Thanksgiving in Chile

For Thanksgiving, we were invited to President Arrington's beautiful home in Chiguayante.  It seems strange to be celebrating the Holidays when it is so warm and sunshiny outside.

I made a lemon meringue tart and a deep-dish apple pie using the Costco cinnamon I got from Sis. Kimball. The pie was a hit with Pres. Arrington, since it is his favorite.

 

A view of the temple lot for the Concepcion LDS temple, from Pres. Arrington's house overlooking the Biobío River.

 

We sat across from several other senior couples, including Chilean natives. After dinner, during which Elder Mora ate two helpings of Frog's Eye salad and asked for the recipe, he pulled out his flute, and I accompanied him on the piano playing Primary songs. He was a fine and enthusiastic flautist. I happened to have a sticker under my chair, so I got to take home our table's centerpiece. It takes up almost the entire counter space, so I moved it to the "Entertainment Center" shelf.

 

Walking home from church on Sunday. The white rose bush pictured below is one of my all-time favorite varieties, the Iceberg floribunda. It is widely planted all over Chile. The arching shrub above it is the Andean boxleaf azara, Azara Microphylla, also widely planted. Its small flowers smell divinely sweet.

 

The car has been parked at this apparently abandoned house for the six weeks we have been here, so we have been thinking about renting this place, too, car included.

 

More of the sweet-smelling Andean boxleaf azara, sheared as a hedge

 

Interestingly pruned locust trees. The road district here doesn't seem bothered by power lines running through the middle of trees. 

 

We are going to visit the Conejo family for lunch on Sunday afternoon. This is everyone's favorite street, Calle Maipu, pronounced My-Poo.


Elder K. at the entrance to two dwellings, including the Conejos', on Calle Galvarino.

Maria Conejo and Yolanda, cooking dinner 

 

Elder K. conversing with Hno. Conejo, who has traveled from Ecuador to Italy, Belgium, and China, and now resides in Concepcion.

 

Our almuerzo, midday meal, of pork, boiled potatoes, and habas--broad beans; peeled tomatoes, onions and cilantro; and field corn toasted in oil. It was very good and demasiado--way too much. For dessert we had fresh strawberries and sliced bananas, which taste much better here than in the U.S. For a gift we brought the Conejos a jug of Hershey's chocolate syrup which we bought at the Jumbo. The American elders expressed interest in it, too, so we may be making another trip to the Jumbo. Hna. Conejo said she raised guinea pigs, cobayos, to sell for food when she lived in Ecuador.

 

On our walk home, Elder K. is still thinking of Pies. This sign says, "Health begins with . . . PIES." No, it doesn't really. "Health begins with the Feet."

 

Lily of the Nile, Agapanthus, beginning to bloom at our Orompello 129 apartment front entrance. It will only get warmer for Christmas.

Cariño y Amor

Tuesday and Friday, I began teaching a Basic Computer class to eight students with no computer experience at all. Fortunately they were all on the same level, so none of them felt left behind. The going was very slow. We learned to power up and power down the computer, how to minimize and maximize windows, how to copy and paste, and even got email accounts. I had studied the vocabulary for days. My best student is Violeta, 84 years old, who has four computers in her house and doesn't know how to use any of them. She is a delight.

Elder K. and I keep seeing these little hole-in-the-wall shops in which you apparently deposit pantyhose, socks, t-shirts, and other ropa interior, interior clothing. We asked Hna. Rosa and Romy about this, and they laughed and told us these are discount shops for brand new underwear. Whew. We were glad to know.

Every day we pass this house for sale or rent, on the corner of Chacabuco and Colo Colo. Since it is vastly larger than our 400-sq-ft apartment, has a yard with grass and flowers and bushes, and a big courtyard in back with parking, we began dreaming about renting it, at the very least. So far it is still available.

My garden on the balcony. Hermana Rosa kindly gave me a few of her tomates cóctel , cherry tomato plants. I also have ciboletas, chives; my Estrella rose; a spearmint plant, and I planted basil and poppy and calendula seeds. The climate here is very easy on on plants, and so far they are doing well.

Hermana Balden, the mission nurse, wanted me to ask Hna. Rosa about herbal remedies for the young missionaries for insect bites, inflammation and skin problems. Here are some of her unguents, including Calendula for skin; St. John's wort (Hierba de San Juan), Rose Hip ( Rosa Mosqueta) and Calendula for inflammation, and the Eucalyptus and Stinging Nettle for strained muscles.

We finally got an assignment from the bishop of the Universitaria Ward to visit families. We met a set of elders near the University of Concepcion and started walking.

Elder Naranjo from Santiago and Elder McAlister from Utah, walking along the path between banks of poison hemlock. One of the daughters of the family is walking home from school, ahead of us.

The very steep path up to the Verdugo home.

The Verdugos live in the Aguita de la Perdiz neighborhood outside of Concepcion. As far as I can tell, Aguita de la Perdiz means either Gloomy Partridge, Partridge in a Misty Fog, or Partridge Drinking Herbal Tea. (Probably mate, the herbal tea of Chile.) I asked Romy, who says Aguita refers to "little water," in this case a small stream. The homes are not well built. Hna. Verdugo was very sad because her husband had recently left, breaking up their family of six daughters. We promised we would come visit her again.

Containers to keep garbage out of the way of roaming dogs.

Coming down out of the hills, we passed through one of the nicest neighborhoods we have seen so far, outside of the University of Concepcion.

I decided I would try baking cookies. Here I am making brown sugar out of white sugar and chancaca liquida--molasses.

