We're off again!!!

So I thought it would be a good time to get back on the blogging train!!


Before I begin with what we are up to right now, I'll give a brief overview of what we have been up to for the last nine months.


So last September we arrived at YWAM Pichilemu. YWAM stands for Youth With A Mission. (or in Spanish, JUCUM, Juventud con una mission), for those who dont know, they are a Christian missionary organisation that have been working all over the world for over 50 years, and have bases in over 200 countries. Before you can do anything in YWAM you must complete their flagship course called, "Discipleship Training School", or DTS. So that's what we did! It lasted until March this year, and we spent 3 months on the base in Pichilemu, Chile, and then we spent another 2 and a half months away on "Outreach" in Uruguay and the south of Brasil.


These 6 months were very impacting to us, in that we were able to really focus on our relationship with God, and really understand His character more. Rather than just base our faith on misconceptions on who God is. The God I connected with over this time was the true faithful God the Bible speaks about. We saw time and time again His faithfulness and love for us and others. We are looking forward to continue to seek after Him, and put more trust in Him each day.


After a quick 2 week visit home for Dez and Corey's wedding, we returned to Pichilemu to join the Counselling School. This had a focus on counselling ourselves, and looking at why we are the way we are. The course led us to take our own responsibility for our actions and attitudes, instead of blaming others and God for the way we are. The Course had some really solid teaching, and has helped us to improve our relationships with God and other people. We look forward to taking a lot of these principles home with us and developing them further as we step back into "real" life.


So we left the base earlier this month, and are now back on the backpackers scene for next few months!
It was funny because we had spent 6 months in Chile, yet hadn't seen any of the capital Santiago apart from the airport and bus terminal! So we decided to hit up Santiago for a few days, as some friends for Adelaide were also passing through!

"Coffee with legs"

One interesting thing happened while me and Jac were looking for a place to grab a coffee. We walked into this unassuming, normal-looking, coffee place. So we ordered our lattes and waiting by the benches (there were no seats). After about halfway through my sugary latte (I asked for no sugar! this had at least 3 teaspoons!), we noticed what the waitress was wearing. or should I say not wearing! This woman was in the tightest, smallest dress imaginable, and then we noticed something else, all the customers were business men. "Have we just stumbled into a gentlemen's club???" Our suspicions were further confirmed when Jac went for the toilet, only to be told that there are only male toilets here!


The next day, when we met up with Jazz and Dave, we went on a free tour of the city. One of the stops was in front of another one of these coffee shops. The guide went on to explain that there is a Chilean tradition of men going out for "coffee with legs", where they go and get served coffee by scantily clad women, sometimes in small dresses, sometimes in bikinis. Apparently there is also something called "happy hour" in these establishments. What happens here is that at certain places, at certain times, the shop locks the doors and draws the blinds of the windows and all the women get naked for about 5-10 minutes, and then go back to business as usual after this time. I guess we were lucky to just to escape with a small dress!


So after a couple days in Santiago, or Sants as Jacqui started calling it. (btw, Santiago is the Spanish name for James), we flew out to Rio de Janeiro in Brasil! For one whole week we did nothing but frequent the beautiful beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema! Although every time we go to these beaches we feel slightly overdressed. The boys here love the budgie smugglers at the beach, and the girls think that the more bum on show the better! Lots of staring at my feet here!

Copacabana at night

Ipanema

Geriba Beach in Buzios

Right now we are in the small town of Buzios doing more of the same, and next week we are back in Rio, but this time to do some sightseeing. Gee its tough!


Anyway, hope this isn't a once off, and I can keep up this blog!


Adiós!