La Feria

We buy most of our produce from a local feria, or farmer's market. It's deliciously fresh and usually fairly cheap.

Doesn't this guy look like he loves his job?

We have gone back to his stand a few times.

 

The towns around here usually have ferias weekly. Some are bigger than others, but we have been going to the feria in a little town called San Pedro every Tuesday morning because it's only about 5 minutes away and it's not so big that we're overwhelmed.

 

 

Left: Some delicious tomatoes to make delicious pico de gallo.

Right: This guy loves his job too.

 

 It changes from week to week, but we're starting to recognize some vendors. Usually there are around 20 stands, mostly with produce, but some sell clothing, toiletries, chickens, and our favorite, ice cream.

 Becca checking out the chicks and chickens. (With what looks like a diaper wedgie).

Left: Enjoying some delicious ice cream

Right: Joseph patiently waiting for his ice cream cone.

 See? I was there too!

Church in Melipilla

Unbeknownst to us, we bought our tickets to Chile during Fiestas Patrias, a big national holiday celebrating the establishment of their first government, so all the stores were closed for a few days. Luckily our friend Netto bought us groceries before we arrived so we had food to eat. So when we arrived at our new home on Thursday, September 19th, we just laid around and watched cartoons. We drove around the farm a little on Friday, and finally went out to buy some more groceries and a few things for the house on Saturday.

That was a horrible experience.

The stores were so crowded with after-holiday shoppers and the food was so different we didn't even know what to buy. Chileans eat a lot of pasta and a lot of hard bread. There is no canned food, no chocolate chips, and no spices. But I won't go into that today. For now just imagine a confused tall white woman in a store pushing a cart with a baby seat (it took up the whole cart) while her son follows with a cart full of food and her husband (who may be brown, but is tall) brings up the rear with a toddler and more food. And also there are two other children running around and getting in other customer's way and asking what everything is. And also imagine the store is rather crowded and we have no idea what anything is.

Yes, it was that bad.

After a few painful hours we finally checked out. But when we got to the car, which is a used, shiny, red explorer, we realized we only have like one foot of trunk space and somehow have to get laundry baskets and big cartons of eggs home. Mando somehow shoved it all in and I "ran" into another store to buy a hair dryer. After a few unsuccessful attempts at Spanish I came out an hour later with a bouncy seat for Sam, measuring cups and spoons, and an iron.

We'll revisit stores later because we've learned more since then.

Sunday we went to church for the first time. I know you will be surprised, but we walked in a few minutes late. No worries, church hadn't even started yet. People sort of casually drifted in and children screamed and ran all over throughout the whole Sacrament meeting. I picked up a few words here and there but it takes concentration for me to understand Spanish and I was trying to keep my kids all quiet most of the time.

Although it is warm outside during the day, it gets really cold at night here. In Chile, they only heat the Chapel in the church buildings. The rest of the church is freezing cold, which I didn't know beforehand. My girls were in their Easter dresses and sandals and none of us had coats. I didn't even pack tights and closed shoes for us or sweaters for the boys.

After Sacrament meeting we tried to figure out which class the kids would be in and decided to send the older three all together so they wouldn't be as confused. Now may be a good time to mention that they can't speak or understand Spanish. The Sunday School classes for primary were broken up into three groups: 18 months to 3, 4 to 7, and 8 to 11. Mando went with Becca to Nursery, which was about the size of the cleaning closet at our old ward; Paul, Joseph and Isabelle all went to the 4-7 year old class even though Paul is almost 9; And I hovered in the hall with Sam and peeked in the windows to make sure everyone was okay.

As far as I could tell, they had no lesson. The kids just ran around and screamed. Sharing time was just about the same. I peeked in and saw Paul with his arms draped protectively around Isabelle and Joseph, a horrified look on his face. They did sing some songs and the kids settled down a little so I'm sure at some point they did have sharing time. Isabelle and Becca only made it through the first hour before they were too cold and too scared and joined me in the hall in a small patch of sunlight from the door.

When we got in the car after church I asked the kids how they liked primary. Paul said he thought he learned some new Spanish words. I asked him which words and he replied, "silencio."

But amidst all the freezing and confusion, it was a great experience. I realized that I can carry on a very basic conversation in Spanish and met a few people who speak some English. I also was air kissed on the cheek many, many times by a lot of very nice women. Everyone was very kind and welcoming and I think that with a few additional layers of clothing and a few more Spanish words in our vocabulary, we will all enjoy church here!

The Fortress

Although Chile has very little violent crime, theft is a real problem, especially if you are American. This makes sense to me after seeing how expensive electronics are here. We haven't told our kids about this because we don't want them to be scared, but there have been robberies on the farm, even when people are at home.

So we decided to live in a small house which would be less of a temptation to robbers and would be closer to the office where Mando would be working. I took most of these pictures with my ipad because I only brought my old camera and one lens (I didn't want my new camera and wide angle lens stolen) and it can't take pictures in narrow spaces. So sorry for the crooked lines and grainy pictures.

