My big boo-boo.

I know I'm doing one blog post right after another, but I feel like this story deserves it's own post. So, my 9 year old cousin Jack is on the track club at his school. They have a race coming up and he's concerned that he won't be in good enough shape to run the race. My aunt suggested that if I could take him running twice a week we could build up his confidence so he would feel good about the upcoming race. I thought this was a great idea and that it would help me stay in shape too. So, I went and picked him up from one of his clubs this afternoon and we went on a run. We picked a destination goal that was about 1.7 km away that we were going to try and reach. I figured we would shoot high since his race is only 800 meters. We set off and actually made it all the way to our goal! He's really in good shape, but he just needs to boost his confidence a bit. We went at a pretty good pace the whole way and only had three brief stops. First, we had to stop after about 2 blocks because he was having MP3 player issues. Then, naturally, we had to stop at crosswalks and the like, but the third time we had to stop was a slightly bigger deal. You see, while we were running, the headphone jack came out of my iPod. I didn't want to stop again to put it back in so I just stuck my hand in my pocket and tried to plug it back in without having to break stride. This was slightly distracting to my overall running coordination and so when I happened to step on the tiniest of cracks in the sidewalk I did one of the more impressive face plants of my life. OK, it actually wasn't that bad. It was more of an awkward/embarrassing stumble and fall with minor scrapes on my palms and knees. I quickly rolled over on my back to compose myself, catch my breath, and make sure everything was where it should be before getting up. While Jack was busy laughing at me and watching me lay there in the dirt, he suddenly looked up and said, "Um, there are two guys running over here to help you". Uh oh. I quickly sat up so as to make sure I was no longer giving the impression that I had fallen and couldn't get up, then turned around to face these two men who were coming to my aid and realized they weren't just men who had been out walking, seen me fall, and were coming to check on me. Oh no. These were two men who had been driving down the one lane one-way street, seen me fall and subsequently not get up, stop in the middle of the road, abandon their car, and run over to help the poor little gringa who had fallen over. Meanwhile, their car is still sitting in the middle of the street with the doors wide open and blocking traffic with about 5 cars stuck behind it. I don't think I have ever seen a more concerned look on anyone's face before in my life. They didn't even care about all the traffic they had just stopped, but were only concerned with making sure I was OK. As cute and chivalrous as this was, it was also extremely embarrassing as I desperately tried to convince them I was actually fine so they could get back in their car and get traffic moving again. As soon as they had driven off, Jack and I started laughing, and laughed for the next four blocks of our run.

So, after a hugely busy week last week where I had to attempt to do about 2 weeks worth of work in 6 days, I'm back on track, getting more sleep, and fully recovered. We do a lot of travelling over the weekends so there is no guarantee that you're ever going to get to rest you need on the weekends, but thankfully I was able to get some much needed sleep the past couple days. We were planning on travelling this weekend and being gone for almost three days, but unfortunately I am not going to be able to join them. With all of the girl's clubs that my aunt has going, she thought it would be a good idea if every week I went to a different club and did a little English workshop with the girls. I really liked the idea and so far it's been a blast. (The last one I went to all the girls mobbed me and started jumping up and down chanting "Tia Dani! Tia Dani!". It was really cute) I had another club this Saturday when we're supposed to be up in the mountains so the whole family is going up without me. I was actually kind of looking forward to this and hoping that this would mean I could have the house to myself for the weekend. I could go hang out with some friends and just get to be by myself for a change. No such luck. My aunt finally laid out the plan this afternoon and said that since they obviously couldn't leave me in the house alone, (I don't know where she got this ridiculous notion), that I would be staying with the housekeeper and her husband for the weekend. This could be fun, but I'm a little nervous about staying somewhere where the only known English phrase is "Please close the door". It should be fun and good experience, but I'm getting a little tired of being drug around. I'm feeling the need to be a little more independant than I feel like I have the freedom to be. Since my aunt and uncle have never really had any contact with me, especially as an adult, a lot of the time I feel like I'm 12. A bit frustrating, but other than that I'm really having a great time. I have a lot more stuff to do now and that feels good. I hate feeling useless.

My War on Pests

Today was a very, um, interesting day. First of all, I am happy to report that one of the little friends who has been crawling around in my walls is deceased. How do we know this you might ask? The easy answer would be that he followed in his crazy friend's footsteps and come out into the yard to die where we can see him and dispose of him accordingly. Unfortunately, this is not the case. How else can you determine that you have a dead rat? You use your other senses of course. In this case, our sense of smell. Our housekeeper opened the door to the laundry room and had her senses assailed by the intoxicating scent of decomposing rat. It leaves much to be desired I assure you. We promptly got on the horn to the exterminator people to have them come and remove our stinky friend from the attic of the laundry room. As soon as Mr. Helpful exterminator arrived he removed the panel which allows access to the attic and very quickly came to the conclusion that there was no way he could reach said rat. Thank you Mr. Helpful. A quick call later and we had the neighborhood caretaker, Juan, at the door with a ladder to assist Mr. Helpful in the taking off of the laundry room roof to continue the search from above.

