becka lippy

So I am now in step number 3 of the trip, Viña. I was in Valparaiso for only one night but man was it worth it! The hostel I stayed in with a friend from Germany was SO nice. I don't think I would ever bring my mom to a hostel but this was an exception! The building itself was so tastefully decorated, but it was the owner who made all the diference. When I first got to the hostel he opened the front door and said "ahh, eres rebeca." But he said my name the way an english speaker says it, (Chileans say it different) so I knew he wasnt Chilean. I commented on this and before he had time to answer, his phone rang. As he talked on his phone, he said the word brillant in response to some remark on the other end. I knew at that moment he was British. And I was right. He visited here four years ago, and never really left. He has written a tour book on Chile, called Footprints, so he KNOWS Chile. At our incredible breakfast of bread, jam, and lots of fresh fruit, we all just aske

Okay, I am sorry if i scared you guys yesterday with the whole knife thing, but I have to admit that I was a little scared too. But I am safe. The bus bus late, true Chilean style, and then we waited at a terminal for nothing it seemed like, for a good hour. SO I got home a little after 2 in the morning. The whole bus ride was a test of patience. Everyone was asleep, but me. And then my batteries for my discman ran out, and I sat there in the dark in silence for about 3 hours listening to other people snore. But once I was in my bed, MY bed, I slept like a baby. It was great. When I got out of the cab, I heard a guys voice behind me, which at two in the morning on the street, you do NOT want to hear. But I turned around to see Felipe coming home. I nearly jumped on the poor guy I was so happy to see him! So we went inside and I immediatly went for the arms of my host mom. We hugged, adn I mean really hugged, and then she noticed the sunburn and was upset that I didn´t wear sunscreen ou

I arrived in Caldera two nights ago and have taken it slow here. there really is nothing to see, but my body was craving a good sunburn (sorry mom!). Literally, I was obsessed with teh thought of lying in the hot sun and just soaking it in. I am not sure if I am Vitamin D deprived or what? But I did, I found a spot in the courtyard of the hostal and soaked up all the sun I could get. And my face esta rojo. Pero, estoy contenta. an email from a friend back home reminded me just how much i used to pray adn how much I LOVED talking to God every moment of my day. Okay, little secret about becka- I used to put my cell phone on silent and open it up as if I was talking on it adn I would pray. I don´t know if it is just the psychology of it, but it was easier to talk to God on my cell phone than just talking to the air. I recommend it to anyone who wants a better prayer life. So anyways, last night I remembered my love for hanging out with God and I spent some time reading one of my favorite

I am leaving in an hour or so for the official begining of my trip. My room is all packed up, a very sad job, and I am ready to go. I am first heading up north for Caldera, a cute little beach town. Then I will return to La Serena pick up my HUGE travelling backpack and head down the 8 hour bus ride to Valparaiso. Then up to Viña Del Mar with my buddy Marcela for a few days. I will be going down to Temuco, where the missionaries with SIM live and I will stay witht hem for a few days looking at their AIDS projects they are trying to start. I will then head to Pucón and then Angol. I will spend one last day in the town of Talca and then, finally after two weeks of pure travelling, I will arrive in Santiago for my four week course for TEFL. I am very excited to get going, but in all honesty, I am a little sick. It is just a little bit of chills and a clogged up head, but my host mom is using that as an excuse for why i shouldn´t go. I told her that I am planning on sleeping alot on the 6

I only spent two weeks, actually ten days, at the home in Trinidad. But I am missing those kids. There are a few especially that I wish I could see again. There are these three brothers who I absolutly loved! They were older, some of the otldest kids in the home, and each one was really special to me. I know I am not supposed to have favorites, but the youngest of the three, Andy was defintitly... special to me. He is like 15 years old, I think, and is just sweet. He is a really good kid in general and I loved getting to talk to him and hang out with him. I really felt like an older sister or something. On my last night in Trinidad, he stayed out and talking with me in the gazebo after everyone else had gone to bed. We talked about life and everything it involves. One of the subjects we hit one, which is bound to happen when you talk to a 15 year old boy, is girls. An older of friend of his, whom he respects and admires, had given him advice about girls. I kinda know this friend of his

