A day to enjoy Chile

Buenas Dias one final time from Villarrica!
We were able to spend one final day enjoying the sites of this most lovely part of God's creation. While making a visit to the tourism office yesterday, Kay Kelley and Julie Bailey inquired if we could hire an english speaking guide to go with us around the area. The woman at the counter said she could and in moments we hired Veronica. She agreed to meet us at our hotel this morning and from there she guided us to several places today.

Our driver Raphael, who stayed with us after the long travel from San Fernando Thursday, drove us first to the Mapuche Center which turned out to be a hotel operated by the Catholic church, which I am sure provides income during the tourist season. But more than that, the property is a working farm, and there is a huge conference center and a very large kitchen where cooking classes in the Mapuche style are held. We were concerned because although it wasn't raining, the weather wasn't cooperating, and the mountain air was foggy which prevented us from seeing some of the more spectacluar views of the morning.

Our next stop came about an hour later where we visited Pucan, the "rival" town to Villarrica. In yesterday's blog I noted Villarrica reminded me of Tacoma, Washington, Pucan(pronounced pew-cone) looks a lot like Colorado. With the mountains all around and the outdoor shops all along the main street, this is a place where Chileans like to come and play. There were plenty of places to find trinkets to bring home, and Veronica steered us to a wonderful restaurant to eat. There is always an advantage to coming to third world countries, as the exchange rate is favorable. Lunch for me was "Duo Piscado" two fishes, as in both sea bass and salmon. The bill coming to about $12.00 US. The atmosphere was wonderful and the service was excellent as the owner was fluent in english. While we were dining the fog burned off, and it turned out to be yet another outstanding day.

After lunch we then headed a bit to the north, on the back side of the lake to see some waterfalls rushing down one of the many mountains that make this place such a glorious place. It is interesting to note the waterfalls were found in a private park which was crowded by tourists enjoying the Saturday. There was an entrance fee, 300 Chilean Pesos per person, or a little more than 50 cents a piece. Let me say it may have been one of the best 50 cents I've ever paid as the sites were something to behold. The only downside is we didn't have long to enjoy the rushing water. Now about an hour away from Villarrica, we had to drive back to the hotel and prepare for the long day back to Texas.

As a team we decided to have an early dinner, but before enjoying our "last supper" we packed up the nine team bags making sure they would all make weight for the flight back. Dinner was much lighter than lunch, and then we all enjoyed a treat from the Chocolataria which has deserts only team members can describe. I will say I enjoyed the creativity of the chocolate Volcan Villarrica. It was too rich for me to order, but I know several people enjoyed the creation complete with white icing on the top. It is too bad the agricultural restrictions are so tight that we cannot share the delights. Let me just say there's a good reason to come back to Villarrica. We closed the evening with a devotion which including an exercise that "binds us all together." There is no question these mission trips are life changing, and as a group all of us now share a common bond.

Tomorrow begins our trek home, and what a trek it will be. We'll leave around 7 a.m. to begin what is expected to take 12 hours back to Santiago airport. From there we'll catch a plane to Dallas and then it's on to Houston and if all goes well, we'll arive at Chapelwood around 9:30-10 a.m. Monday.

Moving on to Villarrica, Chile

Buenas Dias from beautiful Villarrica, Chile!

We arrived very early this morning, 3:15 a.m. after a long bus ride from San Fernando. Our final day at the worksite was long and wearisome, but we completed our task which was to put a second floor/ceiling on the church. We knew it would be a long process, and as a team we decided to work up until the last possible minute before heading back to the hotel to catch the bus.

The task was successful, but more than that, by securing a new friendship with Jean Paul, he has assured us he will assist in "building on what we have started." We can really say that as a team we were the "hands and feet of Christ," and by sharing his love, Jean Paul was impressed enough to lend his considerable talent which we all believe will help the church grow.

It is interesting that when Nydia welcomed us, she spoke about parable of the mustard seed. She lived the faith not only in San Fernando but in Curico. For health reasons she was not able to continue her ministry here, and now she and her husband serve in Texas. But by having her come back as our translator, she was able to help identify needs. While our task is done, there is plenty of more work to do, not just in San Fernando, but also in Curico. Now it's up to our team to make some of these issues known even further to the entire congregation at Chapelwood, and to many of the decision makers who support mission projects for the Methodist Church at large.

