Resting on God

God Most High, Most Glorious,

The thought of thine infinite serenity cheers me, for I am toiling and moiling, troubled and distressed, but thou art for ever at perfect peace. Thy designs cause thee no fear or care of unfulfilment, they stand fast as the eternal hills. Thy power knows no bond, thy goodness no stint. Thou bringest order out of confusion, and my defeats are thy victories: The Lord God omnipotent reigneth. I come to thee as a sinner with cares and sorrows, to leave every concern entirely to thee every sin calling for Christ’s precious blood; Revive deep spirituality in my heart, let me live near to the great Shepherd, hear his voice, know its tones, follow its calls. Keep me from deception by causing me to abide in the truth, from harm by helping me walk in the power of the Spirit. Give me intenser faith in the eternal verities, burning into me by experience the things I know; let me never be ashamed of the truth of the gospel, that I may bear its reproach, vindicate it, see Jesus as its esssence, know in it the power of the Spirit. Lord, help me, for I am often lukewarm and chill; unbelief mars my confidence, sin makes me forget thee. Let the weeds that grow in my soul be cut at their roots; Grant me to know that I truly live only when I live in thee, that all else is trifling. They presence alone can make me holy, devout, strong and happy. Abide in me, gracious God.

-The Valley of Vision, A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions

Sometimes I do things backwards

I bought yarn when I went to Pisco Elquia in Valle de Elqui, which was months ago. The yarn is 100% oveja, one ball is the rich olive color and the other a pure cream and I just could not resist. Of course when I saw them I was inspired to knit and since I learned to knit, over 10 years ago, I figured I could just pick it back up. Within in the past couples weeks after having the yarn for months I finally borrowed knitting needles from my cousin. As soon as I started I realized how little I actually remembered. But just kind of did what came to mind, muscle memory kind of process. I get a good number or rows in when one of my aunts comes in. We undo what I had done and she shows me a whole new way to do it. I get the hang of it and then my mom comes in. Another way to do it. I adopt her technic and for the next few days I make way on my first Chilean bufanda. It is now November 5th and I am still knittinng the bufanda, not surprised. Since the little I had knitted back in August I learned yet another way to knit a bufanda, unwrapped what I had done and started all over again. Now its sitting next to me I picked it back up for the first time since September put a couple rows of work in and have set a goal. Finish the bunfunda before leaving Chile (I kind of have to because the needles belong to my cousin.)
*Side note about doing things backwards. I am finishing blogs started months ago and writing blogs that I meant to start months ago, as well as writing current blogs. I am sure its super confusing if you are reading, but just take it for what its worth and enjoy the bits and pieces because the reality is I can only put bits and pieces of what I am experiencing. And even more true is I don't even have the whole story I only have bits and pieces and I want to remember these bits and pieces so here they are for my little rusty brain.

