Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Excuse me, I am using a spanish keyboard now so the punctuation might be a little off until i get used to it. All of the directions on the screen are also in spanish, so I hope I post this correctly. I am at a cabina where it costs me about 60 cents a minute to use the internet...really painfully slow dial-up, but internet nonetheless and it is only a block from my house. I have been doing a lot of the grocery shopping all by myself and I even order meat from the deli and ask where things are, but I admit I was a little timid to come and ask to use the internet... Which I now regret, because it was so easy! Paraguay is the best place in the world to come to and learn, because the people are so kind and patient, and I hear in Argentina every talks really fast. But yesterday a friend gave me some desert that her brother had brought from Argentina, and it was delicious! On Sunday I celebrated my one-month anniversary with Paraguay. I cannot believe how fast it went by! But it was encouraging because over the past 3 days many people how told me how impressed they are with my speaking abilities. Right now if I have a dictionary I can read okay, but I am still having a very hard time putting together whole phrases when people are speaking to me (Thank you for giving me that dictionary, Larissa, it comes in handy all the time when communicatiing with my roomates, and reading recipies and I take it to the grocery store when I need to buy spices). You would not believe how many cognantes there are between spanish and english; you can say words such as inaugural, principle, enthusiastic, apathetic, optimistic, allergic, or almost anything english word with more than 3 syllables with an accent, and people will understand you.
But i have been finding other ways to communicate with people besides words. It is too hot to do physical activity during the day most days, but a few evenings a week I go to what used to be a university campus only a few blocks from my house with some friends from church. We run laps on the track and find people to play sports with. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I am probably the best basketball player in all of Paraguay. No one really understands the rules very well, and we were playing with a volleyball, but it is still fun anyways.
I shouldnt be complaining about the heat, because we had four days of rain this week and I actually had to use a blanket the last two nights. I woke up this morning and thought it must be 5 degress outside, but it was 20!! It felt so cold though, from all the humidity I guess. Anyways, enough about the weather. All of the english exams are this week, and Ben and I are having to find ways to keep the kids entertained (i.e. somewhat behaving themselves, i.e. not killing each other and destroying the classroom. Ben says to pray that they take professional wrestling off the TV here). Since Karen is going to have her baby any day now, i am also teaching the grade one and kindergarten classes all by myself. I laugh when I think of myself trying to explain the lyrics of "jingle bells"to a bunch of 5-year olds who have never seen snow in all their lives.
Tonight is prayer meeting at church. I told my mom that if anyone thinks church is boring, they should try sitting through a one hour long sermon (not including 2 lengthy prayers) in a lnaguage they don{t understand. I do enjoy the singing though and Ben and Vivi say when I can say the words better they want me to sing up front with them. we'll see. People here don{t really know how to sing very well, but that's okay because next year Ben is going to start a school choir and I'm really looking forward to it. Next week I get to be in a musical skit for church where Ben and I are going to do interpretive dance. Since I can come here all the time now, I'll save more things to write about for later. I watched a movie on thomas edison (in english) with the kids, in which the inventor says he wants to invent things for the betterment of mankind, so Ive translated it (with Bens help) into a inspirational spanish slogan "para el mejoramiento de la humanidad" and I try to do something in this vein every day. Today it was not yelling at the kids when they were driving me nuts in the classroom, and now I;m going to help my friend study for her english exam. Chao!
But i have been finding other ways to communicate with people besides words. It is too hot to do physical activity during the day most days, but a few evenings a week I go to what used to be a university campus only a few blocks from my house with some friends from church. We run laps on the track and find people to play sports with. I don't want to toot my own horn, but I am probably the best basketball player in all of Paraguay. No one really understands the rules very well, and we were playing with a volleyball, but it is still fun anyways.
I shouldnt be complaining about the heat, because we had four days of rain this week and I actually had to use a blanket the last two nights. I woke up this morning and thought it must be 5 degress outside, but it was 20!! It felt so cold though, from all the humidity I guess. Anyways, enough about the weather. All of the english exams are this week, and Ben and I are having to find ways to keep the kids entertained (i.e. somewhat behaving themselves, i.e. not killing each other and destroying the classroom. Ben says to pray that they take professional wrestling off the TV here). Since Karen is going to have her baby any day now, i am also teaching the grade one and kindergarten classes all by myself. I laugh when I think of myself trying to explain the lyrics of "jingle bells"to a bunch of 5-year olds who have never seen snow in all their lives.
Tonight is prayer meeting at church. I told my mom that if anyone thinks church is boring, they should try sitting through a one hour long sermon (not including 2 lengthy prayers) in a lnaguage they don{t understand. I do enjoy the singing though and Ben and Vivi say when I can say the words better they want me to sing up front with them. we'll see. People here don{t really know how to sing very well, but that's okay because next year Ben is going to start a school choir and I'm really looking forward to it. Next week I get to be in a musical skit for church where Ben and I are going to do interpretive dance. Since I can come here all the time now, I'll save more things to write about for later. I watched a movie on thomas edison (in english) with the kids, in which the inventor says he wants to invent things for the betterment of mankind, so Ive translated it (with Bens help) into a inspirational spanish slogan "para el mejoramiento de la humanidad" and I try to do something in this vein every day. Today it was not yelling at the kids when they were driving me nuts in the classroom, and now I;m going to help my friend study for her english exam. Chao!
# posted by Ellen @ 2:40 PM 
