The playground equipment was supposed to arrive last night and we were going to come up and install it during the night. That did not happen. We had planned to do an inauguration of the new playground area today, so even though we had not completed everything we decided to go ahead with the ceremony. The students at the school did a little presentation for us. They danced an authentic Rapa Nui dance from Easter Island. They did a great job and I took a lot of pictures. All the parents came up to me and asked if I could email them pictures of their kids after I got home. We also gave each family a Spanish/English dictionary and a few other small gifts to each student to remember the occasion by.

We had arranged with the Rotary Club of Sugar House to do a direct feed back to them through SKYPE. We strung cables all over in order to get our live feed up and going. Good thing we had a couple of engineers onboard with us to navigate everything. It was fun to do a direct live feed back to the Sugar House Rotary club, they could see us and what we had accomplished and we could see and talk to them. What an incredible thing technology is.

The rest of the afternoon was free time. A few of us decided to walk around Vina Del Mar. Of course we couldn’t resist the temptation and had to have another Completo. Later that evening the Rotary Club of Vina Del Mar hosted us for dinner. It was fun to spend some time with them and we are already planning our next service project.

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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.

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Today we finally arrived in Vina Del Mar. Of course there is something about this city that just draws me back every time I am in Chile. I love the drive from Santiago out to Vina Del Mar. Through the wine region of Casa Blanca makes me feel like I am back in Italy. As we approached Vina Del Mar, the coastal fog was hovering over the area. It was still early in the morning and the fog hadn’t burned off for the day yet. The fog made it for a mystical descent over the last hill as we dropped down into Valparaiso and then turned off to the right towards Vina Del Mar. I felt some anticipation as we drove through the streets and I saw everyone hurrying to get to work this morning. I love seeing the micros full of people. I love seeing all the kids in their school uniforms and the streets filled with people gathering bread for the morning breakfast.

We found our little hotel, The Hotel Monterilla. We normally stay the Casino Vina Del Mar, but Rick says I am on a fixed budget these days so we opted for a hotel across the street. The Hotel Monterilla reminds me a small boutique hotel like some of the ones that we stay at in Italy. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it was comfortable and the people that worked there were very nice. After a quick rest we were off to work.

We arrived up at La Escuela Especial de Rapa Nui. We toured the small school, it gave a chance to those that had not been there before the opportunity to see how the school functions, meet the school professors and see the children that we would be helping out. The kids get so excited to have visitors. It is fun to see their excitement. They want to show us everything that they are working on and the latest art projects they have done. We got to see the bakery that we had built the last time we were hear. The kids were in there working on baking a pastry called Brasa de Reina. It was good to see the kids using the bakery. They were excited to show us the different things they had learned to do in the new bakery.

We knew we wouldn’t be able to complete everything in our project by ourselves during this trip, so we hired some local handymen to come and help out. We were very pleased to see that they had actually started before we arrived and had already installed support beams for the roof structure. While those guys worked on installing the plastic corrugated roof, we started our designer painting of the roof structures supports and beams. If you ever make it to Chile, you will see that Chileans love color. Houses are painted blue, yellow, red, green and very vibrant colors at that. I think it helps make a difference in a world where everything is either brown dirt or green shrubs. The splash of color on the houses makes for a beautiful patchwork of modern art. Our painting skills might not be the most professional, but everything looks good. 

After painting, we had free time to wander around Vina Del Mar. Everyone was pretty tired so we opted for an early dinner. That of course is a relative term. Here in Chile, restaurants don’t open until around 8:00 in the evening. After dinner everyone went back to the hotel to catch up on their sleep after flying the night before. Of course, Fred and I decided we need to explore some more. We ended up at a little bar down the street from our hotel called Kamikaze. The median age in the bar was probably 19 but it was fun to try all the different Pisco drinks they had on the menu. After flirting with the cute Chilean girls and drinking our fair share of Pisco…Fred and I finally decided we better call it a night. Tomorrow there is more work to be done on our playground project.

