Clases

It´s official I have entered into unknown territory.  Language quickly becomes a matrix and you find yourself desperately looking for a road map.  No entiendo!!  Last night we had Intercambio night.  This entails having the community that wants to learn English intermingle with volunteers who wish to practice their Spanish. We had the opportunity through a fun activity to practice the  language opposite from our own.  We played many rounds of musical chairs and this entailed directing in Spanish to move if.... muevate si.... you like...te gusta. You had to quickly find a chair and move if the command applied to you.  I instructed to move if you like people from the United States.  I am trying to get as many positive plugs for the US-of-A!  The more individuals share their dislikefor Americans then the more proud I become of my own country. Although most of the time I agree with their sentiment and frustrations about Westerners it really doesn´t bode well with me when they share their thoughts because I´m American.  And proud.  Nevertheless, participating in this activity proved challenging because I had the least amount of Spanish on my belt compared with the other volunteers, and became confused most of the time.  I was dashing around for seats not really sure if I was in complete agreement with the instruction!  Then the thoughts of not being able to absorb the language and all of that ran through my mind.  I forced myself to participate the best I could even though I was lost.  I woke up with a sense of purpose. Moments like that can either defeat you, or recreate you.  I had to rely on my spiritual framework to help me focus and trust this process.  God is still with me even if I¨m buzzing around chairs trying to figure out the instruction for the musical chairs game.  However, the highlight of my day ayer was interacting with the children.  Even though I do not speak very much Spanish I did whoop them in a game of Sorry!  Children pull the same antics in the Southern Americas as they do in the Northern Americas!  I was certainly in familiar ground there and enjoyed getting to know them via hand gestures and signaling PARE!  After the Intercambio volunteers and people from the community went out to the local tavern to socialize and I enjoyed hearing stories and getting to know the staff at the fundacion better.  Participating in this community is going to be life altering.  I start teaching English next week and look forward to being able to contribute back.  Short term goal- learn verbs and start to construct sentences.  Long term goal- keeping moving forward even when it´s challenging.  Muevate si.........you want to inspire.