It's a Miracle!

"Es un Milagro!" was how everyone was starting conversations this morning. The biggest news story for over two weeks has been 33 miners who were trapped over a vertical mile underground. Everyday the lead news story has been about the efforts to try to make contact with the miners. The families have camped out, waiting day and night (and day and night) at the openning of the mine shaft. The President has visited. Special equipment has been flown in from the USA. The First Lady has visited and prayed with the families. The President has visited. Special equipment has been flown in from Australia. The President has visited to announce that he is sacking the head mine regulators. Yesterday, on the 17th (!) day after the cave in, contact was made through a small hole with the miners and they sent a note saying that all 33 are alive and well. All of Chile is breathing a collective sigh of relief. The copper and gold mine tunnel is a long series of zig zags. The roof in one of the zig zags caved in, trapping the miners below. That's the good news, the other news is that the 5 miles of zig zag tunnel is too dangerous to go up. So, it will be another 2 to 3 months(!) before they can drill a shaft big enough to get the miners out.
All this has been an interesting lesson in Chilean national identity. I rather thought that a country with the driest desert on earth at one end and the South Pole at the other end would be fractured into regionalism. But no, folks in wet, agricultural South have absolutely bonded with the fates of folks in the dry industrial North. More than once I have heard Chileans describe their country as an island. To the north is desert, to the east are mountains, to the south is the Antarctic and to the west is the Pacific. Add to that feeling of national isolation the fact that Chiloe really is an island and you understand the need to hang together and help one another.

Our next big national lesson will come in September when Chile celebrates its bicentennial. Stay tuned for more of "Gringos learn about Chile" Speaking of Gringos....How do you like our tourist shot from the first few days in Santiago?