Today, Friday, I had a short lesson from one of the teachers. She had not, as of Thursday, finished up a section on pronouns - those la, las, los, lo, les, se, te and me words you see in Spanish. She was kind enough to come in today on her off day and finish the lesson. The whole staff at Interaction has been amazing in their professionalism, desire for you to learn and going the extra mile to ensure you understand. They are really quite demanding of students, in a nice way and you do really learn.
This experience has been wonderful in many respects; learning a new language suffciently well enough to communicate in present and past tense, but also to see and be part of another culture for a short time. It is humbling to watch TV and not understand but a few words of what they are saying, trying to derive meaning from other clues in pictures, gestures, etc., and realizing a history and time lie behind the language, pictures and conversations that you do not know and most likely will not know. What one gets passing insights. Kind of like hearing part of a really good song but not knowing its name or what the rest of the song sounds like. A tease.
Watching the work of staff and volunteers at the orphanage was a lasting impression of their doing God's work with these "little ones". Like previous trips to Mexicio with teens from California, I came away with the sense of God's church working in many different ways, in different countries, in many languages and with many different people. The volunteers at the orphanage were from Spain, the US and from other parts of Mexico. All Christian and willing to serve in some capacity.
The staff at Interaction are all Christian and in talking with them they are all living the Gospel, providing a powerful witness in a humble way and growing the church in their walk. God is worshiped in many countries and His work is being done by the faithful to His Glory.
What lies ahead for me in my faith walk is to be determined but will likely involve something Spanish. This experience is a step in that direction. As the man on the insurance company ad asks -- Are you in good hands? My response is the best!
Al fin de semana means weekend or literally, the end of the week. This weekend will find me returning home to Texas. My flight leaves at 7:30 am Saturday morning. A couple of the young ladies from Interaction will be getting up early to drive me to the airport.
I should be in College Station mid Saturday afternoon with Bobby picking me up.
More later.
Doug
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