The Day After! (7/27)

Well. Fortunately for Chilean drivers, the snow didn't stick around on the streets Santiago. The day was bright and beautiful! Deb called me on the cell phone from just outside our parking lot, encouraging me to go out and take pictures of the mountains before the sun could change them. So I did.

I met with Claudio (a church friend and photography instructor) for a language lesson exchange. These were rather serious lessons focusing on pronunciation and elements of grammar. I read a Pablo Neruda poem ("Explico Algunas Cosas") aloud and summarized it's meaning. This led to some good discussion about didactic methods and the travesty of war (which seems to be raging all over currently). Then, by his request, Claudio read aloud "The House That Jack Built" and examined some of the phonetic challenges of the English language. I now realize that the location of the accent in a word can make a huge difference.

I also played raquetball with two British fellows today. That was a trip. It tooks us just a little to work out the game with three players, but it was quite fun. Joseph (on the right) teaches Cricket at Lincoln and Harry, his friend, is visiting from Argentina. Harry was teaching English in another school there, but is about to go back to Europe.

Then I went by bus to a mall near Andres and Priscilla's house. Deb was going to pick me up there and take me over. I got a coffee, watched all the people do something I consider to be very American, and then went outside to wait for Deb. While I waited I watched this puppy that appeared to be lost. He followed people to sniff their bags and their legs if they walked slow enough. He was really cute. When he gave up hoping that there was something to eat in the bags and that he might convince someone to give him some, he would come over and almost sit on my toes as I leaned against a light post. I was feeling so sorry for this puppy I was tempted to take it with me when Deb came. (I almost took his picture, but that would have made leaving him all the harder.) Eventually, I saw a maintenance guy and told him about the puppy. He picked up the puppy and saw his collar had a phone number on it. He said he would call the number.

Well. Deb came and we went to Andres and Priscilla's. Priscilla made lasagna and we chatted and played with Benjamin. We always have such a good time with these friends. This is Andres playing with his two favorite toys, a new cell phone/mini-computer and Benjamin.