rendezvous and rambles

Well the last few weeks have definately given me some food for thought in terms of the short time we have left in this amazing place.

Rebecca and I, in Valpo

First off my lovely sister came to visit me so I had a week off work and together we set off on our own Chilean adventure. After meeting her in Santiago we travelled to Valpo for the weekend, before down to Cholchol where she joined in all parts of my life including celebrating a birthday with the girls in the internado, learning how to make empanadas and the burial of a dead turtle in the rain. 

The burial of our poor beloved turtle

We also travelled down to Puerto Varas, a town in the lake district with a beautiful view of Volcano Osorno - though due to the near constant rain, we didn't actually see it! But the postcards sure look beautiful! It was a really good week and a weird experience for me as well. I'm not quite sure how to describe it without it sounding weird and/or slightly cheesy but because my life here is so seperate from my life back home, and Rebecca coming joined them in some way, and made the concept of going back home in just a couple of months a much more real and daunting prospect as opposed to the far-off fact its been for most of the year so far. However, saying that, I don't regret her coming atall and I hope she doesn't either, it was amazing to be able to share my life here with my family and show her around the town and country that I have fallen in love with over the last 10 months.

The picturesque town of Puerto Varas.

It is now less than a month until we finish our project here in Cholchol and will have to pack up our little house and say goodbye to all our friends and family before embarking on one last month of travel before our flight home. It's a thing I don't like thinking about much if I'm completely honest. I've fallen in love with this tiny, cold little town in the middle of the Chilean countryside and all the people in it.
It's been tough, for sure. A lot of the kids are very difficult to work with, have difficult backgrounds and basically have no desire or motivation to learn whatsoever. But it's made me a stronger and more confident person, which will be very handy in the future for sure.

So other than that, I am now taking these last few weeks to enjoy spending as much time as I can with my chilean family, with the girls in the internado and all the other friends I've made here. Some of the other volunteers are coming to visit next weekend and there are plans to go to another town in the lake district with some friends a few weeks later.

So that's all for now folks, more heart-felt rambles to come soon I'm sure :)

Hannah x