CHI- CHI- CHI- .... LE- LE- LE- .... VIVE CHILE

Well Howdy Everyone! Yes, you can believe your eyes, this is indeed the much anticipated second post of MI AVENTURA EN CHILE! I feel like I can get away saying that cause if you didn't like the first one, you probably won't be reading this one =)

Well, just got done with my third week of school! I can hardly believe my eyes when I read that myself! Time has been flying! Well, I think I'll back it up to about two weeks ago, and pick up right where I left off! =D

Eleciones presidentales

Well, if you recall, the last time I wrote, it was the morning of the day that Chile would elect its next president! So around 10:00 A.M. , my mom, my aunt, my grandma, and I walked down to one of the local highschools (colegios) to go vote. It's pretty much the same as in the U.S. as far as the general set-up goes; you go to your registered spot, you get a ballot, you go in a little enclosed area, vote, and stick your ballot in a box. The one thing that I thought was a little weird
was that the voting locations were segregated by sex. Men have their places to vote and women have their places to vote...just a little strange =) . I got to go in though because I was pushing my grandma in her wheel chair. =) special!
So after voting (all for Piñera), the four of us went to our uncle and aunts house who live across the city to spend the afternoon there. Played some chinese checkers, had some food, played a little bit of FIFA on the PS2, in reality everyone was waiting for six o'clock to role around when they would announce the results of the election. Oh yeah, I got to meet one of my other cousins that day, Sabastian, who had just got home from working on a house in southern Chile with a group similiar to Habitat for Humanity (as far as I understood). He is also a civil engineer and speaks a little bit of english, and seems like a pretty cool guy. I haven't talk to him since, but hopefully we'll get to hang out, maybe play some soccer! =) So at 6:00 everyone gathered around the t.v. to find out that Piñera had won over Frei with a 51.3/48.7 split. So we jumped around and yelled a little bit in the house, and decided to head out after that! Check out the video to get a feel for the rest of the night =)



So one of the chants that we were yelling, and probably the most common one that Chile has is the title of this blog (if you were wandering what that was all about) =) then also, the title of this movie clip was another one we were doing alot.

SE SIENTE, SE SIENTE ... PIÑERA PRESIDENTE

those were the only ones i picked up on really well (the two easy ones =D ) the other ones i had to ask about after to find out what they were saying =)


The second week of school + weekend!

So on Tuesday during the second week of school, we had our first cloudy day since I've been here (and it still has been the only one), and I wanted to take full advantage of an oppurtunity to do some exploring without having to bake in the sun all day =) So after school was done for the day, I began my wanderings! =) I started about 1:00 and got home around 8:00, so it was definately a full day, but it was great chance to walk around and really be able to take in the city some. It is such a mix of ... ummm.... i can't say cultures because the only image of Chilean culture I have is what I've seen, but it is definitely a mixture of times. You can see the modern times, the modern trends that we know all to well in the States. Giant fancy office buildings, men walking around the streets in fancy-dancy suits, trendy coffee shops with way over priced coffee playing american music, tons of advertisements with scantily dressed women holding this or that product. There's these, but then there are twists thrown in, some of them are just cultural differences and also some remnants of what Santiago used to be i feel. There are the street vendors that line the edge of the sidewalks that are selling everything from egg rolls to childrens socks, some in booths, but the majority either just passing out their product or having them scattered on a blanket on the ground. Theres the seemingly innumerable statues of all influential characters in Chile's history. There's the church that was built 150 years ago across the street from a 30 story apartment building. There's the old campamientos randomly placed all around the cities. These were full blocks that used to be where the poor people lived, I'm not exactly sure what they consisted of, but now they are just full blocks that are completely empty and completely fenced off all around and serve absolutely no purpose except maybe a place for the passer-byer to throw there trash. So it is interesting to see the mix of new and old, and just the grand difference in lifestyles between the people

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Later in the day I walked to one of the touristy spots in the town known as Cerro San Cristobal (cerro = hill) . Its a hill right in the middle of town. On the top, I met a group of guys that were doing some traveling. There was two guys from Israel, Amir and Nir, and one girl from Germany, Lucia. I was wearing one of my good ol' Grace and Truth Bible Camp t-shirts, and Amir saw it and asked what Bible camp was like, and asked me what I believed about the Bible. We were able to have a good discussion and I was able to tell what Christ taught in the Bible. He definately believed in doing good, and doing right, but he thought it more honerable to want to do 'right' just for the sake of your fellow man, rather than storing up points for yourself for when you get to heaven. I tried explaining that that isn't what the Bible teaches, that that would be a selfish motivation, but rather Christ taught that selfless love is what He desires, and that Christ was the perfect example of that. *** So we hung out for a couple hours talking on the top of the hill, and I while we were talking the clouds we clearing away! It was beautiful!
***check out the end of this post for more on this! (pretty please) =)



K, So then on Thursday, I got to hang out with the youth group from the church that I've been going to here, and that was a great afternoon! We talked for a couple hours, played soccer for a while, and taught them a little bit of frisbee, too! It was a really refreshing afternoon! Troy and I were having fun teaching them english and I was having a ton of fun learning more spanish and getting to know them in the process =)!



