Last stop before the end...

The way this exchange works is that you tour around for a month and end up in the city that is hosting the district conference if at all possible. This, for us, is the city of Talca where we are now and this is our last stop. The rotarians here have been great. Last night was the meeting where we did our final presentation and today we headed out to see the hill overlooking the town, to wander around some of Talca`s many universities and to head to the Museo O`Higginsano. The Museo was really fascinating because the guide was dressed in colonial Spanish dress and the museum itself is in a restored colonial house and organized by themes rather than just random rooms with loads of stuff in them.

We are all pretty tired of the traipsing around without a lot of self-determination so it is good that this is the last stop. The Rotary conference starts tomorrow and is exploring the theme of the role of Rotary and the future of Chile in the environmental sphere. The newly created (this March!) ministry of the environment will be represented there by the minister herself and other speakers will be talking as well.

After a month of speaking and hearing Spanish all the time, there is a little more flow in all of our abilities to communicate. It has been an amazing experience for all of us to work together to piece things together and to learn and practice more. I must say thought that I am looking forward to just talking in English when I get home for a bit - the part of my brain that translates and searches for words is tired.

All for the moment!
Robyn