Yes, Mom and Dad, I do my own laundry. They don't have a dryer, so this is how you dry your clothes.
And yes, I am going commando right now(Uncle John would be proud), I think I have 4 pairs of underwear here. That means every 4 days I do laundry.
One side of the street, yes thats a bar. I've been in there. The bars here don't actually have bars, but just tables and chairs. I miss O'Chucks.
Other side of the street, yes thats a liquor store about 50 feet away.
Liters of Heineken are 1500 pesos or 3 dollars.
This is my house.
'This is a Catholic Home' No soliciting sign.(story to follow)
I forgot to mention this, but I remembered as I was taking a picture outside of the house, and when I saw this sign. At first when I saw this, I was like, well I'm going to be in a strict catholic home. However, my first week here, I realized why this sign is in place.
So I was walking home one day and I see two gringos talking to people and they spot me. Immediately they stop talking to whoever they were talking to and come to me. I was like great, I know I stick out like a sore thumb, but why? At first they speak spanish to me. I know they are american, and say, 'Ok guys what's up?'. It turns out both of these young men are 20 years old. Both had like hard plastic name tags, white shirts and dark dockers on. They were actually really nice, and one was from Arizona, while the other was from Washington. I ask why they are here and they say they are on a mission trip here for 16 months. They also add that they are Mormons. I am blunt(I know), I blurt out I don't like Mormons, and quickly add that I'm joking(I sometimes hate not having a filter from my brain to my mouth). So I tell them why I am here, and they think its a good idea. I said there is one catch, you need a college degree. Both of these young men did not have one, obviously they are in foreign country for almost a year now, and are 20 years old.
Well they say they have an apartment and I ask if they go out for drinks, they say yes, but bebibas. Meaning they drink pop/soda/juice. Eh, these kind of people scare me(just not my lifestyle, I like to try all that life has to offer). They also tell me they have converted 20 people here in Arica in the past year. And that there are 50 other mormons/missionaries here. That they have areas around the city and to try to convert people. I tell them I live near the centro, and they say they have a man from El Salvador in my area.(hm, not just Americans)
Anyway, I stop about 3 blocks from my house and continue chatting with them. I do not want them to know where I live. I do have to say one thing, they never once tried to convert me. At the end I brought it up and told them, I am Catholic and sorry if they wanted to talk religion with me, because I did not want to.
My head-teacher Christopher said he was baptized by Mormons and they wanted him to go to like church/classes at someone's home, but he said he never went.
Now I know why my family has a no soliciting sign near their front door. And last week I did see an American and a man that looked like he was from El Salvador in the same clothes and same plastic name tags as the other two. They were speaking to a man at his front door. I was with my host-uncle at the time and he pointed to them while saying, 'sus amigos', as I obviously told my host-family the story. And he got a little chuckle out of it. Well I hope that was somewhat entertaining...
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