May 8, 2022

Our work is slowing down. The surge of missionaries coming after Covid has finished so our head count is pretty flat.  That means fewer new apartments are needed.  We  still have missionaries doubled up in some apartments and need some in new areas.  Jackie is busy going through the contracts based on the consumer price index.  It is written in to most of the contracts.  Now that inflation is high I think more land lords are paying attention and asking for their increases. 

The weather has cooled off. It is getting down into the 40s at night.  We did have a good rain about a week ago.  It is the first decent rain since we arrived.  

Here are my 2 home improvement projects.  A coat rack and a shoe rack/bench.  The bunk beds we buy have rails and ladders that we don't normally use so it leaves me with wood and bolts 

for projects.  

My cousin Ross and his wife Satcheco came over for dinner.  Jackie made Tom Kha Gai soup.  It turned out well as usual. This picture shows our entire kitchen.  The fridge is between Jackie and the door.  

After the Tom Kha Gai soup and sushi we roasted marshmellows over the gas stove and made smores.

We said good bye to a great missionary yesterday.  It is hard to see them go. 

We went to this apartment and did some improvements.  Jackie hung a curtin, we tossed out a worn out couch and chair. 

The chair is hiding under the clothes in the center of the picture.  

This is the same wall after the makeover.  We hung a rod to hang hangers on, put up shelves for underware etc.  

These are 2 long Completos, Chilean hot dogs.  They put some good stuff on top but in the end they are still hot dogs. 

 

 

March 20

We went to an apartment in Curacavi and it was overgrown with shrubs and trees.  Jackie made short work of it. 

We randomly see people riding horses or driving horse drawn carts in the city.  This is up near my cousin Ross's house. 

This picture shows almost the entire inside of the closest neighborhood store.  There are lots of things crammed into it.  They sell pet food in bulk. You can buy half a kilo in a plastic bag.  People buy a few eggs at time. There are probably 5 stores like this within a block of our apartment house. 

Here is the liquor selection in the store.  It takes up about a third of the store. 

Another night shot from our bedroom window.  I wish you could hear the dogs barking. They never get hoarse or tired. The green line of lights is the boom on the construction crane. We are not in Hockinson. 

This is our mission president and his wife, the Simpsons. We enjoy working with them. 

 

April 3, 2022

 One of the young sister missionaries that we worked with just went home and we zoomed in to her homecoming talk. We used the 85 inch monitor in the office.  The 2 young men missionaries are the assistants to the president, they are the top youth leaders.  

We had an accidental family video chat on Messenger.  I was showing someone the video of Jakes twins on their first day of potty training and pushed the call button.  Seconds later all 4 of our kids were on a video chat with us. We couldn't have planned it with people 12 hours of time difference.  Jessie played peek a boo with Linnie. 

Jackie and Jessie tried to match faces. 

We struggle to get good kitchen cabinets in our apartments. We bought this cabinet on line and paid to have it assembled. The guy did it in about 2 hours.  Jackie and I put one together in about 3 hours with 2 people.  We will pay for assembly from now on. 

This young Haitian couple live on the hill across from our apartment.  They will be getting married in about 2 week.  He has been working here for a while and making money to get her to Chile.  He speaks Creole, French, English, and Spanish.  She only speaks Creole and French.  It makes conversations interesting.  They are sweet humble people.  Jackie will help with a wedding reception.  

We gave them a ride home last night and on their street there was a food stand selling "completos", hot dogs with lots of good stuff on top.  The hot dogs aren't special but the toppings are good.  They were raising money to improve the security of the neighborhood. They seemed to be having a good time doing it.  

Here is the completo.  Lots of guacamole on it. 

March 27

  We went on a bike ride with three other people from the office on Saturday.  This is a park along the Mopocho drainage.  

In one of the parks along the bike path this statue of a llama made of plastic parts. Notice the person underneath to see how big it is.  There are parts of barrels, garbage bins, plastic car bumpers in it.  

Here we are in front of the Costanera Norte building. The highest in South America.  

We want to rent this apartment that we checked out this week. The bedrooms are upstairs and this is the stairway to the up stairs.  It is pretty narrow.  

This is a metal kitchen cabinet which still has doors to put on it. We put it together thinking it would only take a few hours...about 6 hours later we still are not done. We bought 4 of them because houses here generally come only with a kitchen sink and cabinet below it. LUCKILY we paid to have the others assembled. 

This is in the house where Jacob Roberts will be staying. Once again our paths cross. Elder Roberts is Emily Gilmans son. He was named after our oldest son Jacob. Emily used to babysit Jacob when he was a small boy and she said she wanted to name one of her children after him.

January February

It looks like we are posting monthly now.  We have been here about 4 months now.  It is starting to feel like the new normal for us  The normal life functions such as driving, shopping, using Whatsapp are not so stressful. 

For those of you who are from Hockinson I found this good photo of the big spider. The rest of you have missed out as it has been gone for years. 

We attend the Recoleta congregation. About 30 people attend.  They Zoom the meetings for those not comfortable attending. People in Chile are concerned about Covid.  A large majority wear mask all the time. For church meetings we have our temperature checked and show our covid passport. We are hopeful that the reduction in cases will allow us to back off on mask wearing and social distancing.  

This is the van we drive. It is a Hyundai H1. It is a good vehicle we can haul 9 people or several beds and mattresses, fridge and washer.  We paid some guys down the street to wash and shampoo it.  They did a decent job for about 20 bucks. 

I thought that this guy had interesting eyes.  It is a poster that was plastered along the streets. 

We have enjoyed this Peruvian restaurant. Good burgers, good prices.  A dollar is worth about 800 pesos.

This is a big pool in the park on the hill nearby.  I don't think anyone was swimming in it. 

This is an apartment that we just rented called Principal. It is an addition to a larger house.  The apartment has an upstairs but the floors were soft and we didn't need the room so we blocked the stairway off.  

We cleaned it up and added misisonary furniture.  It was marginal but turned out better than expected.  The landlord cleaned up the out side as well making it more appealing. This has been a big part of our work getting apartments rented and prepared for missionaries.

It is starting to cool off a bit.  We have a portable air conditioner but don't use it often.  

One of our coworkesrs is from Columbia and with the help of a Columbian friend made us a big Columbian dinner.  Lots of good food.  

Wheat flour is not typically used in Columbia. Instead they use a tapioca flour or corn flour. All of this food including the bread biscuit was lovingly prepared for us to experience the Columbian foods.

We went to a Thai restaurant fot Hermana Granges birthday. This little paradise is hidden behind two large tall doors on a busy city street. It is amazing to find such beautiful courtyards.

 

The food was fabulous. They brought a Grange watermelon birthday cake. Some wanted chocolate for dessert  so the plate below which looks like a fotograph really is a delicious treat. 

                                                       Notice the paradise back ground.

We were sent this cute picture of the twins (Jacob and Tatia's) raiding their Dad's ice cream stash.

Ross Grange and wife Sashiko live here in Santiago. We have had the pleasure of getting together with them atleast 3 times now and hope to again soon. This was at a great Japanese restaurant close to their                                                                 rock and mineral shop.

Jackie loved the rock shop (the Drewery blood likes rocks and minerals) and purchased a few cool                                                               rocks and plans to go back for more.

                     

                       This is the park outside our gate. Jackie is feeding the birds some bread.

You notice we are still wearing masks here. They moved to phase 4 and no longer have PCR tests required upon entering the country and no required quarantine for arriving missionaries. The masks have not been lifted as of yet we will still wear them everywhere in public.