One of the things we have to adapt to everytime we change countries are the prices.
This time when we returned here to Patagonia we have noticed several big differences.
Gasoline was down from when we left. It's now only $3.90 (US) a gallon. Much better then the $5.00 when we left.
Motor oil is another story though, at the gas station it's around $10 a quart. Ouch.
I'm so glad we got several cases to put in our container when they were on sale!
Lean hamburger is around $6 a kilo ($3 a pound) and milk a dollar a quart. We can only get UHT milk in 1 qt boxes. UHT means Ultra High Temperature where they take regular milk zap it with 4oo degrees for a few seconds then box it up. It does change the taste some but we get used to it. The good news is we can keep a box unrefrigerated for a couple months. Once opened it's like regular milk and you put it in the fridge.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Masias
Masías is one of those special people that seem to be in a lot of towns. He’s very slightly challenged, no teeth, he thinks he’s a little over 70 years old, lives on a small pension, hard worker, heart of gold. He’s almost impossible for me to understand. To be honest I get only about half of what he says and try to piece together what he’s saying from those clues.
He always wears the same clothes and always wears an old wool suit jacket. I gave him a parka once, never seen him wear it. He walks everywhere and Never looks around. You’ll see him walking (he walks rather fast), slightly bent over, and watching the ground about 6 feet in front of him. You can honk or wave all you want but you’ll be wasting your time.
He’s very faithful to church and always gives in special offerings. We all know he doesn’t have much but that doesn’t matter to Masías. He loves to give.
One other thing Masías loves to do is share a testimony in church. You can just about count on him getting up and sharing. Sunday was no exception. Usually when Masías gets up most folks get a small smile. Folks here seem pretty tolerant of folks like Masías. Pastor even smiled and quietly said to me at least you’ll know what he’s saying since he always shares the same thing. Then to everyone’s surprise he started giving thanks to the Lord for bringing Rhonda and I back. He said we’d been gone too long and how happy he was that we’d returned.
A few years ago he started coming by the house looking for some odd jobs. He needed a little extra to get to the end of the month so we started finding some stuff for him to do. What he likes and does the most is split fire wood. Monday he showed up again and went right to the wood shed. He chopped quite a pile before he was finished and left happy promising to return in a few days.
He always wears the same clothes and always wears an old wool suit jacket. I gave him a parka once, never seen him wear it. He walks everywhere and Never looks around. You’ll see him walking (he walks rather fast), slightly bent over, and watching the ground about 6 feet in front of him. You can honk or wave all you want but you’ll be wasting your time.
He’s very faithful to church and always gives in special offerings. We all know he doesn’t have much but that doesn’t matter to Masías. He loves to give.
One other thing Masías loves to do is share a testimony in church. You can just about count on him getting up and sharing. Sunday was no exception. Usually when Masías gets up most folks get a small smile. Folks here seem pretty tolerant of folks like Masías. Pastor even smiled and quietly said to me at least you’ll know what he’s saying since he always shares the same thing. Then to everyone’s surprise he started giving thanks to the Lord for bringing Rhonda and I back. He said we’d been gone too long and how happy he was that we’d returned.
A few years ago he started coming by the house looking for some odd jobs. He needed a little extra to get to the end of the month so we started finding some stuff for him to do. What he likes and does the most is split fire wood. Monday he showed up again and went right to the wood shed. He chopped quite a pile before he was finished and left happy promising to return in a few days.
International bread
Most of our supplies here come by ship. A lot of our food as well.
Rhonda made a loaf of bread the other day and we got to looking at where the ingredients came from:
Salt: Chile
Flour: Argentina
Butter: Ireland
Yeast: China
I guess that makes it a loaf of international bread.
Rhonda made a loaf of bread the other day and we got to looking at where the ingredients came from:
Salt: Chile
Flour: Argentina
Butter: Ireland
Yeast: China
I guess that makes it a loaf of international bread.
Monday, June 15, 2009
May 30
Since we have no food in the house we head to the supermarket. Looks like our town of 12,000 is now down to one and a half supermarkets. We used to have 3 decent ones, one closed and one is on it's last legs.
As we walk in one of the security guards exclaims and hugs me. It's Carlos and he brings us up to date on whats been happening in his life. As we're talking Masias walks by. He doesn't wave. But then Masias never waves, more about him later.
We're looking at something when I feel someones arms around my waist. I look down and see Ricardo hugging me. He and his wife bring us up to date. We see and greet a few more people all who act very glad to see us and we realise that we are really home.
As we walk in one of the security guards exclaims and hugs me. It's Carlos and he brings us up to date on whats been happening in his life. As we're talking Masias walks by. He doesn't wave. But then Masias never waves, more about him later.
We're looking at something when I feel someones arms around my waist. I look down and see Ricardo hugging me. He and his wife bring us up to date. We see and greet a few more people all who act very glad to see us and we realise that we are really home.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
May 29
We head to the airport and find that Balmaceda is open.
It's -4 (centigrade) when we arrive. Apparently it was a freezing fog yesterday. Everything is coated with a thick layer of frost.
We wait an hour for our bags to be unloaded. I have no idea why, there is only one plane (ours) and it's not more than 50 yards from us to the plane.
All the transfer vans are full. Everyone had reservations so looks like we'll be stuck till the next flight comes in (in the afternoon) and see if anyone has 2 openings then.
