Take a peek at the Feria

This is what we see as we enter the street of the Feria

These two trucks come from the coast with fresh fish ready to be cut to order or you can choose those already cut.  It smells so bad we just hurry by.  Notice Warren and Duane Macdonald don't even want to come near for a picture.

Each truck has two butchers. It looks like such hard, messy stinky work  that I feel sorry for them.

Here is the close up... Many different kinds, many I haven't shown.  The Chileans like it and line up to buy it.

We just haven't got past the smell. So we have never bought the fish.

Wheew!  The oranges look so good but None of them are sweet.  They  send the sweet ones state side I guess.

This is one of the favorite spots... we buy nuts, raisens, popcorn,prunes, and honey here.

The shelves are always stacked so pretty it is like art work.  I don't know how early they have to arrive to set up by 9:30 or so.

The shops go on for a block and a half.

This is the garden supply section.

Here is the prepackaged food... for making salads or soups. They have spices bagged in small bags. up like this also

This is the squash that they use in so many of their meals.  You just buy the size of piece you need.
We have enjoyed it in a lentil soup ,scones, cookies and many other dishes.I used it as pumpkin to make a pie with. Has such a mild flavor that it tastes like the spices you put in.

One young elder told us this is the land of Beautiful Sky!!!

Th

These are all taken right out side our windows in old apartment. I wish the pictures were as good as the real view.

Here we are hard at work!!!

This is when we work on the mailing. That stack of white papers is only some of what I fold and put into envelopes. Notice that Elder Johnson has in his earplugs.

This is the work for a Sister missionary.I have Lots of time for thinking as I shred. It took uncounted hours. Sometimes I stood and most of the time I sat.

Our missionary

This is Jose, the manager of the call center, Cristian,leaving for his mission, and Ricardo the director of PEF

This is Cristian who we were able to help get on his mission. They call him Bombero Chico Bueno. Because he was a firefighter, and here in Chile they are all called that as they are volunteers. It means a young good fireman.

There were lots of cracks int he walls at the office. They finally got to them and drilled out the cracks so they looked like this Then they filled them with plaster. All was find until they painted and varnished some doors. It was winter and windows were shut and the fumes came up to the forth floor. It gave us headaches and we went home early a couple of days.

¡FUERZA CHILE!

After the 8.8 earthquake ravaged South-Central Chile, the Chilean people rose from the shock and destruction to unite in helping each other. This picture has become the national symbol of Chile and the people are rallying around each other to make Chile rise from the devastation to recover from this terrible tragedy. They now chant ¡Fuerza Chile! and ¡Viva Chile! The latest slogan is Chile Ayuda Chile. This nation and it´s people have united in a miraculous and marvelous way, and they will overcome this adversity.

Earthquake in the Night

After being "shaken" awake Warren found the emergency light that we bought when we got to Chile. We finally found something we bought that we actually needed.

A quick inspection of the apartment found only minor damage, but nothing serious.

Broken vases and fallen pictures. The water in the toilets sloshed out onto the floor, but we didn't notice at the moment as we were headed down the stairs and outside.

Just like in 3 Nephi, everyone gathered at the temple after the "destruction". We found that the only light was shining on the Angel Moroni, but the rest was pretty dark. There was a full moon, however, so we could find our way around even without the emergency light.

The next morning we discovered that the Angel Moroni had "dropped" his trumpet. It was in three pieces on the ground. Amazingly, the temple just happens to have a spare one for just such occasions.

Our Office

On Friday night we left our office looking like this. When we came back Monday...

The PEF Call Center had become the Emergency Support Center for all of Chile. When we went to our office...

...we found this - almost 300 files all over the place.

We had joked about an earthquake burying Mickie under piles of folders. Fortunately for her it was in the early morning hours on a Saturday.

After a couple of days of cleaning up she began shreding all of the files contents as she spent the first few months scanning them for just such an event.

Merry Christmas---Feliz Navidad!

Here is our tiny Table top tree. We are enjoying a warm but Merry Christmas. Hope you do too. It is the time to stay inside and enjoy each other. Love to all from Chile.

Nativities

This tiny silver nativity is in a container about the size of a ring box.


This is a woven set... looks like some type of basket weaving. It is made out of horse hairs!


We saw so many different kinds of Nativities but I only picked a few unsual ones from Chile.


This is the cute little Nativity that we got. It looks like the the little clay figures spoken of under the Chilean Christmas tree.

Christmas trees in our building

Every floor had a beuatiful tree. Some floors had two trees in the different areas.





Even the basement had a tree. But no tree on the Forth floor. We waited and waited but no tree arrived.


December 15 after waiting a couple of weeks. I took care of it by myself!!!