It truly has been an eventful last couple of days. The last weeks have been marked with the departure of Michelle. Michelle who has been living with us for the last half year or so has been an integral part of our lives and also our experience in Chile. She ended her program here and now she is off to the United States to go back to graduate school. We had a despedida (going away party) for her last weekend, which was very nice. We went to Buenos Muchachos, which is a nice grill restaurant her in Santiago. The night was filled with good food; good friends and it seemed to be a nice completion to her time here in Chile. After the party on Friday we had a nice low-key dinner at our house just between us and we also helped her with last minute preparations for her return home. Her flight was at 7:30 on Monday so of course that made for a basically sleepless night and a rough day at work the next day.
On Tuesday I had confirmation, which was very nice. Brian and I of course were slightly late. (we live over and hour away from the school were the confirmation takes place) For confirmation we had a traditional Jewish dinner. When we were seated a plate of lettuce, unleavened, an egg and some kind of applesauce tasting concoction greeted me. The plate was sparse and I was unaware that there was a normal dinner that was also being served. So, I ate all that was on my plate and also the plate of the empty seat next to me. This created the illusion that there was a person was actually sitting there. When dinner arrived they also served the plate next to me. I, not being wanting to be wasteful, reluctantly ate another portion of lamb and rice. Needless to say the dinner was delightful.
We had a short week last week, only until Wednesday because of the National holiday that fell on Thursday. Due to the holiday we did not have work on Friday, but we did have a teacher in-service day or a training day for faculty. The holiday is in celebration of the Battle of Iquique, a battle that the Chileans lost, but they won a hero, Arturo Prat. Yet, it is still interesting that they are celebrating a battle that they lost. Friday we talked about some of the problems at the school and had group discussions about where we needed to improve. I ended up having to stay late after the meetings to finish up a presentation that we are using next week for Brother Andres week.
Semana Hermano Andres or Brother Andres week is a weeklong celebration at school. It is a week full of competition and games to honor and celebrate the life of Brother Andres, who is an important figure in the Holy Cross in Chile. I will be in charge of certain classes, and the PowerPoint that we made is a game show type challenge in which the students must answer questions about the lives and figures in the Church along with other questions about geography and culture.