What a weekend! Its amazing how much can happen when it feels like you're doing nothing! All day today I've felt like I was just hanging out, getting small things done piece by piece, dragging them out to keep myself occupied. That's exactly what I was doing, but looking back I'm amazed at how productive I actually was. Many times in the United States stress and rapid movement is considered necessary to achieve success. Today God asked me to take a step back, be still in Him and do what He had for me instead of chasing my own plans and goals. When we accept His plans instead of following our own, the results are infinitely better.
The slower pace of Latin America is something that I knew I was going to struggle with, and I came prepared to be frustrated by what we in the United States might consider a lack of planning. Like I've said before, patience is a key word on this adventure. This weekend was a slow one with little action, but God provided little things to keep me busy and now I've reached Sunday night and I can't believe I have to go back to school already tomorrow!
Last night we decided to go to church in the morning this week instead of in the afternoon, so I got up around 8:30 and took my time getting ready for 10:30 mass. The walk to church was absolutely beautiful. The sun was shining and a slight breeze was maintaining the perfect temperature. My mamá grabbed a bulletin as we walked into church so that I would be able to follow along with the readings and therefore understand more this week. It was really good for me to read the Spanish as it was being spoken, and I was familiar with the passages, so I was able to gauge my understanding. While I certainly didn't get every word, I was happy to be able to understand the big idea of the mass fairly well. The priest talked about giving up our whole lives to live for Christ like the apostles did. I really enjoyed the service and the music was great!
After church, I kept on working on my GUA/USA book. The last 50 pages seemed to drag on, so I took a break to reconnect with home. I spent a while chatting with friends on Skype and Facebook and checking my emails (I'm going to be a nanny again this summer!) before returning to my reading. Talking to people made me feel really out of the loop, but this experience is totally worth it! Memories from my semesters abroad will last a lifetime and the lessons I'm learning will equip me to be a better student, teacher, friend, and person in general.
Finally I had to return to my reading, and after taking my 14th page of notes, I completed the 250 page book. I had been feeling like I hadn't done anything this weekend, but then I realized that I had completed my largest reading assignment for the semester! I'm not exactly sure how I'll be able to cover what I've read already in just 10-15 pages, much less incorporate additional sources, but the good news is that there certainly isn't a lack of things to say! Tomorrow morning I will meet with my advisor for the paper to create a thesis statement and look for additional resources.
Another homework assignment I had for the weekend was to make a family tree of my host family, so after dinner my mamá helped me make one of her family. Soon after that, Monica returned home from her day out with Manuel and we both talked about our days and the upcoming week. It can be challenging to have good conversations when I need to be conscious of which tense I'm using, and I'm sure its like watching paint dry for Monica, but I really appreciate her patience and I feel like I'm getting the hang of the past tenses at least.
I think I'll conclude my night by writing one last email and reading a little bit about one of our next discussion topics, drug trade in Latin America. God has certainly sustained me through this weekend, and I can't wait to see what He will do this week! Leaning on Him can be a challenge, but remembering His presence can carry and comfort me like nothing else.
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