Finally on the Long and Winding road

Hey Everybody:
Here we are in Santiago, Chile and I found a place which would let me use their Macintosh computer so you can actually read my writing.
The trip down was long and tiring, but we arrived on Thursday the 31st. We changed planes in Asuncion, Paraguay and got our first introduction to South American "efficiency" at the airport, where we all had to make connecting flights. It is called Asuncion International and we expected something like SFO. What we got was a terminal building which had one counter about 20 feet long and 4 cubicles each one for a different destination. 200 people all trying to get into 4 lines, sort of. Anyway it all got done with a minimum of bent feelings. The rule is: be patient and don't get uptight. It will all work out in the end. Everybody really rolls with the punches. Time is not the life-threatening factor that it seems to be at home. We went to dinner the other night and were told that we would be picked up at 4:00 p.m. and they assured us that they had told the driver 4:00 "la hora de Norte Americano" as opposed to getting there when they got there.
We finally arrived in Santiago and had to walk about 8 blocks to our hotel. Well, my suitcase weighs 68 pounds and Carol's 59. She also has a 40 carry-on and I have the camcorder bag stuffed full. So here we are packing the lot down the street. Millions of taxi drivers go by offering rides. We have $5,000 in cash strapped to our legs and we wouldn't pay the 50 cents it costs for a taxi ride. We exhausted ourselves and said, "Never again."
The room is small but comfortable. The bathroom, however, has a 2 foot by 2 foot shower with a piece of linoleum hanging by twine as the back and left side of the shower. It kind of curves around in a circle with the shower curtain encompassing the other two sides. We felt like the little girl in the 50's who fell down a well shaft and was trapped. Try showering in that condition and you get the idea. Add to that the fact that there was no cold water, only the hot tap worked. I say worked, but more truthfully it went from very hot to very cold with little warning. So with practice, more sensitive parts of the body had to be washed and rinsed at certain times. With the smallness of the shower, there was no way to move away from the extremes of temperature and it made for an exciting first night. Our hotel is on what we call Auto Repair Road. One shop sells nothing but reflectors, another sells door handles, while another has hoses.
The food is terrific. We found a little restaurant near the hotel. We both had a fish platter with salad, 2 sodas, a beer and mineral water. The total bill was $4.
The Chileans are a terrific people. Cultured, good looking, patient, and friendly. There is a calmness about them which we often do not associate with a Latino personality. The educational system is very strict and difficult. In fact, American students who live here but have been educated in the states usually cannot pass the entrance exams and must be sent back to the states to go to school. This quality educational system makes for a certain air of confidence about the people. They have been wonderfully helpful always taking time to show directions and aid when necessary.
Jim's law #47 is that you can tell a lot about a people by the way they drive their cars. The Chileans are really patient. We went three days before we heard anybody honk their horns. We have not seen any accidents and drivers actually wait for people when crossing the street, even against the light. We asked one if the happiness we sensed in the people was a natural part of the Chilean's personality or Simply a post-Pinochet rejoicing. He looked around and then answered " A little of both.:" But they do seem to be a very resilient people, very strong in character. Classy is a good word to use. all levels of society help another. For instance, at the restaurant we eat at, each night there has been a different homeless person who has appeared in from the restaurant. Each time, the cook or waiter has taken food out to them. Not leftover food either, but rather they make up a platter and a big mug of coffee and take it to them. There seems to be a feeling of mutual understanding. Imagine what would happen if a transient waited outside Carmen's or Le Bistro. They would call the cops on him for vagrancy. But here everybody seems to understand that life is not always easy, and they help each other.
We were warned repeatedly that thieves abound in South America. the first night I dropped a $5 U. S. bill in the subway. A man picked it up and gave it back to em. Carol and I had not noticed either the dropping of the money nor the man pick it up. The person was obviously a man who could use the money, but still he gave it to us. Well, it just points up that if you spend your life being paranoid about something bad possibly happening, then you could make your life really miserable. We still will be cautious, but we can't allow ourselves to see everybody as potential thieves. It takes away from seeing them as people.
It is great to have time to do things slowly. Our trips with the students have been wonderful. We have made contact with people who I hope will be our friends forever, but everything was so organized. We had so much to see and so little time to see them Yesterday morning we spent four hours looking for a shop which sold little paper tubes to ship some posters home for Carol's classroom (after all, this is work, not play). We walked the streets asking people. They sent us here and there. Each time the shop was out of them, or didn't have them in the first place, but we saw all kinds of things we would never have seen when you are on a tour seeing just the tourist spots.
Travel, after all is people. If you spend your whole trip seeing things and not meeting people, you have not seen anything very important and you haven't learned a thing. To this end, we have had some great experiences. The mother of two students we have had in class (Carla and Cecelia Paredes) happened to be here and wanted us to come over for "Tea." They picked us up at four in the afternoon and we didn't get home until 11 that night. We arrived at the house and pretty soon another couple arrived, then another and another until there were 13 all together. Tea is a very big thing here. People use it as their social time. Lunch is the big meal of the day, but tea is the time when friends and family talk. And talk they do, mixed in with a lot of food. It really is an evening meal, but they don't call it one. One thing led to another and we all decided to get together the following evening at another house. They sang, danced, told stories, joked with each other, and cried over events which had occurred in the past. It was an incredible insight to family life here. There is a closeness to the family unit which I find enviable. If American families talked to each other as much as Chilean families do, we wouldn't have the family problems we have.
I love being in third world countries. There is a vibrancy to life and the people. When people live so close to the edge of survival, it gives a little more meaning to the important things and all the bullshit becomes just that - meaningless. Staying alive is the struggle. Having another electronic remote controlled toy somehow doesn't seem to matter.
We head south tomorrow Tuesday, the fifth for Conception and on down to the lake district. We have reservations on a boat which will take us to a famous glacier which comes to a fjord, The Laguna San Rafael. It is very popular and we could only get reclining seats, not cabins. It is only for two nights and well worth the time. The alternative, being not able to see it at all. We will be on board the 17th - 19th. I have no idea how long the mail takes from here so we may very well be doing this when you receive the letter. Anyway, we would love to hear from as many of you who are still speaking to us after hearing how we are slaving here in the 80° temperatures and missing school as much as we do.
After all the books we read and the time we spend planning, it would be easy to be disappointed. Sometimes when you look forward to something for so long, it can never live up to expectations. This is not the case here. It is a wonderful place and we have only seen one city. By getting to the country and seeing some of the variety, it can only get better. We were given the names of some friends of those we visited the other night who, we were told, will be very offended if we do not show up for a visit. I get the feeling that this is what happens with South American hospitality. It just kind of snowballs and you have the opportunity to have a myriad of experiences with different kinds of people. We'll try to keep you informed, but we wanted to get a letter off right away and let everybody know that, in fact, we are actually here and not just hiding out.
Take care and we will see all of you soon.