Los primeros días en Chile - people

I have been so blessed by the people around me. Warm and relaxed, Hans picked me up from the airport and took me to the Aussie missionaries' house (Michelle and David and their kids) where all the SIM folks who live in Santiago were waiting to greet me. We had a long lunch and they made me feel most welcome. Hans' wife, Carmen, is the SIM Chile Director and on Tuesday she showed me how to use the Metro, took me to the language school and round the city and helped me get a sim card for my phone. Like her husband she is warm and relaxed and I enjoyed chatting companionably (in English!) with her and finding out the things I needed to know, as well as learning a bit about Chilean culture.

I'm staying with a beautiful Christian family - Felipe, Emy, and their two little boys. Felipe's mum lives over the back fence and Emy's best friend lives in the next street, and, since I've been staying here, their abuela and cousin have been up visiting from the south. Emy tells me that there are always people coming and going at their place. Again, they are warm, welcoming, cheerful and relaxed. They chat interestedly with me, speaking nice and slow and repeating things in a different way if I fail to understand. But they also let me do my own thing whenever I want. It's the sort of home - and the sort of culture - where people spend a fair bit of time sitting round, in silence for a bit, then passing comment on something, and where visitors stick around chatting for a long time. It's companionable and fun but not pressured. Me gusta mucho. And living with them is helping so much, not only with my Spanish, but also with understanding how people go about their day and all the little things they do differently to folks back home. I am so blessed to be living with these guys.