Cumpli 24

Happy 24th. It was the first time I have ever celebrated my birthday in the spring which was weird for me. I am such a fall baby. I love the fall. I love the changing of the leaves, I love everything pumpkin, pumpkin ale, the Pumpkin Patch Latte at Common Grounds, pumpkin muffin, pumpkin pie, pumpkin seeds and on top of the pumpkin goodness, I love how the fall air feels. Its crisp and life giving (obviously all air is life giving, but you can actually feel the fall air give you life). I miss that air. With how much I love the fall I am surprised that I did not miss celebrating my birthday in the fall. And the two things that made this spring birthday so special and kept me from missing a fall birthday were my students and my family.
On October 20, 2010 I think I heard the "Happy Birthday" song more times on this one day than I have heard in all my birthdays combined (and that doesn't count the times I heard it sung on October 19th and 21st). I wish I could say that I had taught them the song and then I would have been super proud teacher, but my precious students knew it long before I arrived in Chile. At one point I tried to run away from my students as they were singing and they just followed me around the school. Clearly sometimes I look ridiculous at school. All the kisses and hugs and birthday wishes from my students were super sweet and special. (My boy students completely took advantage of this opportunity to beso Miss Corrie, because I have outlawed the beso greeting with my boy students because of their lack of maturity and because unfortunately I have students who tell me "remember me in your dreams"). Thanks to the help of my co-teachers my workshop of 5th, 6th and 7th grade boys threw me a surprise party! It was adorable and Max who is just a big 7th grade teddy bear of a boy gave me a t-shirt with a peace sign, flowers and butterflies (if I didn't look like I was turning 24 before I certainly did not look like it with this t-shirt). Sometimes my students do things that just melt my heart and this was one of them. Jessica, my 8th grader with the biggest heart I have ever met, gave me a copper map of Chile. And Camilo a precious 6th grader gave me a chocolate bar, why are they so cute!?
And on top of an entertaining day at school, my English Club, was a go! I am always pumped when English Club actually happens and it was the 3rd week in a row! With the two girls who have consistently been coming we walked to downtown La Calera and got icecream and ended up talking for almost three hours. I had to cut it short because I had to get home for onces with the family. Onces was delicious you know the typical onces, but the Miller's came over too and it was just great being surrounded by people I love.
So that was my birthday...well the day of my birthday, but the real celebrating happened on Saturday night. My family threw me a birthday party. Not that it was super crazy or anything, but the thought that went into it just blew me away. My Aunt had offered a long time ago to have a party for me at her house (just a few doors down) and I was not for sure it was going to happen but it did! My grandpa chileno of 90 years old and I decorated their back patio. I wish I had a picture of us decorating together, putting up streamers and balloons, it is one of those short and sweet life memories that I'll never forget. *My grandpa asked my mom chilena the other day how old I am and when she told him I am 24 he was shocked he thought I was 15... Decorating is really all I did my mom and my aunt would not let me help with anything else. My mom made my favorite Chilean cake, Torta de mil hojas, which I think weighed 7 kilos because it had 3 kilos of manjar in it, a couple kilos of flour and sugar and a dozen or so eggs. RICISIMA! Family, delicious food, some dancing, pisco, some awesome gringo/argentino friends and getting to bed at 4 am, my chilean birthday was complete.
One special highlight from the night, was my mom (chilena to not confuse) coming up behind me as I am eating and giving me one of those genuine I love you hugs. You know what kind of hug I am talking about? It was one of those hugs that embodied love. And she asked me if I had a good birthday. Love, plan and simple.

Strep-Flashback 2 Months

Oh to revisit the week before winter break does not sound appealing, but since that week was so uneventfully eventful and it led straight into winter vacation this is the first time I have had to share this comically tragic story. There are so many ways to go about telling this story, I think chronologically with highlighted stories and important Chilean realities depicts the realities of my life here the best.

Sunday night July 11th, I crawled into bed ready for classes the next day and anticipating my last week of teaching before the winter vacations. I knew this week was going to go by fast with the prospect of a much needed break ahead. After crawling into bed I started feeling a little sick, my throat was hurting and my body was aching. Barely got any sleep that night and knew there was no way I would be feeling up to school. This would be my first sick day. Monday I did not get out of bed all day. I was pathetic. I really hate being sick (I think I am finally at a point in my life I can admit that I am stubborn and I don't like being weak.)And on top of that, being sick in a foreign country sucks! So these two things made a bad combination. Tuesday I was feeling a bit better, originally I just thought I had the flu, it was that achy drained body feeling but then as I checked out my throat it was evident that I had strep, you know that beautiful white mess that accompanies strep throat. With thinking about my trip to Peru coming up I thought it would be good to go to the doctor. (Note: If I did not have this Peru trip coming up I wouldn't have gone to the doctor. I would have just waited it out a little more. But for the sole desire to have the best experience in Peru, I went.)

I called Monica (our Ministiry of Education support for the V Region) just to see what I needed to bring with me to the doctor and where I should go. She informs me that she will call me right back "ratito" (I really don't like this word.) Within this time I let my mom know that I am sick and her advice is to just wait it out and if I am not better by Friday to just go to the doctor in Santiago on Friday...So I am thinking okay that is what I will do because Monica is not going to call me back and that is perfect. Well a couple hours later my co-teacher calls and informs me that she has to take me to the hospital right now! (Oh Chile how you communicate.)

I am super hesitant about going to the doctor, going to the doctor is pretty much the last thing that I want to do here. But thinking I have strep throat and knowing I need to be on an antibiotic for it to get better I go. Andrea calls me on the way to my house "Hey we are on our way." "We? Who is we?" "Tomas and I." Haha really! This is kind of funny, kind of not because I am sick and I am an adult. So now I just feel like a sick 8 year old having to be taken to the doctor. But at the same time it was nice to have my "English Support Team". I am glad that we are that close.

