Feeling Purple

I’ve always kind of felt like somehow I was born with a Latina heart inside a Gringa body.  (And no, it’s not just because I can NEVER be on time :)  The first time I traveled to Latin America, I knew there was something about it that was a part of me I hadn’t met yet.  A feeling that can perhaps best be described by one of my favorite movie scenes, when the clouds break in Machu Picchu as Che Guevara sees it for the first time and says

“How can I feel such nostalgia for a world I’ve never known?”

That was meeting Latin America for me.  Which explains why I went back every opportunity I could to teach, travel, work, and now live. 

And now we live here. 

In Latin America. 

But we’re still Gringos. 

Or are we?

When we’re around a bunch of Chileans, we feel pretty Gringo.

But when we’re around a bunch of Gringos, we feel VERY Chilean. 

There are many things we love about each culture.

There are many things we just don’t understand about each culture.   Some days it’s the States.  Some days it’s here. 

I don’t understand why you need to see 3 people and have 2 receipts for a purchase of something valued less than $2.  I don’t understand why you wouldn’t greet every single person when you walk in a room.  I don’t understand how schools can just be on strike and kids not get to go for 6 months.  I don’t understand (now) every individual in a family owning their own car. 

It’s not that we’re miserable, don’t get me wrong.  But when it comes to “fitting in” anywhere, we’re learning more everyday that it’s just not gonna happen.  Ever again.  To steal a friend’s simple analogy:  “If the U.S. is red and Chile is blue, you won’t ever be either.  You will always be purple.” 

And that’s not a bad thing.

Because when you’re purple, you live out the reality every day that you’re not really home yet.  You don’t “fit in” here, in any country, because you weren’t created to.  This world is not our home, we are just passing through.   

And in the midst of God reaffirming this truth to me, He gave me this little gift this morning.  It’s when the author of Hebrews is trying to describe and define what faith is in Chapter 11:   

 ¹³All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

Thank you, Father, for promising us a HOME that we were created for. 

Overwhelmed and under prepared

Exhausted.  Christine and I are mentally and physically exhausted.  Long story short, you know that house we got, well this past Tues our church was looking for a home to host a family of short term (10 day) workers.  For some reason they looked to us.  So we've spent the 4 or 5 or how many days it's been busting our butts that had already been working in overdrive to get all of the house done before the school year kicked off.  The family has arrived and so has a sharp pain in my back.  It feels like a small size bolder or something... too much crown molding and painting along with other lovely house activities.

And to the part about being overwhelmed and under prepared, not the house but joining Facebook.  Oh the dreaded evil that it is.  I've resisted for however long it's been and absolutely loved it, but after a conversation with Eccles (a friend here that heads up most of the middle school youth group stuff) I decided to take a turn for the dark side :).

It wasn't even one of those profound conversations.  I simply realized that state side I don't need to communicate with people through the Face, but here, especially with the youth it's a necessary evil.  Can I say that; "the Face", oh well it sounds good to me.

So now after all that time, I stepped into the new, modern, communicative world of the Face and realized that this machine will endless throw names of people that I supposedly know, which I do, and so now I have to say no... no more friend seeking for tonight.  It's 1 o'clock and I'm tired, overwhelmed and under prepared.

Maybe I should go back where the grass was greener.

We got a HOUSE!!

After months of bike-ride-house-hunting, waiting on paperwork,  meeting a million times with realtors, we finally have a house!!


Is it the one you saw in our video update?  Well, not exactly.


And by not exactly, I mean not at all.


Due to the delay in paperwork, we actually lost the contract and deposit on the house we thought would be ours.  Which is quite the bummer, monetarily speaking.  But, there doesn't always have to be a known reason for things; God is good because God is good, not because He answers prayers the way we want Him to.


The good news is, He still answered a DEAR need and prayer of ours to have our own home and own space to live in!  We have been living with some pretty amazing and very generous people since the middle of last June, (for which we are extremely grateful for,) but it was just time to be on our own again.


SO, after a quick and tranquil trip to the Andes early last week (I love that we live in Chile), we got home and within hours signed a contract to buy this house as soon as we get the bank paperwork situated.  In the meantime, we are renting.  Which meant we got the keys.  In our hands.  That night.


It also means that since that first morning of having those keys, Tracey and I have been working 12-16 hour days trying to make it livable/clean/our own.  It wasn't in horrible shape (as you will soon see) but enough repairs to take about 2 full weeks of work.  Thank goodness for summer here and that we have time out of school!


So we've been and will continue to be a little MIA when it comes to Internet, but hopefully by next weekend we'll be sleeping in our OWN room, complete with Internet!

But until then, it's back to camping out in the living room :)  

Keitt Update - January 2012

Ralco Mission Trip

Ralco was a blessing.  A blessing filled with backbreaking work that started at 6am everyday.  To be honest I´m glad we got up that early to beat the sun out for a few hours of shaded coolness.  


Before I get into the explanation of what we were doing let me explain a bit about the church.