This whole situation with Paulo is bothering me and I am trying to figure out what the problem is. I think the problem is partially a cultural one. Here in Chile, everyone has a boyfriend or girlfriend. it is just a part of life. And so the commitment level is not very high. Back home, when you dated someone, you were making some what of a commitment. If you had a boyfriend or girlfriend, you were in a sense saying that a part of you life was claimed. You couldn´t just go out and flirt with other people. But here, it is different. People just have a girlfriend or boyfriend. There doesn´t weem to be the commitment level that I am used to seeing in relationships. All of this is really wierd to me, but it is a good lesson. Never just assume that someone is not taken. Marion was saying that a guy at her work who had been really nice and pretty flirty with her just told her that he has four kids, from three different women! She was shocked. He had never thought to ask this young guy if he h

Oh yes, it´s ladies´night... Here is us in action at the Kareoke Bar. I love this picture of us and I got a copy of it made for my host mom as a little gift. Claudia, mi hermana, has really become like a sister to me and I am so grateful to have her. Mi mamá es muy simpatica and treats me like one of her own.

Jaime and I at the Kareoke bar dancing. He spent mosst of the night d.j.ing, but eventually we got him to come out to the dance floor.

These are the boys. The one all the way on the left is an uncle and the other two are his sons. The one on my right is Alex. He is just great, totally laid back and funny. He said he would teach me how to cook someday. I need the help.

This is a picture I originaly took for blackmail purposes, but I now realize that it is my only picture of Felipe. So here he is, sleeping. Next to him is abuelita, y next to her is Aylen, the daughter of Claudia.

These are my Chilean grandparents. They amaze me, even after all these years of marriage, they are really affectionate physically with each other. They tease each other and hold hands and it is obvious that they are very much in love. I hope some day I can have a romance like theirs.

This stuff makes me think I am still in the states. It is just mind blowing. I don´t understand neo-nazis in the first place, but in Latin America?

These are really quite popular here.

Last night I was flipping through the tv channels and I noticed that Passion of Christ was playing. i tried to watch it, but I couldn´t. I apologized to Christ that I was so weak that I couldn´t even watch a film about His pain and I changed the channel. I came upon another movie, the Stigma. Very interesting film. Although it is not really Biblical, and in fact it paints a somewhat scary picture of God, it also paints a beautiful picture of Christ. There is one point in which the main detective priest goes to talk to an ex priest about what was happening. They meet in a church and the ex priest asks the detective priest, "look around, what do you see?" The detective priest answers that he sees a church. The ex priest stands up and waves his arms around and replies that it is not a church, for the Church of Christ is much larger. And there is no need for a building in a relationship with Christ. The ex priest turns his face upwards and loudly proclaims, " I love Jesus!&q

(This one is going to be long... but good.) Seriously, I have been hearing quotes in my head from Pride and Prejudice as I experience life here. For this episode the quote from Mrs. Bennet when referring to Mr. Bingly´s behavior toward Jane, "He used her very ill indeed!" Okay so here is the story. The whole family has spent the week watching Paulo and I, especially my host mom. Everyone was excited to see that we got along well together and that we enjoyed each others company. We even flirted a little, but from what I understood it was not any serious flirtation, but just fun between friends. Well, the week was coming to an end and everyone was waiting for some great romantic moment that I knew would never come. I wasn´t worried, but in a sense a bit amused at the novellic (I don´t think that´s a real word, sorry mom) quality of the situation. Friday night, as I wrote earlier, we went out with his sister and my host brother and sister. We had fun, but no romantic moments. Sa

so I broke my commitment to God last night concerning alcohol. When I first went to college, I got a little into the frat scene and the whole drinking thing. When I moved into a house with 6 guys from Nor Cal, I began to drink way to often. I felt like God was pulling me back and telling me that He placed the law over me for a reason and I need to follow it. So I stopped drinking until I turned 21 and when i turned 21 I reevaluated the situation and I made the decision that I could drink, but I shouldn´t have more than two drinks a night. I have never broken that commitment, nor really wanted to, before last night. So last night I went out with my host sibs, Felipe and Claudia, and their cousins, Paulo and Carolina. We are all in our twenties and love to sing and dance and have a good time. So we went out. First we went to a Piña (I think that is how it is spelled). It is a folklorico concert. I went to something very similar in high school with my friend Lorena for Mexican folklorico,