So the doctor diagnosis me officially with amigdalitis and says he is 99% it is strep throat and then prescribes me an antibiotic (he didn't do a strep test, which in hindsight I probably should have pushed for, there are lots of hindsight moments in this story). The antibiotic that he prescribes is a moxifloxacin, which is a third generation antibiotic. It is what you take after everything else has failed...I see where he was coming from in doing this. I mean it was a sure fire way to clear things up, but completely unneccesary. I took 3 doses of the medicine and felt like I was going crazy. I didn't have an appetite I was super shaky. I felt awful. I decided it was the medicine and went back to the doctor on Friday and just asked for amoxicilian, which is what I should have done in the first place. Hindsight, should have gotten a strep test, should have asked for an antibiotic that I knew my body wouldn't have a bad reaction to, oh yeah and I should have refused an injection of ketoprofen, which they gave me. Honestly, the last caused me a lot of anxiety. When it comes to blood and arteries and needles I guess I am hyperactive. Its just something that you don't mess around with and need to be careful and smart about. And looking back on it, that day I was not being smart.

I was given a licencia for the week from school and was confined to the house. Everyday was filled with me being lectured on how I needed to abrigate (bundle up) because of course I got a bacterial infection from not wearing enough clothes. At one point I was standing on our street in my down winter jacket and it could not have been colder than mid 50s or lower 60s and my mom came over and zipped up my jacket. By this point all I could do was laugh because it was so ridiculous. This was a true family forming week for me and my family here. And then came a constant stream of advice that I had to just throw out the window. There was one night that we were going back and forth about why I was sick and why I was freaking out about getting an injection at the clinic and I am pretty sure that my dad said something to me about how I was acting. It was some sort of expression involving hens and a chicken coop. During this time our family ties were solidified.

Todos Juntos

Hace mucho tiempo que yo vivo preguntándome

para qué la tierra es tan redonda y una sol no más

si vivimos todos separados

para qué son el cielo y el mar

para qué es el sol que nos alumbra

si no nos queremos ni mirar

Tantas penas que no van llevando a todo final

cuantas noches, cada noche, de ternura tendremos quedar

para qué vivir tan separados

si la tierra nos quire juntar

si este mundo es uno y para todos

todos juntos vamos a vivir

- Los Jaivas

La Luna *June 27

Highlight of this trip was the Mamalluca Observatory. We saw saturn, we saw hot stars, and cold stars, star pairs and star clusters, scorpion and libra, stars that may not even exist any more or perhaps they are on their way out. And very important, I finally know how to find my direction by the stars- I was pumped about that! We went the day after a full moon, which we heard was unfortunate because the stars aren't as bright but I love the moon so I was okay with it! La Luna is beautiful! Here are some incredible pics taken with my camera through the telescope (I had flashbacks to college biology/histology labs when I would take pics through microscopes to study.)

Official stargazers
to your right --->

Oh, Bella Luna

ISN'T SHE LOVELY

ISN'T SHE WONDERFUL

Wanderers *June 27

At the Gabriel Mistral destileria, by the plaza, not the one "2 kms" away.

Lauren doing here thing at Gabriel Mistral destileria.
Saw a 5 yr. old do it..."see monkey do monkey"
Beautiful church, last sighting of our friend

At Los Nichos destileria

Wandering around trying to find the bus from La Serena to Vicuna we met a fellow "wanderer" who was also heading that way and showed us where to catch the bus. I love when stuff like that happens, and it gets even better. It just so happens that he is also the musical entertainment for the bus ride to Vicuna. And he gives a little intro about wanting to share this music and message with everyone and would appreciate a tip ect ect...And its a really cool tune, I'm really digging it and then I start laughing because without realizing it I know what he is singing about (that in and of itself was a cool experience to understand something in Spanish when I wasn't trying to). The fruit of the earth, oh how I love to smoke it, weed! Just a little light listening for the ride. Gave him a little tip more for helping us find the bus than the song and then went our separate ways in Vicuna, at least we thought...He was chilling in the plaza with this friends so passed him a few times there. And then Lauren and I were waiting for a bus to Pisco Elqui and who else would show up and be going the same direction than our vagabond friend. So we got to listen to the song about the fruit of the earth again. He got off a couple towns before us and said bye to him for the last time.

Pisco Elqui is beautiful and if you are going to be in Valle de Elqui you have to go. I thought it would be a good idea to walk to one of the Pisco distilleries that was just a couple kms from the Plaza...well those 2 kms turned into 5 and then turned into not sure how many because we ended hacer dedo (hitch hiking) the rest of the way. We got there just after the last tour, but were still able to wander around and make it look like we had gone on the tour, which may not have been as educational but it was fun and free!

We then "hacer dedo" back to Pisco Elqui got out of the car and you would not believe who was just getting out of a car from an hacer dedo as well, our vagabond friend! It was meant to be! It would have been even funnier if we had hitch hiked into the same car he was in, actually that would have surpassed the ridiculousness scale!