Making Lemonade in Quito

The Virgin of Panecillo (Panecillo being the name of the cerro)

who overlooks the northern part of Quito.

I can see her from my house.

See the dome in the bottom right? It is the remains of a native sun-

religion worship site that was converted to a Catholic shrine centuries ago.

The northern part of Quito.

Historic Quito is in the foreground, with New Quito in the distance.

My house is just in front of that long, green Cerro on the right.

The southern part of Quito (what you can see of it!)

St. Matthew´s Church - built from the ruins

of a native-religion worship site by native slave labor.

Forced to convert to Christianity at point of death,

they built many sun-worship elements

into the structure of this and other churchs. It is fascinating!

This has been rough. First, I have been sick. Sick. SICK! It has been tough going, but finally, I seem to be coming out on the other side of this. I say "seem to be" because... well... you´ll just have to guess what ailment it is that persists! (Escuse me while I run to the bathroom...)

The travel day from Santiago to Quito was terrible, especially in the morning. I had to get up at 4 a.m. to await a 4:45 a.m. transfer to the airport. Not wanting to miss the van, I went outside 15 minutes early. Well, I waited. And I waited. And when the driver was 30 minutes late, Daniel (who kindly got up to wait with me and bid me farewell) called the transfer company. Sure enough, the drive had over slept, but was "nearby". Another 15 minutes later, and the driver was there. That´s 45 minutes late, and 60 minutes of standing in the street for me. The only good things from that were the final moments to talk with Daniel, which I cherished, and the final opportunity to marvel once more at the stars of the Southern hemesphere.

Then, to the airport, and to the long line at check in. It amazes me how long it takes to get your ticket and check your bags here, but that has been consistent all along. More than an hour later I was at the counter, my shirt DRENCHED in sweat, my body shaking with severe chills. It was awful. It was then that I realized that I didn´t know the word for "aisle" in Spanish. So I told the woman that I didn´t want to sit by the window, but I wanted to sit toward the door, in the center of the airplane, by the highway. OK, there were probably better words to use, but I was sick! She understood me and I was quite proud of being able to communicate, that is, until I got onboard and foundmyself in the MIDDLE seat of three in the row! Ah, well. I was near the front, and since I slept 3 of the 3 1/2 hours of the flight, it wasn´t really a problem. After an hour lay-over in Lima I found myself between two VERY large men (myself being so small!), and it was the battle of the armwrests all the way to Quito. That is, until I fell asleep, for I slept 1 1/2 of the 2 hour flight.

After being transferred to my homestay in Quito, the house mother, Cecelia, insisted that we go directly to a pharmacy to get medicine to combat the amoeba, and for that, I was grateful. I took it for three days, once a day, and the medicine made me terribly sick to my stomach. That, or the flu. Or the altitude! All in all, it was Wednesday before I felt "alright", and today, Thursday, I feel pretty well -- except for the persistent diarrhea. If I´m not... uh... on solid ground by tomorrow, I will be going to the doctor. Oh, joy! Do keep me in your prayers.

The school experience here is VERY different than in Buenos Aires or in Santiago. This is a "partner" school, but is not related very closely to ECELA, the school of my previous two experiences. Here they have only private lessons -- 4 hours daily, one-on-one with your individual teacher. There is no text, either. You are given a blank booklet and the teacher crafts the course as you go along. And ohmygosh, do things ever go fast! We have covered new tenses and modes at astonishing rate. When I said that I was getting dizzy from our fast pace (or is it the altitude?!), my teacher looked shocked. "You use these forms all the time, Bill. You already know this. You just don´t remember that you know it!" And right she is. Nothing has been new. Still, the pace has been dizzying.

The first few days were rough going partly because I was ill, partly because I have been homesick (being as sick as I have been really makes it hard to keep up a positive front!), and partly because my teacher and I had a LOT to work out. She made negative, anti-gay, limp-wristed comments within the first few minutes of class on the first day. When she asked me why I say our church is Liberal, I said it´s because we ordain women (Que bonito!) and ordain homosexuals (tan feo! Horrible!)(feo means ugly!). Needless to say, that didn´t go over well with me! We had a long, drawn-out scriptural argument, and after much explaining, she conceded that a God of Love could probably love homosexuals, but that it would be really difficult for him. Later in the conversation I think it dawned on her, and so she asked me, point blank, "Are you homosexual?" Not being one to lie, I said, "Yes, I am homosexual." That, of course, took us into a long and drawn-out conversation about the God of Justice, the eternal fires of punishment and distruction for murderers, rapists, Hitler and homosexuals, and of the secret name of God that, if you don´t know it, you don´t get into heaven. It is a conversation for which I am well prepared, I´ll admit, but is also exceedingly draining and discouraging. I left it feeling exhausted, bruised and vulnerable.

Needless to say, I was not comfortable. I contemplated packing everything and heading home, but that felt like a bad idea to me. Even if I could get a refund, this was an unsatisfactory solution. Another idea was to complain to the management of the school. Ecuador actually has an anti-descrimination law to protect homosexuals, and no doubt, that would come in handy. In the end, I decided to confront my profesora directly, telling her we either had to come to an agreement or I was going to request a new profesora be assigned to me.