Pastor Antonio

Antonio, the old head pastor of Oriente (our church) moved down to Los Ángeles (Chile that is) after feeling called to minister and spread the gospel to the people in the surrounding area.  While getting involved with the community and starting his church in Los Ángeles, Antonio got word of a missionary church in Ralco that had imploded and left the congregation in really bad shape.

Long story short the pastor had an affair and left his wife and the church, which we all know can leave a long lasting wake of wreckage.  I point this out because of the demographics of Ralco.  The quaint town of Ralco has a strong influence and representation of Pewenche people, one of the major indigenous groups of Chile.

  Gaining "confianza" or trust with the indigenous groups requires commitment and dedication; I imagine this is the way it is because of the history of being cheated, tricked and burned by outsiders.  Not all ¨conquistadores¨ were as charming as John Smith.   Seeing as how Ralco is also the center point for almost a dozen more smaller pueblos of unreached people it's a vital place to be investing in, serving and loving.  

All that said the work is hard.  I give it up to Pastor Antonio and his passion to serve and love this community and sacrifice many a Sunday mornings commuting 3 hours on a bus with his family.  By the way, he has his Los Ángeles church services Sunday evening.


So, now we have a beautiful church building on a hill, but without water it was a bit inconvenient.  It's ironic/funny/sad what we see as inconvenient at times with our churches.  Some are more like the Y or a country club, but “a cada loco, su tema”... to each his own.  


We dug a 200 yard trench (2 football fields) down a hill, laid the plumbing and reached the water lines of the city. 
After a week of blisters, 

                              back aches,

way to few bathing opportunities, 

and man power by each and everyone of these lovely people water has arrived at the church. 


















 We´ve already started on the foundations for the restrooms which will be completed by future teams to come, who will also be involved in many other projects and outreach events.  It was exciting to be the ground breaking team to serve in Ralco and set the tempo.  We hope that we left a good aftertaste.  

Check out more pictures in the gallery to your right.

Love it, Miss it

I MISS TEACHING KIDS!

Today was my second day in Sunday School and I realize how much I miss being in the classroom with kiddos.  I love that we are getting to teach all the time here, don't get me wrong... but there is something so different about teaching kids.  Plus, Jesus is a WAY better topic to teach than English :)

Today we made name tags and the kids won stickers for bringing their Bibles and knowing their memory verses.  I was pretty amazed by the sneaky-ness (yes, I'm an English teacher) of a one 4 year old who decided she would tell us to write "Javiera" on her name tag, only to find out later her real name is Amanda.  Why did she tell us Javiera?  Because she likes that name better.

This is the stuff I love!!!

So now I'm googling thematic units and fun songs to sing and games to play.  It's made me feel nostalgia for a few things in my past life:

1.  Felt boards.  I don't care what you say, I love them and always have.

2.  Vacation Bible School.  What I wouldn't do to get those checks by my name for bringing my Bible!

3.  Teaching 5th grade.  The days of Ms. Reeve, reading marathons, novel projects, and Friday dance song.

4.  My previous students.  How great it is to get emails just saying hi!

5.  My previous coworkers.  LHES family - you know who you are :)

6.  The feeling after teaching a really well-planned and creative lesson.

7.  Being excited about what you are doing and who you are with...

So, I'm super pumped.  And Tracey is too - He'll be working with the middle school class, a little more up his alley :)

Tracey gets back tomorrow morning - Sounds like it has been a great trip!  Pictures and details soon to come.

Off to Ralco

So we're finally done with the craziness of December.  I've never experienced such a jam packed Christmas season.  Tons of delicious cookouts, dinners, meetings, celebrations, birthdays, an amazing visit from Mere and everything in between.  A bit overwhelming at times to be honest, but a lot of fun as well.  I'll at least be more prepared for round two of Chilean Christmas this year.

We just got back from an amazing trip to Chiloe with Mere, Becky and Claudio.  

We had a blast and really looking forward to going back and venturing into more of the national parks.  I'd tell you about it, but I think pictures do a much better job.  We just uploaded a bunch on the gallery.  Check it out.  (The link is on the right side of this page.)

So tonight in oh about 15 minutes I 'm about to head down to Ralco for a building project with a sister church.  We got to know a bit of Ralco on our first trip to the south and I'm really looking forward to this week to come.

The church is located in a quaint town in the mountains.  It's in the beginning stages and doesn't have any water or restrooms at the church right now so that what's we're going down to do.  The beautiful/crazy part of our trip is that the church is located on a hill so although the view is going to be sweet there will be some work to be done as we dig out 200 yard trench up the hill.  :)

Please keep us in your prayers in these specific things:

1. Unity and patience with the team seeing as how the labor is going to suck all the energy out of us :)
2. Safety with travel and the work
3. To bring the love, peace and joy of Christ to this community in all that we do

By the way, Christine is going to stay in Santiago and continue to teach English and await our lovely trámites (paper work).  It's really getting down to the wire in regards to the house and some other stuff dealing with our carnet (our Chilean social Security card).  Please lift those up in prayer as well.

Thanks and I'll be sure to update you guys when I get back! (Mon the 23rd)