Chile Forum

Good morning. By way of introduction, my name is David Colledge and I arrived in Chile some 20 years ago from my native country, Scotland. I live in Pirque and am married to a Chilean lady with whom I have a 17 year-old daughter who is in Cuarto Medio and therefore on the point of taking the PSU in December. For the past 19 years I have worked for a small firm of Marine Cargo Surveyors and Settling Agents based in Providencia, Santiago and in my capacity there, I have travelled to China from Chile on business just short of a dozen times (including the Far East generally, viz., Japan, Korea, Taiwan).

I was born in Galashiels, Scotland - as I intimated above - on 18 September 1950, so I had a complete formation, 38 years to be precise before coming to live in Chile - upbringing and boarding school (Gordonstoun School), from 1960-68, in Scotland; I am an Honours graduate in European Studies (Early Modern History and French Literature and Language) from UEA Norwich, England (1969-73); I wrote a book on Edinburgh and the Lothians which was published in 1978 at the behest of what was in those days the Edinburgh City Council, and then went to work in my family's business (woollen textiles) in Selkirk, Scotland for 11 years, eventually as Managing Director before the manufacturing Armageddon in Britain did for the woollen trade at the end of the eighties, hence my idea to investigate the Latin Catholic segment of the New World. I arrived in Santiago on 12 October 1988 where I have remained ever since. By the way, I speak and write Spanish fluently; in fact, Spanish is the mother tongue at home, and all my written work (reports, etc.) is in English, and I enjoy the best of both worlds.

The above is merely a cursory account of my life and times to the present. Since May this year, I have continued to work on a consultancy basis in the Marine business for two days a week, and, as I have not spared much time to socialize with other "gringos" up to now due to work and family commitments, I look forward to doing so a little more, even if only on the web through the facilities here provided.

DAVID COLLEDGE wrote:Good morning.

Good morning, David. What a wonderful morning this morning is!

Hello David and welcome to the forum,
I was in a shopping mall food court in Providencia a couple or three years ago on St Paddys day and came across a few Scots Chillean kids playing the bag pipes. I think they were in their mid teens, a relative perhaps ?