Steve Jones - Diary
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Original Message --------
Subject: Norte Grande
Date: Wed, 30 Nov 2005 00:08:02 +0000
From: Steven Jones <dudek4@hotmail.com>
Hi all. How are you all doing?
The last couple of weeks have seen me travel through the north of Chile on
a bus road trip with people from Canada/Austrailia/UK/Germany/Sweden and i
arrived back in Santiago last night knackered. It was a great 10 days though
- i had a go at horseriding up scarily steep Andean mountains, sandsurfing
down desert dunes, cycling through the Atacama Desert, studying the clear
Chilean skies at an observatory, a boat ride to penguin and sea lion reserves,
BBQs on isolated beaches as we watched spectacular sunsets, long hikes along
the crests of HUGE sand dunes, caving...the list goes on. Attached a few photos
to gave you some sort of feel of it all.
This morning i flew to Punta Arenas, the most southernmost city on earth.
> From there, i caught to bus to Puerto Natales, my current location. This
place primarily acts as the gateway to the Torres Del Paine national park and the next few days will see me hiking around this area. It should be good.
Anyway, i am going to sign off now - hunger
calls.
I will be in touch soon
Chao
Steve
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-------- Original Message --------
Subject: The Intrinsic Relationship Between Mariscos and Deflatine
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2005 19:49:27 +0000
From: Steven Jones <dudek4@hotmail.com>
Hola chicos
Its been around 3-4 weeks since i have returned to Concepcion and Lorna returned to the UK. We had a fab time - some pics are attached of the waterfalls in Iguazu, my (and, lets face it, miserable) attempts to learn the tango. Attached are also some photos of the families that are keen to take part in another project next year - although this is by no means certain to happen.
Since i returned my life has returned to its normal cycle of half the week in Concepcion and half the week up in Carnicu. Last weekend was the National Independance Day, when the Chileans celebrate their independance from the Spanish. Its basically their biggest party of the year and it lasts all weekend. Lots of people literally leave work on friday night and dont get home until late on Monday. Cant fault it but those same people literally spend nearly all of their wages on those three days. After that they survive on bread and water. The chief food in these parties are called empaladas - these are basically pasties and theytake two forms. One has fried beef, onions and a chopped up hard boiled egg as a filling (yeah, i know i am going off eggs out here) and the other has mariscos. Mariscos are basically shellfish - a photo of which is attached in soup form. A problem, that i only just discovered, is that its only safe to eat them in certain places in Chile. In the south nobody eats them as they are known to contain a bacteria that can kill - i am not sure if this has something to do with pollution or not. Neverthless, they are an acquired taste that i am not prepared to get acquired with. Once was enough i can assure you.Still, this weekend saw them being put in thousands of pasties - i gave them the wide berth and stuck to the beef, onion and egg.
The other main source of food this weekend is the BBQ - although they dont put burgers on it over here. Oh no. They put whole masses of beef on it, that take hours to cook (and, like the UK, always by the men). Its was very nice though. The traditional Chilean dance is called the "Quaker" - i had a go and looked like a fool as i never had the slightest idea what i was doing. But still i got the biggest round of applause - more of solidarity i suppose. I think nothing quite amuses the Chileans so much as when "gringos" (white people) try to dance, especially the Quaker dance. When i (and the other gringos) arrived it must have the like the moment when the cabaret walks in. hence the applause i suppose.
What else? Oh yes, i found a decent bottle of wine for 75p - cant go wrong with that, can you? I have taken to trying as many of the wines as i can (not all at once you understand), and even the cheap stuff is ok.
I saw a new phenomenon yesterday - the drive in funeral home (and it was "drive in" and not "drive thru" - that would be even more freaky). The men in this place even had uniforms, with little hats etc. Sounds like something you couldnt make up, doesnt it? God only knows how it works - cant see it catching on in the UK but then again i suppose stranger things have happened. But then again, maybe not.