Well, the conversation went far better than I ever could have imagined. She has agreed that love shared honestly between two people is a blessing and a gift, and if the two people happen to be of the same sex, well, it must still be love. HUGE progress, if you ask me. And she also said she was sorry for having made negative handgestures on the first day, that she was trying to be funny and hadn´t realized how offensive it was. WOW. That´s progress, too. Bit by bit I am feeling more and more comfortable with her, and I figure I can manage 2 more weeks, regardless. She is helping me with my Spanish. And she is going out of her way to help me know places I can go and things I can do in the city. For this, I am very grateful.

So... it seems life has given me a basket-full of lemons here in Ecuador. But I have chosen to make lemonade! And while my heart still longs to worship and sing God´s praises at COGS, and my soul aches to hear the voices of my family and friends, and to play with my cat, to cook in my kitchen, to drink coffee with friends at Sweetwaters Cafe on W. Washington, or to go to ABC, or Joe T. Garcia´s in Texas -- I´d better stop, I´m going to cry! While my heart longs for HOME in more ways that I can say, I give thanks to God that I have these final days to polish my Spanish, to get familiar with this new city and a new culture, and to complete my South American Sabbatical with a sense of the many, many blessings I have received.

Do hold me in your prayers. Please! Quito is not as safe as I had thought (or hoped) it would be. They say 75% of tourists get mugged, pick-pocketed or drugged. I at first found those numbers hard to believe, but also have heard sufficient first or second-hand stories from other students that lead me, more and more, to believe the statistics. I am being EXCEEDINGLY caucious. I NEVER carry more than $20 on me at any time. You don´t need much money, anyway. My most expensive lunch thus far was $1.50. I carry nothing valuable with me other than my camera. I never go out alone at night, and I won´t stray from the "known" safe areas. If there aren´t a lot of people around, I don´t go there! If it is late in the afternoon, I take a taxi home. Still, having my guard set on high all the time is so terribly exhausting.

Now, I´m not asking you to worry! I will do EVERYTHING I can to keep myself safe and sound. I haven´t suddenly gotten dim-whitted! I have a lot of street smarts, and I will take every precaution possible! Yet I need, and I ask for, your love, prayers and good thoughts -- prayers for my safety, my health and well-being, and for my finding many blessings in these final days.

Quite the Lenten Journey, eh?

Take care beloved ones. While it seems forever before I will be back in the ´States, it truly won´t be long now.

"Soon, and very soon."

With all my love,

-- Bill

Humble Pie, "La Gripe" and my final days in Santiago

My Intermedio 1A class: Guille from Michigan, Angela from Montreal,

Sarah from Italy, Veronica (profesora), Anne Marie from Switzerland,

and Dima from Palestine.

George and Gail, from Arizona. Gail was in my class last week.

They´re sitting in an amphlatheatre/fountain

in front of the Pablo Neruda house in Santiago.

Aloe Vera.

A weaver of chair seats on a street corner in Bellavista, my neighborhood.

A bit of a strange picture -- our clothes washer!

The orange ball is the measure of laund detergent.

My laundry, drying.

Chocolate covered marshmallows. A bag of 10 costs about $0.18 U.S.

Today I took the exam for Intermedeo 1A. Things were complicated both by my having had only one week with the class (what, my having advanced one week early to this level), and also by my being sick with la gripe -- the flu! I noticed yesterday afternoon that I was feeling absolutely exhausted, and also that I was having hot and cold flashes. Well, by this morning, it was pretty much a full-blown flu bug for me, which left me in a tough place. I was having a horrible time being able to think in Spanish, let alone remember irregular verbs or even common words that I´ve used for years. On top of that, there really was no option for me as to when to take the test. Normally, they would allow a sick person to come back on Monday to take the test. But I leave for Quito, Ecudaor on Sunday morning. It was today or nothing! I decided to plow on and take the test, seeing if I could swing a passing grade (75 or higher).

As it turns out, I did just that. I made an 83. This is my lowest grade in this program by far! But the truth is that, if 75 passes you on to the next level, then 83 is respectable. In fact, my tutor from last week and several friends on the staff of the school said, "That´s a GOOD grade, Guille! You should be very happy!" And so I am. I passed! And now I can move on to the next level of intermediate when I move to Ecuador on Sunday.

After school I came home and slept 7 hours! The "farewell party" is at the school tonight, but I just couldn´t go. Students who are departing always make a speach, and I was ready to do so. However, there was no way I had the energy to get to the school tonight, even by taxi. I´ve not even left the upstairs since I climbed the narrow, spiral staircase at noon.

