Greetings, friends and family! I hope you all know how much I love you and appreciate your prayers. I´m sorry I haven´t blogged more (but at least I´ve blogged more than Marissa... haha). Anyway, nothing desperately exciting has happened in the last week, but I´ll try to make something boring sound interesting for your benefit.
This week, Carissa and I started ¨normal¨ language classes. Previously we´d had one on one tutors because we came in the middle of a term, but now we´re in classes with other students--5 in my class (although my level has another section), and two other people in Carissa´s class. I´ve really enjoyed being with other students so far! When I was the only one, I felt discouraged sometimes because I felt like I wasn´t learning as much as I should, but now that I have other students to compare myself to (I know that sounds bad!) I realize that we´re all human and that I´m actually doing really well in my studies! The work is also a little less, since before we were trying to go as fast as possible, so it´s nice.
The title of this blog refers to what´s happening outside right now! Thunder and lightning just started as well, so I might have to cut this entry short if the internet cafe people decide to not risk injury to their equipment by blackouts, which happen sometimes. This is the rainy season in Guadalajara, and although it´s beautiful, I have gottten wet a couple of times so far.
Okay, so here´s a nice Spanish word for you: guera. It means (sort of) white girl, and it´s what people holler at me when I´m walking in the streets. While I was walking over here today, I heard guera twice and guerita once. I´m definitely more popular here in Mexico than I am in the US! Oh well!
So please continue to pray for me! Pray that I´m able to continually learn more Spanish, and pray for my relationships with the Mexican people here in the church. Pray that God shows us ways to reach out to people and serve him! I hope you all are having a great summer, and I really do appreciate and love you!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Marcella is pretty smart for a gringa
Okay, I'm fully shamed now by Marissa's stellar blog. Shame on me! First of all, I love you, everyone! All my wonderful friends and family, I hope you're having a great summer! Email me sometime!
Carissa and I are doing language school down here. The school we go to is called Harvest, and I'm just about to complete level 3, so next week I'll be able to start level four with their regular classes. So far we've been in individual one-on-one classes, but we'll join other students next week. I'm really learning a lot of Spanish, and being able to use it quite a bit! Every time I feel like I'm doing well, though, I realize how much I still lack. But I am able to have conversations with people and generally get around.
We spend a lot of time with the family we live with. One of the sisters works in her pharmacy all day, so we don't see as much of her, but we eat and talk a lot with the other sisters and their children, especially their daughters. Yuli is 13 years old, and a good friend of the Schroeder twins, so we're having a lot of fun getting to know them, hanging out with them, and trying to be an encouragement to them. Since I'm a missionary kid, too, I feel like part of how God might want to use me down here is as an encouragement to the parents that they made the right decision, and to the kids, that what makes them different is a blessing, not a curse.
Chadd has encouraged Carissa and I to look for ways to serve and be used by God, so one of the ways we've found is to offer to babysit at any time for any reason for any of the missionary families here. They all have wonderful (but tiring) kids, and since we're only here for a short time, we feel like helping them is something worthwhile for us to do. All the missionaries here are such godly people--it's really a blessing to be able to get to know them and hear their stories!
This Friday we don't have language classes, and instead we're going to help Carola Garcia, a Mexican missionary, with her kindergarten class. Getting to know Mexican kids is fun, but challenging! They accept our butchered Spanish more easily, but tend to be difficult to understand, since half the time they themselves can't pronounce words correctly! The little girl we live with, Sarahi, counts: uno, dos, tes, cuato, cinco, sies, siete, ocho, nieve... and instead of veinte says vente. She's pretty cute, but sometimes hard to understand. I call her my amiguita, so now she calls me her amigota. What is it with friends named Sarah and fat jokes?!
Anyway, I'm having a wonderful time down here. We get comments when we walk around the neighborhood, but not too many, and we're well taken care of by everyone.
The only food I've eaten down here that I wasn't thrilled about was, ironically, a shrimp cocktail. I'm sorry, they look like worms! But I ate them anyway (with crackers over them so I couldn't see them) and they actually tasted fine as long as I didn't look at them or think about them.
Okay, so please pray for us! Pray that God reveals how God want to use us here, and that we find ways to serve the church and the missionaries. Pray that our language learning goes well, and that we make good friends here. Pray for our health! We've both been a little sick off and on. We're in a big city, so pray for our safety. Praise God for the good experiences we've had here so far, and pray that God continues to use us!
