Monday night marked the first chance I had to teach in Spanish since we came back from Chihuahua. I was starting a new course on Preaching Biblical Messages and Pastoral Ministry.
It took an awful lot longer to prepare for this one, because I basically needed to fully prepare what I was going to say in English and then do it again in Spanish... I can't just translate the words because I think it's best to internalize the message in Spanish as much as I can so it comes out a little more naturally than just reading a translated manuscript. I really enjoyed it because I have a teaching manual in English and another in Spanish and doing it in both is helping to expand my vocabulary and see how the grammar works too.
I left a little early to get out there and arrived much earlier than needed. So i took a little tour and took the long way around to the church. By the time I got within 100 feet of the church- the road had been completely dug up to put in some water pipes! So I turned around and tried to take another way only to find myself at the top of a precipice with a "road" going downhill seemingly into a ditch with little other alternatives. So I looked around and found, finally, an alternative route to the church that didn't involve me going the full 10km back around the neighbourhood to get in the other way-- nor sliding down a hill into a ditch.
After I arrived one of my students, Gustavo, arrived with a smile on his face- but no car. "Can't get around the ditch?" I wondered out loud-- no- he'd gotten a ride partway and walked the rest-- his car that he'd had for 3 months had been stolen- along with a baby stroller that they had! He had woke up at 4:30am and everything was OK. At 5am his baby stroller was gone from inside the house and the car had been stolen too! He said all this with a smile and said "God knows what we need and what we can handle"
We went into the church and found that there were no lights. Which isn't unusual, because the church has no "official" power. There are just power lines that cross right over the roof, so they hook a wire to it and connect it to the breaker box and bingo-- you got lights!! Not tonight, though. so Gustavo hopped up on the roof to shimmy the wire but it didn't work. One of the neighbours said that the church had a backup power connection- a wire coming from a neighbours house- when they put their lights on, so did the church! But, they weren't home. So we did the class for about an hour or so without lights.
Down here it gets dark about 8:15 or so, and so about 8:00 the room was so dark, the whole class could've been sleeping and I wouldn't have known- The only reason I could see was the twilight coming through the open door beside me. Just then the neighbours came home and we thought we'd have light! BUT... it turns out the whole side of the road was without lights because when the guys were working on the road, they had either knocked down, or taken down the wire that connected that side of the road to the power grid...
Despite the issues of light and dark, the class actually went well. I was able to communicate pretty well, I think and my comprehension was a lot better than it had been before. The preparation helped to increase my vocabulary and it came out pretty naturally in class. I had a comment that my Spanish is much better now, so that was encouraging!!
I'm back out Saturday- hopefully with lights this time!!
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