Much to my delight, the director of the school called me to let me know that she was sorry that I was sick, and that I would be missed tonight at the party. Daniel just climbed the stairs to offer to drive me to the school, but honestly -- I feel AWFUL. It´s time to stay home, sleep, and try to recover. Hopefully, I´ll be beyond this before I move on to Quito on Sunday. I sure don´t look forward to flying with the flu, and negotiating airports and customs in three countries while I feel so sick (Chile, Peru & Educador). But I can´t worry about that now. Tonight, I will rest. "After all, tomorrow is another day," to quote Scarlet O´Hara. And Sunday is an other day after tomorrow. "Sufficient unto the day," to quote a more reputable source.

I thought I´d name a few of the things I am missing right now. 1. Being able to flush toilet paper! 2. Tumble-dried clothes. 3. My cat. 4. My queen-sized bed. 5. Being able to call friends and family on the telephone. True, I could do that from here with a calling card, but I´ve avoided that for fear of getting too homesick if I hear the voices of my loved ones! And finally, 6. Being able to cook my own food in my own kitchen. Funny, the every-day things you miss the most. Of course, I miss the church, my work, my life in Ann Arbor. And honestly, most of the time I´m just living my life here, not even thinking about what I do or don´t miss. I´m just living day by day. But there are moments when I think, "Gosh, it will be nice when I get to...." And so it will. Three more weeks in South America. Five more weeks of sabbatical. It will all pass quickly enough.

Take care, dear friends. Unless my health turns around, I won´t be posting anything else to the blog before I depart Santiago on Sunday. But who knows? This could pass quickly. I sure hope so!

With much love and care,

-- Bill

The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception... and me!

The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception

atop Cerro San Cristobal in Santiago, Chile.

The view from the vantage point of the statue and the shrine.
Note the chapel, the chancel/"stage" and the garden/amphlatheater.

The view to the south (taken from beside the "stage").

The view to the west.

The view to the east.

The view to the southeast.

Jesus? Joseph? Somebody else?

Mark or Marcodos riding in the Funicular.

The Funicular

Looking up the tracks from the bottom of Cerro San Cristobol.

A friendly cat in Bellavista, my barrio, at the base of the Cerro.

Yesterday I ascended to the top of Cerro San Cristobal with my friend and housemate, Mark, from Canada. We call him Marcodos in Spanish because he´s the second student named Marco to live in our house. At any rate, it was Shrove Tuesday and, lacking anything else to do between classes and la cena (supper), which is served anywhere between 8 and 10 p.m., he and I went up to visit the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.

The Virgin of the Immaculate Conception is a beautiful statue of Mary as a young woman. For those of us who don´t know much about Catholic theology (and I count myself in that group), the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception became necessary when genetics demonstrated that it takes DNA from both the father and the mother to create a human being. This required the church to discern how it is possible that Jesus could be fully human yet fully divine, that is, pure, without sin, while containing genetic material from both God and Mary at the same time. After much effort the Church was able to discern that not only was Jesus conceived without the tarnish of Original Sin, but so was Mary. Hence, her conception (that is, when she was conceived in her mother´s womb) was an Immaculate Conception. It´s a tricky theological construct, and completely extra biblical (that is, not contained anywhere in the Bible). Yet it is necessary if you´re going to entertain the Doctrine of Original Sin, the Virgin Birth, the Divinity of Christ AND and adhere to modern scientific knowledge about genetics, all at the same time.

ANYWAY... back to my story. Marcodos and I decided to ride the funicular to the top of Cerro San Cristobol. The ride was great, and the vistas, breathtaking. I believe the city is at around 250 meters above sea level and the Cerro is around 800 meters. that doesn´t seem possible, but the numbers were something like that. I remember being surprised when I read them at how high we had ascended in the funicular.

Atop the cerro we walked around to the different observation areas, finally ascending to the statue of the Virgin. First you pass a series of shops selling keep-sakes (recuerdos), plus candy, chips, sodas and the like. Then you take a long series of stairs that lead you to an open air chapel -- rather a cross among an amphlatheatre, a sculpture park and a botanical garden. The seats are established so as to provide clear views of the stage/chancel area and the city beyond. Beyond and above this open-air chapel is the statue itself, high on a pedistal.

Music was being played over a high quality sound system -- Christian hymns and anthems, all in Spanish, of course. The second song played was a Taizé song we have sung at several times at COGS (The Church of the Good Shepherd UCC, the congregation where I serve as Pastor and Teacher in Ann Arbor, Michigan). Pausing to take-in the view of the city below, I instinctively started singing along with the recording -- first in English, but then in Spanish as I was able to hear the words. I wandered toward the seats, the gardens and the sculptures. Towering above everything was the Blessed Virgin of the Immaculate Conception, keeping watch over this vast city of six million inhabitants -- more than 40% of the nation´s population. The song changed and I found myself humming along to an unfamilar hymn, listening to the words as I pursued an course upward. The higher I climbed, the stronger my sense of God´s blessing, of the presence of the Divine among us -- with me -- and of the hope we have in the inevitable, inescapable love and care of God, whom we know in Jesus Christ. Tears came to my eyes.

"Wow," I said to Marcodos. "I never expected this."

"What?" He asked, tenderly. No doubt my emotions showed in my voice.

"Man," I said. "I´m really moved by all this. The music. This worship space. The Virgin. And I´m a protestant!"

