Abuela: The sweetest lady you will ever meet. She was the first person to greet us when we arrived at the church we were to stay at for the next 2 months. She cooks for us, cleans for us, always makes sure we’re wearing sunscreen, and makes sure we’re eating as much as is humanly possible for one stomach to handle
Nugget: What would Abuela be without her sidekick Nugget? He’s a sassy lil mutt who pees wherever he dang well pleases when Abuela isn’t home, but when she is home he knows his place. He truly is one of those dogs that is so ugly he’s cute.
Santo Domingo: The school Lexi, Zac, and I worked at for our 1st month in Chile
Juan Carlos: The only music/art teacher at Santo Domingo. I assisted him in all of his classes whether they were working on their dance performances (A few of these included Thriller, and a Grease mash-up) He is SO hilarious and I have missed him and the kiddos already.
Spontaneous campfire-style singing and dancing led by the one and only Juan Carlos
A performance of the Spanish Christmas songs Feliz Navidad, Burrito Sabenero, and Noche de Paz. I was asked to perform a song myself (I posted it on Facebook if you’d like to see 🙂 And then I was promptly asked to help the kids perform these songs, I had no idea what I was doing haha
Me and Lex looked nice this day (considering 99% of the time you’ll find us wearing athletic shorts and cut-off tees) And Abuela was so kind as to let us use some of her nice shoes, so naturally pictures were required.
One of our adventure days we climbed a mountain in Santiago.
The glorious view from the top of the mountain
On a different adventure day we went to Vina del Mar, a really beautiful beach in Valparaiso, Chile. Also we saw this sea lion so overall it was a great day.
Post-thanksgiving dinner which was filled with home-made greenbean casserole, applesauce, chicken, mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, apple pie, and hot chocolate. We also went around the table and shared what we were most thankful for.
Mural number one: painted by the mega-team on the walls of a community building at a local park which used to be covered in graffiti
Mural number two: Painted by me and Lexi on a wall in the Santo Domingo school courtyard.
Mural number three: This one we painted on the outside wall of the church facing the street. It’s the verse John 3:16 in Spanish.
Spanish worship during Sunday morning service
One Sunday we went on an outing with the church to some campgrounds with a pool. We worshipped, swam, played soccer, and enjoyed fellowship over some good food.
We taught English a couple nights out of the week to a mixture of Chileans, Peruvians, and Hatians (There are actually a lot of Haitians in Chile because many moved here after the earthquake in Haiti. They came to Chile to find jobs and get money for themselves and their families here and back in Haiti)
For those of you who don’t know, my teammate Zac left mid-way through month two in Chile. He felt the Lord was calling him to go back home and we are so proud of him for following the path God is leading him in, no matter how hard it may be. I also felt the Lord calling me to give him my key necklace I received at the beginning of the race with the word “Brave” on it because I think he is walking into so much bravery going into this next season of his life.
On Chirstmas Eve we celebrated by eating breakfast with the church. There were gifts given out to the children and there was much bread eaten (I guess the bread thing is a daily occurence though).
We decorated row upon row of Christmas cookies to give to the kids who are a part of the sports ministry we do on Saturdays.
Water fight! Yes this is how we celebrated Christmas day in the Chilean heat of Summer and it was epic.
We also celebrated by drinking literal gallons of home-made eggnog. Courtesy of Joel’s family recipe.
We finished the year on the top of a tin roof watching fireworks in every direction going off against the backdrop of the mountains.
