We are on a 6 week calendar. Every 6 weeks we have missionaries going home, new ones coming in, and cambios or changes with missionaries being moved to different locations to serve. Each cambio or change we have to inspect all of the zone leaders pensiones and the Hermana trainers pensiones. They then inspect the district leaders pensiones and the district leaders inspect the ones in their districts. We have no idea why, but this cambio is only a 5 week period so everyone is really hustling to get everything done that needs done with a week less to do it in. We have spent this week visiting at least 3 pensiones a day. We usually end up doing some service work as we inspect the apartments such as changing out shower heads, repairing toilet paper holders, toilet seats, light fixtures, tables, and hauling stuff back to the bodega. We will have all of our inspections completed by Friday afternoon. When we arrived here, we usually got 8-10 inspection reports each 6 weeks. We are trying to make the missionaries accountable for their living conditions. The last 6 weeks we received 72 reports, only lacking 8!! We do have a few that didn't have a very good report but hopefully that will be cleaned up this change.
Wednesday the 18th was Independence Day here. Schools have been closed all week. We served in the temple on Tuesday but the temple is now closed till Saturday. It has been great to drive this week as the traffic has been very light with people on vacation and out of town. Whenever you drive in this city, at major intersections, you get entertained.
After they get done playing or juggling, or dancing, or whatever, they walk between the cars to accept a donation.
Acrobats
All sorts of jugglars
hula hoops
And even a tight rope walker and juggler at the same time
You can get your car windows washed for $100 pesos, about $.14
They just walk through the traffic holding up the bottle of water
or soapy solution and it is sprayed on the windshield
And they squiggy it clean. The fast ones can do at least two and sometimes three during a red light
You can also buy almost anything you could need from the street venders that pass through the traffic when the light is red.
He is selling succors.
You can buy bread, rolls, candy, band aids, water, pop, veggies, fruits, etc.
It is OK to sell anything anywhere you want to set up a store.
Kites on a fence
With it being Independence Day, flags were up all over town for sale
One of the booths at the cemetery for stuff to buy to decorate graves
flags and flag poles on a street corner for sale
flags and flag poles in the middle of the street
more kites
hung up on any fence through town
We saw people in any open area with an awning set up and kites flying, picnicing
selling bags of charcoal for cooking carne asada
All of the big grocery store chains were closed but you could get what you need off the street
We did not hear any fire crackers or see any fireworks!
It is early and this "store" is going down the street to find just the right street corner to set up business
Notice the electric bill board. They can be a bit distracting as you are driving through the intersection
lilacs are in bloom
Saturday we decided to go back to the palace and watch the changing of the guard. This happens every other day all year long. We drove over to Los Domingos, parked the car and got onto the metro (train) to head to the palace. The Red line begins here so we were the first ones on and with it being the holiday still, we were not crowded.
As we got closer to the palace it got more crowded but it is wonderful to travel when everyone is out of town. When Chile celebrates their independence, they really have a holiday. Even the malls and banks and restaurants have been closed for three days. Today we saw more businesses opening and by Monday it will be life as usual again.
Today is September the 21st, the first day of spring here and it is a beautiful sunny day.
This was to begin at 11am but at ten till the first group marched out of the palace gate.
These are the old guard who will be replaced, even the two standing at the doors
They presented a few maneuvers and then the horses and the new guard and band enter
This has been going on with much pomp and circumstance since the 1850's
The band was very good and were directly in front of us
They played several songs during the 30 minute ceremony
I tried to zoom in on his music score but couldn't get close enough to read it. Don't know how they read the notes as they marched around, it was so small!
well trained horses
It was a very impressive ceremony
Marching the new guard into the gates of the palace
After all the ceremony, they marched out of the plaza
And the horses were the last to leave.
After this, we got back on the metro and road the red line, mostly underground, to where it connected to the yellow line. This line was underground sometimes but would go above ground also. It was fun to start to feel the incline and then pop up in a different part of the city. We were able to recognize where we were and could recognize several of our pensiones as well. Then we would head back down into the underground tunnel.
The track
We were even entertained during our ride with dancing
Each train has about 20 cars
We are on level -2 here. There are some places where you are 4 stories below the city. As long as you don't leave the terminal, you can ride all day for just one ticket, about one dollar. There are a variety of stores inside the terminal also. It is a whole city underground.We are thrilled to be here serving our Heavenly Father in this part of His vinyard. We testify that we are being watched over by Guardian Angels as we travel and serve in this huge city. We send our love to all. Till next week, chao!
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