"Yea," he said. "It´s pretty cool."

Pretty cool, indeed.

We climbed all the way to the top. Built into the base of the statue is a dome-shaped, small-ish chapel with a over-sized crucifix and an altar, all behind protective steel bars. People had thrown offerings of candybars, bags of chips, flowers and stuffed animals on the floor between the altar and the bars, and bouquets of flowers were piled on either side of the doors. We stood for a moment of reverence before the piled-up offering, the Bible, the Christ. Then Mark and I turned around, moved to the side and sat together in silence on the steps, joining The Blessed Virgin in her vigil over the city. We watched as the sun creeped toward the sea, on the far side of the coastal mountain range, painting the Ándes to the east in ever-changing hues and casting a pal of blinding light across this smog-covered city. Then we descented. To the funicular. To the streets of Bellavista. To our house, and hot servings of homemade postel de choclo with piles of red, juicy tomates y cebolla and vassos of Mc Limon soda -- a heart-warming, comfort-food meal to cut the chill of the night air.

Pretty cool.

Indeed.

An aside. We just had a tremmer. Earthquakes are a part of life here and happen not infrequently. In fact, they have two words in Spanish here for the tremmers, but I don´t remember either one of them at this moment -- one for the little ones and one for the big ones. This was the first that was a bit more than "little". At first it was a not-unusual noise, I thought Daniel was coming up the spiral staircase. But then the whole house started to shake and rattle. Within a few seconds it was all over, and as far as I can tell, nothing really moved. It was only a small(ish) tremmer. But it gives one pause. Especially one from the parts of the world where the earth is less... active.

Take care, dear ones. Thank you for reading. And for your prayers.

Today is Ash Wednesday. I wish you blessings on your Lenten journey.

-- Bill

Valparaiso y Viña del Mar

The sunset from our guest house in Valparaiso.

Not a bad way to transition from daytime to night, eh?

My friends, from all over the world!

Harbor tour by boat.

Passing the late afternoon in our guest house.

The tail end of sunset as the city lights (and ship lights!) come on.

After the Tsunami, escape routes to higher ground

are clearly marked along the pacific.

Sylvia (in white) and I catch-up with our friends on the beach.

At the far end of our beach were horses.

Jorge, one of two guides for the weekend.

He was raised in Quito, Ecuador, my next destination.

It was a beautiful weekend, heightened by the clear skies that followed the unusual summer rain of last Friday. The rain knocked the smog and pollution from the air, gifting us with crystal, clear views of the mountains and ocean. What a blessing!

A group of students from two schools departed Santiago on Saturday morning to spend the weekend in the popular sea-side cities of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar. The former is a centuries-old port city built on the "cerros" (hills, but more like mini-mountains) and cliffs that surround the harbor. Valparaiso is the largest and most important port in all of Chile. The latter city, Viña del Mar, is a new city built over the past few decades on what formerly was fertile farm land, repleat with Casino (Tony Bennett was performing this weekend), CROWDED beaches and lots of fun-in-the-sun activities.

Our schedule was Valparaiso on Saturday and Viña del Mar on Sunday. Our tour guides were laid-back to say the least. Too much so for my taste -- we could have done so much more! But it is hard to meet the needs of a group of 20 people from many different countries and cultures. We took a tour of the harbor in a boat, took a funicular atop a cerro to see the view, visited one of three homes of Pablo Neruda, ate at a seaside restaurant south of town (with a view far more savory than the food!), and listened to Bassa Nova music performed live in a restaurant until the wee hours. Not a bad day! And some of us were lucky enough to stay in a guest house rather than the hostle -- QUITE the stroke of luck, that. We had an AWSOME view of the city, plus our host kept plying us with frigid beer (we didn´t want to offend her!) and warm conversation. It was a delightful and memorable day.

Sunday we had breakfast in the hostle (how lucky we were in our clean, beautiful house with a view!) and then drove around the harbor to Viña del Mar. After wasting a lot of time doing a whole lot of nothing we finally wound our way to the north to a beautiful and not crowded beach, where we passed the afternoon. After eating empanadas (I had one with shrimp and cheese, another with tomate, mushroom and ham and a third one with chicken and... uh... something else delicious!) the majority of our group headed right to the beach. A new German friend of mine (Sylvia, an English teacher) and I walked the shopping district to stay in the shade a while longer, then heading to the beach to walk barefoot in the water and, later, join our friends. Quite the day!

As we left the beach I felt my first case of stomach-trouble in South America. I blame it on the empanadas -- fried here in Chile. In Buenos Aires they were baked! At any rate, we stopped at a gas station before heading on the highway to Santiago, an hour and a half ride with NO rest areas. This night it took us more than two hours due to the traffic. On summer Sundays driving from Valparaiso to Santiago is not unlike trying to head south in Michigan. You spend a lot of time sitting on the highway, wondering if you´ll ever get home. Lucky for me, I ...uh ... took care of business before we left the gas station. Needless to say, I didn´t eat anything else that night. By today (Tuesday) I felt back to normal.