My return date is to be the 18.12.05, just in time for Xmas. For the two weeks prior to that, i intend to see as much of Chile as i can. In the north is the Atacama desert,the driest place on earth (in some parts it has never rained), and natural geysers while in the south are glacial areas with volcano and lake districts in the middle area where i can rafting, kayaking or even skiiing.
Hows things with you? Any news? Thanks to those who do email me, it is very much appreciated and is a useful way of keeping up with all the various shannigans back home.
Anyway, i think i have rambled on long enough now.
Hasta luego
Chaooooooooooo
Steve
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Subject:
Buenos Aires and Iguazu
Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2005 18:49:58 +0000
From: Steven Jones <dudek4@hotmail.com>
Hi all.
Long time no speak. I have been a bit lax on the email front of late but i
thought that maybe you all may need a break from my prolonged ramblings.
The last couple of weeks have been exciting in a number of different ways. In this time Lorna, my girlfriend, has come over to see me and we have been to a Chilean Vineyard for a tasting, a Salvador Dali exhibition (weird), a Rachmaninov piano concerto (No2), been to the biggest dam on the earth, danced the tango (well.... kind of. I tried at least), eaten the best steaks in the world in Buenos Aires for four pound (i had heard they were good but, well, if you like your steak just come here. On seconds thoughts, everyone just come here anyway - its the place to be), passed outside the Boca Juniors football stadium (but went there the wrong day to watch a game. Shame that), had our luggage taken off a train mistakenly by a complete stranger (the train had to go back to collect it and the womans bag was less than half the size of ours.I wasnt happy, especially as our plane tickets were in the bag), been in a boat that went underneath one of the cascades of the biggest waterfall in the world (Iguazu) ( i have never been so wet but, boy, it was fun. the rapids in Alton Towers just will not match up anymore), went for a massage and sauna in our hotel spa completely unaware that it was a local homosexual hangout. It still didnt click fully until some old guy starting feeling me up in the steam room - that called for a sharp exit and i didnt go back in there again. If anyone ever comes here avoid the CASTELAR HOTEL SPA, unless you like that sort of thing. I know i am not going back there again. Ever.
Also cars have broken down on the way to trains and buses, meaning that we
are literally running ùp the train station, catching the train by seconds.Money
has run out at one stage and all the money exchange houses and banks were
closed (even cash machines, i mean unlucky or what!), meaning that we had
to take some clothes back to the shop simply to obtain some money for food.
On our return to Buenos Aires from Iguazu, its turns out our connection from
the airport and hotel (yep, the Castelar Hotel) did not exist. So there we
were at 9pm last night trying to find a hotel and we found one for a fiver
a night (for both of us). Its ok as well but the building looks like it was
constructed centuries ago. And the guy who runs it looks the same age. Its
quaint though and you cant really complain for
two pound fifty a night !!
We also entered southernmost Brazil and Paraguay
via Iguazu. The temperature there was 33 degrees and it is the middle of winter.
In the summer its not far shy of 50 degrees apparently - i am glad i am not
here then, i am bad
enough in the sun in Greece yet alone that. Even in 33 degrees i still got
gorged on by the mosquitos, with about 15 bites in one night alone.And i think
that was only one of them, hes dead now though, splattered all over the wall.
Good enough for it,i spent all Saturday scratching. We did intend to go into
Uruguay but i need to watch my cash a little now. So that can wait until i
return here or go there via Rio in the future.
Also, Lorna brought over some strong cheddar
that i devoured in hours and i had a bath in the hotel in Buenos Aires (yep,
again, the Castelar - but it wasnt a communal bath, thank God). The concept
of bath over here is foreign.
Its often the most simple things that you miss, its strange.
Anyway, time to go. I am in a cybercafe close to the widest street in the world. You really need to wait for the red man there, otherwise you are going to have problems, probably leading to pain and death. Lorna said that crossing the road is a bit like the old game Frogger (anybody remember that?).