I love you all!
Carissa and I are doing language school down here. The school we go to is called Harvest, and I'm just about to complete level 3, so next week I'll be able to start level four with their regular classes. So far we've been in individual one-on-one classes, but we'll join other students next week. I'm really learning a lot of Spanish, and being able to use it quite a bit! Every time I feel like I'm doing well, though, I realize how much I still lack. But I am able to have conversations with people and generally get around.
We spend a lot of time with the family we live with. One of the sisters works in her pharmacy all day, so we don't see as much of her, but we eat and talk a lot with the other sisters and their children, especially their daughters. Yuli is 13 years old, and a good friend of the Schroeder twins, so we're having a lot of fun getting to know them, hanging out with them, and trying to be an encouragement to them. Since I'm a missionary kid, too, I feel like part of how God might want to use me down here is as an encouragement to the parents that they made the right decision, and to the kids, that what makes them different is a blessing, not a curse.
Chadd has encouraged Carissa and I to look for ways to serve and be used by God, so one of the ways we've found is to offer to babysit at any time for any reason for any of the missionary families here. They all have wonderful (but tiring) kids, and since we're only here for a short time, we feel like helping them is something worthwhile for us to do. All the missionaries here are such godly people--it's really a blessing to be able to get to know them and hear their stories!
This Friday we don't have language classes, and instead we're going to help Carola Garcia, a Mexican missionary, with her kindergarten class. Getting to know Mexican kids is fun, but challenging! They accept our butchered Spanish more easily, but tend to be difficult to understand, since half the time they themselves can't pronounce words correctly! The little girl we live with, Sarahi, counts: uno, dos, tes, cuato, cinco, sies, siete, ocho, nieve... and instead of veinte says vente. She's pretty cute, but sometimes hard to understand. I call her my amiguita, so now she calls me her amigota. What is it with friends named Sarah and fat jokes?!
Anyway, I'm having a wonderful time down here. We get comments when we walk around the neighborhood, but not too many, and we're well taken care of by everyone.
The only food I've eaten down here that I wasn't thrilled about was, ironically, a shrimp cocktail. I'm sorry, they look like worms! But I ate them anyway (with crackers over them so I couldn't see them) and they actually tasted fine as long as I didn't look at them or think about them.
Okay, so please pray for us! Pray that God reveals how God want to use us here, and that we find ways to serve the church and the missionaries. Pray that our language learning goes well, and that we make good friends here. Pray for our health! We've both been a little sick off and on. We're in a big city, so pray for our safety. Praise God for the good experiences we've had here so far, and pray that God continues to use us!
I love you all!
Monday, June 18, 2007
Marissa would prefer not to eat chicken blood, thank you!
Okay, so I'm really not good at blogging...very sorry, everyone!
I have now been in Chiang Mai for 2.5ish weeks and I am still loving it!
So here's the kinda general weekly schedule for me, just so you know:
Sunday morning: church at 9:00 (ish) right up the stairs from where we sleep. It's all in Thai, but a lot of it is translated, and for the sermon we get these cool little earpiece headphone thingies (that's the technical word, of course!) that let us hear a person translating into English without having the whole church have to listen to the translation...if that makes sense...
So then we split into classes for men and women, and sometimes that's translated, sometimes not, but it's always fun. I love the ladies' class! And supposedly Casey and I are supposed to teach it on July first (so I'm pretty sure that day class will be in English!)
Monday is our sabbath day. Nothing planned officially. Lots of fun!
Tuesday through Friday:
In the morning we have equipping time (devo, Bible study, discussion of spiritual disciplines, etc...) and then at lunch we wander off down the street to eat lunch on the campus of Payap University...And that's where I get to have two solid hours of feeling ridiculously awkward and confused (but in a good way, of course!) From 12ish to 2ish we eat lunch and then go around and either meet new people and advertise free English class or talk to friends that we already know...
3 to 6 we are available for English lessons (but we don't necessarily have class that whole time--just when people schedule it with us)
On Thursdays from 6 to 8 we have dinner and cell group, which is super fun...
and on most nights we go over to the "milk shop" next door, owned by the church secretary, and we hang out, drink yummy stuff (milkshakes, coffee, tea, whatever...) and have lots of fun...
And the weekends have various things scheduled...