This house looked very different when Mando looked at it several months ago but the employees did an excellent job remodeling it. When I walked into the house for the first time I felt like I was on vacation at some sort of remote cabin. They also added quite a few security measures including: a VERY loud alarm system that goes off if any window or door is opened once it is activated, a remote control panic button that also activates the alarm if held for 3 seconds (I have one in my room and one on my keys), a security fence around the property complete with 6 strands of hot wire on the top, 4 cameras on the outside of our house that feed to a monitor in a room off the kitchen, and a security guard that has a route around the farm which includes the perimeter of our fence 24 hours a day. It's like living in the White House. I feel more safe here than I felt in Utah. The fact that I have that panic button makes me feel safe because one of the kids could go push it, which I've instructed them to do in case of an intruder. But enough about that, back to our house.

Walking in our front door.

This hall is about 10 feet and then to the left is our kitchen, to the right is the hallway to the bedrooms, and straight ahead is the dining/living room.

Our kitchen looking from the living room.

The front hallway is to the left and the laundry room and extra room are to the right. The extra room was for the nanny or housekeeper, but unfortunately that didn't come with this house. (And yet somehow Mando got a gardener...) Don't let this picture fool you. Everything is similar to what we have at home, but on a much smaller scale. You may notice the drying rack by the sink. That's right, no dishwasher. And the water dispenser because we can't drink the water.

Help! A giant invaded our kitchen!

Okay, I'm a little chubby but not that fat. Joseph took this picture for me so I could show you the actual size of the kitchen. The counters aren't even as tall as my legs. The oven is very tiny and barely fits a 9x13 pan. And I have to light it with a lighter, which is tricky and frankly a little frightening. I still haven't figured out how to use the heat exactly - instead of degrees (which would be in Celsius) there are three settings - I, II, and III.

 Trying to cook bread on our little oven. The bread in the stores is all hard.
 

And here's a picture of our little Eskimo sleeping in the kitchen because he's so stinking cute. It's pretty chilly in the mornings here.

 

Our dining room/living room from the front hallway.

There are sliding glass windows to the left behind the table and the right behind the couches. Yes, those are fabric covered chairs. I'm sure we won't be leaving them in the same condition we found them. The couches are pretty awesome with recliners on either side. And that is a telephone with a Utah number straight ahead. All those wires are for the internet and whatnot. We're pretty high tech.  

 

If you turn right after going in the front hall you go to the bedrooms. First is the girl's room. I didn't take a picture but there is a big built-in wardrobe with sliding doors on the wall opposite of the window.

 

The kid's bathroom. Plug your nose because it likely smells like pee. See those little buttons on the top of the potty? They are how you flush the toilet. I'm not sure which does what so I just push one and hope for the best. Fun Fact: the bathtubs here are deeper and narrower.

The boy's room. It also has a wardrobe, but the sliding doors don't work exposing all sorts of messes. All the bedrooms and the living room have a little heater/AC on the wall so they stay warm on the cold nights.

 

Sam and my room. Mando sleeps there too. The bed and pillows are made of something like memory foam. At first it was weird to sleep on but now I love it. 

My three boys talking about something important like Pokémon. The window in my room has a sort of window seat, but not really a seat so much as a wide sill. The kids love to play in there, especially after someone takes a shower in the morning and there is steam to write in.

Our bathroom. When the doors are all opened the mirror distorts you as you walk down the bedroom hallway and makes you want to never eat Oreos again. So you just close the doors and keep eating them. See that large black box on the counter that looks like a boombox from the 90s? It is a power converter. The plugs are different here, but so is the voltage. This contraption converts both voltage and plug shape so I can flat iron my hair. The things we do for beauty. We have a small walk-in closet as well.
 

Left: The extra room off the laundry room which has an extra freezer, some cupboards for food storage and a monitor that shows what the four security cameras around the outside of our house see.

Right: Our laundry room off the kitchen. It used to be a covered patio. There is lots of room for storage in here too. These 2 rooms are always cold because the heat doesn't reach them.

 

Below: Some shots from outside the house.

 The gate to our security fence. Doesn't it look pretty official? There is a doorbell and intercom on it so if someone comes they can call us. We have a phone that connects to the intercom in our bedroom and in the kitchen.


Awesome play house in our front yard.


Swing set and play house in front yard. I can see these from my front kitchen window. Isn't this much better than going to school all day?

Left: Our owl. We've seen him flying around at night but he sleeps in this tree all day.
Right: BBQ pit and outdoor clay oven. Mando made some chicken thighs in there and they were delicious.

 

Our family car. It's used and has a few quirks but is in fairly decent condition. I feel lucky to have such a nice vehicle after seeing what most people drive around here.

 

That's where we live! Aside from the mini-appliances in the kitchen, it really feels like a vacation home. The kids constantly want to go outside and I love watching all the different birds from the kitchen window. It really is a beautiful place and I think we will enjoy our time here.