Anyway, time to go and find out why we were left at the airport last night.Take
care all and keep me updated on all things back home. Whats been going
on?
Chaooo
Steve
-----Original
Message-----
From: Steven Jones [mailto:dudek4@hotmail.com]
Sent: 16 July 2005 20:00
Subject: Afternon All
Hiya all.
Hows things back with you all back home? Anything
interesting happened
to anybody?Here things are ok. I had a bout of tonsillitis a couple of weeks
back that put me out of commission for a few days but apart from a slight
cold thelast few weeks has been much better.A few of you have asked for some
info on what I have been doing,especially up in the mountains. The project
here runs on a self build basis - that is, the families themselves, is small
groups, essentially build their own properties. The subsidy system of the
Chilean government pays for the materials required for the construction process.
However, the logistical costs involved in actually transporting these materials
to the construction sites can be considerable. The principal reason for this
is that the families do not really live any near what we would classify as
main roads. In some cases, the families literally live on the side of mountains.
In order, to aid the process the families have dug out makeshift roads themselves
- however, in bad weather conditions, these have been known to have been washed
away by landslides etc.
I haven't spent much time on the construction site as such as of yet, primarily because it is winter and we have been taking emergency food supplies to the most isolated families so that they can survive the severe weather fronts that regularly hit the area at this time of year. In addition, while in Concepcion, I have attended many meetings and presentations related to the project (although my Spanish is still farm from adequate) A growing problem with the project is the questions of how to raise additional funds to cover the transport and logistical costs and this issue is taking up more and more time because, without extra funds, the project will effectively cease.
Recently I have started to take a course in formal Spanish classes to try and speed up the learning process. I have improved considerably since I arrived here but there is still a long way to go. Sometimes, I am still there wondering what people around me are saying, although these days I can usually get the gist of the conversation at least. The television is still is a bit of a mystery, mainly because they speak so fast. Saying that, the TV still seems to be awful. For example, they have the same dancing programme on each night. Last night, they seemed to be having a wedding dance competition, dressed in bride and groom clothes. I didn't make much sense of it but it's very popular here. The most popular program is Les Trientas - a variation on Thirtysomething - and someone is crying or looking extremely anguished in every scene. Bit like Eastenders come to think about it (but without Phil Mitchell). Yet, even when you change channels here, there are about 4 or 5 main acting expressions (anguished, crying, happy, concerned, drunk) between them at anyone time. It's enough to make anyone pine for Ive Been Framed.
With regard to alcohol, it is very cheap here. They charge about six or seven pounds for a bottle of Jack Daniels, Smirnoff, Bacardi and the wine starts at about 80p for a litre. The families in the mountains only get about three pounds a month for their children. After this, they must grow and produce their own food and so the majorities don't bother with alcohol. However, some salesmen make the journey up there to try and entice them with alcohol. However, this practice, for some reason, was outlawed and so the salespeople now go up there with their wine hidden, usually in tyres.So, as you can imagine it's not exactly the good stuff they get up there.
Anyway, I have rambled on for long enough now.
Thanks again for everyone who contacts me, it is very much appreciated and
it is interesting to know what is going on with you all. Also, for all who
are interested, I passed my
Msc - although why it took the University 4 months to notify anyone remains
a mystery to me!!
Anyway, take care all.
Chaooo !!!!
(I have been corrected, its not ciao here)
Steve
PS: Attached are some photos of more mountains, a river (for a change),one of the houses proposed to be replaced in the next project (probably next year)
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more mountains
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a river (for a change)
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one
of the houses proposed to be replaced in the next project |
Date:
Mon, 20 Jun 2005 18:41:45 +0000
From: Steven Jones <dudek4@hotmail.com>
Hello all. Hows things back at home? Anything exciting happened there?
