Life Around a Chilean Table

When I packed my two suitcases and one backpack for a two-week trip to Chile to see Nate and Rachel and grandchildren, Micah and Madelyn, I fit most of my clothing in my carry-on bag -- not that difficult since summer was just ending on the bottom side of the globe and traveling to be grandma to two toddlers did not require high heels, dress pants and costume jewelry, but rather, an extra pair of shorts and seven rolled-up t-shirts.

In between my journal and my flip-flops, I packed several gifts for the children from Bumpa and Gramma:

A construction trucks puzzle. 4 Hot Wheels cars. 3 board books. A Thomas the Train book.

I also tucked in items Rachel had ordered from Amazon that arrived at my door:

Coloring books. Markers. More reading books. New shoes for growing feet. Long-sleeved clothes for changing weather

.Next to my lightweight jacket and toiletries, I packed requested items purchased on a grocery store run:

• 4 packages of coffee (Chileans drink Nescafe)

• 3 bags of brown sugar

• Mac and cheese

• Fruit snacks

• Licorice

• A large container of peanut butter

When I told friends what I was packing, some raised their eyebrows.

"Fruit snacks?"

"Mac and cheese?"

But I remembered the blog I had written that the #7 cause of stress in a list of 40 was a major change in eating habits, and I understood the need, when thousands of miles away, to taste a little bit of home.

I also packed one comfort food item for me - Earl Grey tea.

I packed and re-packed and stepped on the scale to make sure the suitcases were under the fifty-pound limit. I separated requested items between all the suitcases so that if a bag was lost, some of the wanted items still arrived.

Then I kissed my husband goodbye, flew to Mexico City, went through customs, flew to Santiago, Chile, went through customs, and boarded a final plane to a city in northern Chile - Antofagasta. Twenty-four hours in all.

Somewhere after the hugs and kisses and lugging everything to a twelfth-floor apartment, a pot of American coffee was made (tea for me) and I pulled up a chair to be included in life around their table, with the evening sun shining on my place setting and the ocean breezes blowing the white shade curtains and the chatter of little voices adding to the end-of-day conversations.

Two weeks later, I reversed the trip home, added two extended layovers and arrived home 33 hours later.

In my suitcases were several food items that Nate and Rachel had learned to love in Chile. (I realized when you hang out with foodie-people, you purchase food items as souvenirs.)

• Crema de leche (Thick cream in a box with a shelf-life of 6 months). Makes the best cream sauce according to Rachel.

• Coconut Shortbread cookies. (They also came in pineapple/mango, but I liked these best).

• Manjar - caramel in a bag. Manjar is used in all Chilean pastries and cakes. Traditionally, the thin cake layers are not sweet, so the manjar provides the sweetness.

• Merken - a smoky chipotle seasoning - a spice from an indigenous people, the Mapuche, living in southern Chile. I am going to try it in a roasted merken skirt steak recipe. 

• Chilean chocolate.

• Chilean Earl Grey tea and a Orange-Vanilla Black tea. (Chileans love their tea!)

In the crazy changes in our lives, it is the most basic practices that need to be figured out to give us moments of peace and structure in a hectic world. When raising toddlers, life is pretty much the same, no matter the zip code. Or hemisphere. 

Naps. Stories. The need to run off wiggles. Meltdowns. Scheduled meals. Snacks. Bedtime with kisses and prayers.

(A life of a grandma is pretty much the same, no matter the zip code, also).

The dining room table in Chile is covered with a plastic, felt-backed table cloth to protect the wood table beneath. The plates and bowls served around that table contain food that is familiar and food that is new and quite simply, it is this everyday reality that tells me that my son and his family, although faced with many changes, will do okay, because they have incorporated the new with the old and have made it all fit into the now.

And isn't that what we are all trying to do?