ABOUT 9.5 Hours

 

My time sensitive husband wanted us to be at the Salt Lake City airport at least 2 hours early. I agreed that we should be there ABOUT 2 hours early, which in my world means if I am there 1 hour and 45 minutes early that is close enough. As you may have guessed this has caused some minor contention in our marriage. So after getting everything (I left my mini-lunch box full of mini chocolates in my fridge. *sniff*) and everyone in the van and truck (we had some friends drive the truck over since our luggage wouldn't fit in the van) and nursing the baby one final time we were off only 15 minutes later than planned, which we all know by my standards is just fine.


Rather than eat something gross like chicken nuggets on the way there, we decided to have Cafe Rio at the airport after checking in. We made good time driving and although I didn't check the clock, we were there ABOUT 2 hours early I would say. My husband got a cart and we loaded it with luggage, homeschool boxes, and car seats (imagine a Utah version of the Beverly Hillbillies) and carted our stuff over to check it all in. That took forever because it was an international flight and there was much checking of passports and whatnot, but then they informed us we had to pay the taxes for the lap-child on the Atlanta to Chile leg of our flight. No problem. The company will foot the bill. But then we found out that could take up to 30 minutes. Here is where the ABOUTness of my time sensitivity became a problem. So I took my kids over to some benches and played eye-spy forever while my husband sorted it all out. Then we rushed to security where we waited, waited, waited, then hurried and took our shoes, jackets, cell phones and noses (not really) off and walked through the magic gateway to the other side. At this point we realized we would be running to our gate and there was definitely not time for Cafe Rio.





Hungry kids plus frustrated husband usually equals bad flight. But we ate peanuts and watched movies and made it to Atlanta where we road a shuttle to another gate and then enjoyed some Friday's burgers served by a waitress named Chiquita (awesome).

We had a few extra seats and a few extra minutes on the overnight flight to Santiago which made the trip much more comfortable. I was dreading the 9 1/2 hour overnight flight, but it actually wasn't bad. The kids watched movies and slowly dropped off to sleep without so much as a "Joseph hit me!" 



 

Joseph, Paul, and Izzy ready for an all-night plane ride.
Mando making sure he doesn't have a double chin for the picture.

Neither Mando nor I could sleep much. I think we were too wound up from getting five kids through 2 airports in the last few hours. (Do you have any idea how many bathroom breaks that involves?) But I read a book and we watched a few movies and before we knew it we were being served egg-product sandwiches as the sun peaked over the horizon and shot blinding rays through small slits in the plane windows.



Becca doing her sassy walk down the aisle while we wait for take-off.

After we got off the plane in Santiago we went through the line for the travel visa and then the line to check our passports and then waited for our luggage and then went through a line to have our baggage scanned for illegal items (quite the process as you can imagine) and finally came outside to the crisp late-winter Chilean morning. Ahhhhh. We made it.


 Wahoo for Chile! Driving around the farm after sleeping off some jet lag.

Sadly as we were loading our stuff in the truck Mando noticed our box of reading material for the kids was rather light, but everything was so crowded and the kids were exhausted and the guys who came to pick us up were waiting and the baby needed to nurse - you get the picture - so we just left. We added it up and over $300 in books (and a 3DS game I brought for Paul's birthday) was stolen and/or lost. Sadly most of that stuff can't be replaced while we're here but we submitted a claim to the airline and hopefully we'll be reimbursed at least partially. 


We'll know in ABOUT 2-4 weeks.

Goodbye Pumpkin Pie

You know what I love? Pumpkin pie. And candy corn and kids in sweaters and red and orange and yellow leaves swirling down from wind-blown trees to crunch beneath my feet. You may have guessed amidst all those "ands" that my favorite season is fall. And you may have guessed from my blog title that I will be skipping that beloved season this year. That's right, no back-to-school shopping, no Halloween costumes, no Thanksgiving feast, not even Columbus Day for Pete's sake.

How, you may ask, is that possible? Easy, I'm moving to the Southern Hemisphere, or more specifically that long, skinny country in South America called Chile. You may remember from Physical Science 101 that seasons are caused by the tilt of the earth. Closer to the sun = summer; further away = winter. Hence the seasons are opposite for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Astounding. So as we arrive at our destination on September 19th, members of our old homestead will be draining their swimming pools, shutting their shaved ice shacks and marking all their neon plastic tableware to 50% off at Walmart while our new residence will be doing what Chileans do to get ready for Spring. Whatever it is, I hope it tastes good.

My husband and I are embarking on this adventure with our 5 children ages 8, 7, 5, 3, and 2 months. We will be living on an Olive Farm owned by a company called Farmland Reserves, which is owned by the LDS church. The assignment will last for 3-4 months, meaning we will probably be back by Christmas and unfortunately I don't get to skip winter. Rats.

So as I walk down the rows of Costco and look forlornly at the jumbo bags of Halloween candy and the way too big red and gold faux-leaf wreaths I remind myself that Spring is pretty awesome too. Besides, I have always wondered if Santa wears bermuda shorts to deliver toys in South America, and perhaps I will finally get to find out.