Two of my closest friends, Ashlee and Kallie, both spent a quarter studying in Spain. And I remember hearing them talk about their experience and saying that it had not been what they had expected. It is easy to have these romantic notions about what another culture, especially a latin culture will be like. And so knowing this, i tried not to build up romantic notions in my head and to not have any preconcived notions of Chile before I came (except my Chilean Prince!). And as I have now lived in Chile for almost two months, I can say that there are times when the humdrum of life seems too thick here, and then there are times when I am walking down the street and it hits me, "I´m in Chile". It sounds funny, but sometimes I forget that I am in another country. Sometimes I forget that I am una extrañjera. And then some culture shock hits me and reminds me that I am different. It happened today. There is one part of my cultural identity that I am not willing to give up. No, I can

I feel more alive in this moment than I have for quite some time. You see, i came to La Serena and have done the normal thing of exploring the city, taking a tour or two of the surrounding countryside, going shopping at the commercial center, BUT today was the first time here in Chile when i really lived. After writing the last two blogs, I decided that I needed to do something. I went to the grocery store and bought enough food to make substantial lunches for 8 people. I also printed out pieces of paper that explain my purpose. I quoted Matt 15 where Jesus has compassion on the hungry and John 8 where Jesus says that if we continue in His Word we will find the truth and the Truth will set up free. I wrote to each persn who would receive the lunch that when I love them it is only with food, but when Christ loved them it was with His life. I went home and put together these bag lunches and headed out to the street. Two of the people I got to give lunches to were blind (a challenge I had

One of the hardest parts about being overseas is the difficulty in buying the books I want. I know Amazon mails internationally, but for some reason, Chile is off limits most of the time. I was able to order a few books, one intense history book on the life of Jesus and a book for a seminary course on the Theology of Lordship, both very interesting! But there is a whole world of books out there and all honesty most of the books I want to read are not translated into Spanish (maybe that is my calling... hehe) But I bought a few books before I left and somehow dragged them down here ( gave up brining my own towel so I could bring books in my backpack). One of them is Ravi Zacharias´ Jesus among other gods . It is very well written and this man, Zacharias is just brillant. I first read one of his books at my friend Chubs´house during an asthma attack (memories!). This author grew up Hindu I think, in India. And he seems to have a thorough understanding of the major religions in our world

I first heard about blogs because someone gave me the address to the blog of one of their friends. I read that blog everyday, trying to imagine every emotion, every thought, every question that this guy presented so honestly in their blog. You see, this guy was in India (okay, he sometimes reads my blogs so I hope it is okay that I talk about your experience... ) and he was working with the truly broken people of this world. There was one time when he was massaging the arm of a guy who had had part of his arm amputated. And as I read these blog entries that real, hard, truth, I could not help but think that I wish I had a heart like Mother Theresa. I bought her biography a few months back and was stunned at how she really truly SAW Jesus in each and every person she served. She understood that when we love those who the world sees as unworthy of love and distugusting in their brokeness, we are showing love to the man, the God who died on the cross as a criminal. I was reminded of this

What exactly are the rules when you are a tourist in a cathedral. I suppose that there are no formal rules written anywhere, but I am wondering if it is rude to take pictures? Is that rude, or is it only rude if you take pictures of people in the church? I decided to visit the oldest church here in La Serena. I pass by it everyday and I know a little of the history of it, but I have never actually gone inside to experience it. So today I went and sat inside the beautiful church. I thought about all the years that people spent there. It takes my breath away, the dedication and the love for the practices. And as I was sitting there in this building where so many people dedicated their lives to rituals, I saw the dark alluring side of religion. It is like the Pharisees who loved the law more than the Truth. I think if I had lived during the reign of herod in Israel, i would have been a Pharisee (well, married to one at least). It is true, the rituals and blessings, and all that is involve

