Have been spending the last 4 days at the Webbs' house here on the Seminary campus. Shelley is the Coordinator of the CALL program, which I am involved in for language study, and David coordinates evangelism for the South Area, which is Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. They are on vacation at the beach, so I am hear taking care of their dog and enjoying the privacy!
Thursday afternoon Estaban, Anna (my companeros in language study) and I were invited to the Armstrong's house. Scott and Emily are also American missionaries here (there are 3 American families), but live outside the campus. Scott's mom and brother are here visiting, and they invited us over for the afternoon and evening, and we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner! It was great fun, and, of course I ate too much.
Saturday some of us were going to go hikng at a national park (yes, my ankle is fine now!), but ended up not going for various reasons, and it turned out to be a wonderful day of prayer for me.... I am so thankful for God's Spirit who moves within me and transforms me and makes me anew.....
I am also thankful for the team here. Wednesday I had a meeting with Dr. Helmer Juarez, Partnership Liason for the MAC Region (so my boss), and we talked for almost 2 hours about projects and plans for the future -- and almost completely in Spanish!! It was amazing -- when we got stuck, one of us would say a few words in English, and then when understanding dawned, return to Spanish....I'm also having meetings with others on the leadership team here so that they will understand better what partnerships are, and so that I will understand more clearly what their roles are. Good stuff!
It's kind of weird -- I still have 2 weeks to go here, but find myself preparing for leaving in many ways.....
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
El clima
I love the weather here -- today is the first time it has dipped below 70 degrees in my apartment -- and it's never been hotter than 78. Everyone is walking around in coats today.... Often (the rainy season isn't over yet), like today, it is misty much of the day, but it is still bright when it's cloudy. It's also often windy, you can hear it whistling around the windows, but when you go outside it's still fairly warm.
Everything grows so fast -- 2 weeks ago one of the groundskeepers cut down the brush around a certain tree, and today it is already almost a foot high..... this is a 12 acre campus, and there are 2 f-t people who spend the whole day mowing, weeding, and raking -- and they do it rain or shine! I have seen one of them mowing while holding an umbrella.....
Everything grows so fast -- 2 weeks ago one of the groundskeepers cut down the brush around a certain tree, and today it is already almost a foot high..... this is a 12 acre campus, and there are 2 f-t people who spend the whole day mowing, weeding, and raking -- and they do it rain or shine! I have seen one of them mowing while holding an umbrella.....
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Sunday, November 8, 2009
La clinica
OK, so each day I fill up at least one notecard with vocab words - 20 per card. Some I get from my lesson, others from my reading, etc. Came across a list of words related to hospitals/illness/body parts -- since one of my friends here was in the hospital last week with kidney stones, I thought they'd be good to learn. Sure did come in handy....
Thurs eve coming from the laundry room, I fell, and injured my 'bad' ankle. Pain was severe enough at first that I lost consciousness briefly and everyone (1/2 of the seminary campus population!!) thought I'd hit my head. When I came to, I realized I was holding unmentionables that I'd gotten out of the washing machine, so had to discreetly pass them off to my roommate... Because everyone thought I might have a concussion, they wanted me to go to the hospital. By the time la ambulancia arrived, I was doing fine, and trying to get out of going -- but Dr. Saenz (the boss) said he thought I should go, so I did. The ambulance guys were very nice, and Shelley went with me.
Both of my doctors (generalist and orthopedist) seemed happy to practice their English with me, and I was very psyched that I remembered Spanish words for ankle, knee, etc. They wanted me to have a head CAT scan, so after the xrays, wheeled me to the scanning room -- only it was locked!! There was much puzzlement and scurrying around, and finally they took me back -- apparently the machine was broken..... so at least I didn't have to have a CAT scan!
Today the ankle is doing well -- the inflammation is less, and there is very little pain. I have an apt tomorrow eve with the orthopedist, and hopefully he will tell me that I can start walking without the crutches.
Scheduled to fly to Nicaragua on Thurs with Dr. Juarez to check out the ENC MicrEnterprise project -- and we will meet Prof. Bill Driscoll there -- so I want to be healthy enough to be able to get around!!
