Road Trip and Conference

I've had a pretty interesting week. I went down south to Temuco with the SIM Director to a conference for Chileans who want to do mission in another country. The trip took about 8 hours of solid driving but it was good to see some of the countryside. It's amazing how much it looks like NZ! I could have been travelling through Central Otago with vineyards, orchards and the occasional pine plantation. It was nice to feel like I was home. Only difference, they drive on the other side and speak Spanish! However, my poor brain got very confused because I was having to switch between Spanish and German. The director is German and had a friend visiting who speaks no Spanish. I discovered I couldn't speak either language but that improved over the week.

Camp Koyamentu

The camp reminded me a lot of Tirohanga out on the Taieri, perhaps a little more upmarket but same kind of feel. They had seminars running all day and so I just went along to them until my brain got tired and then went and helped in the kitchen. The couple who run the camp are originally from the United States so I could have a break and speak some English. Man, I sliced so many beans over the week! They bought 20kg that all had to be sliced length-ways. A bit different from how we would normally eat them but hey, if that's how they like them I won't complain.

Villarica Volcano from the village Villarica

On Wednesday I went sightseeing with Thilo (the visiting German) and his daughter Jasmin. The plan was to go and visit one of the nearby volcanoes but we got to the village of Pucón and the car broke down. Something happened to the clutch and the car refused to change gears. So we had to push it into a carpark and then Jasmin and I had to stretch our Spanish to try and get it fixed. It's a little difficult explaining to a mechanic what's wrong when you don't know the works for "clutch" "drive" "broken" or "gears". We ended up doing a lot of acting! So that took most of the day to get fixed but it was a beautiful little town with stunning views so I didn't mind too much.

Villarica from Pucón

I met a lovely girl at the conference who is going to the Philippines later in the year. I went back to her house in Temuco for Friday night and Saturday to avoid the boring last meetings which was super! I've been impressed at how welcoming these Christians were and how willingly they were to take time to talk to me and open their homes to me. I'm hoping to be able to get back to Nia and spend some more time down there with her. Didn't get home last night until midnight so was pretty tired and discovered there was no water. Santiago had it's water supply contaminated by slips in the mountains from heavy rain. But it's all fixed this morning and back to being boiling hot outside!

I start at language school tomorrow so I'll let you know how that all goes...