20.03.23

Omar Junior has to go to work today, but Omar Senior, already retired, wants to show me Parque Quinta Normal, a magnificent city park. I take my shirt out of the backpack, which looks quite wrinkled. Omar Senior, also affectionately called Gordo (the Fat), insists that I have his wife iron it before we leave. Afterwards, we take the metro together to the city, only to find out that Parque Quinta Normal is closed, just like all the other city parks and museums on Mondays, assures the park guard. Well, then so be it.

We head to the main train station, a renovated historic building from the 19th century. Trains are a rare sight in South America.

Afterwards, Omar Senior wants to show me his son's university, abbreviated as USACH and the largest in the country, directly across from the train station. Here too, the security service tries to prevent our entry onto the campus, but Omar Senior persuades the lady, so that we are at least allowed onto the main square.

Afterwards, we snack on Sopapillas, typical Chilean street food; dough made from cornmeal (if I understood correctly), fried and garnished with various sauces.

Back at the house, we continue eating, Gladys has cooked Pastel de Choclo, a casserole made from cornmeal and well-seasoned ground beef (she made it with soy ground beef just for me). For dessert, we have pineapple ice cream.

After all the food, I need to rest for a while.

Omar Junior comes home from work and there's more food. Sandwiches with avocado, mozzarella, and tomato. The family is considering where in the house they can store several hundredweight of beans. They run a small natural goods business by bringing large quantities from the countryside and selling the beans, chickpeas, etc. here by the kilo to neighbors and friends.

After a nice cup of instant Nescafé, Omar Junior and I take the bus to the Cancha (basketball and soccer field). But it's already occupied. One of Omar's buddies picks us up in his Nissan and we go to the next field. Also occupied, but only for another 30 minutes. An hour later, the field is free and we are six people. We play 3 vs 3 basketball on one hoop. I'm quite overwhelmed, the guys are playing at a high level, my last time playing basketball was probably five years ago. After several team rotations, we stop at half past twelve and that's fine, I couldn't have played any longer.