Ok so that's the general schedule. Now (if you're still reading) I'll tell you some of the highlights of the past couple of weeks!
Last weekend we went to a small village a couple hours away (up in the mountains--Beautiful!) where we did an English camp for students at a school (about 12ish years old) and then did service projects (some of us with people from the church there, some of us helping paint at the school)...
Then on Tuesday morning we went repelling together (team bonding!) at a place called Crazy Horse. So of course that was incredibly fun!
Every Sunday night there's a huge market called Walking Street, where there are sooooo soooo many people all up and down this long street. So we've been to that a couple of times, but I haven't bought anything because it is sooooo overwhelming! (But fun!)
On our first Monday a couple of us went up a nature trail to an old old Buddhist temple, which was pretty interesting and had a gorgeous view.
We went on a scavenger hunt on Friday night (Friday Night Live, with the people from the other church)...We went around trying to get pictures of things like a cat, a dog, a white person, a tiger, a funny T-shirt, a Thai toilet sign, a sentence of words from different signs, a person in the group standing between a couple, a "We love Hip Hop" sticker, and so many more...My group didn't get too many pictures, but we definitely had a good time!
Today (Monday!) we went to a waterfall. I decided not to swim so I was just going to hang out nearby and enjoy the beautiful day (it wasn't too hot...) When we got there, there was another group of people there enjoying themselves (in a way that's a little different from things I usually do, if you know what I mean!) Only one of them was "wasted" -- the others were just a bit tipsy! So a couple of them (a guy and a girl) sat beside me and we had some interesting conversation: me with my tiny tiny bit of Thai, them with their tiny bit of English and tipsiness. To make a long story short, today I had the unique experience of getting asked out by a drunk Thai man who told me I had a cute smile. So I laughed and said no; he asked if we could be friends, and I was like "sure..." and then decided it was time to walk around for a bit! Then he tried to ask Casey out too, but she also blew him off. Sad day for our tipsy Thai friend!
(one of the apprentices did talk to all of them for a while though, and they said they would call him about learning English, and they told us to come visit their steak place some time...so...who knows!)
Ok, so some of the really cool things about living here:
I have now been in Chiang Mai for 2.5ish weeks and I am still loving it!
So here's the kinda general weekly schedule for me, just so you know:
Sunday morning: church at 9:00 (ish) right up the stairs from where we sleep. It's all in Thai, but a lot of it is translated, and for the sermon we get these cool little earpiece headphone thingies (that's the technical word, of course!) that let us hear a person translating into English without having the whole church have to listen to the translation...if that makes sense...
So then we split into classes for men and women, and sometimes that's translated, sometimes not, but it's always fun. I love the ladies' class! And supposedly Casey and I are supposed to teach it on July first (so I'm pretty sure that day class will be in English!)
Monday is our sabbath day. Nothing planned officially. Lots of fun!
Tuesday through Friday:
In the morning we have equipping time (devo, Bible study, discussion of spiritual disciplines, etc...) and then at lunch we wander off down the street to eat lunch on the campus of Payap University...And that's where I get to have two solid hours of feeling ridiculously awkward and confused (but in a good way, of course!) From 12ish to 2ish we eat lunch and then go around and either meet new people and advertise free English class or talk to friends that we already know...
3 to 6 we are available for English lessons (but we don't necessarily have class that whole time--just when people schedule it with us)
On Thursdays from 6 to 8 we have dinner and cell group, which is super fun...
and on most nights we go over to the "milk shop" next door, owned by the church secretary, and we hang out, drink yummy stuff (milkshakes, coffee, tea, whatever...) and have lots of fun...
And the weekends have various things scheduled...
Ok so that's the general schedule. Now (if you're still reading) I'll tell you some of the highlights of the past couple of weeks!
Last weekend we went to a small village a couple hours away (up in the mountains--Beautiful!) where we did an English camp for students at a school (about 12ish years old) and then did service projects (some of us with people from the church there, some of us helping paint at the school)...
Then on Tuesday morning we went repelling together (team bonding!) at a place called Crazy Horse. So of course that was incredibly fun!
Every Sunday night there's a huge market called Walking Street, where there are sooooo soooo many people all up and down this long street. So we've been to that a couple of times, but I haven't bought anything because it is sooooo overwhelming! (But fun!)
On our first Monday a couple of us went up a nature trail to an old old Buddhist temple, which was pretty interesting and had a gorgeous view.