Its been quite quiet over here over the last week or so. Saying that, there was a earthquake in the north of the country measuring 7.5 on the richter scale last week. I think this was connected in some way to series of earthquakes that Califonia also experienced. Prior to the earthquake here, there were a series of minor tremors and there may still be more. I have only just realized in the last week that i am living in the area where the largest earthquake ever recorded happened 40 years ago, it measured 9 point something and more or less destroyed the city centre, This is the reason why there are no older buildings here as they all came down then and in a slightly smaller earthquake 30 years previous to that.
The place where i live (attached photo) is roughly 25 minutes or so from the city centre. It is not far away as such but the road is not direct and the bus has to cross the Bio Bio river. This river is bigger than any river i have seen and it takes about 3-4 minutes to go over the bridge in the car or bus. There are two different types of local buses here. Both are exceptionally cheap, costing 35p per journey (that is a standard fee whether you travel 2 minutes or 30 minutes). The one type of bus is quite slow and is never in any type of rush. The other type of bus are driven by certified lunatics. These buses are usually fairly old and have all manner of certificates above the drivers head (driving licence, tax etc) including , I firmly believe, the certificate of madness for the driver. One time i was on the bus with a lot of older people and children and the driver hit a curb and we went up on two wheels for the next 10 yards. the amazing thing was that the rest of the bus didnt seem to bat an eyelid. Such levels of lunacy appear to be the norm with these drivers. I think the selection process for the drivers would be a real eye opener.If you come into the interview twitching your head you will be half way there. Still, it has to be said that apart from this the bus service leaves the service in the Uk in the shade. The buses literally got through side streets and more or less take you to your front door step. Also, there is a bus every 8 minutes.
The buses here have all manner of entertainment on them. Buskers come on with their guitar play a few nice numbers and the put out their hand for money. Beggars come on the bus, give a little speech, show their ID card (to prove that they are not from Peru or Bolivia - the Chilean people do not like the Peruvians and Bolivians due to a war 150 years ago, i think this was Chiles last real war, they have a Bank Holiday to commenerate it. I think its also the only war they have ever won.) and go around the bus with their hands out. Also, people come on with sweets and chocolate and appear to make some money, especially when people are going home from work. Some people also run sweet/chocolate stalls on the pavements but most of these are illegal and are led away by the police and have all their goods confescated, probably for the police party. Talking of parties, we arranged some time ago for a meeting with some housing ministry officials and we arranged for some other people to join us from Santiago (5 hours away). We turned up and were told that the people who were meant to be meeting us had been called away on a "institutional emergency". We then asked for the deputy etc and were told that they, also, were attending this institutional emergency. We were thinking that a block of flats had fallen down or something eqally serious had happened. But as we turned to go, the man we came to meet floated down the stairs, obviously on his way to reaching a drunken state, and explained in a decidely slurred tone that the office was having a party upstairs ! All this took me back to my days in RCT !! But, to be fair, that was at Xmas.
Anyway, i digress. Lets get back to the buses. When you get off the bus here, crossing the road is no easy matter either. They do have push button pedestrian crossing and zebra crossings but it is best not to use them. The main reason for this is that it is not compulsary for cars or buses to stop at them.So the comparitively simple act of crossing the road at a zebra crossing becomes a deadly game of russian roulette. To me, it seems the introduction of the laws governng these things is a government ruse to cut the population !!
Anyway, attached are some photos of where i live,the family i live with, one of the famiies in the porch of their new house, of Andy (the guy i am working with) and his family and of the square in Concepcion.
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Speak soon, ciao ciao
Steve
Subject:
Hola gente
Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 00:13:33 +0000
From: Steven Jones <dudek4@hotmail.com>
Hiya all again.
Anything exciting happened to anyone back home? I hear Stiffy is now a father
so please pass on my congratulations please Phil Boy.
