Soccer is an international Language

8 de Julio

I am listening to the deep rumble of thunder as I write my log tonight. A strong storm has rolled in this evening and I am enjoying the feeling of a cool breeze. It was a pretty chill day. Andrew and I got up late and took our time getting ready. We mixed things up a little bit for breakfast. Instead of hot cocoa we got fresh sliced mango from a vendor. I’ve never been much of a mango fan but the stuff is really growing on me. Here, they serve it to you in a clear, hard plastic sac and season it with salt and some other interesting spice that slightly resembles the taste of sesame seed. To top it off, they half a fresh lima and stick it in the middle of the fruit for you to squirt at your preference. It’s pretty darn good. We had breakfast in the school garden and then got right into studying. We spent the next 5 hours studying in the garden and using the internet intermittently. I am once again, a little frustrated with myself. Having been in college for some time now, I understand what a good study session is and I know the feeling I get when I’ve put time into something and its paid off. There was no such feeling after my studying today of, combined, at least 3 hours. I memorize verbs, there conjugations, and other vocabulary as well. Then I go to speak and I can’t remember anything. I end up using the same vocabulary and verbs over and over. I mold what I want to say around the 10 words I’m comfortable saying. It’s O.K. though… I keep reminding myself that I’ve been here for 4 days and I can’t expect to be writing Spanish poetry, just yet. We searched out more tamales today for lunch. This time they were a quarter apiece. That’s hard to beat. After resting in the room for a part of the evening we decided to take the soccer ball out to the center square and get some exercise. Soccer is an international language and it boosts my confidence because it is a language that I can speak. It took two minutes before we had 2 teams of little Guatemalans, ranging from 6 to 10 years old. We had a blast kicking the ball around. They are very happy children, always smiling really big. Tonight, Andrew and I are going through itunes to find any song in Spanish that we can translate. It makes for some good laughs as well as mass confusion. I need lots of prayer because it’s seriously gunna take a miracle for me to get this language.