Here is a picture of my home away from home (away from home) in Macul.
Today I was a tourist in Santiago. My guide was Sr. Bernadetta. We started with the Colegio San Juan Bautista, right next door to the convent house. This school is all girls(like the one in Santiago), and goes from "Kinder" to 8th Grade.
After we went through the school, Sr. Bernadetta took me to the City of Santiago. We started at the Plaza de Armas, a beautiful square in the heart of the city. Then she took me to buy some postcards in front of the Correro Central (post office) followed by a tour inside the Cathedral.
In the Cathedral, Sr. Bernadetta introduced me to the only two Chilean Saints...St. Teresa of the Andes and St. Padre Hurtado. St. Teresa died at 20 years of age of Typhus, after only 11 months as a Carmelite sister. She was known for her incredible love for Jesus. St. Saint Alberto Hurtado was a Jesuit priest who also died young at the age of 51 from cancer and was known for his work with the poor.
We continued walking around the city, visiting other beautiful buildings such as the Ex Congresso National (former National Congress building), and the Palacio de los Tribunales de Justicia (Supreme Court), and even down into the subway.
Sr. Bernadetta and I returned to the convent for lunch with the sisters and then at 4pm, we headed back to Santiago to climb UP the Cerro de Santa Lucia, which is big hill in the middle of the city, where you can get a nice view of the area. We couldn´t see the Andes today due to the fog (smog). Tomorrow we are going to an even bigger hill, Cerro San Cristobal, and hopefully we´ll be able to see more.
Here´s a few photos...(BTW Have you noticed how TINY these Chilean sisters are??? I feel like a GIANT).
Our tour ended at la ferria ¨the market,¨ where they sell all sorts of tourist stuff. I found the shot glasses and other items I couldn´t find in Ovalle. Sr. Romilda had warned me to be on the look out for pickpockets at la ferria. I saw several stories about them on ¨Las Noticias¨ (the news) that I watch with the sisters at night, so I was on guard. Luckily, we had no problems.
After, we returned to the house, and had dinner with the sisters. Tonight I had bread with paltas(avocado) that Sr. Carmen prepared...yummy!
Then Sr. Romilda (originally from Rome and spent some time at SJVA in New York) showed me some of her handy work and demonstrated how she makes them. She creates these beautiful flowers and other arrangements out of clay and also does knitting and painting. She gave me some beautiful gifts to take home with me. Sr. Romilda has been in Chile for many years now. She has worked in all 3 schools in Chile and has been principal in 2 of them. She´s been in Macul since December. She is recovering from a back surgery and is just getting back on her feet. (They have a nurse living here 24 hours a day to take care of the the sisters who need extra care.)
I told her that if I post these pictures, she´d get requests from all over the world for her handy-work...but here it is (Really, you have to see these crafts in person to see how precious they really are).
After our visit, Sr. Romilda and I went to join the rest of the Sisters to watch Las Tele Novellas!
Beeyootiful. They should sell it on etsy.com. The site is a great place for buying handicrafts.
ReplyDeleteWas the climb up the Cerro de Santa Lucia as high or steep as to the Big Buddha or the Ten Thousand Buddha temple? Just curious. YAY for postcards! And these crafts are beautiful.
ReplyDeleteNot as bad as the Big Buddha, but the Cerro San Cristobal might be. They have one of those rides to the top. I´ll let you know later.
ReplyDeleteOkay...here is my verdict. Cerro Santa Lucia is similar to Ten Thousand Buddah temple, but I think there were more steps for 10K Budah. The San Cristbol experience was cross between Big Buddah and the Peak, but definately not as high (and I didn't walk it).
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