Whats happened here? Not that much to be honest,
i have just finished a 1500 page book but that was mainly as i was ill so
i couldnt go anywhere for a few days. Last week i went to a BBQ. It was good
and the food was great. No burgers or hot dogs but loads of beef accompanied
by various strange dishes, usually involving tomatoes or potatoes mixed with
herbs. It was really good, although we didnt eat until 12.30am. One unusual
thing about life out here isthat although the people here drink a lot of tea
or coffee, they usually drink it without milk or with powdered milk. Its very
rare that you go to a house that has normal milk and even then its packaged
in a very strange way (the same sort of packaging as Capri Sun. Remember them?).
They also have certain foods at the wrong time of day. For example, gateau
for breakfast. The shops over here work in a different way also. In the UK,
you pick up whatever you want and take it to the till to pay.Here you usually
need to ask for something, the item is taken for packing to someone else and
then to
a third person for payment. Buying something as simple as a A4 folder can
take as long as 10 minutes.
The music here, on the whole, is a bit dodgy.
In the main, it is latin american dance music and the 12 year girl i live
with loves it and plays it very LOUD. After about 3 hours of this, anybodys
brain could turn to mush. To avoid it saturday, i went to a german theme bar
(yep, you read it right) with lots of saurkraut. The house special drink is
half a pint of beer (there has been a breakthrough on the beer front. One
brand is ok and they even make a type of ale) mixed with half a pint of orange
juice. Its very strange and i cant say i liked it that much but, still, it
went down the
hatch easily enough.
I saw the new Star Wars film, with spanish subtitles. Most of the films in the cinema here use subtitles. There are some dubbed films but these i avoid these for the obvious reasons. To get into the cinema its about 2 quid. Quite cheap really but saying that many things are quite cheap here. A decent meal out wont cost you much more than a five. Last week, i went for mexican food with some beer and it cost about four pounds fifty pence. Also, its quite cheap to go for few beers although people drink beer i their houses like we treat wine in the UK. Beer even comes in one litre bottles.
So, nothing much to add to the above. I am
still getting a few bites but i am not quite sure what is responsible for
this (how stupid does that sound?). This weekend has many international football
matches here. The Chileans dont seem to like the Bolivians, the Peruvise or
the Argentinians. I think this is the result of a war in the 1850s that Chile
won (they have a bank holiday to celebrate this fact, because its the only
battle i think they have ever won). Anyway, Chile beat Bolivia on Saturday
and this wednesday Chile play Venezuela whle Brazil play Argentina. That should
be a
fun night !
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nearly finished house
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Velen and of the house
that i currently live in
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old property
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Anyway, i have attached a few more photos. One is of the nearly finished house,another of the old property (if you call it that) and the final one is of Velen and of the house that i currently live in.
Take care all
Steve
Hello, its me again. How are things back home?
Any news off anyone? Thanks
to all of you who have emailed me as its nice to have contact with back
home.
A bit has happened since i emailed last week.
Firstly, i am not sure if this made the news back home but it was on the BBC
website. The mountains where i travel back and fore to are quite high. This
is to be expected i suppose as
the Andean mountains but it still takes your breath away when you stand at
the bottom of one. Anyway, the Chilean government has a subscirption policy
here and all 17-18 years olds are expected to spend around 2 years in the
armed forces. Well, the most recent intake of these were taken for training
up in the mountains, in a place about 10km away from where the housing project
is taking place. Anyway, these men were on a young march when
blizzard like conditions came in and lasted for about 2-3 days. Consequently,
about 20-30cm of snow was left everywhere in the area and there is very little
cover. The reasons why they were sent marching in these
conditions are still unclear but about 50 of these conscipts have now been
declared dead or missing (it amounts to the same in those conditions with
no cover). So, there has been 3 days of national mourning and the Chilean
people are not happy with the powers that be for obvious reasons. The President
of the country has been on TV continously. But, the weather forecasts here
in the city are rarely right, alone in the mountain areas.
