¡Hola from Chiapas! It is hard to believe that it has already been a whole week! I am thoroughly enjoying my time here in Chiapas and it has been very fruitful thus far.
This summer I will be working with the Tzeltal people in Ocosingo, Jol Sacjun, Chaban, and Ch’ixtontic. I am spending four weeks in San Cristóbal de las Casas learning Spanish at Instituto Jovel prior to the mission season so that I can communicate better with the people in Chiapas.
I hope to post weekly updates so that you all can continue praying for the communities I am serving.
This week I have learned a lot in Spanish school. I can now have a full conversation in Spanish, which makes me very excited because it allows me to hear and understand the stories of the people here. I especially enjoy learning more about Ricardo and Mariana, my host family.
My days are very rythmic. They start at 7:00. It is impossible to sleep in here because there are church bells that ring very loudly at 7:00, then at 7:15, and then again at 7:30. So I get up at 7:00. After getting ready and having a morning Selah, I eat breakfast with Mariana. We converse as we eat and it is much easier now after a week of Spanish. At the beginning of the week, we relied very heavily upon Google Translate, but now we can pretty much talk without it. She knows to speak very slowly and only talk in the present tense for now. We have to look up occasional words; today it was “zipline.” My understanding is that there is a zipline somewhere near San Cristóbal.
After breakfast, I walk to Instituto Jovel. It is about a 15 minute walk from my house here. Instituto Jovel is muy tranquilo. There are lots of plants and trees and a little fountain of water. You can also look out and see the whole city; it is a beautiful view. I spend my first two hours with Victor and the next two hours with Anaís. Then I return to my home for a siesta (much needed after four hours of Spanish) and la comida with Mariana and Ricardo. Lunch is nice because Ricardo can speak a bit of English, so our conversations are broader. After la comida, I go back to Instituto Jovel for two hours with Sergio.
All of my teachers are very different and I really enjoy their different teaching styles and personalities. We talk together and practice a lot. I am usually pretty exhausted after 6 hours of intensive classes, but I am making good progress and it is well worth the work.
After my classes, I like to go for a run at La Iglesia de Guadalupe, which is just down the street from my home. The stairs make a very good workout. Then I eat la cena with Mariana around 7:00. I do my homework afterwards, read for a bit, and then go to bed.
Mariana and Ricardo own a shop one block down from the house.
That is my typical day. Mucho español.
Here are some interesting things that I learned this week:
-I often get frustrated in English when we use “How are you?” as a greeting when we don’t actually have time to genuinely listen to how the person is feeling. For example, if I pass someone when I am walking to class, I don’t have time to listen to the person respond. This forces us to say that we are good even when we are not actually good. In Spanish, there is a greeting that means “How are you?” but does not require an answer. It expresses care for how the person is feeling without requiring them to respond. It is “¿qué tal?.” I think we need a phrase like this in English.
-In Spanish, there is a phrase for “hump day.” It is “ombliga de la semana.” It means literally “the belly button of the week.”
-There are three different forms of the verb “to be” in Spanish. It is very confusing. “He is a student” is different from “He is tired” and both of these are different from “There is a chair.” It is very confusing. I spent almost a whole day in school practicing with these different forms. It is muy importante to use the correct form. For example, it can be the difference between saying “He is bored” and “He is boring.”
Today I went to the Presbyterian church in San Cristóbal for La Sociedad de Jovenes (a youth service). I finally found it after getting lost for awhile (not all of the streets are marked here). The pastor talked very fast and it was raining very loudly, so I only understood some individual phrases and words in his sermon. The people are very welcoming there. I plan to go to the main church service there tomorrow morning.
I am really enjoying my time here, but it also makes me aware of the privilege of being able to study Spanish here. I can come to San Cristóbal and stay in a home with a nice family, eat three meals a day, and study Spanish in a nice school here, but that is not the case for many people here.
Please pray for the people in San Cristóbal and all throughout Chiapas. Please also pray that I can find ways to serve people during my time in Spanish school.
La Iglesia de Guadalupe (down the street from my house); I run up and down these steps and around the park beneath
El Cerro de San Cristóbal o San Cristóbalito; I walked here with Anaís today and we practiced Spanish as we walked
The garden at Instituto Jovel
This picture does not really capture it well, but I can see the whole city from the top of Instituto Jovel
San Cristóbal; this is the view from San Cristóbalito; the mountains in the background are called “Sal Si Peudes;” it means “Get Out If You Can;” The roads are very tricky back there so everyone gets lost once they enter
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Love, Aunt Amy & David