Yumbel

Still a little over a week behind in posts, but nothing much has happened this week, so I should be getting caught up.

The weekend after all the trips in the last post, I went with Eduardo, Paola, and Eduardo's parents to Yumbel, which is a very small town about an hour outside of Concepción. Diane and I met Eduardo's parents the night before when we ate at a Peruvian restaurant called Fina Estampa. I love that place. Ají de gallina is amazing (chicken in some kind of tasty yellow sauce).

Eduardo´s Uncle Mario lives on a farm in Yumbel. We met him in the plaza, and then we went to the fall festival. There were stands in which people sold artesan foods, jellies, wines, beer, leather goods, woven goods, ceramics, woodwork...you get the idea. I bought some homemade manjar, which is kind of a mix between dulce de leche and caramel. Very tasty. I also bought some random other things, including a bottle of wine and, from another vendor, a little outfit for a wine bottle that is a Chilean poncho and a little cowboy hat! It is at once cheesey and cute. There were some wines from the vinyards started by the Jesuits ages ago, and they sold wine bottle covers that look like Jesuit robes (a white or black robe with a rope tie and a hood). To my gringo eyes, they looked like mini-Grim Reapers and Klansmen. I did not buy one of those.

At the festival was also a huge tent in which restaurants from the town set up kitchens around the sides and served food. Unfortunately, we went into town to eat lunch. It was still good, and we got to eat sopaipillas and empanadas under the tent later.

We also visited Tío Mario´s house in the country after lunch. When we arrived, we were greeted by a litter of black and yellow lab puppies! My heart melted. I held a yellow one for a while. The black ones were a little skiddish, and they didn't let me get close enough to touch them. I so wanted to take one home with me.

We went back to the festival for a while that evening and then returned to Concepción. Once again, I felt like I was getting to see a totally different side of Chile than that of Concepción. I got to see the Decatur County of Chile, I guess!

The next weekend (which was this past weekend), Eduardo´s cousin and the cousin´s girlfriend came to visit from Chillán. Saturday night we went to a karaoke bar, and since we were practically the only ones there for about an hour, our group got a lot of time at the mike. We still sang a lot of songs when the place was full. Their selection of songs in English was not the greatest, but I found enough to sing. I knew some of the Shakira songs in Spanish, but I didn't try those....

This week has been a little slow. Last night I went (along with my gender class) to a ceremony paying homage to the professor who created the first women's studies program in Chile, which was at the Universidad de Concepción, in 1982. The speakers were a bit long-winded, but it was interesting to see so many people in one room that valued the fact that this woman managed to start a women's studies program in a sexist country that was under a military dictatorship.

Tomorrow, I am having dinner with Diane and her parents, who are visiting right now. Saturday and Sunday we will be at the Rotary district conference in Los Angeles (Chile, not California). There is a panel about the Mapuche that looks interesting, but the rest of it looks a little boring. Diane and I are each going to do a five-minute speech on Sunday. Alas, we have still not been able to meet with the president of our club (or rather, she has not been able to meet with us due to illness) to get the projects with the rural school off the ground. I did apply for a program with the Chilean government, though, in which native English-speakers who are studying in Chile serve as teaching assistants for teachers in schools in low-income areas in or near the city and help the kids with learning English. I want to do that and work with the school Rotary sponsors, so I am not signing up for a lot of hours with the government program. Still, it sounds like fun, and maybe it will help me feel like I am actually doing something finally!