A little something about my Santiago family...

I would like to introduce you to Enrique and Maria Eugenia (Ute). She has given me permission to call her Ute, a pet name that her grandchildren use since, apparently, I can’t pronounce her name properly in Espanol. Trust me...I know it looks simple, but it isn’t! Both are practicing dentists, with one grown child and two grandchildren. The moment I walked into their beautiful home I knew that this was a good host match. Their plush townhouse is filled to the gills with gathered flotsam and jetsam from their many travels around the world. The night we met, I ooohed and ahhhed over every precious artifact. I held in my hand an ancient opium pipe that they had dug out of the ground themselves in Miramar, marveled at the intricate pen and ink Thai drawing that stood taller than me, and had my mind blown when they showed me the four Rembrandt prints that would be my roommates in the guest bedroom. With each viewing, Ute would pick up the item or touch it lightly with her palm and sing, “Ohhhh, I lub this! I luuuub this.” It was amazing and my true appreciation of their collection endeared me to them right away.

Although Spanish is his first language, Enrique speaks excellent English with a lilting British accent. We’ve made a game out of exchanging words. I ask him about a Spanish word and he asks me about an English one. Tonight I had to define cute, since in Spanish the word is mono, which literally translates to monkey, and both Enrique and Ute were thoroughly confused. This forced me to try to define a word that I have used a million times and have applied to a thousand things, but have never had to explain before.

More than vocabulary Enrique has gotten a special kick out of colloquialisms. The other day, we had a fantastic Chileno meal at the Hosteria Dona Tina restaurant when Enrique pointed out a perro muerte at the next table. Well, perro muerte translates to dead dog. You can imagine my horrified expression as I turned toward the table only to discover that the people eating had simply skipped out on their check. In Chile they refer to this as dead dog (still not quite sure why). I told him that in the U.S. this is called a dine and dash. He thought this was the funniest expression, although I don’t know if anything beats dead dog. What’s worse is that I am always pointing out the sleeping street dogs in Santiago and announcing, “Perro Muerte!”. Apparently, what I’ve actually been doing is alarming the restaurateurs of Santiago of my plans to dine and dash.

One of the adventures they have shared with me is the Causimodo tradition. This Chilean Catholic tradition happens the shortly after Easter. A priest and a parade of robed horse riders travel through neighborhoods giving the sacraments to the elderly and infirm. It was incredible! The color, energy, and community I witnessed literally brought tears to my eyes. Although many of these processionals are of different sizes and locations, we caught one just on the outskirts of the city where there were 150 horse riders. Once the horses passed there were people on bikes, motorcycles, and even a dune buggy, all decorated with yellow and white flowers. It was amazing!