Early this week, Joy and I really had felt like we had settled in. We had gotten furniture for the house and were ready to start. Last Thursday was the first day of teacher training for the school and it was a great opportunity to start meeting the other teachers and administration. The excitement of the administration is contagious and we are really excited about the school year.
For those of you who don't exactly know what we are doing. We are both working for an ACSI school which focuses on bilingual and biblical education. About half of the students come from professing Christian families, the other half do not. The lure of the school for these students is the bilingual education, especially from American teachers (We have learned not to call ourselves Americans as they consider themself the same thing, we say we are from the States). Joy is teaching 6,7 and 8th grade bible. I am teaching 6th grade Science. The focus of the school is to use this opportunity of the desire for bilingual education to also provide strong Bible teaching. We are excited to begin.
This weekend we went to the center of the city. It has the largest market in Latin America. I couldn't grasp it. They sold everything I could imagine and some things I did not want to. Their were also butchers spread amongst the shops, selling freshly butchered meat (Pigs legs, hides, blood). The smell of the market was very intersting. Their were fruit shops, toy shops, pet shops, any type of shops you can imagine shops! We only spent a little time their. One of the administrators said it would literally take 2-3 days to walk through the whole thing. The city square was rich with history. Regretfully, it did not have the charm of San Luis Potosi for those who read our previous blog on the city center there. Here the grand scale of the city invaded the quaintess of the historic churches and city. It was busy with 2-3 lane roads surrounding every block. Despite the rush, the market and surrounding streets did allow you to duck away and experience a culture unlike ours.
Today we went to church. Again, we loved the worship as some songs were familar and others gave us the opportunity to learn. These familar songs really help me learn Spanish. Since I can close my eyes and sing them in English I learn the new Spanish words every day. We have really been encouraged to listen to the services in Spanish (not English headphones) to help pick up the language. Then supplement with podcasts of American teaching. We did this today, but after 2.5 hours of really trying hard to understand your head really hurts. (Their services traditionally last 2.5-3 hours) There are churches that are more American in structure, but we wanted to go to a culturally reflective church. Someone right afterwards came up to me and asked my name. I had such a headache at that point that it took me a minute to respond. I am sure he thinks I know little to no Spanish. Even in two weeks our Spanish has greatly increased. Our mental translation is still slow though. The hardest thing is not saying what you want in Spanish, but then being able to translate the response quick enough to answer back. It will take time, but we will learn.
We want to thank everyone for the blog comments and emails. We were told that we will have email hooked up either tomorrow or Tuesday. At that point, we will be able to respond better to all of your comments and emails. Thanks for all of your support.
One last note of horror, Montezuma struck our home last week! Our systems are revolting a little bit against the germs and other things we encounter.
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