Happy Sunday

Today we had a really nice day getting to know our neighbors. The morning started with a minor crisis: In the middle of Saturday night we burned through the gas tank that fuels our heater. (A little aside on building construction: Insulation seems to be non-existent here. Window frames are locally made and windows are single paned with little attention to a snug seal. We speculate that since nights are never cold enough to freeze pipes and wood for stoves is abundant, no one invests in insulation. Hence when we emerge from under the five blankets on our bed, we can see our breath in the living room.) Even though it was Sunday, the gas man down the street delivered up a new 15kg gas canister and we invested in the deposit on a spare. In short order we were warm again and viewing a rainbow out our kitchen window.
As you can see, winter in Castro is still green. The other thing you can tell is that if it is raining one minute, wait and the sun will shine. Rather like the famous Mark Twain quote about New England weather.

After lunch Berto and Lisa were headed for the shore when we ran into Tía Monica and Tío Luis (our landlady and her husband, who live next door). They were having the typical rural Chilean Sunday of Go to Grandma's and hang out with the family. It turns out that Monica's sister lives in the next town over and is hosting another American volunteer, Lauren. In a wink all four Raviczes were invited in and much chatter and googoo-eying of Gabi was going on. Berto let his preference for the tide pools be known and he and Lisa left. Close to an hour later Mike and Gabi were still having a wonderful time. Both Monica and her sister Margo have only boys, so Gabi has successfully retained her status as "princess of the house". And if you wonder if they dote on kids down here, I need only tell you that today was the official national holiday "Children's Day".

The second big event of the day was a birthday party for a boy in Berto's kindergarten class. Barely two days in school and the boy already scored a party invitation! As seems to be in keeping with the general friendliness here, Tío Luis gave Berto and Lisa a ride to the party. With the exception of the language spoken, it was exactly like a Cambridge kid birthday: goodie bags, tables set with soda, chips and pizza, bedlam with a trampoline, fussball table, inflatable slide, cake and then more candy with a pinata. Lisa mangled the language with patient parents. They all seem to know who we are. Seems like the grapevine in small town Chile is just as effective as in small town America. At the end a son & dad who live in our end of town offered to give us a ride home. People really are so friendly here!

Well enough for now. I've (Lisa) got to get myself together for school tomorrow. Did I tell you that the Director of the school hooked me up with a teacher who drives past our house every morning and she will give Berto & I a ride to school most mornings? Like we keep saying, the houses might be chilly, but the people sure are warm!

PS: a shout out to Birm who comments. Some one loves me! Any of the rest of you out there?