This past week has been one of continued learning. Learning languages and cultures and patience and differences. We wrapped up our 4th week of Spanish instruction, and we find ourselves wishing we had time to take many more weeks - not so much because we love conjugating irregular verbs, but because we are gradually finding out how little we know. In many ways learning a language is like running. You rarely notice much difference from day-to-day but from month to month you do. (Alternatively, it's the opposite of daily news or Latin American Soap Operas: you miss a day and you're completely lost, but miss a month and you realize that nothing's changed). Today, we attended church with Christian and Rosie Aponte and we were all surprised at how much of the language we recognized (Martin Luther King quotations are equally powerful in Spanish in case you're wondering). Four weeks ago, we would have understood nothing but we got the gist of things today. While we expect that most of our "church" in the next year will be within our family, worshipping with other people who similarly pray for peace and for grace and hope for better things to come is refreshing and energizing.
Church today was a Guatemalan perspective of "Iglesia es la esperanza del Mundo" (church is the hope of the world), and while it's not without its flaws, I agree with that assertion. The Bible was originally written by and written for people who needed hope more than anything, and the original readers (hearers) were not unlike the people of the Ulpan Valley and so many other places in the world today. As Christians, or more specifically, as rich North American Christians, we've made a mistake by allowing the conversation in recent years to degenerate into whether we will be saved by the forces of free market or by the forces of government. I'm actually a big fan of both of these man-made institutions, but I believe that the only true mechanism giving hope for better things to come is the God-made institution of church.
Speaking of A New Hope, yesterday, the boys got the gist of a sign that said "Star Wars Exhibit here" and we opted to explore Jedi culture for an afternoon. People saying "Hey - you look like you might want to buy something" sounds the same in all languages, and those people are a little intimidating when they're dressed up as Darth Maul. But it was a good way to spend a Saturday afternoon anyway.
We had our first experience with the international medical community this week, as Sam caught a brief, but pretty nasty, fever and stomach ailment. He's OK now and once again ready to eat poorly-cooked chicken, but it was an unpleasant couple of days. The visit was very good in just about every way possible: short wait, courteous staff, and a correct and reassuring diagnosis (i.e. "it's not Dengue Fever, you idiot"). Also, to make the visit seem more "American", there were salespeople coming in and out, and even the token guy coming in saying "I need a prescription for_____". And $25 cash later, we were done.
Next week is a real gear-shift for us when we start Qeqchi. We find ourselves very restless and impatient to get more permanently in the Ulpan Valley. We have some additional prep work on tap for next week, including some planning of some facilities in the Valley. The good news is that things appear to be coming along very well with Project Ulpan, with many communities enjoying the new cell tower (yes, we will have internet and Skype access, but the nearest electricity will be an hour away). About 400 latrines have been constructed in the last few months, which isn't bad considering that there were none for 2,500 homes just a few months ago. That aspect of sanitation is really catching on. Several communities have solar panels now, and more are planned. In each case, the communities are responsibly collecting money from their "customers" and paying for the equipment over the next several months (more on "microcredit" set-ups and some perspectives from an engineering perspective on how they are changing the world in future postings). The water systems we have constructed previously are running OK (although one community will need some work with maintenance and generally staying on top of things - but there are more than a few water systems in the US that have the idential issue - more on those similarities later too). It is exciting to be a part of this work and we look forward to becoming more immersed into it.
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