Okay, I had this thought as I opened the fridge door and grabbed by orange juice carton, I am so NOT a proper lady. These women in Chile, especially the older ones, cook and clean and take care of the house ALL DAY. I mean literally there is at least one woman in the kitchen throughout the whole day cooking for the next meal, or cleaning up after the last one. I don´t think i could do that. Don´t get me wrong, i am excited for the day when I get to cook for my husband and kids, and serve them, but I couldn´t have my whole life surround that. And then, the thought crossed my mind that I have not shared food with someone else (mean like sharing groceries) for years, and I am sure that my bad habits of eating out of tupperware and drinking out of the carton will be hard to break. I am laughing and cringing at the same time thinking about this. I am really a bachelor. I would rather save myself time doing dishes by eating out of what I cook out of. Gross I know. I know! I am going to make

For a moment I would liek to ponder the music of Chile. You see, I listen to just about everything (except non-live jazz). Even country, although in this category I limit myself to Dixie Chicks and The Judds (only the old stuff). Here in Chile there is really only a few types of music. One, the corny romantic music that belongs on programs like "Delilah at night". Being the hopeless romantic that I am, I love this type of music. Another type of music is Reggaton (not sure about the spelling, but do I ever spell words correctly?). This is Latin America´s response to Hip Hop. Very good for dancing. I also love the fact that most Reggaton is in Spanglish, my favorite language. There is this other type of music that I like to call the "Corny Electric Piano Musica". Too corny for me and I can only take so much electric piano in one song. I am amazed at how much Englsih music is played here. And people sing to it. they actually know the words, but they have no clue what t

What do I miss? Right now and actually for the past week, I have been CRAVING a pompernickel bagel with light shmear from Noah´s and a vanilla chai with soy. Yeah, for some reason the massive amounts of carne is just not the same as the delicious tofu and broccoli stir-fry with Soy Vey´s teriyaki sauce. Hmm.... california cuisine. Oh! And an interesting fact about transvestites in Chile, they are dangerous! When I was out with Lorena, we passed by some transvestites (which by the way was really weird to see in Chile which is generally a VERY conservative country). After we had walked past them and they were no longer in hearing distance, she explained that here in Chile, they are very dangerous. These men, dressed as women, will often attack women. I couldn´t believe it! The few transvestites that I have met have so nice to me. It is almost as if because so many people have been so mean to them, if you love them, they love you back. But not here. I guess some of the transvestites here

Yeah not really. His name is Paulo and he is the nephew of my host mom. She talked about his all week and was so excited for us to meet, in fact the WHOLE family wanted us to meet and to fall in love and they began to refer to him as my palolo and make comments about how cute we are together. So I am blushing just about all day and trying to correct the wrong without being rude, but in all honesty Paulo is great and if I were not looking for a guy who loves God more than he loves me, yeah I would be with Paulo. For one, he is really cute (kinda nerdy, just like I like them) for two, he is nice and not as machisimo as alot of other chilenos. He doesn´t like it when girls are drunk and he said he can have fun himself without being drunk. He is the second chilean over the age of 16 that I have met who doesn´t smoke. BUT, hahaha, just in case I was going to be stupid again, like I was with Alberto, God made sure that I am NOT attracted to Paulo. You see, Paulo and I were having a tea party

So I don´t want to write this blog because I would like to prove to everyone, especially myself, that I am responsible. I cannot even remember how many stupid mistakes I have made in the past- just plain stupidity. (I think I am more blonde than I would like to admit) But this is ridiculous and I have to share it on this blog if this blog is supposed to be an accurate portrayal of this period of my life. So mom and dad, please don´t worry because everything is okay, I just scared myself. Okay, now you probably think i almost died, but no. I almost lost my passport. You see, ever since I came to La Serena, I really don´t need it on a daily basis. So after a few days here I just decided to hide it in my room. I put it in this old newspaper and put it behind my books. Well, two days ago I decided to REALLY clean my room and not remembering that my passport was hidden there, I threw away the newspaper. Now in Chile the garbage is taken out every night basically. So yesterday, I got this ra