So 2010 is Chile's Bicentennial, so for the last couple weeks they've had cultural stuff going on, that Friday all the Museums in Santiago were free, so me and a few friends wanted to go check some of them out! We actually only ended up making it to one, but it was neat. There was few cool things, but I didn't think most of the artsy-fartsy things were that neat, but the building was really cool! (that might be the civil engineer coming through a little bit =D )


Alright, so on that Sunday, I went to church which I greatly enjoyed again, and also was greatly challenged by trying to follow the message, and I love it! =) I can definitely follow the general path, but details are still pretty tough at this point =) After church, I went over to the Kunnari's to have lunch with them, which was a very spectacular bowl of good ol' american Chili! Oh man, that was the best bowl of chili I've ever had, easily! =) Later, our friend Betsy came over and we were having a ton of fun playing dutch blitz and doing the spanglish- englañol thing =) Then also, one of the other missionaries here in Santiago came over, and it was really cool getting to meet her. Her name is Sharon, she's a single missionary, and I can't remember how many years she's been here exactly, but im thinking it was around 20 ! She is super nice, and I'm grateful that she is here serving our Savior, and I look forward to seeing her again!


Week 3 of School!

I think we'll condense week three to one smaller paragraph, I'm guessing you would appreciate that, if your still with me at this point! And if your not, don't worry, there's more pictures ahead!
So two huge items were acquired during week 3
1.) A bike! I fixed up my host brothers old bike, works good, needs new pedals is all
2.) A NIV/NVI Bilingual Bible! I'd been searching for a while here in Santiago!

So on Tuesday, I biked into school for the first time. I looked at Google earth before heading out, and these were my directions I told my self. "just keep going west and you'll have to end up pretty close" =) surprising it worked! there was about 10 minutes I was sure I had to be lost, but then I popped out by a metro station just a few blocks away from school, so that was cool! Now on the way home, I wanted to do a little bit of exploring, and I ended up doing a lotta bit of exploring. One would think you would get lost on the first trip, not the second trip =). Anyways, I still did enjoy it, but after 2 hours of biking in 90-95 heat and in the intense sun, I had had enough. I walked in my door, drank three cups of juice, ate a little bread, went to my room, talk off my drenched clothes, and crashed on my bed for a couple hours =)

Then on Friday, we didn't have school because we were going on a field trip to the beach! I have mentioned how tough school is here? =) We stopped at this city that has been there a really long time, its just a small farm town, but also they do a ton of pottery for tourists! It was pretty neat seeing a lot of the stuff they had, didn't get anything though, the probability of me breaking it before getting it home is much much to high at this point in the trip. =) We got to the beach, and we were only going to hang out there for an hour-ish before going on a tour of this famous Chilean guys house, but I was over-run with joy to see it wasn't like a beachy-beach (sand, flatness, and boring) but a rocky beach with big rock to jump around on and climb and jump off.... ohhh, it was a very welcome outburst of running and jumping off stuff, cause I really don't feel very comfortable doing it in the city. =D
















The house was cool, lotta neat stuff, cept you can't take pictures of the inside, oh well. =) Then on the way home a few of the other students and I had a really good discussion again. It kinda started on how it is so socially unacceptable to talk about 'heavy' topics like your beliefs as far as abortion, or God, because people feel like it can only lead to an argument. But we were able to talk about about these things quite a bit and we definately did not agree on a lot, but I do think we were able to challenge each other other by being confronted with a different view or having to defend, or explain, our own with sound reasoning, more than, 'thats just what i think' =) it did sorta degenerate to 'whats your favorite princess movie?' by the end of the trip, but its fun and good to know those things about people, too! (I said 'Mulan' =) So I'm really glad that we had the discussion, and I feel like I am much better friends with these people now! Many times in the last month of my life, I have seen nothing but benefits of being completely honest with my loved ones and friends. I don't just mean 'not lying', but not trying to conceal anything that is pertinent to the discussion or situation at all, and it definitely isn't always easy, it often involves admitting that you're not perfect =), but it is always for the better I think!

