Bloggity blog blog

To be honest, I'm not really in a blogging mood right now (I'm somewhat exhausted), but I decided it would be better to go ahead and do it now while I have the time rather than wait until I AM in a blogging mood. So, if I don't sound very enthusiatic about my awesome week, I do apologize.

It's hard to believe I've been here three weeks already! Time flies...etc, etc. This week, as I told you in the last blog, I was at the boys' farm this whole week. I am surprised at how well my relationships are developing despite the language barrier (which, btw, is being torn down rapidly...only two people at the farm speak English, so I have learned a LOT). I can already see that it's going to rip me apart when I have to leave in June. One kid has already asked for my mailing address, so I'm pretty pumped about keeping that up. It will be so much cooler than Facebook.

I've been doing a lot of English instruction this week. Two of the boys, Yilmar and Carlos, who have both been taking English lessons from others, are very eager to learn. They can speak a little bit in complete sentences, but not much...mostly a mix of words...but they've improved a lot even over this past week! I've told them that when I'm talking with them, I'll try to speak in English the whole time unless they absolutely can't understand, in which case I will speak in Spanish. I'm also becoming good friends with Veronica, who I mentioned in my last blog, and we're helping each other out a lot with English and Spanish (we call each other profesor/a). (Oh, and for those of you who will raise your eyebrows at me mentioning a girl...no, it's not going to happen.)

A lot of what I've been doing this week has been working with the construction/maintenance man at the farm, whose name is Fernando. The reason for this is because it's a good position for one who is still in the process of learning Spanish, but it gives me a chance to develop relationships with the boys as well. I did a lot of grunt work (where Fernando did the main stuff and I just helped here and there), plus a few things with the boys...painting, digging post holes, cleaning cement mess, mixing cement, installing a door, etc. etc. I'm not a big fan of manual labor, and I don't feel guilty saying that, but it has been a good experience for me (something I think everyone should do here and there). The cement messes were a humbling experience (there were probably about 10 of them).

I was asked the other day if I had experienced culture shock yet...I haven't. This person told me it would probably be soon...that it normally takes about a month. Supposedly a girl who stayed here for about six months (and just recently left), after about a month of being here, went through a phase where she pretty much didn't want anything to do with anybody and wanted to go home. I really don't think that's going to happen to me...I think I'm going to rebuke culture shock, haha. I've hardly had any frustrations down here thus far in terms of just being a different culture/context...I've gotten over the whole Spanish thing...other than that, unless you count ice-cold showers in 50-something degree weather (which has been humbling and a good experience regardless) and the lack of drinking water (a problem which has now been fixed, as there is a store within walking distance of the farm which sells gallons of water), I've been fine.

I plan on leaving the worship team at the foundation. There are a few reasons for this, the main one being that the weekend needs to be a time of rest and prayer for me, along with getting some things done that I can't do at the farm, and having that 2-3 hour practice on Saturdays (plus the 40 minutes-1 hour time span it takes to get both there and back on a bus/taxi) does not allow for it. I might still do a "special" song on occasion (which I'm supposed to be doing this coming Sunday), and I would love to help teach one of the boys there who's learning to play piano (so that he can start playing with the group)...so hopefully I can help out in those aspects. I have yet to break all of this to the leader, so pray that it won't be too much of a struggle when I do (I've already spoken of the persistence of the people here).

I want to take one of the boys at the farm home with me. His name is Marlon, he's 9 years old (though he looks more like 7), and is probably the cutest kid I have ever seen. It's funny, because I have a hard enough time understanding some of the kids as it is, but he also has a speech impediment to go on top of it (he pronounces his "R's" like "L's"). Hopefully I will get my new pictures posted online this weekend, which include some of him. I also got a video of him singing a song, but I doubt I'll have any way to post that. The boys here call me, along with all of the other adults, tutors, etc., "tío" and "tía," which mean uncle and aunt. For me, it's very endearing. Also, a lot of people have been calling me "Nico," their version of Nick, which is short for "Nicolas." I think I like it better than Nick (it's actually what I've wanted to call my first son, if I ever end up having kids).

With all that has been going on here, I had completely forgotten that next week is Holy Week. Supposedly, most of the kids won't be at the farm next week, but will be on vacation. Veronica asked me if I could pay some special attention to two of the kids who will be there, because if I understood her correctly, they don't have anyone to go home to. So I look forward to getting to know them and encouraging them.

There are many other details, but I'm actually going to spare them this time. I have other things I need to get done, plus two of the boys from the farm are staying here at B&K's this weekend.

So, ciao.