I have been keeping a really detailed diary every day so far, but I won't bore you with all the details. If you want to know anything else, please feel free to ask.
The highlights of our first week in Chile:
1. We arrived! It was such a relief to finally arrive in Santiago. I had been a little worried that I might not get the whole “experience” in Chile, as people kept telling me that it is the most European country in South America. But those thoughts evaporated as soon as we pulled away from the airport! At this time of year, Santiago is really dry, so there's not much colour in the plants. But the houses make up for that. Most are painted bright colours and there's graffiti EVERYWHERE. As for the rules of the road....I have no idea. So far, we have worked out that when the green man shows to pedestrians, the equivalent of a flashing amber light is showing to the cars. So you can't assume that it's safe to cross! Undertaking happens all the time, as does tailgating, slamming on the brakes and driving on the wrong side of the road. Oh, and walking in the middle of the highway :/
On our first trip to Santiago from Colina, we also saw goats and piglets walking down the road. So I definitely do not feel like I've come to a clone of Europe. I'm definitely in South America!
4. We moved into our house! Our little yellow casa already feels like home.
We have 3 bedrooms, 2 with beds in them. Katie and I share a room and Mhairi and Anna are in the other. Our spare room has been turned into a walk in wardrobe (due to lack of storage space)/bike shed (they've lent us 3)/underwear drying room (we didn't really want to hang our pants in the garden for the world to see). We have a little bathroom with a shower, toilet and sink, a teeny kitchen (fridge/freezer, cooker, sink) and a living/dining room. We've been given wooden chairs and a bench, which we put our quilts on as throws. We also have a table and some school chairs (that you'd pay a fortune for in a vintage shop at home). Oh, and of course there is our 30 INCH TV. It is actually a very useful learning tool for Spanish and we watch the news on it. And today we got A SWIMMING POOL. And no, we don't have a washing machine or wardrobes, but who needs them when you have a pool?! I think it must have been donated to the home, but they already have a big pool that the residents use whenever they want. So I guess they thought we might like it! We walked into work this morning and they said that Tio was going to fix the swimming pool by the gates and put it in our garden, if we wanted it....what do you say to that?! Our garden is pretty big, but even so, the pool is now quite a prominent feature on our front lawn! We will fill it later, after the sealant on the cracks has dried. It isn't actually big enough to swim in, but I think it'll still get a lot of use in this weather (been over 30 degrees every day since we got here).
5. We started work. We haven't done too much work in our settling in week, as there has been lots of things to tick off the to-do list. We spent Tuesday in the kids' (about 4-14 years old) house, drawing and playing with them. After lunch, there was a birthday party for some of the boys, so we stuck around for a bit and met the youngest resident of the home, who was turning 2 that day. I have to admit that my heartstrings were given a really good tug when we met her and saw how some of the older residents reacted to her. She is like the communal baby and everyone wanted to look after her!
On Wednesday we did art with 3 of the more capable kids. Well, I say art, it was a bit of a free for all, but I came well prepared for that after the little bit of experience that I've had working with kids that have learning difficulties. I think we all enjoyed it and the little boy that I walked back to the house stood at the door waving as we walked away. Aaaaagh! I wanna take them all home! (Don't worry Mum, I won't). After lunch we had our first cooking lesson with the older, more independent residents who might be moving into their own house. We cooked pasta, so it wasn't the most thrilling lesson, but it was spiced up a little by a lovers' tiff that was going on between 2 of them! And they seemed very proud of their pasta, which they were going to have for dinner. We didn't work on Thursday, as we were in Santiago trying to sort out our ID cards (every Chilean resident has to have one). And on Friday we only worked in the morning for some reason that was beyond our understanding. So it was “art” again with 4 kids. We did actually manage to produce 3 pictures this time though. To be honest, as long as the kids are enjoying themselves, I think we're doing our job. By the way, I think I have found my favourite, but no, I'm not going to tell you who it is :)
6. We had no water. Ok, so this wasn't exactly a HIGHLIGHT of our week, but it was certainly a big part of it! We didn't have any running water for 2 days, which feels like a loooooooot longer when you're living in this heat!
7. We met Gustavo. He's the pet llama. Need I say more?
Ok, that's probably enough writing for now. Will try and post again next week! xx
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