We went on a scavenger hunt on Friday night (Friday Night Live, with the people from the other church)...We went around trying to get pictures of things like a cat, a dog, a white person, a tiger, a funny T-shirt, a Thai toilet sign, a sentence of words from different signs, a person in the group standing between a couple, a "We love Hip Hop" sticker, and so many more...My group didn't get too many pictures, but we definitely had a good time!
Today (Monday!) we went to a waterfall. I decided not to swim so I was just going to hang out nearby and enjoy the beautiful day (it wasn't too hot...) When we got there, there was another group of people there enjoying themselves (in a way that's a little different from things I usually do, if you know what I mean!) Only one of them was "wasted" -- the others were just a bit tipsy! So a couple of them (a guy and a girl) sat beside me and we had some interesting conversation: me with my tiny tiny bit of Thai, them with their tiny bit of English and tipsiness. To make a long story short, today I had the unique experience of getting asked out by a drunk Thai man who told me I had a cute smile. So I laughed and said no; he asked if we could be friends, and I was like "sure..." and then decided it was time to walk around for a bit! Then he tried to ask Casey out too, but she also blew him off. Sad day for our tipsy Thai friend!
(one of the apprentices did talk to all of them for a while though, and they said they would call him about learning English, and they told us to come visit their steak place some time...so...who knows!)
Ok, so some of the really cool things about living here:
- The church group is really close, really friendly, hangs out alllll the time, super fun, and reminds me of the Minter college group in a lot of ways. (awww I miss them!)
- It's a beautiful place, so many cool things to see!
- The food is delicious! I ate a huge plate of Pad Thai tonight...yummy!
- People are really laid back, really fun, really willing to help you try to pronounce all the super difficult words.
- We spend so much time in prayer and spiritual formation.
- Hearing the stories of all the Thai Christians who have sacrificed so much in coming to Christ from Buddhist backgrounds--their faith is so encouraging!
- I love all the interns and apprentices, and it's been so much fun getting to know all of them.
- Things are cheaper compared with prices in America. My amazing dinner cost under one US dollar...
- No one thinks I'm crazy for having a greenish tint in my hair! The people who have noticed think it's cool and were confused when I told them that I wanted it gone (but it is going away gradually, don't worry).
- The milk shop. Yum Yum Yum.
- The language is super difficult. Five tones, and if you use the wrong one you may be saying something completely different! Example: I was meeting girls at lunch one day, going around and trying to repeat all their names. They kept laughing at me when I said this one girl's name, and only later did I find out that I had been calling her the sound that Thai dogs make. Oooops!
- It's hot. Sweaty. Gross. (But we have air conditioning and fans, so we're surviving!)
- It's really hard to go meet random people and try to talk to them when they are scared to use their English and I only know like 5 words in Thai.
- A lot of chicken dishes come with chunks of cooked-up chicken blood that I have to remove before eating...gross... (but I can usually avoid getting those foods!)
- Teaching English class. I've only "taught" one alone so far, and it was super awkward. It was supposed to be with just one girl, but then three guys came in the room with us, so...we had an hour of awkward getting to know each other conversation. Right now I have six girls signed up to study with me at various times through the week (some of them in pairs), so I'm really hoping that all that goes well! We don't really have any training or guidelines, so we'll see...
- I have homework to finish for my crazy Maymester class! : P
- All of the new people coming around and hanging out with us--there are several that enjoy spending a lot of time with us, so hopefully they'll start getting interested in learning more than just English...a couple of them even have come to cell group or Sunday morning worhsip...
- Getting to know people on campus better...we've met a lot of random people, but not really built relationships with too many of them.
- Learning more Thai! I think it really helps people be more interested if they can see that we're making an effort to communicate in their language.
- Teaching English, not feeling so awkward!
- This weekend we'll have another "English Camp" (but really just a fun weekend with our English students) for college kids. Hopefully it will be a great time of building stronger relationships.
- All of the interns and apprentices, that we stay focused and enthusiastic about our work here (that's me, Casey, Amp, Un, Mark, Marvin, and Jason)
Okay, sorry for the super long blog...maybe next time it will be shorter! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Let me know what's going on with all of you!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Marcella's exciting adventures in Mexico
Okay, I still don't have much time to blog, but I thought I'd add a bit.
