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!