My weekends

     Like most people who work with churches, my weekends are usually very full and this past one, was no exception.  It really started on Thursday when I went to the Shalom Center to begin preparing for the very first group to use the "still-in-development-stage" initiative games, low- elements challenge course.  Since January and February when there were groups helping to set up the course, the berry bushes and wild roses had time to send tendrils out and around the posts and paths.  I spent all of Thursday hacking away at the encroaching plants, which by the way, are non-native pests brought in by the loggers who worked this land before the church owned it.  It was a beautiful day with a cool breeze, and I enjoyed the hard work even with the scratches and cuts from the thorns.
      As the sun set, I went to visit our nearest neighbor.  He is a former Catholic seminarian, three times divorced, left-leaning, grass roots,  political activist who had many escapades during the years of the dictatorship.  I spent about three hours drinking coffee and listening to another series of stories of those years: Arrests, miraculous escapes, hiding illegal literature under the bathtub and praying that it wouldn't be found.
   Friday I spent the day at the new challenge course site setting up one of the new elements.  First I had to clear a large patch of berry bushes and then dig several holes with the post hole digger.  A word about the post hole digger.  They do not exist in Chile.  I would even dare to say that the Shalom Center post hole digger is the only one in the country.  It was brought, at my special request, by one of the Conpaz delegations from the Massachusetts Conference of the UCC in a modified golf bag.  I image it caused some bewilderment as it was loaded on the plane and passed through customs.  The master builder in Chile, a big burly man, refuses to give up his spade for digging holes, claiming that the post hole digger is a tool for girls.  Well, since I am a girl, I am free to use it with no need to consider my pride.  And I dig deeper holes that are just the right size in the same amount of time it takes for him to dig his.
    But on Friday, the master builder was not with me, so I could dig with no need to compete!  Once the posts were in, then I set up the rest of the ropes and other pieces I designed for this element of the course.  It involves blindfolds and a rope and requires the team to communicate exclusively with mooing sounds! I also spent the last two hours before sunset, clearing the leaves of the labyrinth which we also will use with the challenge course.
   Friday evening, I built a fire in the woodburning stove to warm up the Welcome House, heated water, and set the table for the group which finally arrived at about 11 pm, excited and full of questions about this new Shalom Center activity which we have called the Challenge Forest.  We went to bed ready to get up early and try it all out.
    At about 5:30 in the morning on Saturday, I woke up to the sound of a downpour.  I turned off my alarm. No use in thinking about going to the Challenge Forest in the rain.  We all slept until about 9am, had a leisurely breakfast, chatting and laughing as it continued to rain.  I spent two days battling against the berry bushes to then have to cancel due to rain but it didn't damped my spirits!  It was a gift of tea, rain, and time to chat with each of the members of the Shalom Center staff who had separated this weekend to learn about the Challenge Forest.
    On Saturday afternoon, we arrived back in Talca in time for a meeting, and right at the end of the meeting, at about 8pm, we received the news that the grandmother of a young man who used to be on staff at the Shalom Center had died.  I drove a group an hour in the continuing rain to the wake, spent two hours with this young man and his family, and then drove another hour home just past midnight.
     Sunday morning I was up early for church, and then immediately afterwards drove two and a half hours to Rancagua, picking up two young women on the way, to an orientation meeting for those who will be traveling to the US in June and July.  Carol and Juan Carlos will be spending about ten days with the Indiana-Kentucky Conference of the United Church of Christ while Marta will be spending a month with the Disciples in Missouri.  I dropped the young women off on my home and got back just past midnight again.
    I share a couple of pictures from the Shalom Center, taken while I was working on the Challenge Forest.