Every morning we spend almost an hour on two buses to get to language school, which is from 9--12:30. Afterwards, we sometimes get a snack and then we generally head home. Lunch is between 2 and 3, and then I usually take a nap. We spend a lot of time hanging out with the family, trying to talk in Spanish, and doing language homework for the next day. We're learning a lot! On Thursdays we eat lunch with the Schroders and then go to a jovenes meeting. On Fridays we help Nancy Schroeder out with an English class she gives to some of her neighbors. This weekend Carissa is going to go back to the US for a wedding, so I'll be here alone, but I'll be fine. Today we were at a birthday party for like 5 hours! I'm having fun!
Every morning we spend almost an hour on two buses to get to language school, which is from 9--12:30. Afterwards, we sometimes get a snack and then we generally head home. Lunch is between 2 and 3, and then I usually take a nap. We spend a lot of time hanging out with the family, trying to talk in Spanish, and doing language homework for the next day. We're learning a lot! On Thursdays we eat lunch with the Schroders and then go to a jovenes meeting. On Fridays we help Nancy Schroeder out with an English class she gives to some of her neighbors. This weekend Carissa is going to go back to the US for a wedding, so I'll be here alone, but I'll be fine. Today we were at a birthday party for like 5 hours! I'm having fun!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
No time to blog! Marcella
Okay, sorry for the lack of bloggage and this pitiful entry. I love you all, I´m learning lots, and I´m having fun! We´ve spent all week working hard in language school, and we spent the weekend at the beach, which was amazing! I didn´t even get sunburned. Tomorrow, it´s back to language school! I´ll try to blog more later!
Friday, June 1, 2007
Marcella says "hola"
Hello, all. No exceptionally exciting news today. Yesterday we went to a jovenes (young people) group, which was fun, and this morning we went to the team meeting and met more team mates. Everyone is so nice here! Today I went to the doctor since my throat felt even worse, but he said it was probably viral. He gave me some saline solution for my sinuses and some cough syrup with codine, so I certainly hope that helps me feel better. We're going to go over to stay with the Zendejas sisters tomorrow night. We start language school on Tuesday, and we'll get to go to the beach next weekend! I won't have as much internet access after tomorrow, but I'll blog at least once a week with the highlights. I hope all of you are having a great summer!
Marissa is alive in Chiang Mai
Well...We got to Bangkok Wednesday night and spent the night at the church building there...
We woke up at five on Thursday morning to go to a park with Larry Henderson. By the time we got there at six, there were already soooooo many people up and around exercising, doing aerobics, walking, jogging, some sun-worshiping, and selling various foods by the side of the road...
After spending the morning chilling in Bangkok, we flew to Chiang Mai, where we were very warmly greeted by a whole bunch of people from the church here. Then we unpacked, played some crazy intense Nertz, ate yummy sticky rice and had a cell group meeting....
And then we went to bed at nine, extremely tired...
Today was the first day of orientation for the summer interns, so we've just been learning about some cultural stuff and what we're doing this summer...and getting to know other interns and apprentices here....
So...things are great here! I've had a lot of delicious food, met a lot of cool people, and had a lot of fun!
And...I know (or think I know) how to say apple, banana, cute, hello, thank you, chicken, rice, handsome, very, and delicious...you know, all the useful words!
oooh and we've had two different new types of fruit since we've been here...and they were both very wonderful!
So, don't worry about me starving this summer... : P
We woke up at five on Thursday morning to go to a park with Larry Henderson. By the time we got there at six, there were already soooooo many people up and around exercising, doing aerobics, walking, jogging, some sun-worshiping, and selling various foods by the side of the road...
After spending the morning chilling in Bangkok, we flew to Chiang Mai, where we were very warmly greeted by a whole bunch of people from the church here. Then we unpacked, played some crazy intense Nertz, ate yummy sticky rice and had a cell group meeting....
And then we went to bed at nine, extremely tired...
Today was the first day of orientation for the summer interns, so we've just been learning about some cultural stuff and what we're doing this summer...and getting to know other interns and apprentices here....
So...things are great here! I've had a lot of delicious food, met a lot of cool people, and had a lot of fun!
And...I know (or think I know) how to say apple, banana, cute, hello, thank you, chicken, rice, handsome, very, and delicious...you know, all the useful words!
oooh and we've had two different new types of fruit since we've been here...and they were both very wonderful!
So, don't worry about me starving this summer... : P
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