Into the routine now

Okay, so I continue to be a bad blogger, but things sometimes just don't seem as interesting to write about when you're in the swing of it all. Although there are certainly surprises and challenges to every week, things have been running smoothly lately and life is a little calmer than it previously was. Caryn and I have been trying to teach English (sometimes more successfully than others) to plenty of children in the neighborhood, and I've been doing more art projects than I ever thought possible. Especially since my art skills aren't so hot. In any case, our youth group project has been a little hit or miss, since some weeks the kids just don't show and other times more kids than are expected show up, but we're trying to keep a go with the flow attitude.

Caryn and I recently participated in the Cruz del Mayo activities on May 2, which nobody can really explain to me how they started. Anyways, we went around the neighborhood with a group of teenagers collecting food donations for the group of abuelitos that we work, singing a song about beans and pumpkins. It was sort of like trick-or-treat, only with spaghetti and rice and for donations. The most interesting part to me, though, is that supposedly crosses get burned on this day in celebration. Caryn and I searched for it, but we never got to see it. Everyone thought it was pretty funny that we were slightly horrified by the idea of putting a cross in a bonfire, but hey, I guess this was just a very easily spotted cultural difference.

Other than that, we're preparing for the cold of winter and trying to think up ways to teach first graders English. Blacky, the (I should just admit it and say "my") cat where I live, has a cold that keeps me up at night with his sneezing. I never even knew that cats can get colds. Who would have known that coming to Chile requires lots of cat ministry?