February 6, 2009
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.
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