A weekend at the beach + other adventures

Last night (around 8:30 pm) I got back from a weekend trip to Constitucion (about 2 hours from Talca). I went with an outdoor group that my friend Sarah is part of. Constitucion is on the coast and we spent two days camping on the beach :D The point of the trip was to register/record some bouldering routes… or at least that’s what the grant was written for (the whole trip was free). However the trip included much more than just bouldering- it also included rock climbing, lounging on the beach, a huge bonfire, walks on the beach, etc. All in all it was a good weekend; I really liked the location and had a great time exploring, climbing a little and meeting new people. (see pictures below)

Last week at the orphanage a group of high schoolers came and threw a party for three of the houses (at least 30 kids where there at the time… others were still at school, see picture below). They played games, fed the kids way too much sugar and entertained them for a couple hours. The kids all seemed to have a great time and were actually well behaved. The other two days I went, I can’t say the kids where as well behaved… I need to work on coming up with activities to do with the kids to keep them busier and out of trouble…

This week the library got some of its new books so we started processing those :D. It’s exciting to see the brand new books because most of them are really interesting and are books that were chosen with the women in mind (natural healing, feminist perspectives, women authors, etc). About 100 more books will be coming soon so we will be very busy! Since we only have one book to record all the library books in the process is slow and it will take us several weeks to record all the new books.
The greenhouse is coming along well and there are many tomato plants (as well as others whose names I forget) that are ready for sale. Since the weather has gotten nicer and many of the plants have been moved onto the patio lots of women come to see and buy plants every day. It’s fun to see how excited the women are when they leave with their newly purchased plants (flowers, cactus, and vegetable plants). The mosaic is also progressing nicely. At least two sections are very near completion. I’ve made lots of process (see pictures below) but am nowhere near being done. I really enjoy working on the mosaic but I can only do it for about an hour or two at a time and I seem to get surprisingly little done each time I go (I often go to work a little when I don’t have other commitments).

Kym and I have started researching trips for summer vacation. We found a great deal on flights to Buenos Aires, Argentina so we are for sure going there. I’ve also been researching Easter Island because I really want to go there. It is going to be expensive but I’ve wanted to go there ever since I did a report on Easter Island sometime in Junior High School! Other potential destinations include Brazil, Uruguay and Ecuador.