All events occurred after a 22 hour bus ride and 60 consecutive hours of travel…
Hour One: After pulling into the bus stop, the Panda Rangers were ready to meet their new host. After 10 minutes of circling the area around the bus stop, we met our host, a man with kind eyes and a desire to know and serve us well.
Hour Two: Immediately, we realized our lack of knowledge of the Spanish language could work as a potential barrier while trying to communicate with our Spanish-speaking host. However, we used hand signals and our limited understanding to help cut tomatoes and transport lettuce from one bowl to another (he had already prepared the entire meal, essentially).
Hour Three: After eating our rice, carne (which is meat for all the non-Spanish speakers…including myself), tomatoes, and lettuce, we met our new home. We are staying in the church we are working in. The seven of us are sharing a room off to the side of the church, which is used on Sundays for various bible studies and children ministries. The major plus of the room is the mattresses we get to sleep on!
Hour Four: It was time to explore the city. In the words of our host, we were not to go that way, that way, or that way (accompanied with hand gestures and pointing). So, that left only one way to walk. We journeyed down the road the church is on, passing a number of small markets, houses, and curious onlookers. It was warm in the sun and very very very dry and a little bit windy, which personally, I enjoy. After walking for about twenty minutes around the small town, we turned back for the church, as we told our host we would only be gone for a short period of time.
Hour Five: Calama is a city in the northern desert of Chile, so the altitude is very different from what we are accustomed to back home. For most of us, the high altitude dehydrated us and gave us headaches. Our host told us to take it easy and relax due to the long travel days that had come before as well as the altitude. I read outside in the sun with another on my team, greeting various women and children that came into the church for the bible study that night.
Hour Six: Many of my team had begun the process of showering and getting settled in, so I followed suit. We have working toilets and showers with hot water, which is a gift so I hear, as many times on the race, living situations will be far from this luxurious. After discovering my quick drying towel was about ten sizes smaller than I had thought (being more the size of a hand towel. Whooooops. I probably should have checked before packing it), I hopped in the shower.
Hour Seven/Eight: It was around 8:30 pm, and we were not entirely sure about the dinner situation. The prior day, we had been told that we were going to be getting dinner on the 22 hour bus ride. As the hours slowly ticked by, it became clear at 10 pm dinner would not be served. We had almost given up hope when the bus attendant appeared, as if in a vision, carrying a tray of small tin foil-wrapped prepared dinners. To our surprise, dinner was served at 10:30 pm! Rice, chicken, and bread. Because of this prior experience, we were not sure if we would eat dinner late at night or if our host expected us to eat from the leftovers from earlier that day. At 9 pm the hunger got the best of us and we decided to raid the fridge for the leftovers (which we now know is what he wanted us to do).
Hour Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen, Fourteen, Fifteen, Sixteen, Seventeen, & Eighteen: SLEEP. And a lot of it.
Hour Nineteen: In the morning — our first morning waking up in Calama — we decided to be ready by 8 am. We sat around the kitchen table, journaling, reading the Bible, and talking. We even scored on some instant coffee, so the day was off to a pretty great start.
Hour Twenty: When our host arrived, we were able to sit down with him and have a little Q&A about a variety of topics: what days our ministry will be, cultural do’s and don’ts, and how we should prepare our food. We will be teaching English in a high school on Wednesday through Friday. On Saturday, we will “pray for those who need prayer” (stay tuned for exactly what that means…our Spanish can only take us so far). On Sundays, we will go to church here and participate in a Bible study — this week we will help, but next week we will teach.
Hour Twenty-One: Since we are going to be cooking our meals while staying at the church, some of us went to go grocery shopping. They got all the essentials: veggies, rice, tortillas, bread, apples, cereal, the works. We will be dining well. The rest of us went on a walk in the town, taking photos along the way.
Hour Twenty-Two: After the others returned from the grocery store, we made lunch (ham, cheese, and salami sandwiches) and relaxed in the sun. All of the interactions with our host made me realize I needed to apply myself to Duolingo (a helpful language learning app). A lot of the afternoon was spent practicing Spanish and trying to become even an ounce conversational. We are improving!
Hour Twenty-Three: Our host, wanting to get to know us more, sat down with us and asked us questions. We told him what we did, where we were from, and a little about our church involvement (all in Spanish!!)
Hour Twenty-Four: Living essentially three feet from the church means that we can walk out of our “bedroom” door and into the little wooden room filled with instruments and pews. We had a little worship session, singing songs and playing the guitar. Once we start ministry, it is going to be important that we spend intentional time together as a team. Team time can be anything we want it to be, depending on who is leading. Today, we sat in the open space of the building where the sun pours in during the afternoon. We spent time painting and listening to music.
The first 24 hours have been nothing but encouraging. This place will soon be home.
