It Rained!!

Thank God, it finally rained (and snowed in the mountains)!!! It has rained two times recently - the first two times in the four months we have been here. It is sooooooo exciting because the smog has lifted! When it rains the smog goes away. I (Cherith) was basically sick for 5 weeks from a mixture of a Chilean flu and smog, so I am so happy. Here are some of our pictures of our glistening city, which by the way has stayed "cleaner" for 2 1/2 weeks now!

This picture is take from our campus which overlooks the city. We have been working here for 4 months and this is the first day we have seen the city below. Seriously. This is the first time we saw this view! Before there was too much smog covering it. We were amazed, and saddened.

The long layer of light brown stuff is smog - before the first rain.

A close up of the smog on a neighborhood before the rain. In the US a smog rating of, for example, 50 - 100 would be alarming. In Santiago a rating of 50 - 100 is considered excellent. 100 - 200 is "beware". 200 - 300 is "severe", and 300 plus is "emergency" (I'm approximating here...trying to remember the exact numbers...so don't quote me, but you get the idea). There is a smog meter that we can look at online every day to see what it is like for the day. And, it differs from one section of the city to another, so you can look up the rating for the neighborhood you are/will be in.