Last night we took the girls out for Korean food. Sounds pretty basic, but our friend and teammate Esther was our hostess and her cooking skills are anything but basic! When we came to Chile, I figured that we would be limited in our ability to expose our children to friends, food, and customs of different cultures, since Chile is pretty homogenous. But we have a great mix of friends. Besides the other white, mid-western gringos we work with, we have Korean-American, Mexican, South African, Australian, Canadian, German, and of course, Chilean friends. It’s such a great experience for all of us. Thanks, God, for being so creative, and thanks, Esther, for the excellent food!

As I opened the gate for Mark to back out of our driveway onto the street, I was stopped by the street sweeper. No, not a machine that drives around washing the street. A man, who is actually one of a team of four who work every day in our neighborhood sweeping the leaves off of the sides of the streets. I wonder how much a street sweeper gets paid...

Today he wanted to remind me that it is Fiestas Patrias, Chile's national holidays. Somehow this means that everyone expects a bonus. Even the street sweepers. I don't usually have to pay them, I suppose the city does. But so far the mailman, the trash collectors, and the gas pumper want their bonuses, too.

I guess it's a good thing that Chilean employers give bonuses for Sept. 18th - you spend them giving everyone else theirs!

Today I was not surprised to see many piles of smoldering debris in the middle of the roads as I took the back way to Rachel's preschool to drop her off. Yesterday, in addition to being the five-year anniversary of what we Americans call 9-11, was a much more serious anniversary in Chile - that of the military coup. "Dissidents" celebrate or protest, I'm not really clear which, by burning things in the middle of the street, throwing rocks at carabineros (local police), and getting sprayed with tear gas in return. The strangest part is that we spent our evening of the 11th with a house full of gringo guests watching Monday night Football. What a crazy life this is!