As this is my first attempt at blogging, I am not blog "savvy" so ignore the ridiculous appearance and confusing side panels as they come and go and change... focus on what's obviously more important: what I have to say ;-)
This is the end of my second weekend here in the wonderful city of Comayagua... well, in Honduras anyway. My first weekend we meandered to Copan northwest of here to check out the Mayan ruins. Fun times! Emily and I (and Taryn and Lindsay) have some great long standing jokes from our wonder of a tour guide at the Mayan city. He used the phrases "Yes, very special" and "I found it" a lot if that tells you anything.
Anyhow, I've been in Honduras for 11 days now and it seems like it has been much longer. I'm only used to two weeks out of the country at a time, so about this time is when I get really tired from an awesome trip and am looking forward to going home in a day or two... instead I start work at Maranatha school in the morning. It's been my observation thus far that this 11 mo excursion will be a lot of little adventures within one big one... orientation tomorrow will definitely count as one of those little adventures.
Another daily adventure, of course, being communication. This week I've tackled Espanol in the present tense (much review thankfully) and picked up on a lot of phrases used commonly. But nothing to brag about yet... except the one thing that was likely the best moment of my week: being asked and able to translate something for one of the visiting Americans.
Quick background: groups of Americans come often to play with the kids and help with various projects around the orphanage (el hogar) and the farm (la granja). At the end of their week here, they throw a going-away party of sorts at the hogar. Whenever I'm with the kids I use as much Spanish as possible to practice and one of the Americans, Linda, overheard me and called me over. She was with a girl that her and her daughter had made a special connection with, Wendi. Linda wanted me to explain to Wendi how much they cared for her even in the short time they'd known her. I was tempted at first to say that I didn't actually speak Spanish but instead I warned her I was still learning and would do my best. Thinking quickly on my feet I'm sure Wendi thought I sounded ridiculous with my many grammar errors but I said something to the effect of "Wendi, ella dice que Ud. eres,,,er ,,, es muy especial para ellas." Haha. You've gotta have a sense of humor trying to learn a language. Linda and I talked for a minute about the merit of a mere week's worth of investment in a life like Wendi's and before I walked away I looked at Wendi again and said "Te queremos." Which means "they love you" (and grammatically correct this time :-) For a second I saw understanding in her face before moving on to play with one of the other kids.
This first week and a half has been hard to be sure. Exhausting because of the language barrier and so many new things to learn. Sad at times because of home-sickness and missing the company of family and friends that know me and understand me. It's been a lot of other things too with various challenges and laughs. But I am so thankful to God for that little victory and I hope that this blog can become a long list of little victories as God enables me to work and to serve the people of this... well, let's be honest, random city. Lol.
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