Freire, pronounced "fre-dey"

(A typical house.)

Just a quick post about Freire, Chile. The small city of Freire is right in the middle of Chile, off of Interstate 5, which is Chile's main highway that runs just almost the whole length of the country. It's about 10 hours south of the capital, Santiago, and an hour west of Villarrica, which is the gateway to the beautiful Lake District. Many Mapuche indians live there. They are native people who were never fully conquered by the Spanish-Chilean civilization. The area has a good infrastructure, and is sort of like an older, more colorful southern California.

The temperatures during our stay fluctuated from the low 50's at night and during rain to high 70's on the warmest days. It was always very brisk at 6:30 in the morning when weget our dishes off of the clothes line outside. (We each had our own set which we washed after meals and then hung to dry in a mesh bag.) When it rained, it was cold and gray all day, and we wished for warmer clothes. But otherwise it was clear and sunny, often with a pleasant breeze. A lot of kids got sunburned at least once, despite the frequent warnings.

It was a very safe place, and we walked freely around the town without any trouble. The homes were small and colorful, and all had fences around them--probably to keep out the many local dogs that were as laid back and friendly as the citizens. A lot of wood was used in home construction, and we saw many that were somewhat similar to log cabins. In the front yards there were lots of flowers and in the back often a little garden. It seemed that everybody had at least one rose bush blooming. Each home seemed tidy and well kept outside as well as inside. They typically had running water, TVs, bathrooms, and a wood stove for heating and possibly cooking as well. Inside we saw lots of pictures and mementos on the walls and a well-worn variety of floor and wall coverings and patches. They reminded me of an old rural grandmother's house.

The town was equally as tidy with very little trash--only candy wrappers and Popsicle sticks. There were little stores every few feet, and they all sold ice cream (helado), which we took advantage of a few times. There were several markets (mercados) that sold food, grains, and vegetables. It all looked fresh and appealing, but we were too scared about the bugs in the water to try any.

The water, however, turned out to be pretty safe. We were accidentally served tap water near the end of our trip and suffered no ill effects at all. There were isolated cases of diarrhea in the group (and lots of less than melodious sounds), but nothing that lasted more than a day as far as I know.

The people were polite and friendly, ready to engage us in talk even if we did say, "No hablo espanol." They would just smile, pleased with our efforts and encouraged by our response, and continue to rapidly talk in Spanish, perhaps thinking that NOW we might understand what they were saying. Some would even invite us in to see their homes and sit for a meal. They genuinely wanted our company. This is Maverick, a local boy that came to VBS and hung around outside our dorm door every evening with some other kids.

We exchanged some of our money for Chilean dollars at an exchange rate of about 650:1. It was really odd to go into a market and see ice cream for $1000, a soft drink for $500, or a hat for $10000. We have a few $100 coins left over for souvenirs. After figuring out the conversion, we learned that things were very reasonably priced.