May 30, 2010
They say the first two weeks are the hardest. I certainly hope so. While my conversation skills have improved, I am still unable to articulate many of my basic needs, and fall sadly short of actually being able to hold a “real” conversation with anyone, which is difficult, because I like to talk to people. Classes were canceled on Friday, as well as the scheduled activity for Saturday, because of the volcano. So I’ve been at home for the last 3 days, speaking nothing but Spanish. It’s good for me, the best way to learn, but there are times when I have wished for the Pentecostal tongues of fire, just to make things easier.
More on the volcano – evidently it was one of 2 that went off that day in Latin America – the other in Nicaragua. In addition to the volcano, we’ve been subject to the furious rain of Tropical Storm Agatha for the past couple of days. It rained all day Friday and all day Saturday, finally stopping in the early morning of Sunday. Everything was damp. I thought I’d go crazy. Evidently it’s caused widespread flooding all over the country, with rivers rising as much as 12 feet and knocking out bridges and rivers. It’s also caused a lot of collapsed edges of cliffs, which would be fine, except that people like to build their houses there. So there have been quite a few deaths and lots of displaced people.
My first church service was today. According to Jaime, there are usually about 100 people, but today there were only 15, on account of all the flooding that’s happened recently. The service was pretty long – about 2 hours. We sang for almost half of it. The guy who led worship was amazing. He had prodigious piano skills, as well as a voice that combined the power of Josh Powell’s with the beauty of Cameron Voth’s. He was talented, to say the least. It was pretty difficult to pay attention to the sermon. I must confess that I spaced for a good portion of it. I have no idea what the theme was – the verses that Jaime was reading didn’t really seem to form a cohesive message on their own. Oh well.
I’ve met a couple of pretty interesting people over the past couple of days. Last Friday I met a guy from Veracruz, Mexico, which is the same state as Chris Eitzen is from, as well as a couple by the name of Jorge and Miriam Arevalo, who are familiar with the town of Newton and one of the pastors of a Hispanic Mennonite church. I’ve also gotten to know a couple of English-speaking Guatemalan guys, which has been a welcome break.
Tomorrow begins week two in Guatemala. Hopefully I continue to improve quickly.
No comments:
Post a Comment