Girls are girls wherever they live

Karen meets weekly with a group of women from Viña. She encouraged me to use a little of my art skill and do something with them. I thought life maps would be good since opportunities for vulnerability in a committed group usually are good things. (Robin Smith would be so proud of how much Core 100 is coming to Chile—first Signs, now life maps!) I drew mine out before hand, and then shared when we got there. What I didn’t expect was that this group of 10 women in their 40s-60s behave just like my college girls do when they have stories to share. In this case, they were speaking in Spanish and there was no way to understand what direction the conversation was flowing and what they were understanding. When it was all said and done, Karen said they liked it.

After singing, sharing, and talking came the refreshments. We were at Suni’s house and she had prepared hot chocolate for us (with a hint of cinnamon), pan (another spanish word for you: bread), keke (chocolate and vanilla varieties of cake), and crackers with cheese. By the way, they serve gouda cheese here all the time. It’s really great. American is the expensive kind around these parts. Once we were done with our first hot drink, Suni offered us tea. Hot beverages all the time! It keeps the chill away.

Into our 3rd hour at Suni’s the women decided they wanted to stay a little longer. They covered all the bases: the presidential election coming up, the dating life of the mayor, how scandalous the professional tennis players are, how humanitarian the retired soccer star is, and some US politics. I can’t remember the word at the moment but Karen said the same word for peeling a potato is what they use when they’ve talked about everything. Pelor? Anyway, it’s a good reminder that girls are girls no matter where they live or how old they are.