Yesterday I headed back down to Vina Del Mar, Chile. 12 years ago, I served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in this exact area. I loved my mission and I am very glad that I had the chance to do it. I would gladly serve my mission again, even if I knew I would end up where I am today in my life. I may be a little “Cuajito” as my friends from my mission now call me, but at least they still let me come back to visit. I have been back to visit my old mission areas five times now. On my first time back, I brought my parents and Rick back down here with me to show them around one of the most incredible areas in South America. During that trip, Rick decided to attend a Rotary meeting at the local Vina Del Mar Rotary Club. Those Rotarians are always wanting to hang out and do good things together, so we figured out that we would come together and do some service projects with a local special needs school on the outskirts of Vina Del Mar.

The School that the Sugar House Rotary Club and the Vina Del Mar Rotary Club partnered up on is called La Escuela Especial de Rapa Nui. It is a school that helps kids with special needs such as Autism and Down Syndrome. Most families in Chile do not have government support to help them with Autistic and Down Syndrome children. Many children, with these types of needs, are placed into the care of government agencies or these children are isolated to their houses. La Escuela Especial de Rapa Nui was formed to help the parents teach their special need children how to function and be a part of a working society. The school now teaches them the basics of an education along with skills to help them socially survive. Some of those skills include how to interact with neighbors. The Rotary Club created a replica of a typical Chilean house and this enables the children to learn how to make their beds, clean the floors, use a stove, wash dishes and the other skills they need to become more independent at their own homes.

The first big project that The Sugar House Rotary Club helped on was to build a working bakery at the school. Three years ago we came down and built the new bakery. Many of the families of the children that attend this school were having financial difficulties. By building a working bakery onsite at the school, we were able to teach the children a trade that now helps them contribute to their families financial situation. Breads and pastries are baked everyday at the bakery and sold to the neighboring public. Chileans eat fresh bread and pastries for every meal. It was a great project that not only helps the families of these children but also helped the children gain a new found confidence.

This year we are building an enclosed playground for the children. We are also bringing down school supplies, donated by Red Apple School Supply and Leez Osterstock. We are also providing each family with a new Spanish/English Dictionary. I will post pictures and maybe some videos from our adventures building the playground area and interacting with the children at the school. Of course there will be a lot of fun along the way so I am sure to capture some of that.

On our flight down from Chile, we sat across the isle from Angel Cabrera. Mr. Cabrera had just won the 2009 Masters Champion on Sunday and was returning to Cordoba, Argentina. It was fun to sit and talk to him about his recent big win. He was actually very humble about it. He talked about his crazy shot hitting the tree and bouncing off and him not able to see where the ball went. He signed my copy of the USA Today with a full page picture of him on the front page of the Sports section and yes he had his “Green Jacket”. However he kept it in a bag that was embroidered with “2009 Masters Champion”. I asked him if I could try it on and he wouldn’t let me.

I love days where I feel like I can conquer the world. I was up at 5:00 this morning…off to the gym… back home… had breakfast… fed the girls and even had a few minutes to rough house with them in the living room before heading to work. My morning has been very productive. Piles of work are disappearing off my desk, emails are being cleaned out of my inbox. I even had time to watch The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Hulu. What a great way to catch up on the shows that I just don’t have time to see, my guilty pleasure as of late.

I am excited to take off and head to Santa Barbara for the weekend. Beach, sand, waves, warmth…I am looking forward to wearing shorts all weekend. Driving up to Santa Margarita and picking up my brother Zack’s new puppy from Kenya Labradors. It will be fun to spend the weekend with my "little" brother.

All morning long, I have had my iPod playing in my office. A great song came on that made me stop and sit back and think about life. It is called, "End of the World" by Matt Alber. Matt’s sound is touchingly personal and sentimental, dreamy love songs that speak from the heart. His songs are bound to bring floods of memories and desires within your grasp. Sit back and listen to his song "End of the World" and enjoy the roller coaster ride.