This is my last week in Chile, and I´m starting to have feelings like those I had in Buenos Aires. I don´t want to leave! But Quito is next on my schedule, and no doubt I´ll feel the same way about that city as I have these previous two.

Let me end with a word about my Intermedio 1A class at school. And the word is... FANTASTIC!!! I am so very glad I advanced a week early. Unlike my previous classes with ECELA (my school), now I have to WORK to keep up with what is going on. My teacher, Veronica, doesn´t speak English. By that, I don´t mean to say that she doesn´t speak to us in English, though that is certainly the case. She doesn´t speak English -- that is, isn´t fluent in the language. She is fluent in Spanish (of course!) and German, and while she no doubt has a cursory knowledge of English, she speaks nary a word of it in class. That pleases me no end! FINALLY, I´m having to communicate ONLY in Spanish in class. And all but one student in the class speaks as well or better than I do, so just about everybody gives me a run for the money every day. What fun! Plus, Veronica is an outstanding teacher. Every teacher I´ve had in this program is good, but she really knows how to keep you on your toes, let me tell you. I couldn´t be happier! OK, I could be happier. If I had more time in her class! Ah, well. One week is better than none, and I am certainly happy to meet the challenge of Intermedio 1A before I complete my work here in Santiago.

I´ve got at least a couple of other experiences here I hope to write about, but I will save those for another day. Time to study reflexive verbs! Such an interesting way to speak. "I wash myself the teeth," for example, or "the homework it forgot me." What a wonderful language! About the only thing I like better than reflexives is double negatives. In Spanish, it´s not only alright to use double negatives, it is expected. "I don´t have no time to type now," for example. Can you beat that?

Take care, beloved ones. Thanks for your ongoing prayers, love and care. How very dearly I appreciate you!

-- Bill

Adiós, Principiante 2B. ¡Hola, Intermedio 1A!

My Principiante 2B class

Peter 1 from Toronto, Bill 1 (Guillermo) from Austin, Texas, Isabel from Santiago (profesora), Bill 2 (Guille) from Ann Arbor, Gail from Tuscon, Arizona and Peter 2 from St. Paul, MN

Filipe, my private tutor this and last week.

Oops. An ostrich at the zoo. I guess I told the computer to send the wrong photo! It was supposed to be classmates of mine. Ah, well... Birds of a Feather, and all that!

Hola, amigos y familia. Espero que estan bien y felíz.

Now that it´s over, I can share with you something that was making me VERY nervous all week. I had spoken with my tutor about the possibility of advancing more rapidly, finishing the "Principiante" section of their course of studies and moving into "Intermedio" early. Well, he thought it was PRECISELY what I need to do, and not only that, he went to the academic director and arranged for me to take the test on Friday (today!). Of course, as soon as he told me I´d have the exam (and this was the EUREKA! day of functioning easily in Spanish!), suddenly I could say NOTHING clearly in EITHER Spanish OR English! Oh, how I HATE performance anxiety!

So... I studied and I practiced and I prepared, going through everything else in the Principiante 2B book that we might cover in the coming week to prepare myself for the test, and I pretty much got myself all worked up and worried. The tutor, my teacher, the acting academic dean, the staff, my homestay family, my friends... EVERYBODY said, "You´ll be FINE. You KNOW this. You´re doing GREAT!" And, of course, I didn´t believe a word of it. (Except I did believe it in my heart of hearts, only was afraid to believe it.)

I also learned that the exam following Principiante 2B is more difficult than the others. Because it permits a change of levels, the exam is more thorough and also, one is required to have a higher score. In the past, one only needs a 75. But to advance to Intermedio 1A one must achieve an 80 or better. Granted, I´d not gotten below a 92 thus far. Still, I worried.

That was Tuesday. Then came Thursday, and my classroom teacher gave me the practice sheets. It was hard, and there was one section for which I had to move ahead in our text and study ahead of the class (algún, algunas, alguna vez, nadie, nunca, poco, mucho, etc. and et. al.). The rest seemed pretty-much familiar. Still, I studied irregular verbs like a mad-person (or, at least, a dedicated one!), and I reviewed everything I could think to review. By the time I went to sleep on Thursday night, I knew I´d pass the test. I hoped and prayed I´d do well, of course, but also that the test would be a good reflection of where I am in my Spanish skills.

My test was scheduled for 12:30 p.m. However, following the second break period, at noon, I requested to go ahead and take the test. I was escourted by the acting Academic Dean to the upper floor, to a small classroom at the rear of the building, and given the test. First, oral questions (10 of them). I was impressed that she spoke the questions at the normal speed of Chilean Spanish. I only had to ask her to repeat one question. Then followed all of the other sections, including a "reading for comprehension" section and a paragraph to be written in future tense. Sure enough, it was significantly harder than any test to date, but even as I took it, I had a good sense that I´d pass without a problem. It took about an hour and a quarter to complete.

After the test the Acting Dean invited me to join the other students for Friday lunch (tacos! And it was considered exotic! The first "Mexican" food we´ve had, though it was NOT spicy at ALL, as is the case with all of their food here). After that I returned to the office, and...

