My Chile legs

Today was a wonderful day. One of the things that my Aunt does is she has a group of weavers who dye and process their own wool into naturally dyed and hand spun yarn. This yarn is then sent to the states where it is sold. This becomes a nice suplimental income for these women who live in rather poor communities. Today my Aunt and I went down to the town of Lanco, about an hour south of Temuco, to work with a bunch of women while they dyed wool. It was such an interesting thing to see. You actually take the wool, wash it, grind the dying agent, put the wool in the water with the agent, let it boil, then take it out to dry. They taught me how to grind one of the dyes, mix it, and then to seperate it and actually group/comb the wool. I felt like such a hippie! It was awesome. All of their dying agents are completely natural. The Mapuche originally had a lot of red in their weavings, but for a long time the red has completely disappeared from their dying scheme. My Aunt was curious as to where the red went and so she did some research. Turns out that one of the only sources of true natural red in the world is called cochineal. It is a beetle that when dried and ground creates a natural red that is used for dying wool. This beetle has long disappeared from Southern Chile, but they are able to buy it and once again use it to dye their wool. One of my jobs today was to grind it into a powder. Really interesting to actually be grinding dried beetles into a powder.

In the middle of the day we broke for lunch, and then again for a light snack in the evening. This brings me to my second subject. Why a person who does not eat gluten or dairy cannot survive in Chile. Bread is a staple down here. During our break I sat down and one of the women handed me a bun and some sliced cheese to put on it. I graciously accepted, not wanting to be rude, and ate the bread and cheese. No sooner did I finish than another woman brought out a loaf of bread that she had made, sliced off a large slice of bread and offered it to me. I said no thank you and explained that I had just eaten some bread. She gave me one of the most intimidating looks I think I have ever seen and basically said, though in not so many words, that I was going to eat the bread. What was I to do? I had no choice in the matter! My Aunt said that basically, if I wanted her to still be my friend, I was going to eat the bread, which I did. Sheesh! So there you have it. To anyone who does not eat gluten or cheese and yet wants to come to South America, you can try to stick to your diet as long as you can, but you will eventually be force fed white bread and cheese by a group of Chilean women.