It was an early morning…especially after I was up until 2:30 exploring the city with Fred. This morning we were back at the school working on touch up painting of the roof structure. The floor is in and the roof is now complete. We are only missing the playground equipment. It was supposed to be here today, but as they say in Chile…”It will get done when it gets done”. Everything is very laid back in Chile. That doesn’t always work well with me. It is probably something I should do better at, but lets be honest, I am not good at letting things just happen. I want everything planned out in detail and want it to be executed in such manner. Well it isn’t going to happen like that today.

After finishing up everything we could do without the playground equipment we decided to hang out and play with the kids during their recess break. They wanted us to take pictures of them and then they loved looking at the digital image on the camera. Simple things in life are some times the best. We then went to the Naval Club of Chile for lunch. Ricardo, the president of the Vina Del Mar Rotary club, is a naval officer and so he pulled some strings and got us all on base to have lunch.

After lunch I took everyone on a tour of the surrounding areas. We toured through Con Con and Renaca, the tourist areas of Vina with the nice beaches. We then went over to Valparaiso to check out the old port city. I love the windy roads and houses built along the sides of the hill leading directly down to the port area. It is a unique city with its unique problems. I didn’t care walking the hills while I was a missionary, but think it is a pretty cool place to explore now that I am able to drive a car around the area.

After returning back to Vina, I had to run over to one of the best places to eat a completo in Chile. It is a little hole-in-the wall restaurant. A completo is a hot dog and traditionally eaten with a layer of diced tomatoes, then a thick layer of mashed avacodo and then a generous layer of mayo. It is a big bite. I don’t like hot dogs, but will always grab a completo when I can get a traditional Chilean Completo.

After dinner some of the group took off to go to a local bar and see an incredible guitarist. I ended up running up to visit with Johann and Doris Ficher. I lived with Johann and his family in a small mining city called Cabildo. Johann and his wife Doris recently moved down to Vina to attend school and work. It was great to see them. They cooked me “once”…a late dinner and we played UNO. After that I ended up back in Vina and regrouped up with the rest of the Rotarians and we continued on to another bar to watch some Karaoke. Another eventful day.

If you want to see more pictures from today…

CLICK ON THIS PICTURE