As a child before her father I am coming to you once again My heart filled with sadness and loneliness You promised to take care of me You gave me what I wanted But I was wrong, this isn´t what I wanted I don´t want this sky dive thrill The plane keeps climbing in the air I am too scared to keep going I want to go home To sit with you cuddled on the couch next to the warm fire place I don´t want to jump But you take my hand and say "Daughter your time at home is not now. This is your time to jump" I feel the tears well up in my eyes And a knot deep in my throat stops the words that would never come I feel so alone, almost betrayed And that is when he does it That is when he takes my hand and lifts my chin till my eyes meet his Reading my thoughts, my brokeness he smiles sadly "My love, I will ask you to jump, But I will never ask you to jump alone." He steps behind me and connects our suits I can feel him breathe in and out I can feel his strength He kisses the back

Lorena (the chess buddy) and I went out last night again and sat in a dimly lit bar drinking pisco sours and listening to oldies like "Chain of fools" and "RESPECT". Maybe I am still in middle school mentally, but I am just amazed that she wants to hang out with me. I think I will always be stuck in that mentality. One more thing I get to overcome in my life. :) When Lorena came to my house last night she got to meet my "family". And I am not talking about 4 or 5 or even 8 people. No last night there were 21 people from my adopted family there. There is a wedding of one of the cousins today and so the whole family is in town for it. Chilean families are HUGE and so much fun. Tata (grandpa) really likes me and always finds an excuse to sit next to me talk to me. The first time I met him I couldn´t speak spanish, but now I am, in his mind at least, fluent. He is adorable, I mean just pure adorableness! He is short and buff, muy muy fuerte. He was in the mari

So I have heard so many people say that they are not into religion. That they just want the Gospel and no religion. Well, I disagree. First off, before I am called a heretic.. hehe, I want to make sure it is clear that I believe in the Gospel of Christ. That He is the Son of God, that He was perfect, He died, He rose again and if He trust Him to, He will pay the penalty for our sins. There are no works involved, so way to earn salvation. Okay, that said, I think that religion is supposed to play an important part in our lives. It is a set of beautiful traditions all pointing back to the Truth. Take a look at the Jewish holidays. They are there to tell the story of God and His people. We can´t trust that our performance in religion will get us anywhere, but I believe that God placed religous traditions in our lives for a reason and we need to stop rejecting that. For example, how beautiful are the prayers of our brothers in the Lord who lived hundreds of years ago (Rach, that´s for you!

Okay, there is alot to say in this blog because alot happened yesterday. First, in the morning I met some women from Belmont California. What a treat for my heart to get to talk about my home with other Californians! I don´t think I want to move back, but I will definitly need to visit. Second, there was this situation in May with someone that I kinda know that my poor bible study had to listen about and deal with, and that situation came up again. So I went on a run at the local deserted track and just prayed and laughed my heart out with God as I ran. Yeah, I have come to except the fact that I handle situations in a wierd manner, but my manner works. Then, I got the courage to try this church that someone recommended and guess what- PRAISE GOD, they actually read the bible in context and preached the gospel! It is a southern babptist church, which is just really wierd to me that there are "southern baptists" in chile, but hey, if their doctrine and practices are Biblical,

Well, not yet. I am going to finish up my clases de español aca en el proximo martes, y despues voy a viajar. Okay, so today is one of those days that I totally understand spanish. I am going to finish my classes here in La Serena, and then around October 27th or so, I am going to go on a little excursion through Chile. I started planning out my itinerary and I think I am going to start with Viña del Mar for a few days and visit the beautiful Marcela, then proceed down through Chile. I realized that the thing that I love to see the most in these towns are the old churches, so I read through my guide books for some towns that are not as touristy, but have quality old churches (which is pretty much everytown in this country). I also want to try to spend a few days in Temuco which is very metropolitian, but I have been talking to a missionary family there. Then, I will move back up the coast, stopping at a little surf town I heard about. Then off to Santiago for a month to get my TEFL cer