In the meantime, the housekeeper, Erika, and I began a different attack in my room, which just happens to be adjacent to the laundry room. I'm sure the vast majority of North Americans have had a chigger bite at one point or another. They're those little red bites you get sometime in the night that itch for a couple days and go away. Obnoxious, but not earth shattering. (I have had a chigger infestation for the last 2 weeks and wake up every morning with at least 5 new bites.) However, I am sure the vast majority of North Americans have never had a flea bite. Flea bites are bright red, the size of a very large mosquito bite, hard, and itch. When I say they itch, I mean they ITCH. It's not an annoying itch, it's a burning, "oh my gosh I'm on fire!" kind of itch that makes you want to gnaw off whatever limb is unfortunate enough to have the bite. I also have fleas. Erika's and my war this afternoon was against these fleas and chiggers. All my clothes and sheets had to be washed, my blankets are being sent to the laundromat, Raid was sprayed in all the corners, and Eucalyptus oil was sprayed on every surface. The room was then locked up for the day to let the fumes do their work. We'll see how it works.

Back to the rat. Finally having got the roof off, Mr. Helpful dropped down into the attic to fetch the rat. He surfaced with no rat in hand, they re-boarded up the roof, and climbed down. This can't be good. Sure enough, there was no dead rat in the attic which means it has died somewhere under the building or in the walls. Our worst fears have been realized. Unless we want to completely rip apart the floor and the walls, there is nothing that can be done and we have 5 more fun filled days of decomposing rat to do laundry to. Lucky us. Thankfully, the smell hasn't reached my room yet and will hopefully stay away, otherwise I'll be moving into the main house for the next few days. Welcome to Chile!

My Wildlife

There is a great deal of spectacular wildlife in Chile. There is a bird that is all around, even in the city, that is just gorgeous. As is typical in every Latin American country there is also an abundance of stray dogs. I heard that it was due to the lack of rabies in dogs and therefore there is a lack of motivation on behalf of the government to control the population. In my own life and experience, I get to have a very close interaction and relationship with two of God’s creatures in particular: rats and fleas. Every night we all snuggle down together for a night of not so sound sleep. The rats have been living in my walls since I got here so we are well acquainted, but the fleas are the newcomers. They’ve only been around for a couple weeks. Allow me to elaborate. I’ll begin with the rats.

The city of Temuco, and probably the rest of Latin America, has a severe rat infestation. If anyone ever tells me that rats should be put on the endangered species list I will have to laugh and promptly smack them in the face. The rats live in the sewers and everyone is in a constant battle to keep them from coming up and infiltrating the rest of the world. For this reason, the wealthier neighborhoods have trash pick up every day. When there is no trash for them to smell or get at, they stay put; at least that’s the theory. As I mentioned, I have had rats living in my walls for who knows how long, but I have been living with them for the past 6 weeks. My Aunt put "call the exterminator" on her To Do list, but was prompted to move it up when a rat wandered out into the yard this past Friday. Now, the only reason a rat would wander into the middle of a yard in broad daylight would be to die. Evidently, when a rat has been poisoned they will come out of their hole and die outside. Well, this rat was evidently not doing well. He would sit still in the yard until we were convinced he was dead, then jump up and wander drunkenly around the yard till he found another good place to sit for a while. This routine lasted all day. None of us could figure out why, since he had obviously been poisoned, it wouldn’t just die. We watched all day until it finally made it’s way back around to it’s hole, which just happens to be under my room, and crawled in. The exterminator finally came and was as handy as eating ice cream with chopsticks. We finally called the neighborhood caretaker and he said that when the same type of poison is used year after year, the rats get accustomed to it and instead of dying they just go absolutely bonkers. He said the crazy one had wandered into his yard, where it was "taken care of", but he had some friends around. Now we have to change our poison, but in the meantime he gave me an ultrasonic speaker that is supposed to drive them out. Well, it’s been a few days and it still sounds like they’re doing a midnight square dance, but they’re not happy. Don’t ask me how I know, but I can tell they’re angry. Till we find something that works I just have to keep banging on the walls to get them to shut up and let me go to sleep.

This brings me to the fleas. Now, I do not have fleas. I am quite hygienic thank you very much, but hygiene in the country and with the people we visit in the country leaves something to be desired. Sometime during our last visit to the country I brought some fleas back with me, which quickly settled into my bed, and I now have at least twenty lovely little flea bites. We just sprayed my bed this afternoon so we’ll see how that goes.