Día de los Difuntos

We are now four hours ahead of Mountain Standard Time, since the U.S. went off Daylight Savings Time early this morning.

Bright yellow anthemis are blooming everywhere in Conce. 

A few more photos from our trip to Lota last week. Our Pulperia tour guide was a gentle soul, another ex-miner. He stands in the kitchen area of one of the miners' apartments.

Dining table and chairs.

The Pulperia, company general store. The roller is for flattening bread dough so it can be cooked in the outdoor oven. The portrait above is of Baldomero Lilli, a social writer who exposed the conditions of miners in his short story "Subterra."

Implements for cooking bread in the adobe oven.

Inside the Cousiño mansion across town.

Stuffed peacock under glass in the second floor walkway. Peacock is translated as pavo real, royal turkey.

Sunday we attended Barrio Esmeralda in the Estaca Talcahuano Sur in Hualpén. We let them know about the changes in the Perpetual Education Fund, which they were not aware of.

This week we had a visit from Mauricio Fernandez, who came from Santiago to give us more training in the CRM, the complex Client Relations Management software used in tracking participants in PEF. While he was there our computers were not behaving well, which is not a bad thing, since he said he will look into providing us with new ones. Hopefully.

I've had my eye on the beautiful Mapuche-style lapiz lazuli silver earrings in the Buenos Aires jewelry shop on Caupolican near Barros Arana. I will probably make two necklaces out of them! Plus I couldn't resist the silver filigree.

Elder K., who does not appreciate earrings like I do, was finally persuaded to invest in a pair of handmade leather shoes by the owner of the Navarro shoe repair shop on Serrano between Cochrane and San Martin. They are based on a pair of leather Bass shoes. He says they fit perfectly and were comfortable from the beginning. Now he is having another pair made in brown leather.

On Halloween Friday, we had a pot luck in the mission office with the senior missionaries and young office elders. Other wandering missionaries of the Concepcion and Concepcion South Missions kindly cleaned up the leftovers of "real American food."

Two of the office elders made a request for my apple turnovers. Seeing the number and size of some of the elders, I cut a few in half so there would be enough for everyone.

 We celebrated Elder Balden's birthday, using all the candles we could find, even if the age wasn't quite accurate. 

My new Mapuche weaving project made with beautiful hand-dyed yarn. (the turquoise yarn is temporary.) Romy says the colors are "melancólica."

On our walk home Friday afternoon, the weather was sunny, cool and perfect.

Photos are not mine, but are of Día de los Difuntos--Day of the Dead--or Día de los Santos, during which Chileans visit cemeteries, clean up gravesites, and place flowers everywhere. This is the quietest day of the year in Concepcion.

Día de los Difuntos, the day after Halloween, is one of the biggest flower days of the Chilean year.