...92! A score with which I was VERY pleased. This time, half the deducted points were for things I didn´t recall having known, and the other half were things that I have learned but didn´t remember at the time. All in all, a fair accessment of my Spanish abilities to date.

The Acting Dean sat with me to explain my errors and encourage me to learn a few principles in particular. She also shared with me what I need to study over the weekend in order to catch-up with the class I will be joining on Monday. (They have completed 50% of the studies for their -- OUR -- level.) And the last part made me laugh. She said that I speak Spanish VERY WELL, and that I will have to sit patiently in class and allow the other students to practice speaking! I explained that I´m an extrovert and often "talk to think," and she laughed so hard, she almost fell from her chair. "Well, then," she said, "next week, you will get to practice listening patiently to your fellow students." Fair enough! She also congratulated me and complimented me on how well I am doing.

Yippee!

This weekend a group of students is going to Valparaiso, a sea-side city about 1 1/2 hours from Santiago. That´s Saturday and Sunday. I figure that I´ll study while everybody is at the beach (what, with my need and desire to avoid the harsh sun). Then, on Monday... on to Intermedio 1A!


Thanks for sharing in my joy, and also for your love and support. It means more than I possibly can say.

-- Bill

Middle Day - el 14 de febrero de 2007

Plaza Italia in the middle of Santiago, at sunset (9 p.m.-ish)

There are mountains in the background, but they´re obscured by smog this evening.

El Cerro San Cristobal, which has a statue of the Blessed Virigin atop it. I live in a house at the foot of the cerro. See the first tall building to the right at the hill´s foot? Look down across the green below it to the first patch of gray. My house is in that gray patch, to the left, about 50 yards from the cerro.

A walkway through a park that runs much of the lenght of the city´s center.

I cross this river every day on my way to and from school. Believe it or not, there is a 6-lane highway that runs underneath this river.

Again, there are mountains hidden in the smog. Can you make them out?

Elena prepares Sunday´s supper, which consisted of a LOVELY salad, boiled redskin potatoes with a brilliant garlic sauce, and fresh fruit.

Today marks the middle of my sabbatical. As hard as it is to believe, I have now completed 4 1/2 weeks in South America and 6 1/2 weeks of sabbatical. And that is precisely how much time remains in South America and in my sabbatical as a whole, respectively. Can that be possible?


I´m not going to make observations today. I simply wanted to pass along a few more pictures of Santiago and mention the milestone that has been passed this day.


OK, one observation!


Life is precious, and moves with tremendous dispatch. I pray always to be able to cherish my days as I have been able to do each and every moment spent here in America del Sur. Perhaps what it takes is an awareness that this day (in truth, like every day) is a special opportunity -- to see, to touch, to taste, to laugh, to cry, to embrace, to speak and hear in new ways, to step out in faith... and to sense the Blessings God has bestowed, on me, on you, on everyone and everything, everywhere.




Peace, dear ones. And much love. From very far away...

-- Bill

By Jove, I think he´s got it!

It has happened! EUREKA! The break-through!

All at once, it occurred to me -- I´m speaking Spanish! OK, that may seem like a strange thing to say, for, after all, I´ve been speaking Spanish pretty much full-time or a whole month now, but yesterday, it suddenly dawned on me that I was speaking fluently and rapidly with the very peope of whom I had thought, "Oh, I´ll never be able to understand him/or her!"

In the afternoon, after classes, I was carrying on a conversation with Señora Lucy, the maid/cook of our family, and with La Abuela ("grandmother," the mother of our house mother). On the first day, I had been TOTALLY unable to understand ANYTHING they said. And also, after dinner, during the sobre mesa (the table conversation following supper), I found myself speaking easily with the young Chilean woman who lives with us, and also with the house mother. No problema! Even my housemate commented on it today, saying, "I heard you down there last night, Bill" (he had gone upstairs), "and you sounded like a chilean!"

Then there was class today. During he second break, I was speaking with my teacher about whether or not I should try to advance a level early, and in the middle of the conversation I realized that my fellow students were stairing at me, mouths agape. "You´re talkin´90 to nothin´!" declared the theologian from Texas, and the retired English speaker said, "Guille, you are impressing me!" Wow.

I´ve made it. The break-through I´ve been longing for, waiting for, and praying for!

OK, I must finish working on this computer and get to class.

But to quote the scriptures... "Rejoice with me! What was lost is found!"

With much love,
and with a WHOLE LOT OF JOY!

-- Bill

Nuestro viaje al Mercado Vega

Carneceria. The sell EVERY part of the cow.

EVERY PART of the cow! Or of the bird, or of the...

Legumes and grains.

So far, I´ve not met a South American

who cooks (or eats!) beans.

Pickles and sauces. Behind the glass,

a partially-cooked, barley-type grain.

Some of these carrot or beet stacks were 4 and 5 feet tall!

At one point, talking with Daniel about some unusually small eggs,

I speculated that they were from avionitos.

