Miscommunication

Today is really where the rubber has met the road… last week everything was simple and now, let the chaos begin! Once a month, the whole church comes together for a Saturday morning breakfast and devotions. It was supposed to be last Saturday but they pushed it back a week so we could be here too. We met everyone and greeted them with the tradition Peruvian cheek to cheek and kiss the air. Then we ate breakfast together. People asked me what my name was and if I spoke Spanish. I replied “me llamo Laura… un poco espanol”. Simple enough.

Where things got a bit trickier was when we split off to have a devotional time with the women. I figured out that we were in Ephesians 6 and thanks to a bilingual bible I followed along while Jackie read but then I got lost. She spoke for a solid amount of time and all I could pick out was a word or two from each sentence. I felt really confused but little did I know that the confusion was only beginning. After that a woman from the church was going to teach everyone how to make jewelry. She explained everything in Spanish so I just watched her movements. I counted out the beads but there weren’t enough to mine got passed to someone else and I had no idea what was happening. No one around me could really help so I just sat there, confused. Otto walked by and commented that there weren’t beads in front of me and I tried to explain that I had no idea what was going on. I eventually finished my bracelet but the lady spoke in incredibly fast Spanish.

It was time for the worship team to practice and Lydia said it would be fine for us to make our lunch then. Somehow there was a miscommunication and we thought that we were supposed to eat then to… but we weren’t. We ate our lunch after we finished cooking it and then people tried to feed us more. We decided that it would be best if we made ourselves scarce while the rest of the church ate so not to be rude. I think it’s about time for me to head outside and be social…

It's really hard not understanding anything that is going on. I’m so glad we start Spanish classes on Monday… I hope I learn quickly.