We had little time to reflect about our project in San Fernando since we had about an hour to get ready for the bus to take us to Villarrica. We knew the ride would be long, but we were getting several different travel times so we really didn't know when we would reach the hotel. The bus was scheduled to leave at 5:30, but it was another hour before we hit the road. (Let's just say estimated times of departures are never exact.) Kudos to Susan Patterson and Julie Bailey for going to the supermarket and buying sandwich fixings as our dinner on the bus had to be portable. The corn Doritos never tasted so good, especally after another long workday.

We wouldn't learn how lovely a place Villarrica is until we awoke this morning. It was a short night's sleep as we arrived at 3:15 a.m. and then were up for today's breakfast at 8 a.m. The hotel sits on a site that overlooks Lago Villarrica, with a beautiful volcano on the other side of the lake. With its snowcap, it reminded me a lot like Tacoma, Washington near Mount Ranier. While the snowcap is white, it changes color with the sky, even a shimmering pinkish hue as the sunset tonight. It is very beautiful.

The team split in two general groups. One enjoyed the shopping in Central Villarrica, while 6 others, including me, took an hour long boat ride on the lake. We were guided by a couple who are from the native, Mepuche tribe. Their history predates Spanish Colonial Chile, and they sang and played a variety of instruments including a 25 string guitar. The husband of the married couple spoke very good English. When I asked him where he learned it, he told me it was self taught, only by practice and by his experience with others. I was very impressed, especially when he said he can speak Portuguese and the native Mepuche language which was taught to him by his Grand Mother and his God Mother. We also learned today the city was originally known as Villa Rica, but in time the two names were merged to one.
Some of the team gathered later and "zip lined" from one of the hills nearby. I served as the team photographer, and have some wonderful video of several team members enjoying their first experience at "Canopy" which it is called here. We all then gathered for a team meal at a local restaurant to plan our tomorrow's final day in Chile.

Hard at work Wednesday February 4, 2009

Buenas Dias from San Fernando, in fact this will be my last blog from this city as we leave for Villarica late tomorrow afternoon.

What a day it has been as we rose bright and early for breakfast at 7:35. We had been up late Tuesday as we held our team dinner at a local restaurant, La Trattoria Tuscano. While the name is Italian, the dinner was a traditional Chilean meal. Most of us had Salmon which was fresh from the Pacific garnished with a mushroom sauce. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we are very much in the "garden area" of Chile, so we had lots of veggies and fruits. At dinner we said our good-byes to Nydia who has to be back in Harlingen to preach with her husband at their home church. Nydia was a welcome addition to the trip. She is very proud of the ten years she served in the region, both in Curico and San Fernando along with her husband. I had the chance to interview her at length and she mentioned to me the church in Curico was a "dump" before she was able to raise funds to build what has become a beacon in the community.

We know we don't have much time left to complete our task so we didn't waste any daylight hours. In fact we worked so late this evening (9:30 p.m.) we had to take taxis back to the hotel because the bus had stopped running. But even though it was a long day we got a lot done. The most difficult task is building the frame work for the ceiling/floor boards to fit on to. By the dinner hour, we had all the fitted cross beams up except for one. While on paper it seems to be a fairly simple task, not all boards are true, so each beam and cross beam has to be custom made. The drill was to make all the measurements, cut the necessary boards, build the beams on the ground and then hoist them into the rafters. Again on paper it should work, but it seem every time we hoisted the beams, some adjustments had to be made. Kudos to Carl Sandlin and Vicki Roussel for the "Yankee Engineering" to get the job done.

After dinner we had a couple of hours of daylight, remember it's summer here and there's daylight savings, so we attached the final beam and then hoisted three sets of six ceiling/floor boards into the rafters. We believe we should be able to finish the task by the afternoon tomorrow, that is if we don't have any setbacks.

Speaking of setbacks, we had a near miss when a wind gust knocked down a section of the roof. When I write this, it sounds serious, and it could have been, but it's bascially causing us a minor inconvenience. While we were working on the beams, some wind caught the tin roofing material which is badly fastened to the top side of the building. Not the top mind you, but some siding which was poorly nailed to some, for a lack of a better term, bricks. Some of the stones fell to the ground as well as three aluminum sheets, (So I guess you could say we all were three sheets to the wind.) Fortunately no one was standing along the sidewalk when the stuff fell, and we thank God for that. One of our last task tomorrow will be to cut out a plywood surface and attach it to the side of the roof rafters. We will then nail in the aluminum sheeting and seal it, certainly improving what was there.

