So AM As I See It: Happy Mothers' Day from Arica, Chile!

Recent weather: 70s-80s and sunny all week.
Recent reads: 2 Samuel, 1 Kings; "The Right Wrong Number" a short story by Barbara Delinsky

I arrived in Arica, Chile, on Sunday and have spent the last week living here with a family. Arica is almost as north as you can possibly get in Chile, right on the border of Peru and Bolivia so Arica is a cultural melting pot. The mother runs a local computer repair/internet/printing business and the father is starting a non-profit volunteer program in Huarmey, Peru. Their home is behind the computer business.

Every day I go with Magdalena for a few hours to visit clients in their homes and diagnose/fix their computer issues. Once you finish laughing at the idea of lil' ole me fixing computers, continue to read on. These in-home visits are usually pretty simple. Mostly we just reload ink cartridges or install anti-virus software or do basic diagnostics. For example, I diagnosed that a client's printer wasn't working because there was a barbie shoe stuck inside it. I removed the pink pump and it printed perfectly. 2000 pesos please. These visits have given me the inside scoop on Chilean houses. My biggest observation is that Chileans like stuff. Their homes are packed full of useless gadgets, old clothes, things they don't use or need but for some reason still continue to hold to. And yet the markets and stores are still full of people every day wanting to buy more. This goes along with what Magdalena has said, that Chileans are obsessed with buying things and buying them now and that the introduction of credit cards has changed the middle class forever.

For an hour each day, I teach the 12 year old English. This was something the mom just sprung on me the first day but I felt like I certainly couldn't say no. However, it's definitely more difficult than it sounds. Teaching kids is challenging enough but keeping this kid interested in English (which he is not at all interested in) has been really, really challenging. I've definitely stretched my imagination in thinking of ways to make the the longest hour of our lives go by faster which include a hand-drawn board game, Simon Says, and, of course, bribery. (We learned directions and I told him if he gave me proper directions in English to the ice cream shop, we'd go there and get a cone.)

My little board game invention, patent pending.

While Arica isn't on most people's must-see list, it's been a pretty great spot to chill. Magdalena making me 3 home-cooked meals every day doesn't hurt. I had to build up a few days' worth of courage to politely ask her to cut my portions in half. The highlights here have definitely been my time at the beach. Every other morning I run on the beach and use the exercise equipment conveniently located right on the sand (genius!) and every afternoon I take a walk on the beach too. There are always tons of people out running, walking, working out and Arica is very safe. I also had a surf lesson with local legend (everyone knows him or at least of him) Yoyo Sepulveda.

You say there are no sharks, but this makes me think otherwise!

You know what they say, "Let sleeping dogs lie..."

No membership fee but the pool's a little cold.

Watching the sunset.

I spent Mothers' Day climbing the Morro in downtown Arica which has an amazing view of the whole city. I spent the rest of the afternoon at a sports bar downtown, sipping beer with the local men as we yelled and screamed and chanted "Chi chi chi le le le" at the futbol matches going on.