Still, i would have thought that the army would have access to more exact
data.
Anyway, i was not up there at the time but
it was decided to take a trip up to supply the families of the mountains with
food as they would completely cut off in those conditions. So, we went up
quite late at night and the
scenery (the snowcovered mountains etc) was fantastic. I didnt take a camera,
which was a bit stupid, but i dont think any photo could really have done
it justice. It turns out the families were not that badly affected and
that rain has washed most of the snow away. But still, as we had made the
effort to go up, they invited us to have food with them. So, i had ham, fried
egg, bread and roast lamb for breakfast. For breakfast ! Thats set me
up for the day, i wasnt hungry until i got back to the city later that night.
I managed to watch the Champions League final
in the house where i live. The picture was a bit fuzzy and its quality varied
with the wind outside but, still, i could watch it. The coverage started about
the time it all finished
in Europe and after Maldinis first minute goal i thought it was only a highlights
show. But it was the whole match, but at half time i wished it was a only
a highlights show. I still cant believe the second half, shows that the Italians
still fall apart when you put a bit of pressure of them. Awesome ! I bet many
of fans were just hoping the customs officials in
Manchester airport were to ask them if they had anything to declare when they
landed back there !(Thats probably a joke for about 5 people) I also had my
first experience of a Chilean nightclub. Its all a bit strange, they all dance
in a long line. Its quite civilized i suppose and when you go to get a drink
at the bar, you need to pay the cashier first who
then gives you a reciept to give to the barman. This approach is found in
most shops here and often 3 or 4 people are involved to buy a small thing
as somebody else wraps in for you. Its very systematic but still feels a bit
odd.
Um...what else? The TV here is dire. I dont like TV much in the UK but, in
comparision, its fantastic to what they have here. I am pining for reality
voting programmes. Well, maybe its not that bad but in the soap operas they
all dress like they think they are on the front page of a magazine.Lots of
designer beards and bryncreemed hair and thats just the women. No seriously,
no one can act, no one. The only TV i have really watched was the football
and i think that is all i am likely to watch.I am also missing central heating
!
Anyway, got to go now. So take care all.
Steve
PS: Philip, Happy Birthday for the 31st.
-----Original
Message-----
From: Steven Jones [mailto:dudek4@hotmail.com]
Sent: 19 May 2005 19:01
Subject: Hello Again
Ive been over here now for best part of three weeks and while the first week
seemed to crawl by, it has flown by since.The main thing im missing out here
is decent cheese. They have a selection of differing cheeses here. Sadly,they
are all the same - tasteless. Its like gnawing on a piece of rubber. If you
know anyone who knows anything at all about making cheese, a fortune is to
be made here. Also, if you know anyone who can make decent beer money is to
be made out here also. If you can make both cheese and beer - well...you will
be set for life.Im
starting to find my bearings out here slowly. The centre of Concepcion itself
is vast but seems to have been designed with a set square as the city and
all of its streets are very straight and organised. I suppose this makes it
easier to find my way around. Nothing of any particular interest happened
last week. Ive moved into a different house with a new family - who are lovely-
and my spanish is improving. Saying that, they are quite a few people here
from different parts of the world who speak english very well and ive entered
into an agreement with this one bloke that we try and teach each other English
and Spanish (God help him !!).
In Concepcion over the last three weeks there have been daily protests by students, universities and school children over the decision by the Government to effectively privatise the student loans system (grants simply do not exist here). Basically the Government want to distance themselves from their own policy of making the education system even more elitist than it is currently (and it is very elitist) by selling the responsibility of providing and collecting payment of the loans to a private company. This may seem similar to the situation in the UK but things are a little different here in that a variety of differing forms of inticement to pay, such as beatings or prison, can be used to either obtain repayment or solely as a punishment.
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Carnicu
(the mountain village)
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the
construction site in Carnicu
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the
Andes when i was flying into Santiago
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In Chile, there
is no police force as such, only the cambineros. These, effectively, are soldiers.