Daniel laughed out loud.

"No," he said." Even small airplanes don´t lay eggs.

"At least, not in South America!"

(An avion is an airplane, avionito, a small one. Aves are birds!)

This photo hardly does the squash justice.

It was an even brighter yellow up-close and in person.

Contemplating our next purchase.

Not for sale!

A resident of El Mercado Vega,

this gatita gris lives very near the fish market.

This is some of the fruit we bought

(contents of the white bags included).

And that´s just the fruit!

Today, I accompanied Daniel and Elena on their weekly shopping excursion to El Mercado Vega. Similar to other open-aired markets I´ve seen the States and in Mexico, El Vega was MANY times larger and more broad in scope than any I have ever seen. It is open daily and, if one is both patient and clever, you can probably find just about anything.

We took a good many excursions into the market and back to the van, rather like a safari that moved increasingly further into the wilderness with each sucessive trip. And upon our return to the van (a mini-van sized school bus, one of two the Gonzoles own and drive during the school year), we quickly unloaded our booty.

Of great interest to me was the organization of the trip. This is a weekly occurrance, and they are accustomed to purchasing food sufficient to feed 10 people per meal, two or three times a day for a while week. That´s a LOT of food! Plus, the van has no refrigeration, it was a hot, SUNNY day, and it was a fair distance from the parking space (for which we paid, because it is secure) and the inner-sanctum of the market. In short, you want to purchase firmer things early in each trip, putting the more fragile things atop the previous purchases. And not only the bag in the cart, which Elaina or I pulled, but there were also several bags which Daniel carried. In short, these two are market machines, knowing exactly what to do, when, where, and how. It was amazing. And FUN! I hope I get to go shopping with them again before I leave!

One last thing -- in El Vega, I rather stuck out as a tourist. Several times on our sorties into the depths of the market we would hear a young boy cry out, "Gringo! Gringo!" with a huge grin on his face. I usually returned a smile and a thumbs-up gesture, saying "Sí! Gringo! Sí!"

¿Y Porque no?

-- Bill

La Lengua Franca... Ingles!

An explanation about communicating with Europeans, and North Americans, too, in English.

It is interesting to observe that, for the students from the United States, Spanish is almost always their second language. That is, before starting classes here, they spoke only English. That, or, like me, they previously spoke Spanish but are hear to improve their skills. OK, I can work my way through a Biblical text in Greek, and can make out Latin un pocito. But other than that, only English and Spanish.

Then there are the students from anywhere else in the world. Almost all of them speak English. It is rare that we have a person who is studying Spanish who doesn´t already know English, though I can think of two or three people for whom that is the case -- OK, two German guys, one in his mid-70s, the other in his early 20s. Other than them, everybody speaks English.

So that means that, for the students from Europe and other parts of the world, they are here to learn their third (or forth, or fifth, or seventh) language. Por eso (as they say in Spanish -- for this), there is a LOT of English spoken in the school -- sometimes even in classes. Now, during the breaks, I can understand. It´s a break! Still, I think it is better to speak Spanish in order to sharpen one´s skills.

Unfortunately, I often get caught-up in English conversations in the breaks because the folks from my class don´t speak Spanish very well. That´s the BIG problem with being able to speak very well, but having to go through the lower classes to review grammar.

I met a fellow from Florida last night who is graduating after 6 months of study here. He´s moving on to advanced levels of Spanish, attending classes in the school in the Argentine side of the Ándes, in Bariloche. But even though he´s moving to advanced classes, having completed 8 of 12 levels of study here, the guy can hardly speak Spanish. The problem is that he can´t think in Spanish. Everything is translated, and to hear him talk, you can tell, too, that he doesn´t comprehend Spanish sentence structure. To make the point, I´ll write in English with a Spanish sentence structure: "He no it comprehends the structure Spanish of sentences." Also, he speaks with a HEAVY southern U.S. accent, so it ends up being pretty amusing, at least for me. The Chileans are WAY too polite to laugh out loud, but my friend from Texas and I both got a good chuckle out of his graduation speech.

I realized last night that I simply need to change the groups with which I hang out. I´m going to stop spending time with the newly entered students and spend more time with the advanced students, or the staff. The staff here seems a bit more accessible, though it may simply reflect my comfort with Spanish as I´ve regained more of my ability to speak and comprehend. At any rate, several of the professors and other staff members have gotten onto me for saying that I don´t speak Spanish well. One has taken to saying, "Shut-up!" and "I won´t listen to that!" any and every time I am self deprecating about my Spanish speaking ability.

OK, time to go. This morning (Saturday) Daniel, Elena and I went to a HomeCenter (like Home Depot) way up in the higher part of the city, and this afternoon we go to the open air, public market to buy groceries for the coming week. What fun!

Muchas gracias, por todo!
-- Guille
(the name I´ve adopted in Spanish, pronounced GEE-zshae -- with a soft "g" as in "goat", NOT a hard "g" as in "Gerald")

Second Exam... and my score???

