Day 51- WEEK 7

NOTABLE EVENT(S) OF THE WEEK:
Wednesday. Wednesday in general. Día de los Caramelos was on Wednesday... and SO many things happened! Namely, it was my first time "shouldering" the camera, filming during the day. It was busy and fun... See below for more details on the day...

WEATHER:
Saturday to Sunday night it rained again!!! OK so now this is just weird! It rarely EVER rains this much during this time of the year here, Lina said this morning. And I seem to get these headaches every time the weather changes too. I think due to changes in the atmospheric pressure. At least there´s not so much to do here and I can just take time out to sleep them off.

MISSIONS PROJECTS and EVENTS DURING THE WEEK:
So, the computer we use for transferring VHS tapes to DVD and copying DVDs, as well as digitalizing them for uploading to the Internet, is STILL BROKEN! And in the process of trying to get a part from another computer, Paul broke that one. Neither one is starting, and we have major issues. Yes, we need some prayer!!! We will continue to repair it this week, but Jim called in some help because we really need those computers in order to get stuff done!

However, during the week, we did get other things accomplished... Monday, we filmed a women´s foro that Lina was speaking at in this gorgeous palacio. I helped with setting up and taking down. Then Monday night we had the "Wi-Fi" tv show crew over again... it was nice and busy and good socialization time.

Then, like I mentioned before, Wednesday was a very busy day. Nov. 1 is a national Memorial Day here, so there is no work or school. Perfect to have the day after Hallowween off every year! Only here, Halloween is considered a very bad holiday. . . evil and looked down upon religiously speaking. But my church has this spin to make it better... they have a Día de los Caramelos (Candy Day) the day after Halloween for kids and their parents... the candy is for kids of course, and bands play and they encourage kids to join the Hosanna soccer team, which is also supported by our church. It is basically what our church was founded on... Evangelical soccer players started the congregation and all, and so they do kids outreach ministries through soccer. The church is very youthful. Anyways, the first candy-music event was in the morning on one side of town in the comuna called La Renca. Afterwards, we had to do an interview in front of La Moneda (the president´s house) because on Tuesday Jim and Lina filmed La Presidenta´s report concerning this week´s first-ever nationally recognized Día de las Iglesias Evangelicas. It didn´t get much press because the papers and stations are run by the Catholics (haha) who, here, are very anti-Evangelical. So, Jim, Lina, and Paul covered that main press conference event on Tuesday, and just we did a follow up on Wednesday with the reporter. In the evening, we filmed the Día de los Caramelos for kids on the other side of the city in the comuna called La Pintana (see picture on the right). This is where Jim set me up with the camera and I filmed for the first time ever outside the studio! Yea! (see picture above, left)

This week has been a little busier. On Friday and Saturday, Elías (he works here in the house for the ministry during the weekdays) and I attended this conference on communications... tv and radio specifically, but other communication venues were addressed as well. They were good pre-classes for what I´ll be majoring in anyhow. It was all in Spanish and I was most definately the youngest (not to mention one of only three women there). Mostly old men haha. There are around 30 people there. I learned a lot and used my study-skills once again. I like it. It was good to know that I still have an academic drive! It´s interesting how I can listen and understand all this fast-paced, complicated Spanish and take notes (in a mix of Spanish and English haha) at the same time. It was so fun and I learned a lot! My brain was really tired those nights from all the learning in Spanish, but it was a "good" tired!

Sunday, I went to Jim and Lina´s church because Paul had to stay home to work on the computer and I couldn´t go to my church alone because we just changed locations this week and I have no idea where it´s being held now. (We usually rent the Teleton Theater, but December 1 and 2 are the days of the Teleton event, and the building is in use a lot for the next three months. The Teleton is an annual event based on the charity Jerry Lewis began years ago. It is a huge charity to raise money for disadvantaged kids. There are posters advertising and commercials on tv sponsored by all the huge businesses. It gets kinda annoying but the funds are for a good cause.) Anyway, church with Jim and Lina was long and COLD! Jim teaches a class from 11-12 that I sat in on and then the service is from 12-whenever it gets done. In this case, it finished at 2:45ish. Long. and cold!! Then in the afternoon I baked some cookies for the family and just rested, taking a super-long nap.

AROUND THE HOUSE:
We had some guests (again the ones whom I will go to visit down south later this year) staying here for a night for a pastor´s conference with Jim on Friday night and Saturday. Jim and Lina went to a wedding Saturday night. Lastly, just Sunday night, I learned that one of Lina´s nieces, Claudia (who is from Antofagasta but is studying here in Santiago) will be living with us for the next month! I´ll have a new friend to hang out with for a while! This´ll be fun! She´ll be staying in Mary Jane´s old room across from mine

LANGUAGE UPDATE:
The seminar on Friday and Saturday was really good for me. A fabulous experience!