It is late, I will try again to attach some pictures to the blog, but if there are none, know that it is because the "file" is too large for the internet from here. Last night I spent a great deal of time trying to post pictures, but the program wouldn't let me.

Team Perspectives February 3, 2009

Buenas Dias from San Fernando.
For pretty much a week now you have been getting the news from our trip from just one perspective, mine. So today we asked some of the team members to write their thoughts and I would publish them. The first is from Julie Bailey who was part of the Curico Sewing Project.

The sewing project with the ladies in Curico turned out to be more than we had originally envisoned. Our plan was to teach some sewing skills and the use of electric sewing machines to a group of the church women, who although had sewing machines which had come as part of a mission trip three years earlier, were not in use now.
The project evoled into a plan for a cottage industry in which three women who were skilled seamstresses, agreed to teach the other church women to sew, using the church sewing machines and supplies. All would participate the fabricating some craft items for sale with the profits realized being used to purchase materials for use in personal sewing projects for their families.
The women were excited about the vision; they chose officers and set up a schedule for meeting beginning with three times per week during the summer months. We saw it as a great time for fellowship and a natural opportunity for evangelism as the women invited non church friends to share in their sewing skills.

From Susan Patterson: The ladies from the local church came to learn basic sewing skills. There were a lot of experience levels with the most skilled assuming the roles of "maestra" or teacher. This certainly helped with the language barrier. The project was making basic hand towels with a lace trim. Some of the ladies decorated them with bows and scraps to further embellish their towels. We suggested the ladies to make the towels and other decorative items to sell to help finance the classes. From Pastor Nydia I learned people from this area feel no one cares about them because they are so poor. We were able to show them that God cares about them by sending us to Curico to work with them. We are truly "Sisters in Christ!"

Workday Monday February 2, 2009

Buenas Dias from San Fernando!

We were back on site early this morning even though many of us were up past midnight because of our travels to Curico.

The project has moved from "deconstruction" to "construction" as we have sufficiently cleared the ceiling of the "sheetrock" boards and nails. (As well as some other things which you might find but no need to mention in an old dusty attic.) The other project of lifting the roof is done. If there was a "Missionary of the Day" award, which there isn't, it would go to Carl Sandlin. He is using his talents as an engineer very well. Carl has not only designed a plan to put up the new floor/ceiling, he is leading the process. This is "grunt" work. Carl has to position himself near the top of a ladder, but mindful of not hitting his head on the roof which has nails protruding downward. If that's not enough, the space to operate is extremely limited. Carl has had the patience and the determination to work under these most difficult conditions along with Chris Archer, Bill Bailey and Bob Lassalle. Some of the most challenging work was done today, it is hoped the "framing" work will be a little faster tomorrow.

One of the wonderful parts of mission trips is to introduce people with skills they have never known, and today was an excellent example. Team leader Beth Dudley and Ann Allen each had turns with the power saw as we had to cut the joists to their proper length. It is wonderful to see each enjoy themselves as they expanded their horizons and their skill level. Ann also hammered the joists together, considering the nails are four inches in length, and not of the highest quality, that too was a chore. Speaking of Ann she has picked up several nicknames on the trip. As the first aid person, some of the women have dubbed her "Advil Ann" for having the right pharmaceutical to easy some of our aching joints. I myself dubbed her "Alka Seltzer" Ann as it is true in Chile as with pretty much all Latin countries, "Don't drink the water!," don't even put ice cubes in your soft drink.

I was happy to note that one of the people commenting on the blog was Jean Paul, the gentleman who has pretty much adopted us while we are here. Jean Paul has been a Godsend, helping Bob this morning with money changing as two of the banks would not change our currency. He also has assisted us with supplies, like finding us drill bits and other specific needs which occur on a trip such as this. Tonight he spent some time with us at dinner telling us about his travels as a foreign exchange student in Springfield, Missouri. Jean Paul speaks perfect english telling us he works for a division of the old Sutherland Lumber chain in the USA. Sutherland has had many names including Payless Cashways which some Houstonians might remember before there were "Builders Squares" and "Home Depots." He has really come to our aid, and has enjoyed our company as well.

Three of the team members, Kay Kelley, Susan Patterson and Julie Bailey left along with Nydia to go to Curico for a sewing mission project. Their project had to start late since many of the women they will be assisting work during the day. As mentioned in a pervious blog, Curico is about 50 kilometers to the south and they haven't returned yet. When I hear from them I will pass on their impressions in tomorrow's blog.

