Thursday, June 16, 2011

Bendición de la Casa

Chile is the most economically stable country in South America, making it as some might say, a safer place to live and work. There is an incredible influx of commercial engineers churning out from the many tertiary institutions. Let's face it, Santiago is the business capital of Chile and if you work in any other industry, your chances of getting a good income is just that much harder.

My lovely Chilean's mother's partner is a teacher in the field of educación especial, specialising in the education of the blind. His moral job involves extremely long hours at several places and at 40 years old, he has successfully raised enough money to buy one of the cute, 3-storey, Elizabethan-style townhouses in the same condominio as us.

Last Saturday, he held the bendición - a blessing of the house witnessed by his family. 14 of us gathered around the living room as his brother, who had studied 10 years of priesthood, recited various verses from the Bible and sprayed holy water around the room. This was followed by everyone chanting the Lord's Prayer and the blessing of a cross that was stuck onto the back of the front door as a reminder that the house was now under the protection of the Lord.

The smell of roasting meat on the barbeque drew us all to our seats and we spent the afternoon enjoying a merry Chilean feast. With bloated stomaches we congratulated the new residents and wished them the best of luck with the noisy dogs on one side and the woman on the other side who likes to complain about the light on the path outside the joining houses apparently never being on, even though the light switch is located in the new resident's house, meaning they have to pay the bill.

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