The kids and Evan helped make my first Peruvian Mother's Day very special. The day started with poems, homemade chocolates and gluten-free pancakes for breakfast. Since we have a car for a couple of weeks, we decided to take a drive to the organic market for some fresh veggies and eggs. Later we went out for Peruvian Chinese food, or "Chifa". It was a great day and I felt celebrated. The kids really were sweet and made the day special for me.
Evan and I have only 2 1/2 weeks left of Spanish classes. Our ability to understand is improving faster than our ability to speak. When I was very young, I learned to play the violin using the Suzuki Method. With this method, children learn the "language of music" by playing the same pieces over and over again until they master the material...and then they play the same pieces again and again in group lesson. What this repetition does for a child is make them "masters" at the easier pieces while they are learning more challenging material in the private lessons.
So many days I feel like we are doing the Suzuki method of language learning. We are in private classes 5 days a week for 2 hours a day and there we study intermediate level Spanish that is primarily head knowledge and hasn't made its way into our daily use of the language. We also have a few hours of homework a day which helps solidify the knowledge we are gaining in class.
For our "group lesson" experience we are immersed in the culture and make an effort to connect with the church body at CC Lima. Evan and I attend staff devotionals every morning, chapel, church services, ladies Bible studies and help with various medical needs here. All of this is in Spanish and we are trying to not only understand what is being said to us, but also to speak. We shop, play with neighbourhood kids, spend time with the kids from the orphanage and interact with our friends all with our rudimentary Spanish. Sometimes it is frustratingly slow learning a new language as an adult. We use and reuse familiar phrases and mastered verbs in the attempt to communicate. Little by little we learn to use the things we've learned in class. It is a humbling experience, but it is working. It's funny how our childhood experiences can inform our adult life!
Kids Church at our home church in Calgary (RMCC), sent the kids some money for an ice cream party. It was a gift to help cheer our kids up when they were having a time of really missing their friends. Well, it worked guys! They LOVED it and had a great time. We recently discovered a great little ice cream shop called Speciale. If you visit us here we promise to take you! Delicious homemade italian ice cream....mmm...
Sorry this entry was so late. Our week has been very busy and the kids and I have colds.
0 comments:
Post a Comment