Dieciocho Celebrations

Here in Chile nothing is half-hearted. The celebrations for Chilean Independence Day have been going on all month, and more noticeably, this past week. On Saturday the Ramadas opened in the evening. They're like barn sheds that are covered with branched on the outside, and decorated with Chilean flags on the inside. The mayor opened the first one and the important people of Lautaro had a drink and danced a bit of cueca to set things off. Much to my dismay, I was pulled onto the dance floor by a council member even after protesting about my complete lack of cueca dancing knowledge.

Me dancing cueca

Fortunately the man was very nice and kept pointing where I was supposed to go. By waving the handkerchief around and laughing at myself (along with everyone else) I managed to avoid complete humiliation. It was actually quite fun, and would have been more so if I'd known what I'd been doing. It was certainly not how I'd imagined my first dance of cueca going. 

The mayor repeated this opening ceremony at two more Fonda's (individual Ramadas) until the excitement wore off. Me, Annie and Amina danced with lots of different people until we got invited to someone's birthday party. This turned out to be largely a gathering of firemen who were all great fun to hang around with and were very patient with our fractured Spanish. 

Lunch the next day was a bit startling as we were handed huge plates of meat. Probably more meat than I'd eat in a month. Chilean families save up specially to buy a cow for Dieciocho so there's plenty of meat to go around. I'm not joking, Amina went down one night and saw them trying to fit it all in the freezer. It was also a bit of a surprise when Ruth suddenly showed a relative understanding of English at the dinner table. 

Amina went off to another BBQ in the afternoon (I say went, I mean waddled) and I went out to watch some Chilean sports. The games were supposed to start at 3, but bearing in mind Chilean lateness, I left just after. Took me a while to find the high school where the games were being held as we haven't really explored beyond the bridge much. I arrived about 45 minutes late and there were still only 3 people there. So I left to do some things in the centre. When I returned about 2 hours later and there were people there! The games were good :)

On Monday morning we went to watch the Desfile de Fiestas Patrias (a huge parade). There was a huge group of soldiers and a marching band which was quite cool. Also any group that was even slightly established marched; this meant schools, after school clubs, sports clubs, craft groups, a diabetes club, the firemen and so many more.

the marching band

We had lunch at home then got invited to Danay's house for an asado. Feeling full from 3 empanadas I approached the meal with some trepidation and yes I was given a huge plate of meat. We met Danay's family who were all very friendly. Danay's brother kept laughing at me and after I admitted that I wouldn't be able to eat all my food he said that he thought I would have died if I'd tried. We lounged around afterwards for a while, before walking home.

Amina, Me and Danay

In the evening we went to watch the fireworks. Seeing as they were actually on time and we were not, we ended up watching them from the street. They were still impressive though.

The 18th wasn't really that much different from the other days because of all the celebrations that had gone on. We had another huge lunch of meat (don't think I'll ever need protein again) and lounged around. Me and Amina went to the park in the evening and larked about pretending to run in horse races and avoiding the passed out people on the side of the street. People that drink too much just sleep on the side of the road and no one really cares. Also found out that you have to have a Chile flag flying from your house on the 18th or you get fined. Also Chile has a zero tolerance for drink driving. We pick up weird things from dinner conversations.

 Ruth, Sergio, Me and Lili - my Chilean familia

I actually spent my holiday morning making empanadas for the children at the orphanage. It's quite difficult. The dough has to be so thin, chances are if you think you're done you're not. Lili got really excited when after half an hour I was finally done rolling the dough!

We get bitten every night by unknown bugs, although the world at large seems to think the answer is fleas. Well we found this on the way to the park and Amina said "imagine finding that in your bed" EWWW!

Following are some photos, including a couple of Amina being g-star.