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FlowerGirl
The Cross of Coquimbo
Beachcombers
Picnic in Andecollo
Andecollo Basilica
Dinosaur Hunting
Tongoy Beach
New Friends |
Weeks 3 and 4 in La Serena |
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Why I love the Catholic faith While the theologians of Rome debate the finer points of the Hypostatic Union, the poor men and women of Andecollo have made a tutorial on the subject. There is the Holy Family, looking pious as they ought, but they did not live in a Basilica and piety did not get the washing done. So the carpenters of Andecollo have built the Holy Family a typical Chilean peasant home. The baby Jesus needed clothes, and someone washed those clothes, and someone dried those clothes, and that someone was Mary. So the ladies of Andecollo have put up a clothesline for her. Did Our Lady actually embroider curtains for the house at Nazareth? I don't know, but if she did I imagine the craftsmanship would have been like this. If you look closely next to the cradle on the ground there are a pair of socks, in case the baby Jesus gets cold feet. Is there something else we needed to know about the Incarnation?
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The Cross of Coquimbo On July 3, we visited the "Cross of the Third Millenium" in Coquimbo, Chile. The cross itself is 18 stories high, so you can see it all the way up at the observatory. This is a plaza underneath the cross, the whole cross is on the left. Before visiting, I heard complaints about this cross from more than one gringo. It was built in a slum, they claimed, where the people need jobs and medicine more than they need a monument. This talk reminded me of when I was a kid growing up in Mississippi. A team of Harvard scholars published a report that listed more than half the counties in the state as poverty areas, which offended and insulted most of us poor, backward rednecks. The people of Coquimbo are indeed poor as we count riches, but there are no slums. They are also proud of their cross, as I am sure the serfs of Yorkshire were of their cathedral when they built it. It is true I'm afraid, cathedrals and religious monuments are built with the pennies of the poor. Could someone please get a team of rich Harvard philanthropists to come down here and explain to these poor how they might use their pennies better? |
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The Forth of Jolly It was our first Independence Day ever outside the USA, and Georgie and the kids made their own decorations. I came home and found a flag taped to the door with the caption "Forth of Jolly". I see it every morning when I leave for work, and it makes every day a "forth of jolly". We bought a $12 grill and had a barbecue in the yard. The meat was good but the chicken reminded me of our old yard chicken "Melanie", who was mean in life and tough as rubber in death.
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Georgie's new hobby Belly dancing. I'm not kidding. Here she is with one of her classmates. She says its lots of fun, but you have to "become another person." I would object, except its cheaper than a gym and makes more sense to me than a bicycle that never moves. Plus, she promised me a show at the end of the summer. She also took me to a "salsa dance lesson" (sorry, no pictures), and I am sad to report that I have a birth defect. I lack the critical gene for Latin dancing. This was amusing to everyone except the instructor, who really earned his 50 cents. But Georgie is a natural at it, and now I hope she won't leave me for Antonio Banderas. What can I say, except "I'm a lucky man!" |
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Santuario Natural de Pichasca After driving to Andecollo last weekend we continued through 26 km of winding dirt road to this National Park. We were on a quest to find the life-sized concrete dinosaur within, but found the gate closed. So we walked in...2 miles. We found Indian cave dwellings and the big, but not quite life-sized, dinosaur. By the time we returned to the car it had grown almost dark. We waited in the countryside until after twilight, and the children got their first view of our galaxy from the Southern Hemisphere. No pictures can do it justice, you have to come down here and see.
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Wal-Mart Mariachis? The Lider store where we shop is huge, like a Super-Duper Wal-Mart. Sometimes they have concerts in the aisles, like this one. We went one time on Saturday night, and it was a disaster. Imagine 60 checkout lines backed up halfway down the aisles. After 30 minutes in line, the cashier put up a "Cerrado" sign and our line was orphaned. Some people switched to the back of other lines for another 30 minute wait. Georgie wanted to walk, leaving our 2 carts of groceries. But I just said really loudly "Yo no comprendo Espanol" and started putting our groceries on the belt. A supervisor came and the cashier ring up our groceries. It was an ugly thing to do, and I felt guilty, but with four kids about to go ballistic, I think the alternatives were uglier. |
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All Play and No Work... It's not obvious form these pages, but 5 days a week are full of work, if you can call it that. Here is the million dollar Goodman spectrograph being lifted into the cage that will hold it on the telescope. I tried to stand underneath the 1500 pound device as much as possible, so if it fell I wouldn't have to build another one. It is installed and working, as you can see from the spectrum of sunlight below . |
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Bouncing Beachdog Rebecca is jumping "rope" with a piece of sea kelp on Tongoy Beach, last Sunday, while the kids and friends build things out of sand. I am not a particular fan of beaches; the sun is too hot, the fish too smelly, and the sand too gritty. I have always regarded mountains as more fun. But Chile in winter is making me reconsider. There is no hot sun and with a 4-wheel drive vehicle you can drive as recklessly as you like on the sand, a sport the kids like even more than I do. Just don't tell the SOAR director what we're doing with his car. |
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