awesome news !!!congratulations Sarah and Chris on your new baby girl.. how wonderful and lucky you both are .. and she is!!! and we are!!!!! can´t wait to see her and love her up!! i am so happy for all of you.
since it is quite a different world here in most respects i wanted you to see what it is like to walk to the orphanage. unlike our cities, the roads are made of stones.. a few have cement .. but rarely.. the stones come in all shapes that make up the roads and one in particular looks like one of Charlie Gibsons fireplaces.. it is street art. the stones vary from street to street in size, the streets are small, but the new street on the way to work looks like a grey lockstone driveway done in rugged handcut rectangular stones.. beside the streets are sidewalks again made of stones... larger squares,, sometimes with notches cut into the flat part for traction which are on avenita el sol..
when i leave in the morning at about 7;30 the street is lined with dogs.. apparently mostly with homes.. just set free for the day.. i stick my arm up in the air to express my need for a cab and soon i get one... the street is crazy busy.. three lanes turned into four... on good days spanish music is playing... groupo cinço is my favorite..on the way i pass a strip of the avenue with vendors lined up claiming small tin shops , roofs hung with goods... ropes, pots, tools, colourful unidentifyable wares... at the beginning of the row there are two benches occupied by the oldest couple i have seen. . their clothes are worn out, as are their faces, but they seem alive in love and i am convinced they have a love affair better than most.. the other day she wasn´t there and i was sure that she had died but to my relief she reappeared.. and i am happy for him.. i arrive within ten minutes at maximo and after spanish i walk along this little street to the orphanage..... volkswagons & more volkswagons, taxis , taxis ... taxis....the withered old man has moved from the corner to a place right on the avenue el sol and he remains there.. for days now...i wonder where he sleeps...and how he gets here in the morning.. but maybe he stays tucked into a little nook like others i have seen covered in blankets dirty with time.. the weather has changed and it is cooler with winds that whip down through the gulleys of the mountains and laiden with dust fly through the streets of this city. from the bridge that welcomes me ...... Bienvenito a Santiago... i watch the grey mass approaching like a scene in a movie... this happens on and off now... backs turn, heads tuck... the street vendors cover their wares... as well the rains have started and they are heavy with droplets the size of dimes and rivers run wild on the streets especially on Avenita de la Cultura, my regular route home.
in the walk i pass small restaurants.. set with 40ïnch square tables covered in table cloths ready to serve. one day i stopped for lunch because the menu served vegetarian... in it about eight small tables with chairs in the front room and later i learned there was a back room too... anyway sitting in the corner under the window alone.... i see a man, long dreadlocks and hippyish... at the table beside me.. he is eating soup and has a salad dish beside it.... he sees me taking in the place... tv mounted on the wall... beneath it a small salad bar.. beets, tomatoes, carrots, onions..some small plates... on the tables baskets hold assortments of spoons, forks and knives.. your pick... there is a menu on the board beside the tv...and i struggle to interpret it...outside the door a handwritten menu on the board announces meal for 3sols.
the man beside me... late 30´s with long black hair in dreadlocks invites me to join him... thinking it rude to say no, thinking him harmless and wanting to learn more, mostly about how this restaurant works to order a meal... i join him... he doesn´t speak any english... i can get along with the basic questions and am happy to converse for a while... the waitress comes over and between them!!! i order the special.. i have no idea what that is.. anyway it includes soup, served at every meal, a main course.. salad here in this place,, not the norm and a bun.. i am delivered soup and get up and get some salad... like most soups ... it has potatoe in it and is salty.. and i eat it heartily leaving a black potatoe which i later learn is not bad... get some salad and talk a bit to the man beside me.
he is sweaty and nervous.. a little edgy and in a few moments he excuses himself for a few minutes... i am thinking he must be on drugs or something because it isn´t hot in here.. all i can think of is whitney houstan when she was singing on some award show and was messed up and solid sweat . anyway.. he returns and tells me about his life, apart from his wife with a small nimo...and pulls out a book with a title in spanish something to do with narcotics... the next course is served and honestly i could hardly eat it... i am sure to some people it would be delicious... maybe i was just eager to get out of there which i did.
i will not do that again.
remember when i told you about the sidewalks meeting the walls of the shops and houses and how the doors just appear on those walls , wooden, metal, with locks similar to the ones barry sells in his store. .. well that is how it is.. and on this street there are all kinds of shops to look into... there is the old shop with the old truck that makes me think of Dad, and the typewriter shop full of vintage dusty old treasures, the side alley with the man doing sewing repairs., furniture shops!! , drapery shops!!! and places set up for photocopying, selling invitations, pastry, cement, alcohol from barrels and toilets (no individual seats available!) also there are the street vendors with their children and the lady with the baby in the box, a police station, grocery store, and a few places with odds and sodds from combs to erasers to coloured paper in rolls from the 1930s.. the streets are dusty, the shops are too, cars, dogs and that wonderful shoe shiner with the turned around feet all which make my days start off and end off familiar and good.
these pictures are a treat..and will take you there on the everyday walk that leads me to my boys. and it continues to be amazing and not frightening in any way. having said that, i walk straight to the orphanage.. about 10 minutes from Maximo.. at a fairly quick gait leaving my laptop with trisha in the office.. packsack on my front and hands wrapped over it like i did when i was pregnant. there is time to smile, be polite, acknowledge others and take in the day..shop for lunch and look for prizes for bingo..
days have run into months...nothing really changes here... except that baby that grew and fit into the box is now out of the box and onto that young mom's knee... am not sure what she sells but she is always in the same place..the same men offer trips outside taxies.. the police stand guard at the entrance to the station.. a few areas smell strongly of urine.. it is especiallly interesting and alive and unlike any street i have ever seen.. especially in the Canada and bits of the world i have had the joy of seeing..
here's to sharing the street!
big hugs.. time is flying. soon i will be home and enjoying all your stories.. i am sure there are some you haven't told me... just a week to go and still so many experiences to tell you about should you care to know.. macchu piccu day 4, Lake Titicaca, the Amazon Jungle...... ... ... the locker project...little chickens to big chickens,... the baby guitar...the visit to the bruhah..new management at the orphanage... adoption... i will keep writing so i can remember when i am old..
there are more pictures for this letter so you can really get a feeling of how it is walking here.. enjoy .
just about time for a coffee.... and later Sleepless in Seattle..thanks tony for all the movies.. i have been loving them when i cannot sleep..you rock! nite favorite people in the world.
love mom, me .. '
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