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.
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