You can also get chancaca in a compressed bar. Break parts off and boil in water to make a brown sugar syrup. Elder K. thinks chancaca bars look like fly bait.

I broke up bars of Sahne-Nuss bitter chocolate with almonds, which made good semi-sweet chocolate chunks. The second batch came out better than the first, since for the first batch the oven had only the top element cooking so the bottom of the cookies were not done. The oven allows you to heat up the top, bottom, or both top and bottom elements for cooking.

Saturday I made a carrot cake using toasted quinoa flour, the nearly flavorless canela (cinnamon--I've tried every variety they have here and it doesn't come close to Costco Saigon Cinnamon), and whole nutmeg, which came with its own little grater. We ate it the Chilean way--with fresh arandanos and frutillas (blueberries and strawberries) from the street vendor, finished with a sauce of vanilla-flavored liquid yogur (yogurt).

At our Thursday weaving workshop--the stylin' Hermana Debora, modeling a rather gorgeous woven bag made by the Institute director's wife.

 

Hna. Romy modeling a woven skirt.

Another stylin' sister.

Here I am, adding a crocheted edging to sixteen woven squares, which will be sewn together and made into a poncho for Hno. Farias' wife as a thank you for letting him spend time in Concepcion to teach the self-employment seminar.

Hna. Andrea Ramirez, teacher of the weaving workshops, master artist, and the creator of the wall hanging I admired when I first came here. She made a gift of this to me for doing the crochet work for Hna. Farias' poncho.

Hna. Andrea's wall hanging is, as she says, made with cariño y amor, love and affection. It is the Tree of Life, and its roots run deep. The Ramirez family lives on the shores of the Concepcion laguna--small lake--and their property was damaged in the 2010 earthquake. I am hanging this beautiful creation in a place of honor on the wall in our little apartment. Elder K., when he first saw this, thought it was of búhos, owls.

One month in Chile

We have now been a month in Chile.

I finally got my camera back from Chillán this week, so here are pictures from our trip south of Concepcion: 

Lago Mallalafquén, under the volcano

This was taken on the grounds of a very large, very expensive hotel.

After visiting the lake, we visited the shoreside town of  Pucón.

A close-up shot of the beautiful Chilean fire tree.

Friday evening we attended a special satellite broadcast for married couples from Buenos Aires, with talks from Elder Christofferson and Elder Holland on love in marriage. Elder Holland and Elder Christofferson
both met with the president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, whose term is coming to a close. Before the broadcast, we went to the food court with four other senior missionary couples at the top of the Mall Centro and had Chinese food, all the while the Chilenos were cheering as the Chileans won at futbol (soccer) against Argentina.

 Back to Conce. A picture of our clever little ice cube tray. This is for you, Laurel!

Elder K. must have been thinking of pasteles on our walk home, because he saw this sign on Calle Anibal Pinto and thought, "Handmade pies!" Of course, it says, "Hands and Feet Spa."

At least three of these horse-drawn carts travel up and down Calle Chacabuco. The horses must have nerves of steel, and they travel at least as fast as the cars do. We often buy ingredients for lunch at the Unimarc supermercado across the street.

At our Thursday weaving workshop, Hna. Ortega demonstrates her fingerless gloves, each glove made with one size 20 cuadro. Hna. Ortega showed me her favorite knit shop in El Centro, where we walked last week, where I bought all the burgundy-colored sale yarn to make my first cuadro.

More fingerless gloves, edged with crochet, and children's slippers made with size 20 cuadros.

Hna. Hernandez demonstrating a glove made in a soft yarn

This lovely lady was selling lana, wool yarn, that she has dyed and spun herself

I plan on making wall hangings with these.

My size 50 cuadro frame finally came, so this is my first attempt. I crocheted the black mesh bag to hold the yarn for this project.

The finished woven piece, about 17" square. These are either sewn to other squares, or edged in crochet.

Romy borrows my camera to take pictures of the ladies' finished projects. Here a cute Chilena models her woven falda, skirt.

A beautifully made bag from one size 50 cuadro, finished with crochet.

On Saturday we set out to see if we could find the Chiguayante LDS stake center by bus, by ourselves. All fares are $440 pesos to wherever you are going, less than one U.S. dollar. We got on the bus first going to the terminal in Collao, so we could see where all the buses connect, from north and south of Chile. The route for this bus is on the placard behind the driver. Each bus has a sign in front, of where it is going, so you wait at the bus stop until one hopefully shows up. There are some stops specific to certain places, for example Talcahuano, where every bus going to that place has to stop on his route. Each bus is owned independently. This particular driver paid little attention to stop signs, raced with other buses for the best curbside spots, and multi-tasked about ten things at once, including counting out fares, opening front and back doors for passengers, and honking at any car that didn't jump when the light turned green. 

The quiet town of Chiguayante. The bus driver preferred his town to big-city Concepcion. We found the stake center, just past the restaurant Rocinante, but stayed on the bus in order to get back to Concepcion. Unfortunately it was the bus driver's last route of the day, so we ended up in the bus terminal for Linea 14, got on another bus, and made the trip back. The entire trip took us 2 hours.

The Biobío River, visible from the Chiguayante highway. The word Biobio is from the Mapundungan (Mapuche) language. It is 2 km, over a mile wide, and fairly shallow, as it flows into the Gulf of Arauco on the Pacific Ocean. Hna. Kimball told us the members of her ward, Pedro de Valdivia, who live on the banks of the river, walked neck-deep in the water to a little island, then took their food and best china out of their backpacks for a ward dinner.

Today is Chile's election day, so this appeared on Google Search for Chile, http://www.Google.cl. We only have one church meeting today in honor of the vote.