I moved into a house! I’m out in the garden city suburb of Santiago called Providencia (a 45 minute walk to city center) in a 1930s spanish-style house (or maybe overpopulated mansion is a more appropriate description) with six other people, two dogs, a pool, a patio and a study cabana (generally stays empty). The day I arrived the owner (Cristian) was late, so I waited at the front gate for a few minutes. Loitering at the front with a young daugher was an Argentine woman looking for a place to live.
Apparently she had run away from a bad relationship in Buenos Aires, but she arrived in mid-afternoon in Santiago with her seven year old daughter with no place to stay, no job and no money. She ended up at the doorstep of the house through the advice of a friend of Cristian and didn’t bother contacting anyone to say she would be arriving. As the sun set, Cristian scrambled to find a place for her to stay. She was shuttled off to a friend’s house, but in the meantime her future is completely unknown. I guess risks are easier when the economic situation is dire. It’s unclear the extent to which this woman came to Chile out of economic desperation or out of being in a bad personal situation. Her daughter is out of control — I caught her trying to play with knives in the kitchen and spinning around into cabinets and her mother pays very little attention to her behavior. Very odd…all this happened about a week ago now. Apparently now she is staying with a friend of Cristian’s while looking for a job. The daughter is still not in school. I hope everything will be ok for both of them. I wonder who they are. No one really knows.
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it’s odd to have someone you don’t know in such an intimate setting. in the hippie days that was supposed to be fine. operative word supposed. now it seems mostly uncomfortable to risky.