I made a 94. And what made me happiest about that (other than the fact that the retired Catholic theologian from Texas made a 90 and the Canadian journalist made an 82) is that of the 6 points I lost, 4 were simple, lack of attention mistakes. Only 2 points were for something I actually don´t know -- and it was ONE something that came up TWICE in the test. So I´m hyped, to say the least. I won´t mention that you only have to make 75 or higher to advance to the next level....

René, a 23-year-old from Holand who lives with the same host family as I do, scored a 97, and it makes him BOUNDLESSLY happy to have out-scored me. I didn´t tell him about my four points of silly mistakes. What, his being from Holand and all, living below sea-level as he does, etc., it´s good for him to feel elevated for a change.

After the exam we watched a movie. It was Johnny Cien Pesos ("Hundred Peso Johnny"), a docu-drama about a robbery gone bad in the first year of democracy after the end of the Pinochet government (in 1990). VERY interesting. It is a Chilean film, and we watched it with the English sub-titles turned on. (The professors readily admit that it is VERY difficult to understand Chileans when they speak at a normal pace, even for native Spanish speakers. I must say, I agree with them that it is VERY challenging.) By the end of the film there were only 4 of us watching, out of maybe 15 who started. I should say 4 students. There were 4 or 5 professors half watching from the other side of the cafeteria (coffee/lounge). I´m glad to have watched it, and was able to pick up a lot of the Spanish fairly well. I´m feeling good about that.

Tonight we have a party at the school -- the every-other week "graduation and farewell" party. If they do here as is done in Buenos Aires, there will be lots of food and a time for handing out deplomas to those who terminate their programs today. It´s also a great opportunity to make new friends and to practice Spaish with the professors. Me gusta mucho. Afterward there will probably be folks going out, and we´ll see if I go. I´m not that much of a "goer-outer" at home, so it´s a good bit of a stretch here. But we shall see.

OK, time to get moving. There is a large hill behind our house, the Cerro San Cristobal (in this case Cerro indicates "small mountain". René climbed it yesterday and said it took him an hour to achieve the top. His advice to me was "Don´t forget water!" Evidently, he did. At any rate, there is also a funicular that climbs it, and a teleferico (sky-ride) that goes across the cerro to the other side. I have no idea what I´ll do, but suspect I´ll climb (walk, actually, though steeply). For sure, I want to do this while I´m in town, and today seems as good a day as any.

Thanks, one and all, for keeping up with how things are going. Know that your sharing this journey with me is a special gift, and I am appreciative.

With much love,
-- Bill

My first week in Santiago draws to a close.

La Escuela

Mí amigo, Bruno, de Brasil.

With my "home parents," Elena and Daniél Gonzales.

Boris, with his Polola (girlfriend)

(In Chile, novia/novio signifies fiancé instead of girlfriend-boyfriend)

Maria José (an employee of the school) and Alex (from Germany)

on our city tour on Monday. Note the flags!

The Executive Office building of La Presidente and her cabinet.

(That´s right - Chile has a female president!)

As mother used to say, "Travel is broadening!"

Café icecream layered with marangues,

topped with sauces of raspberry and chocolate.

Tomorrow (Friday) will be examination day -- the moment of truth! Having changed campuses mid- session (each level has two weeks of classes, 20 hours per week), as we reached review today, I found that there were a lot of subjects my teacher in Buenos Aires must have covered this week, and that my teacher here covered last week. Nothing like 150 new vocabular words and several new concepts the day before an exam! Ah, well -- there´s nothing for it now other than practicar, practicar, practicar! After "blogging" I will go home and study.

I must say, this is the first and largest frustration I have had in this immersion program. Other than that, things have really gone well. And truly, this is a problem I will be able to address by studying today and tomorrow morning.

Last night a group of us went for salsa dance lessons. First we learned basic moves in a large group, and then we were divided into couples and progressed through a series of moves in pairs. It was fun... but only up to a point. First of all, it truly would be my preference to dance with a man. But this was not a gay club! Second, and this is funny considering my first comment -- my partner (a young woman from Holand) could not follow. Now, it´s not that I have to lead in dancing, heaven knows. I love being dancing with a man who knows what he´s doing, and how to lead! But in this instance, it was required that I be in the lead, and the holanda just couldn´t handle it. I finally quit in frustration and watched for a while. After the event evolved into a Latin version of "The Electric Slide" (a.k.a. "The Hustle", a group dance, now country, dating back to Disco´s hay-day in the 70s), I decided it was time to go. A large group of students concurred with me, and so we walked over to Bellavista, the neighborhood where I live, in search of a Club de Jazz. We found a nice club with a good trio, and listened to live music until 2:30 a.m.

Tonight is another night out, this time to hear traditional Chilean music. We meet at the school at 10:30 p.m., to walk to the venue from there. I´ve signed-up to go, but don´t know if I will. If I don´t feel secure in my studies, I will stay home. We shall see.

OK, enough of this. Time to go and study!

Take care, beloved ones. And know that the next time I see you, I´ll know the words for all of the articles of clothing that you´re wearing, both visible and not visible!

Much, MUCH love!

-- Bill