Getting used to life in Chillan

Well, since it's already been nearly two weeks since my last post, I suppose it's time to write something new. It seems like time is already flying by here--it's hard to believe that Caryn and I have been here for about six weeks now!

Lately we've been adding new activities to our schedules. This week, for instance, we began teaching English at one of the local schools. There's only one class for each grade, and, well, even though I've only been there for one morning, I think it's safe to say that the school is lacking in many areas. In any case, Caryn and I decided to start off by only teaching two grades--3rd and 4th--to get a feel for it before we decide to take on any more than that. Although teaching went relatively well (thank goodness for the experience working at Arrupe this summer!), walking into the school was quite overwhelming. For one, most of the kids were at recess, so we walked into a swarm of children. The other thing that certainly wasn't helpful for me is that many people here think that I look like a former volunteer (who also taught at this school), so much so that they run around yelling "Tia Betsy is back!". It's a confusing process to explain to little kids that you're not the person you think they are. Anyways, our third grade class was a little crazy but nothing too terrible, and our fourth grade class was quite calm and under control. Considering how concerned everyone was for us here at the house that we wouldn't be able to handle the situation, I think we did pretty well. For now we're going to keep teaching every Wednesday morning until the end of the school year in December, and then we can decide what we want to do next school year.

The other activity that we added for sure this week is hanging out with a group of senior citizens on Wednesday afternoons. Every Wednesday there's a free lunch for seniors at the local chapel, and since they arrive at 12:30 for lunch and then have a meeting at 3:00, many of them just hang out after lunch until their meeting. Apparently the time passes slowly with little to do, so Caryn and I are going to start hanging out with them, bring cards and bingo and things like that. There are only about nine of them, so if anything it probably won't be too overwhelming. In fact, it seems like this will be a good way to get to learn more about the history of Chile right from the people who experienced it here firsthand.

Other than that, Caryn and I are about to finish weaving our first scarf (which certainly has its, um, "artistic" parts). I took a giant blanket off my bed today, which is a good sign for me that it's finally getting warmer outside. Our pregnant cat just had four kittens, which are sooooo tiny. It's a game to try to touch them--you have to wait until the mother cat gets trapped outside so that she won't ferociously attack you.

This weekend we have a birthday party to attend, and then since it's a holiday weekend (yep, Columbus day. . .) we're heading out to the country to visit Ted and Meruja and their daughter--they're a Maryknoll family here in Chile.