RANDOM FACTS

Google Chile has found us and it now appears in Spanish. If you are looking for amusement you can pick Croatian and see what it does to your computer.

There is no brown sugar in Chile. There is raw sugar, but we know that is not the same.

I have run out of Evening in Missoula tea and this is hard for me.

Henry has put a few sentences together. Richard's comprehension is amazing. He was able to figure out that we were going the wrong way on Avenida de Caupolican from the helpful man who gave us way too many directions last night when we were lost trying to find Oreos.

The Mecca for gringo food is at the Jumbo supermercado which is an hour and a half away.

We found the Oreos and the whole world probably heard Henry's whoopeee last night when he found the root beer. Having no root beer has been hard for him. Now he has to hoard.

All three of us volunteered at the girls' orphanage today. Richard checked out their computers. (That they have computers does not imply that they have much else. It is the minimal.) He has a few ideas about some old programs that will run on them. My Spanish teacher was recruited as a translator. We played hopscotch and then walked to al centro to buy a jump rope at the hardware store. I am the Friday afternoon English teacher. They are not accustomed to having any volunteers. There is no program. We are inventing a way to be helpful.

Not one bug bit me in Nepal. They do not have the same respect for me here.

The food here has its own regional adaptation.  There are sushi rolls wrapped in avocado. Who would have thought you could roll slices of avocado. They were delicious. They do have nori but it used less. The pizza is delicious too. The owner of the pizza place grew up in the US.

Richard had a very deep splinter in his foot and it finally came out this morning after my having to perform minor surgery. I'm still watching it for infection.

Our truck is diesel. We did not know this until we had it for a week. You do not pump your own gas here.

The ratio of girls to boys born in Chile this year is 10 to 1 according to Richard's Spanish teacher.

The president of Chile is Michelle Bachelet. Her father was tortured and died in custody under President Salvadore Allende. She and her mother were exiled to Australia. She returned to Chile in 1979. She is 57 years old.

The population in 2008 was 16 million. Smaller than Canada, eh?