there are dirt roads, the brightest lights in town are from a few street lights, the hang out is a little store smaller than my garage, and the food is all homemade. On our return visit, Laura and I slept with a bottle of boiling water at night to just keep us warm.
After grabbing dinner at the one restaurant we keep going back to in Linares, we took a bus going to San Dionisio. We weren't entiiiirely sure where to get off however, and it was getting darker. After about half and hour,
we asked the bus driver while at a bus stop. There were only a few other people on the bus and 2 people waiting at the stop. He begins to ask one of the kids at the stop where the school is (the landmark we knew), when the kid runs across the street to the bus- he was one of the kids we met while in the campo! We cheerfully thanked the bus driver, who was chuckling, hopped off the bus and talked with the boy for awhile, and then went on our ways to meet our families.
I was really looking forward to eating the wonderful campo food again, and was a little sad when we didn't get to eat once we got to the house. It was really laid back, we caught up with our host mom and sister, watched some TV, and were in bed earlier than we had gone to bed in Santiago all semester! As is was really, really, cold, our host mom and given us bottles of HOT hot water to sleep with at night- it was amaaaazing. Otherwise I probably would've just slept with Laura for the body heat! Anyway, it was
The heater
And ohh what a wonderful heater it was a much-needed, really nice night's rest (I can tell when it's a restful sleep because I actually remember my dreams), and as the family was at a dentist appointment in the morning Laura and I snuck around and took pictures of hte house. (Both of our cameras were broken the first time we were in the campo). We also took a walk down the loooong dirt road in town- it seemed so different now that it was winter and wasn't bustling with kids out playing soccer and all our fellow gringos walking around. So we took more pictures and stopped to visit one of our favorite familiies, that our friend Memo stayed with. They were so bubbly and friendly! The 14 yr old, Valentina, (it was her bday that day!) was one of our favorites, as was her brother, Juanqui. Of course they put in some reggeatón videos for us to watch. (Reggaetón is a really popular type of music here- kindof like hip-hop and rap but exclusively in Spanish). We helped the family get ready a little for the bday party, but we had to leave to meet up with an older couple in Linares, who drove us around
throughout the preprogram.
This couple, Lalo and Gloria, is just so friendly and seemed as excited to meet up with us as we were to meet up with them. They said this was the first time a group had came back and met up with them. Oh of course we had dinner at that same pizza restaurant in Linares. After dinner there was a mix-up and Laura and I discovered we couldn't catch a bus back to Santiago that night. Lalo and Gloria immediately call up their friends who have extra space in their house, and we have a place to stay for the night! We said bye to Preston and Emelina, met this new couple, talked with them for awhile over crackers and marmelade (mmmm!!!), and then the couple had to run out to a wedding! ... leaving the house to just us, huddled around the stove, watching the news on the student strikes and wondering how in the world we just ended up where we did!
Anyway, we caught an early bus back to Santiago to be able to see our host families (as we would be leaving the upcoming week for Buenos Aires) and to
do some work. It felt really good to be able to go back to the campo, even though it was just for a day. I'd really like to go back one more time to say goodbye, hopefully right after my 3 week-long travels up through Peru and Bolivia and right before I head back to the states. Even if I came back to Santiago in the near (or far) future, when would be the next time I'd get back to the campo? We'll see how it works out. In any case, a nice weekend.
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