So, ultimately, the country is policed by a branch of the army. And while
things have improved since the days of Pinochet (less tortures, murders, dissappereances
etc) the army still has enormous power here. My understanding is that the
Government or political systems here have no influence over the army - it
is autonomous. In the UK the government tells the army what to do - not here,
they can make suggestions that may or not be acted upon.Its a strange concept
to get your head around.With regard to the student protests, the city plaza
is daily filled with hundreds of students facing the cambineros - usually
with massive water cannons, vehicles that look like armed personnel carriers
and a variety of
weapons to hand. I was in camera shop last week when the cambineros came in,
dragged this young bloke out and rushed him away. I think he upset them by
throwing such stones at them. Ths happens daily nationwide at the moment with
the protests getting fairly loud and sometimes violent every day. When i see
all this kicking off, i make myself scarce a bit sharpish !
Not all the protests are violent though, the universities have allowed strikes and sit ins within its buildings because it agrees with the aims of the protests. Apparently student protests happen every year here for some reason or another. I think they a good thing and reminds me that such things are almost a thing of the past in the UK as apathy seems to have almost completely taken hold within the UK. The strange thing here is that the government seems to listen because the universities here have such power.
On Tuesday this
week, we left Concecepion to go up to the mountains. We picked up building
materials on the way and were about an hour from the mountain areas when the
pick up van conked out. Bear in mind it was pitch black (it was about 9pm),
in the middle of nowhere, with no phone signal, no mobile vehicle repair.
And to add to our woes, the pick conked out on a steep hill and the handbrake
cable then snapped. It wasnt a good situation but the van seemed to come back
to life for about two minutes at a time before conking out again. Therefore
progress was very slow but we eventually managed to find a place called Ralco.
This was a real frontier town with little there. We stayed the night in a
hostel, found the local mechanic (he wasnt much good, he lifted the bonnet,
fliddled for two minutes, laughed and shook his head) and realised that we
had to tow the pick up 30 kilometres through all the mountain roads to the
next majorish town, Santa Barbara. I admit that this journey was a little
scary but we reached the town where the mechanic again didnt seem to have
much idea of what he was doing but he
fiddled for a while and got the pick up going.We then managed to get back
to Concepcion yesterday afternoon and the pick up should be looked at properly
today. All good fun.
Anyway,how are things in the UK? Anything exciting happened to anyone? Im off to find some food now. Ill be in touch soon, take care all
Steve
Copy of E-mail received from Steve on 11th May 2005
Subject: Greetings
Hello. How are you keeping in Porth? As per previous E-mail all is well here at the moment (apart from being bitten in about 5 different places by some flying insect last night. The worst place is my eyelid where it looks as if I’ve had a hammering in a boxing ring!).
Last weekend I went on a weekend away with the local Church (Santa Juan – St John’s – Anglican Church). The weekend was aimed at teenagers and was an annual outreach event. The concept is that around 30 enthusiastic 16-30 year old people invite one friend each to this weekend. The inviters are therefore throughout the weekend in the role as “hosts” and act as such doing everything for the “guests”, including serving food, washing up, singing, dancing and many other things. The weekend has 2 general activities: forms of praise – very modern hymns with the music performed live by a live band (literally with drums, electric guitar, keyboard, bass guitar etc). All of the songs have actions that are usually very energetic – running around, doing set dances, jumping up down. The other general activity is that the “guests” are separated into 5 different groups, all headed by one of the hosts. These groups all listen when the two nominated leaders sit and talk through a microphone about 6 different issues. The idea is after the initial talk the group members discuss their views on the subject matter from a personal point of view. The topics were the group members relationship with their
1. mother
2. father
3. sibling
4. grandparents
5. boyfriend or girlfriend
6. God
The groups are encouraged to be as honest as possible about each relationship, noting what is good and bad, before noting what can be done to improve the particular relationship. In the case of parents, the individuals are encouraged to write a letter to their parents penning what they think and feel. This later happens near the end with God.
