PURCHASES
We enjoy our weekly shopping excursion with our grocery pull-cart. As you can see people have many ways to transport their purchases home. We found street vendors selling fresh strawberries and cherries yesterday on the way to the grocery store yesterday. The fruit here is glorious.
PANADERIAS
We have some favorite bakeries close to our apartment. We discovered one at dinner Friday evening at Café Villa Real. Not pictured is the delicious dulce de leche cake. It disappeared before we thought to take a picture.
At one panaderia we found pastel de choclo- a dish we had been searching for. It is like corn pudding but also contains ground beef, chicken, raisins, black olives, and onion. Delicious!
Dolce Valentina may be a little too convenient to home for our waistlines
Not pictured are the wonderful frittatas Elder Lamb made for our working breakfast with our buyer on Friday morning.
PARQUES
Our Saturday field trip was to Cerro Santa Lucia (Saint Lucia Park.) It is a beautiful oasis in busy downtown Santiago. It was on this hill that Pedro de Valdivia established his camp before founding Santiago in 1541. In the early 1800’s the hilltop was used as a bastion of defense during wartime and then as an observatory. In the 1870’s the hill was transformed into an attractive park. The monumental entrance was completed in 1903. The gardens are beautiful and the view from the top is spectacular. The building in front of the Andes is the Costanera Tower and is the tallest building in the South American Continent.
On our way home we found a sidewalk café for lunch.
PROYECTOS
Our work is affected by the current worldwide inflation and disruptions in the supply chain. Our buyer prices items and by the time the project is approved a couple of weeks later inflation has caused havoc. We have learned the hard way to build a contingency into each budget. We have had to apply for a few supplemental budgets because of inflation and that process is time consuming and no fun! As far as supply chain problems- we have ten projects in the delivery stage with question marks in the estimated delivery date column. Vendors have stopped even giving estimated dates with ships all over the world waiting to deliver their goods into port. Nevertheless, we carry on. And organizations wait patiently for their promised donations.
This week we took the metro to visit the national leaders of ADRA, the Seventh Day Adventist Development and Relief Agency. We were welcomed warmly with juice (nectar) and snacks as is the custom at all our meetings. It is a wonderful gesture of hospitality. I snapped this picture before the leaders entered the room. We hope to partner with ADRA in the future.
CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS
We end this week’s newsletter with a Christmas thought from Music and the Spoken Word -the weekly broadcast from the Tabernacle at Temple Square.
“Christmas lasts much longer than one day. Weeks in advance, decorations are hung, and stores and streetlights are lit up in happy anticipation. Music sounds merrier, more joyful. People start planning parties and preparing special food. Advent calendars count down the days. Children grow increasingly impatient. The very feeling in the air reminds us that something magical is coming- Christmas will soon be here.
All this eagerness-looking forward is much of the fun and a good part of the meaning – of Christmas. During this special season, in some small and symbolic way, we reenact the hopeful anticipations of that first Christmas night. For what happened on that night had been anticipated not for weeks or months but for centuries-even since the beginning. “The hopes and fears of all the years” were met in Bethlehem that night.
It has been called the greatest story ever told. It’s not a story of hardworking elves, flying reindeer, and sacks of presents, although those stories are fun and exciting. The best thing about the real Christmas story is that it is both miraculous and true.
This story is about a baby, a mother, shepherds, angels, and a star. But more than that, it’s a story about a promise fulfilled. It’s about light shining in the darkness and hope dispelling fear. It’s about good tidings, great joy, peace on earth, and goodwill toward all. When Jesus was born, so were hope and light and life-not just for an oppressed nation in the ancient world but for us today.
This old world can seem dark and lonely, and the way forward can seem impossible at times, but Christmas is an invitation to hope-to look forward, to think of the joy and possibility before us, to ponder the miraculous birth of the Christ child and its significance in our lives. This is why we look forward to Christmas. It’s more than a holiday; it’s the reason for the hope that is in us. This season and always, we anticipate, we celebrate, and we always remember the advent of the Light and Life of the World. Because of Him, we can hope for good things to come.”
With love, Elder and Sister Lamb (aka Ed & Debbie, Mom & Dad, Pop Pop & Tu Tu)
Lambs in Central Europe 