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VIDEO! Tour of mi casa.. http://qik.com/41247287/f579bd6d
Feeling really blessed right now with my host family and my new roommate/teammate Brenda. Both have been really wonderful to me and really patient in speaking to me in Spanish. I think I´ve been learning a lot, but it´s hard to think that when I still have trouble understanding simple things people are trying to say to me. Definitely picking up a lot of phrases. I can usually express what I want to say to people, but then I have no clue what they are saying back to me. Thank you for prayers in my willingness to learn! I´ve definitely gotten a lot of ¨wow, I´ve been really impressed how much effort you´ve been putting into trying to speak Spanish,¨which translates to ¨wow, I can´t believe how dumb you are willing to sound.¨But it´s definitely part of learning! I do make up a lot of words just to see if I get a good reaction and make up a lot of conjugations. I think Spanish class tomorrow will be good.
Apartment set-up is 6 people, 1 bathroom. Not the worst. And sharing a room with 2 other girls, 1 being Brenda and the other being my 15 year-old host sister. Please watch my video that took forever to upload for more details!
Mondays are our day off to reset. Mi papa works long hours y mi mama works til 5 but has a 2 hour commute home. Mi hermana Vivi has school starting at 7. She has to wake up at 4:10am to get to school on time. Mi hermano Raul has school at 8. Not sure when anyone will get home today… It´s been a good day of rest though. Just catching up on sleep, prayer, reading, journaling, emailing, Flickr uploads, learning Spanish at home with Brenda, etc.
Continued prayers for willingness to embrace learning the culture and language, and for my relationship with God to continue to grow through this experience. Additional prayers for my team (me, Jenna, and Brenda) and our work with the church we are at. We will be teaching English, helping with a short vacation bible school type thing for the niños (young kids) and Jevones (teenagers), and much more. Our church reminds me of my church back in Austin, Vox, a lot. Only 2 years old, runs as a kids party place the rest of the week (kids parties are a really big deal here), emphasis on community and doing things in the community. Yesterday was my first day at church and I have to say, they really know the meaning of hospitality here. Lots of hugs and kisses and ¨bienvenidos.¨
More to come. Hasta luego!
