Clases Empiezan Por Fin!

This week, I started teaching the police. After almost a full day and a half of combating language and cultural barriers, I finally got a schedule in place that will work.  And I finally understand how the rotations work.  It took me a day and half to come to this understanding, so I won't even begin to try to explain it here.

I will teach 4 different groups for an hour and half at time.  In all, I will teach 6 hours/day with a 2 hour lunch break.  I start my day at 9am and finish at 5:30ish. I have weekends off. The groups are organized by when the officers take their days off as well as by current language ability.  I wish I'd done all of this work when I was in the capital.  I think things would have been much more productive there. I have about 25 students in all.  Each class has 4-5 people in it, but not all of them show up.  I am not sure how to combat absences, especially when they are due to attending to regular police duties.

Anyway, I started teaching on Thursday and held my first full day of classes on Friday.  I love teaching! I love my students, too!  They are so eager to learn!  Sometimes, I have tell them to stop asking questions because they want to know everything all at once.  I answer the questions that are relevant and the ones that have short answers, but have to cut them off pretty often.  I don't want to confuse them by teaching things in a spastic order!

Here are some pictures from Friday's teaching.

Do you like what I use to hold my "whiteboards" up?!

There were some girls here that I met in the Capital.  They were in Antigua studying Spanish and are working with a ministry in the Capital that is also connected to Gateway.  The girls live in Fort Worth. On Thursday night, we went to dinner together.  It was so nice to be able to speak English with fellow Americans!  On the way back to the police station, one of my students pulled out on a motorcycle with his poncho flowing.  He scared the girls so much!  It was hilarious!  They didn't know he was a police man/my student.  The officers are still laughing about it and asking me where the girls went.

My student

Danielle and Rebecca

Side note: I speak so much Spanish when I am not teaching that I sometimes forget words in English.  I wake up in the middle of the night thinking in Spanish.  I pray in Spanish sometimes.  And sometimes, when the Lord speaks to me, He uses Spanish!  I like this "problem"! :-)

Today, I got to meet up with a group from Gateway that is heading back to the States on Sunday.  Again, it was so refreshing to be with them!  We went to a coffee plantation called Finca Filidelfia.  Half of the group went on a coffee tour and the other half went zip-lining.  We ate a delicious lunch afterwards.

I went zip-lining.

This is Nelson, a guy from Gateway.  I don't have pics of me, but his actions shots give an idea of the awesomeness experienced today. :-)

Those rows of dark green plants are coffee plants.

Coffee workers

One of the platforms we launched from

After the zip-line, it started to rain.  It rains here every day from 2pm or so, until late evening or beyond.  Normally, this isn't a big deal.  However, when you have run out of clothes to wear, wash your clothes by hand, then hang them out to dry, this is a big deal.  I have tried for a week to get my clothes dry.  I was running out of things to wear!  I finally paid $7 tonight to take them to a laundry-mat.  Expensive for here, but at least my clothes are dry!

Below you will find some pictures of my current living conditions.  It is totally different here than in the Capital.  I have no hot water.  The toilet seat is broken.  There is less privacy.  The police here are not quite as hospitable as the ones in the capital. (I eat alone, go out alone, wash my clothes alone, etc. My physical safety is never at stake in doing so, though.  Antigua is much safer than the capital.)  So, I am reminding myself that this is part of the adventure.  I am here to serve, not to be served.  I am here to learn as well as to teach. I am here to love, not necessarily to be loved.  I know God has some awesome things in store for the people here, as well as for me.  I am praying for my eyes to be opened to see it.

This door/window leads to the bathroom.  There is no curtain for it and the toilet is in direct sight.

Broken toilet seat.  I've decided it's better not to use it at all.

The water spews everywhere in our sink.

Plastic bags act as filters for the water.  I am too tall to fit under them without bending my knees.

The wood baseboard in the shower has rotted away.

This is our kitchen.  I share my room with 3 other women.  The kitchen is in the bedroom.

Despite these conditions, I am doing well.  I have decided that showing in cold water on a cold morning is just like going swimming in early summer/late spring.  With that mentality, I can pretend it feels good. Haha!

Sunday, I am going to a bilingual church with some friends of Gateway.  I am looking forward to worshiping with others and getting to meet other missionaries who live here.

Thank you all so much for your prayers.  Even in the middle of writing this, I was able to have a great conversation (completely in Spanish) about the Lord and other things with one of the policeman here.  I gave him a Bible, Pastor Robert's testimony, a Dream to Destiny sermon, and a Bible Study.  I am praying for more conversations like the one that happened tonight.  Who knows?!  Maybe all of the tourism police force of Guatemala will come to know the Lord through this venture!  I will plant seeds and tend them as best I can, even if I am not the one to ultimately lead the people to salvation.