A van driver finally comes up to me and says he had 2 no-shows. We load our 9 pieces of luggage and pile in for the 2.5 hour ride home.
We finally arrive at our house around 4pm. Almost exactly 48 hours since we left Springfield, MO.
The gate is open so we head on back to the house. We note that there had been wind damage as a lot of our trees have broken limbs. House is in fine shape inside and the van driver even helps me bring the trunks inside.
Someone has been in our house.
On the kitchen table is a bottle of coke, sugar cubes, tea, and potato chips along with a note welcoming us home!
We scarf the chips and coke.
I turn the water back on then run around trying to find all the faucets I left open.
I manage to finally get all the padlocks open, I only had to cut 2 of them off with a grinder. And connect the propane back up.
I connect the battery to the car, air up one of the tires, take if off the blocks. It fires right up! It does, however, smell horrible inside. There has, in the past, been water inside. Rain from our feet, snow, once even a river flowed through it. No kidding. I guess being closed up for 14 months allowed all kinds of goodies to grow.
It's good to be home
It's -4 (centigrade) when we arrive. Apparently it was a freezing fog yesterday. Everything is coated with a thick layer of frost.
We wait an hour for our bags to be unloaded. I have no idea why, there is only one plane (ours) and it's not more than 50 yards from us to the plane.
All the transfer vans are full. Everyone had reservations so looks like we'll be stuck till the next flight comes in (in the afternoon) and see if anyone has 2 openings then.
A van driver finally comes up to me and says he had 2 no-shows. We load our 9 pieces of luggage and pile in for the 2.5 hour ride home.
We finally arrive at our house around 4pm. Almost exactly 48 hours since we left Springfield, MO.
The gate is open so we head on back to the house. We note that there had been wind damage as a lot of our trees have broken limbs. House is in fine shape inside and the van driver even helps me bring the trunks inside.
Someone has been in our house.
On the kitchen table is a bottle of coke, sugar cubes, tea, and potato chips along with a note welcoming us home!
We scarf the chips and coke.
I turn the water back on then run around trying to find all the faucets I left open.
I manage to finally get all the padlocks open, I only had to cut 2 of them off with a grinder. And connect the propane back up.
I connect the battery to the car, air up one of the tires, take if off the blocks. It fires right up! It does, however, smell horrible inside. There has, in the past, been water inside. Rain from our feet, snow, once even a river flowed through it. No kidding. I guess being closed up for 14 months allowed all kinds of goodies to grow.
It's good to be home
May 28
We were able to lay down a little on the flight. The planes usually aren't too full on Wednesdays so we each grabbed an empty row and were able to curl up and sleep a little.
Arrived in Santiago 7am local (Atlantic time), customs was no problem we declared a stick of Pepperoni which caused some interest but they let it come in.
We waited till 1:00 for our flight and they informed us the flight would probably be cancelled due to fog in Balmaceda. They advised everyone to go home as the airline didn't provide any help for weather caused delays or cancellations. They finally gave folks an option of going as far as Puerto Montt and see if the weather had cleared in Balmaceda. We elect to go on as we have no where to stay in Santiago anyway.
In Puerto Montt we wait around a while and finally they tell us the flight is cancelled.
However they do surprise those of us who tried to make it with the information that they will put us up for the night.
We all load on a nice bus and head for town. We end up at the new Holiday Inn which is attached to the mall. It overlooks the bay and our room has an incredible view. How nice!
We ate in the mall and crashed.
Arrived in Santiago 7am local (Atlantic time), customs was no problem we declared a stick of Pepperoni which caused some interest but they let it come in.
We waited till 1:00 for our flight and they informed us the flight would probably be cancelled due to fog in Balmaceda. They advised everyone to go home as the airline didn't provide any help for weather caused delays or cancellations. They finally gave folks an option of going as far as Puerto Montt and see if the weather had cleared in Balmaceda. We elect to go on as we have no where to stay in Santiago anyway.
In Puerto Montt we wait around a while and finally they tell us the flight is cancelled.
However they do surprise those of us who tried to make it with the information that they will put us up for the night.
We all load on a nice bus and head for town. We end up at the new Holiday Inn which is attached to the mall. It overlooks the bay and our room has an incredible view. How nice!
We ate in the mall and crashed.
May 27
Wow, what a month!
April 22: Through our Kansas family we received a miracle in our finances. In a few minutes we went from needing another year at least to raise our budget to having it all raised!
We were and still are overwhelmed by this. It also meant quite a shift in gears.
So in a few days we went from scheduling services and itineration mode to get all the stuff we can think of for the next 4 years mode.
The next month was spent in a frenzy of planning, shopping, and packing.
The MasterCard people really like us.
May 21 the container arrived and we started loading it. They picked it up on the 26th and today we head to the airport.
Our flight to Chile leaves at 5:30 pm.
April 22: Through our Kansas family we received a miracle in our finances. In a few minutes we went from needing another year at least to raise our budget to having it all raised!
We were and still are overwhelmed by this. It also meant quite a shift in gears.
So in a few days we went from scheduling services and itineration mode to get all the stuff we can think of for the next 4 years mode.
The next month was spent in a frenzy of planning, shopping, and packing.
The MasterCard people really like us.
May 21 the container arrived and we started loading it. They picked it up on the 26th and today we head to the airport.
Our flight to Chile leaves at 5:30 pm.
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