He has shown you, oh man, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: to walk justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. Micah 6:8

Sunday, September 21, 2008

language language language...

I don't think I wrote about my first Bible study with the teenage girls from the Annex. That's probably because I was trying to block it out of my mind... Giving a Bible study is hard enough at home (but we make it look easy, right Valley YG?!). Here, in Spanish... AHH! Let's just say that the girls didn't understand my Spanish, I didn't understand their Guarani and I returned frustrated, discouraged and upset. Then I went to Argentina for the week (Talk about not understanding!!! I realized that I was "translating" everything that everyone said INTO Spanish in my brain. For example "Yo fui por alla" sounded like "show fui por asha".). In Argentina, I spoke a mescla of Spanish and English all week and I didn't go to Spanish school either. I came back to Paraguay on Friday evening and couldn't understand again. BUT I had to give my Bible study again. Yikes!! I prayed a lot... I prepared a lot... and it went so well! Thank You Lord! Also, we gave out the clothing that Valley sent down. Here are some of the girls with the clothes :-) THANK YOU AGAIN!
Oh and one other weird thing that I discovered today. Accent makes a big difference. Danny, Mariana, Adrian and I were having lunch and Adrian was talking to me. I understood him perfectly and responded to what he said. Mariana and Danny started cracking up. Mariana asked me if I understood everything Adrian said. "Yes!! Finally!!" I said (I give Adrian a lot of blank stares.. I don't always know what's going on when he talks to me). Then Mariana told me he was talking with a Mexican accent. For the rest of the day, whenever I didn't understand something Adrian told me, he repeated it with a Mexican accent and I understood COMPLETELY. There really is a big difference between a North/Central American Spanish accent and a SouthSouth American accent! Now the real test is if I'm able to understand you Dominicans....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Erin
God laid you on my heart the last couple weeks and have been praying for you daily. This is my first visit to your blog and it looks like you're having quite the adventure. Can't believe they can't understand that Jersey Spanish accent!

Beth said...

ERIN! I am so excited for all that is going on with you. You are FABULOUS, and I am just popping in to let you know I am now following your blog and I just can't wait to see what else the Lord has in store for you.

You are fabulous!