Before the weekend has come, the host group has been hard at work contacting the parents of the guest group in order to prepare certain surprise for them. The first surprise after the parental discussions have ended is for presents from the parents to arrive. Secondly, letters from parents arrive to their children. Thirdly, video recordings have been made of all the parents with silent signs of love and affection. And then, finally, when everything has been almost done the children are encouraged to stand and speak about what the weekend has meant to them, especially with regard to their parents. Unbeknown to them, a direct audio link has been set up in a nearby room where all the parents have congregated. The children then close and cover their eyes and the parents are ushered in to greet them when they open their eyes. Predictably, there are then tears etc.
From my perspective, the weekend was a good indication of what the Church could do as an outreach project and it has in the past here been very successful in attracting new Church members. And even if the guests do not return to Church again, they would have been brought a lot closer to their immediate family.
The pre requisitions for this to have a chance of success are a very enthusiastic group of hosts (not just from one Church, this was an ecumenical weekend although managed by the Anglican Church) that are all under 35 (the local vicar came only at the end with the parents), immense careful to detail in the planning, the location of a suitable building (a school was used here) while the live band contributed a lot in making much of weekend a fun experience – the songs would also need to be carefully chosen and practiced.
The one concern is that the Latin Americans are much more open with their feelings and emotions that we are in the UK. This is a problem that would need to be thought about as the openness is necessary if all the above is to work fully.
I hope I have painted an accurate picture, although it is very difficult to do it justice via words alone. As such, next time I’ll try and pass on some photos and I even have some video footage. Full reference, the Chileans are very happy to come across to assist in any similar programme in the UK.
Anyway, it’s now time for food. If you have questions, feel free to ask. Adios – Steve
Steve can be contacted at :-
Copy of E-mail received from Steve on 9th May 2005
Subject: Good Evening All
Well here we are at last. Sorry I’ve taken so long to be in touch but this is the first chance that I have had to be honest as it’s all been a bit hectic here. So what is it like here? Well, Concepcion is very much like most other cities in that there are supermarkets, banks, out of town stores etc. The food is also very similar. For example, so far I have eaten fries, chicken, rice, potatoes, beef, tomatoes etc – and I have had no need yet for the Imodium (fingers crossed).
The people here have all been very friendly, although the language barrier means that the communication is difficult. However, things are slowly improving but it will be a while before I will understand what people are trying to say to me. It’s a very strange feeling to be at a table and the conversation completely passes you by apart from the odd words here and there. I went to Carnicu (the mountain village) for two days last week. The scenery up there is stunning but it takes five hours to get up there, one hour of which is on a dirt track. The people up there are again very friendly and the food up there was again good (rice, potatoes, cabbage, mackerel), the weather conditions up there fluctuate widely in that it is freezing in the morning first thing, before slowly getting very hot by about 3-4 pm and then the sun goes behind the mountains and it again becomes very chilly.
I’m moving to a new house today and will be staying there for the remainder of my time here. I will be living with a family who are very friendly (“Muy Simpatico” – I am getting used to the language slowly) and have two children, one of which has been diagnosed with Downs Syndrome. Hopefully, it should be good there. I took part in my first game of South American football on the weekend – predictably they stuck me in goal. This though is quite an easy job because they like to show off keeping the football up before firing unstoppable shots in the top corners. Not all of them are great players though so I’m not alone here!
Talking of football, I’ve only just learnt of Liverpools win over the evil Chelsea. I couldn’t watch the match as I was up in the hills so all thoughts on this will be appreciated. Anyway, time to go. I’ll be in touch soon, with photos next time.
Take care – Steve – 09/05/05
On 24th of April 2005 a Special service was held with the Commissioning of Steve Jones. Click HERE to read all about it.
