I think I better hurry up and write these 'little things' posts, as the little things are already becoming normal to me! The other day, I looked out of the window on the bus and something was odd. Then I realised – it didn't look different any more. It was as if I see a similar view everyday....because I do! I guess that means the holiday period is over and I am now getting down to the business of living, working and breathing in Chile.
I know I'm going to see new things all the time when I am here, but here's a few of the every day SIGHTS that are becoming part of my day-to-day view of Chile:
1 Flies. I hate flies. With a burning passion. But I am very quickly getting used to seeing them everywhere, all the time. I often wake up in the morning with a fly on my nose and we learnt almost immediately that any food you leave unattended for even a second has to be covered with a napkin or towel. I've forgotten what it feels like to eat a meal without waving one hand around to keep the flies at bay. When we first saw the cafeteria, I was shocked and disgusted by the number of flies all over the tables. But now there's flies all over our house too and I have accepted that they are here to stay, at least for the summer.
2 Ants. Yes, another insect. Ants aren't actually a new sight for me, as it was a constant battle to keep them out of the kitchen in Hawaii too. But then my Mum dealt with them, and now I have to! We've banished them from our house now, after waging war on the colonies that had moved into our kitchen and bathroom. But they are still all over the trees in our garden, and will quickly return if the smallest crumb of food is left lying around.
3 Smog. We're not in Santiago city, so I don't think the smog affects us as badly. But on 'smog days' it almost obscures our view of the mountains and makes for beautiful, vibrant sunsets. Even when it's not a 'smog day', there is usually a wavering band of smog just above the mountain tops.
4 Street dogs. I know I spoke about the noise dogs make last time, but this is a whole other dimension! Firstly, I should say that I love dogs. Always have, always will. I can't stand seeing a lost dog on our street, never mind a skeletal, mangy thing in the middle of the road. This is a sight that I was well prepared for, coming to Chile. I have passed loads of slinky street dogs in the past 3 weeks and it hadn't really affected me at all...until Sunday. On our way back from doing our grocery shopping in Colina, Mhairi spotted the most heartbreaking sight. 3 tiny puppies by the side of the road. They were beside the box that they had obviously been left in and were whimpering their little hearts out. 1 was in a very bad way and the other 2 were wandering out into the road. After a lot of convincing from level-headed Katie, we admitted that we couldn't take 3 random puppies home and tore ourselves away. Later on, me and Mhairi had gone for a cycle and called in where we'd seen the puppies on our way home. The ill one was dead and there was no evidence of the other two. I just hope some kind hearted person took them home. I know this happens, because Mable is a “stray”, yet she always has food,water and a place to sleep. And since we've been here, another dog has arrived. One day we spotted a black, leggy puppy scampering around the home's grounds. Since then we've seen her (it could be a boy...) almost every day. She's a skinny little mongrel who's missing the occasional bit of hair, but she's very sweet. We've named her Rosie and she's already recognising it when we call her. I hope she's allowed to stay and grows up around the niños, she would be one hell of a therapy dog!
Rosie and Mhairi:
5 Missing teeth. The majority of the residents in the home are missing teeth and the remaining ones are rotting away. This seems to be true of all the residents over a certain age. This is either because the younger ones haven't had time to lose teeth, or because dental hygiene has become more important in the last 20 years. I think it's probably the latter, so hopefully this is one sight that won't last too much longer.
6 Watermelons. I have seen more watermelons in the past few weeks than I had seen in my whole life. This is a good thing, because I LOVE watermelon. There's nothing better on hot, dry day. We get them a few times a week with our lunch at the home and every fruit stall is piled high with the beasts.
7 Dust. The dust in this part of Chile is very fine and grey. There is a thin layer of it covering everything. Leaves, cars, surfaces, windows, everything. We sweep our floor regularly, but still end up with black feet. Even the water in our swimming pool turns grey pretty quickly. So if you pay a visit, it's not that we have shoddy housekeeping skills, we just have dust! I'm hoping that as the rain arrives, this dust invasion will cease!
There are loads more, and I might just do a second part to this post, but for now these are some of the things that were new at first, but are fast becoming as common as the rain back home :)
Have a nice weekend everyone!
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