weekends away and terremotos...

Well, Seems like a very long time since I last wrote a blog, and a lot has happened since then!

Firstly, the protest. It all got a bit more violent, and some people from the village got involved at which point my partner and I were (a bit unnecessarily I think), evacuated to the countryside. We stayed with Audrey, a lovely English lady who took us in and looked after us whilst we were panicking slightly about the potential loss of our home!

However, luckily the church stepped in and agreed to pay for the restorations needed in the internado which the school couldn't afford, which means the internado's are staying open and we're not getting kicked out of our house! hooray!!! :D

Work has generally consisted of a lot of films and other more fun activities over the past couple of weeks such as trips to the river to eat ice cream (which, when 2do Medio is involved, is a lot wetter than it should be - definately shouldn't have given them bottles and access to an large amount of water!), performances of plays (including a great portrayal of falling of a stage from one guy - caught on video and everything!) and of course, Gangham style.

Last weekend, we were invited by Ruth to go away with the youth group from her church in Temuco to a place called 'Rio Quino' about 1 hour north of Temuco. We went by train up to a place called Pua and then walked the rest of the way... along the motorway.

Rio Quino

Not even joking, we walked for about half an hour in a single line along the hard shoulder of the PanAmerican Highway in the increasing darkness! Then at the point when there was no hard shoulder, we had to wait for the road to clear and leg it! It was.. a little terrifying to say the least!

Over the course of the weekend, we did a bit of worship and bible study, chilled by the river, played football (I scored 4 goals - only 2 of which were set up for me! :D) as well as a lot of other games. It was very hot and though it was exhausting, we made a lot of friends and had a lot of fun :)

Grupo de Jovenes de la Iglesia Santa Trinidad

Then on Monday 10th, a significant thing happened - I experienced my first earthquake!!! Well, it was more of a tremour really - 5.8 on the Richter Scale apparently but very short. Unfortunately, neither my partner or myself felt it.. at all! Having never experienced an earthquake before and so having no idea what one feels like, I guess it didn't even register, probably assumed it was a table scraping across the floor or the kids running around.. but if I'm honest, I'm a little bit disappointed I missed it! Ah well, I'm sure they'll be another sometime in the next 9 months!

And that's about all for now! Only just over a week until school breaks up for Christmas and then we're off on our travels! How on earth did that happen!? Probably should get back to organizing that one.. so far we've made it to the 8th January! hmmm..

Hannah :)