Couple More Facts from Chile from the Gringos eyes:

-theres Pepsi products, but no Mountain Dew... WHATS WITH THAT!!!!

-Cell phones get perfect reception in the Subways thats are normally 5-6 stories down!

-Theres definately no food sanitation laws or requirements for the street vendors, so you can get like a pretty filling 1.50 lunch, but there's a little bit of risk involved =) (one that I'm normally willing to take)


-I don't what this is, but it is stinking crazy! I'm not sure if it was sucking out sap, or like laying it's eggs in the tree, but when it was flying around, it the stinger-sucker thing stuck like an inch! not a hornet i would mess with =)





-I had quite a few good ones, but that's all I can remember for now! I'm sorry, hopefully more come for next time =)


*** From above, Explanation of Faith some

Like I said in the first blog, this is something very important to me, so I'd like to explain it quickly here. I hope you don't skip this part or take offense, because that is not what I intend. I intend to share something that has changed my life greatly, and I believe to be completely for the better! =D I think I'll try to explain it in a story! WHOOOHOOO!!!: =)

Me and my friends are standing in a large room filled with atomic land mines scattered all over the place. I always thought of myself as very graceful person, so I thought that I should be the one to try and find the way out because I probably had the best chance of feeling a mine without actually setting it off. So while I was groping along the wall, concentrating very intently so as not to be vaporized, I bumped into a shelf, and a 10 Jillion candlepower flashlight fell and hit me on the head. I was a little hurt that I didn't sense the shelf being right in front of my face, and that I might not actually be as graceful as I thought I was, and also because of the somewhat large bump on my head. But then I realized what it was that had fallen on my head. I was overjoyed that I had been given this light, and not just any light, but a light that was more than capable of lighting up the entire room for everyone! Now there is three options I have at this point:

- I could refuse to turn the light on and leave it behind because I think I could do better without it or because I am mad with it still for causing a little pain inside and outside.

-I could use the light by shining it at the ground directly in front of myself, which may help me not step on a mine, but it really doesn't help me much on finding my way out, because I'm still not sure on the path that I need to take. Doing this also allows my friends to see a little bit in the room, but they wouldn't be much better off if it didn't give them enough light to show them the immediate dangers around them, and certainly not the way out!

-Or I could let the light shine across the room, clearly illuminating all the mines, doing away with the darkness, and clearly showing the path to freedom.

Well, which one should I choose? I think option three is pretty much a no brainer, right =) Also, doing this shows you just how helpless all of you were before you had the light, seeing how impossible it would have been to navigate the path in the dark.


Christ devoted His life to teach others the truth so that they might be saved from being a prisoner to sin. A quick explanation of what that means, being a prisoner to sin. We know in our hearts what is wrong, we can 'rationalize' some things, and try to make them seem less wrong, but we still know wthat it is wrong. If we tried with all of our might to stop doing wrong things, we would fail, without question. The Bible teaches us that these wrongs we commit, these sins, are deserving of death. (Romans 6:23) Christ knew our condition, and did something absolutely incredible, He gave HIS life on the cross and died in OUR place. He did not deserve that death because He had not sinned, He had done NO WRONG, but He knew that His sacrifice was the only way that we had any chance of being freed from the imprisonment of sin. How does Christ's death change our condition? Because He teaches in the Bible,"That God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16) So if I believe in Christ, or in other words, trust that He died on the cross in our place, I can have eternal life. ¿But if sin is deserving of death, and I know I've sinned, how can I have eternal life? It's because Christ took our punishment for our sins, and even more, the Bible teaches that He actaully takes our sins, so not just the punishment, but the sins themselves. And He still did one more than that, He said that He would give us the Holy Spirit, so that we would not be a prisoner to sin anymore. That we could have freedom.

I think passage explains it pretty well:

And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation (atoning sacrifice) for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked. (1 John 2:1-6)

If you've got questions about anything, like anything at all, even if it isn't that related with this, I would be way pumped if you asked me =D (email: evancraig22@gmail.com) cause there are certainly a lot of good questions to ask! such as:

-Whats with this, if these things I do are actually wrong, and it is impossible for me to not do them, is that fair? Does that mean that these things actually are not wrong?
-How is it that Christ didn't have sin?
-Isn't there more to it than just trusting Christ?
-Is the bible really that trustworthy anyways?
-(tons of other questions) =)


Thanks all for checking out my blog, again I look forward to hearing from you! Whether it being questions, comments, critiques, or cue-tips, I welcome them all! Good night everyone!