For anyone who wants to respond to anything in this blog, or just say hi, my email is beckalippy@gmail.com

I have a friend! I know that sounds corny, but this is my first friend in Chile who is not from my school, and not a part of my family here, and not a connection from a friend from home. I guess the reason this is such a big deal to me is that in my head I think the people I know from school and home HAVE to be friends with me. They don´t really, but it is different when there is someone who is not connected to you at all and then you are friends. Her name is Lorena and I met her through chess. She is the only woman who plays chess in the plaza and we have hung out a few times when we see each other in the plaza. Well she asked me a few days ago if we could hang out this weekend and we did. We took a colectivo (a taxi) to Coquimbo which is the sister city to La Serena. We went to a bar called La babra negra (the black beard) and drank pisco sours as we talked about politics, life, love, and anything that came up. (She speaks English pretty well and I am glad for a break from Spanish fo

This has to be a quick blog, because I need to go, but last night I went out Karioke-ing with my family. We are all now at the point where I am called a part of the family. In fact, there was a lady at the bar last night that my host dad introduced me to first as his daughter and then he laughed and said I wasn´t actually his daughter I was really from california and I was living with them. I told the lady I had only been in Chile for one month. Then maybe 10 minutes later my host mom tried to introduce me and her other daughter as her daughters. She said I had been away for 12 years in california and had just now returned to the family, this HUGE elaborate story about our family. I was trying not to laugh. Anyways, I am now officially a part of the family. So we went out last night. My host parents and my sister Claudia, who I really do feel like a sister to. She is 23 and just tons of fun. SO we went out to this bar on the beach. Well it turns out that a bunch of the bars on the beac

I have to post these pictures, because they bring a smile to my face and the one with Jacob holding the guitar has been imprinted in my memory since camp. Jacob is one of the guys who worked at camp this summer and in the last few weeks we started talking and hanging out more. Really, it all started with a joke about how our campers were attention starved. But really, I am so blessed to have him as a friend and unlike so many people you meet in camp settings, we have actually stayed in touch and write a few times a week. He is in Texas right now studying the culinary arts and someday he will move to Italy.

So I finally found a place that could take the pictures off my camera and give them to me on a disc. So I am sorry for the delay, but here are a few snapshots of the past month. Most of them were taken on wednesday when I took the tour of Elqui valley. There was an italian guy, quite good looking, who stayed at the hostel the last few nights and it turns out that he works in molecular biology and is in Chile for a conference. I am thinking that my mom needs to jump on that band wagon and come visit me. Anyways, it was really interesting to talk to him because we come from very different cultures, southern Italy and California, but we are both experiencing this new culture. I liked him alot and I hope I get to see him again. It is wierd to meet so many people from all over the world and not know if you will see them again. I guess my mom experiences this alot with all her traveling. But for me, I feel like I have lived a very sheltered life in California where the people you know are th

There is a type of Pisco drink that is sweet and slightly fruity. The mascot for this drink is this donkey. It was kind of like Disneyland, but alcoholic. This country cracks me up!

At one point of the tour we pulled over to teh side of the road and hiked through these bushes till we came to this spot. It was amazing because the two rivers, one brown and one almost a black color, merged together at this spot. The couple in the picture is part of the tour group. They were so excited to talk to me because they liked my English accent as I spoke Spanish. They were married a week ago and are on their honeymoon (en español, sus luna de miel). Very cute!

When I first moved into my room I knew that I needed to make it more like home, so I taped a bunch of pictures next to my bed. The people in these pictures are SO important to me and when I am a little homesick I lie in bed and pray for the person in each picture.

Here is an example of the streets of Viña del Mar. It is a beautiful town placed along the beach. This picture I took one day when i aimlessly wandered around the city just walking and looking at the sites for six hours. The shadow in the righthand corner is actually a statue. I am not sure who the statue is of, but there are tons of statues around the towns here.