Church visit to Curico Sunday Night February 1

Hello again from San Fernando Chile. It is late here as we have returned back from Curico, (pronounced Cud-ee-co) where we had our church service. As I mentioned on an earlier blog, the translator for our team is Pastor Nydia. She served at the church in Curico, before she and her husband were transferred about a year ago to the Rio Grande Valley. So it was a homecoming for her tonight as many members of the church did not know she was coming back.

No question the church had a "Mercy Street" feel. Three guitar players helped lead the worship service. As you can imagine, much of the service was a nice tribute to Nydia, but of course the Chapelwood team was highlighted as the church members enjoyed hosting us. There was plenty of time for fellowship and a sharing of cultures. We enjoyed "Passing the Peace" where the entire congregation really gets involved. It might start with a handshake, but it didn't take long for the hugging to begin. Nydia's message was about Christ's love for us all, and it was expressed by everyone tonight. We were asked to sing as a group, and not to disappoint, we sang the "Chapelwood National Anthem," "Here am I Lord." After we sang, Nydia then translated the words to the congregation.

Curico is roughly 50 kilometers south of San Fernando. As you can imagine from a map of the country, Chile is a long strip on the southeast coast of South America. Ruta 5 is the "Interstate" which runs the enitre 2500 miles of the country, so travel is relatively easy. To get to Curico, we headed out to Ruta 5 which is at the east edge of San Fernando, and then took a turn southward. The Iglesia Methodista was on the corner of Curico, not far from the train tracks which run parallel to Ruta 5, but in a working class area. While Nydia mentioned in her sermon the city is a "poor town" it certainly was not run down. We saw many two wood framed home, some underconstruction which leads us to belive the city is growing. No question the congregation is made up of hard working families who share Christ's love.

The worship service which was conducted in both spanish and english included communion, and it was certainly special to break bread with our brothers and sisters here in Chile.

Tomorrow we will continue our construction project in San Fernando, and 3 members of the team will head back to Curico with Nydia for part one of a two day sewing project.

Sunday February 1, 2009 Part One

Greetings again from San Fernando Chile!

Today's blog will come in two parts as we have a split schedule for the day. Currently we have finished working for the day, and we'll head to the Methodist Church in Curico (pronounced Cude-ee-co) this evening. The custom in this part of the world is to hold Sunday service in the evening, 8:30 p.m.

Since it is the day of the big game back home I have sort of a sports report for you. Last night the "big game" here featured Curico the town where we are heading to tonight. It was a "Super Bowl" of sorts for them because their football (soccer) team had been promoted to the elite league. While we were eating dinner, we could hear the television on in the background and there was no question the family was in to it. We could hear "GOOOOOOOOOOOOOL" with all the lust from the television announcer, but we couldn't tell if that was good or bad. We did receive word the game ended in a 2-2 tie in time before the evening devotional, which was a good thing since the game did not cause an interruption.

Speaking of games, just before we broke for lunch today, Kay Kelly, Ann Allen, and I were sitting in the park waiting for the others to get ready for our short walk to the restaurant. While we were there, a middle aged man came up to us, clearly wanting to show us something. I could tell he wanted us to play a game as he made a motion like he wanted to bowl. I thought he was trying to show us bocce, which I had seen in Italy and other countries around the world, however we weren't making any headway because of the language barrier. We called for Nydia, our translator, who helped us out. The man wanted to show us his "field" where the game Tegos, (pronounced Teh-hose) is played.

The best way to describe it is to think about horseshoes and pitching pennies. The "field" is a 25 foot long alley with a wet clay quadrant at the head. The idea is to pitch a cylindrical slug, which weighs about a pound, to the quadrant. If it rests on any of the metal "lines", or falls outside the quadrant, it's a foul, but if the slug lands cleanly in the clay, it counts. You are given two tosses, and if your slug is tossed longer than your opponent you win. The man was very proud of his community center where many championship cups are on display. Nydia tells us the game has been played since Chile was a Spanish Colony, so there is a great deal of history, however unlike Curling I don't think Tegos will be an Olympic sport any time soon.

As for the work project, we have pretty much cleared the entire ceiling and have begun the process of putting up some of the new floor joists to hold the plywood planks. Vicki made a couple of sawhorses out of some of the recylcled lumber which will be a great help as we cut the planks and the new joists. Another group stay back to sort through what was left of the VBS materials. Some of the materials will be used by the Church here in San Fernando for future classes, and the others are being taken to the Church in Curico for the children there.

Break time is just about over, we'll have more on today's event tonight.