I'm hoping and praying that during the 8 weeks here there will be no more excitement like this to report....
On a more up note, today at church I really think I was understanding more...gracias a Dios!
Thurs eve coming from the laundry room, I fell, and injured my 'bad' ankle. Pain was severe enough at first that I lost consciousness briefly and everyone (1/2 of the seminary campus population!!) thought I'd hit my head. When I came to, I realized I was holding unmentionables that I'd gotten out of the washing machine, so had to discreetly pass them off to my roommate... Because everyone thought I might have a concussion, they wanted me to go to the hospital. By the time la ambulancia arrived, I was doing fine, and trying to get out of going -- but Dr. Saenz (the boss) said he thought I should go, so I did. The ambulance guys were very nice, and Shelley went with me.
Both of my doctors (generalist and orthopedist) seemed happy to practice their English with me, and I was very psyched that I remembered Spanish words for ankle, knee, etc. They wanted me to have a head CAT scan, so after the xrays, wheeled me to the scanning room -- only it was locked!! There was much puzzlement and scurrying around, and finally they took me back -- apparently the machine was broken..... so at least I didn't have to have a CAT scan!
Today the ankle is doing well -- the inflammation is less, and there is very little pain. I have an apt tomorrow eve with the orthopedist, and hopefully he will tell me that I can start walking without the crutches.
Scheduled to fly to Nicaragua on Thurs with Dr. Juarez to check out the ENC MicrEnterprise project -- and we will meet Prof. Bill Driscoll there -- so I want to be healthy enough to be able to get around!!
I'm hoping and praying that during the 8 weeks here there will be no more excitement like this to report....
On a more up note, today at church I really think I was understanding more...gracias a Dios!
Sunday, November 1, 2009
La Cumbre Santidad
Just finished 2 days of a holiness conference with people from all over Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean -- 400 pastors and other church leaders. It was very encouraging to see so many young leaders, in early and mid-20's. Times of worship here are very loud and engaging -- wonderful music!! The keyboard player made the keyboard sound like a grand piano -- everything from very contemporary worship music to the Hallelujah chorus....
One of the wonderful surprises of this conference is that I saw so many people I know, including my friend Vicky from Guatemala (we stayed with Vicky and her family when we adoped Charissa 22 years ago!) and Eliezel from the Dominican Republic -- did a missions trip with ENC students there in 2000, and Eliezel was one of our leaders! He is now a volunteer missionary on the campus here.
The speakers were very good, and I practised my Spanish a lot -- though I still found it difficult to understand a lot. During the first plenary session it started pouring -- all the roofs here are made of metal, and what a racket! Even with a decent sound system, it was difficult to hear anything at all! We've now had 2 absolutely gorgeous days of sunshine, though -- and even though it seems to me that it rains a lot here, people are concerned that it hasn't rained enough, and that it may be jeopardizing the water supply.
On a more mundane level, went to the little building next door to do my laundry yesterday, and surpised a foot long-or-so lizard who was sunning himself just inside the doorway. He was un poco 'gordo', but had no trouble getting away from me very quickly!!
One of the wonderful surprises of this conference is that I saw so many people I know, including my friend Vicky from Guatemala (we stayed with Vicky and her family when we adoped Charissa 22 years ago!) and Eliezel from the Dominican Republic -- did a missions trip with ENC students there in 2000, and Eliezel was one of our leaders! He is now a volunteer missionary on the campus here.
The speakers were very good, and I practised my Spanish a lot -- though I still found it difficult to understand a lot. During the first plenary session it started pouring -- all the roofs here are made of metal, and what a racket! Even with a decent sound system, it was difficult to hear anything at all! We've now had 2 absolutely gorgeous days of sunshine, though -- and even though it seems to me that it rains a lot here, people are concerned that it hasn't rained enough, and that it may be jeopardizing the water supply.
On a more mundane level, went to the little building next door to do my laundry yesterday, and surpised a foot long-or-so lizard who was sunning himself just inside the doorway. He was un poco 'gordo', but had no trouble getting away from me very quickly!!
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