This is a pic I took the first day i spent in Valaparíso. We visited Neruda´s home and I told Marcela, who is in the picture with me, how much my mom loved his poetry. So we smiled and said "mom" as we took this one.

Sorry, it has been a few days since I wrote. Things have been a little crazy here. Yesterday I took my first tour. It was of Elqui Valley which is next to la Serena and the home of the famous Pisco. Pisco is basically the pride and joy of Chile. It is alcohol and the varieties of drinks that companies here in Chile have created with it seem endless. The tour started at 9 in the morning and after a trip to the observatory, it ended at 1 in the morning. I went with a couple who are from Chile but have lived for 20 years in Sweden. They are here on vacation and invited me to join them for a tour of the beautiful country. I felt like I was in a Jane Austen novel. It was great though because the tourguide didn´t speak English and one of the girls on the tour didn´t speak spanish so I got to translate. I have been translating alot recently for people and I REALLY like it. I am not sure if I like it becuase spanish is so new to me, or becuase I am a communication addict and that is like "

So I have to confess here because I guess this blog is really my accountablity and I want to be honest. Last night I had a scary moment where the thought passed through my mind to rebel against God for a while. This is not the first time the thought has come. There have a been a few times in the past when I have seen just how rebellious my heart is. But last night was different. I really considered it. I am not sure exactly what I was considering, but in my head I thought, why not spend a few months not caring about the Lord? My mind played with the thought for a few hours and then I felt the Lord reminding me of Psalm 73. I remembered telling people that when HUGE temptation comes it is often because God is about to use you and Satan is nervous. If you are not a threat to the kingdom of darkness, you probably don´t need to be tempted. So as I was thinking about all this, and the fact that I am trying to find a job down here where I can serve God, I realized that there must be a partic

So I made sure I went to bed early last night so i would be awake and ready to go to church this morning. I went to a church that is fairly close to my house and I got there a few minutes late (I actually planned that). The pastor was praying and all the people had their hands raised and directed towards the huge white curtain behind the pastor. You may ask how I know that their hands are directed at the curtain and not just at the pastor. Well, later, the pastor told the people to raise their hands toward the curtain. He kept speaking as if behind the curtain was the sanctuary of God. Yeah, sounds like the Old Testement to me... Well, at least the pastor really stressed the importance of the Bible. We read through Psalm 20. And he kept asking the congregation, do you believe this is the word of God, do you beleive it is true, etc. I wanted to say yes and agree with him but he used the peoples agreement that it was the word of God, I think out of context. Psalm 20 talks about how the L

So at this point my profesora de communicacción en Cal Poly would be very proud. I am actually applying, or trying to apply, a rhetorical theory to my life. I realized recently that I had a problem here. All the pieces of my life didn´t fit together. Not like I was living differnt lives, but I was having a hard time processing information and understanding what I think, and what I am doing, etc. And the thought came to head that I don´t have the proper paradigm for living here. A paradigm is basically a basis of organization. It is like a standard of truth. I know, it is easy to say, "oh well the Bible is the standard of truth". Okay, but saying "the Bible" is not enough for a paradigm. And I realized that the paradigm that I lived under in the States was not able to process the information that I was recieving here in Chile. For example the whole church thing. I experienced so much confusion from the whole church experience because I was trying to understand it thr

Okay, so last night was so much fun! I almost dread friday nights because I am reminded that back at home friday is a great night to hang out with friends, go to the Cliffs (Ashlee), or watch a movie with roomies. And then here I am all stuck in the house because I cannot go out alone, thats not safe and I don´t really have anyone to go out with. So.... a quick explanation of the family I live with. The Fuica´s own the hostel. The couple is Jaime and Lindys. They have a daughter Claudia who is 23 and married to Diego. They have an adorable but fiesty daughter. Jaime and Lindys also have a son who is 21 named Felipe and he and I are pretty good friends. He helps me with my homework and I help translate his English textbooks. There are some trajabador (workers) who live at the hostel, but they are not a part of the family the way I have become. So a few nights ago one of Diego´s friends came over and I remember thinking that he was really cute. Yeah, una problema. Pero, he came over to m