This post is from week one. Sorry for the tardiness. Enjoy 🙂
I already know I will miss the sunset here. From the pavilion, we are just above the lake. You can see the mainland and small mountains across the lake and often there are small fishing boats crossing back and forth. From 5-6, right before dinner, the sky changes from deep shades of orange, blue, purple, yellow, so much more vibrant than any sunset I’ve seen before.
But right now, I miss things from home, predominantly my family, but also air conditioning, English, and driving my own car.
The most difficult part so far has been the language barrier. I had not anticipated the level to which it would hinder me. I suppose I thought more people would speak English, but so far the only ones who are fluent are the two other American volunteers who are here for the whole year and our ministry host.
Yesterday, I and two other team members were assigned to go work in the school. It was the first time I had been in a group without one of our Spanish speaking team members (of which we have three). After Hello’s and how are you’s, the woman at the school who gave us directions and spoke to me for about a minute. From that, all I was able to pick out was “Lugar los ninos” and “basura” (Play with the children and trash). I could see that there were children playing in the yard before school so we went down and I would figure out the rest later.
The kids who go to the school were very welcoming. As soon as we got to the yard, one, who I’d never met before, ran up to me for a giant hug. We played hop scotch, jump rope, and limbo. The teacher also led a game where she would yell out different emotions, animals, and groups of numbers and we had to act it out. One of the girls was making things out of clay and gave me a small figure. When I asked who it was, she said it was me and after she gave it me, she ran away demurely.
After the kids went to school, I had another conversation with the woman which was unfruitful. She wanted us to pull vines of a fence and we ended up just following the example of three school boys who were with us. They kept trying to tell us something about the vines: they would mime scratching and said “pico”. We later found out this meant that there were thorns but at the time we thought it meant poison ivy so we went about very, very carefully scared of getting poison ivy. Then she wanted us to pick up some sort of trash. I wasn’t sure what so we ended up throwing away every from the vines we had pulled off to m&m wrappers that had blown up from the trash pile. She said “bueno trabajar”(Good job) which I understood and asked my name. She was very nice but the I think we could have been more productive if I spoke Spanish. We still had time left before lunch so we went to the school cafeteria and through small amounts of Spanish and miming we were able to help.
I am able to struggle through conversations but it’s mostly frustrating and I feel disrespectful towards those I meet.
