10/19/2009 2:07 PM (10:07 AM)
Hoy es lunes y es mi día primero de trabajo. I arrived at the pool at 9:00 am as instructed and vacuumed the pool. Gabriel, the pool guy, only speaks Spanish and I’m his little helper and I only speak English. Well, I know more Spanish than he does English and we’re in his country so we communicate in Spanish. After I finished vacuuming he told me I could rest for a moment, I’m sure multiple hours went by and he didn’t instruct me to do any more work so I laid in the sun, hung out with the dog, grabbed a volleyball and pretended like I could volley to myself and finally (out of sheer boredom) I went and followed him around. He probably just didn’t know how to tell me what to do so he let me rest – worked for me. And then he told me to practice Spanish and I spent the next hour and a half speaking as much Spanish as I knew… he kept saying que mas? And when I responded with no se! he’d tell me to ‘piensas’. He was extremely impressed with my Spanish (well that’s what he said) and it was really good for me to practice – that’s why I’m here! Work will be good I think. I’m pretty sure I’m pool maintenance / lifeguard, but the pool is too murky and dirty to let anyone swim just yet. It’s nice to be working something so familiar. And Gabriel is super patient and wants me to learn Spanish just as much as I want to learn (probably for communication purposes). He told me (via a translator) today that I shouldn't feel the pressure of work and just to tell him when I wanted time off to have fun. After the lunch break (he gave me two hours instead of one) I went back and actually worked. I scrubbed pool toys for a couple of hours and organized their non-working sauna as a toy closet. Esta bien.
Mi Casa: I live with a family, not at all like the family I was told I would be living with but I'm counting it a blessing. So the family consists of the parents and one girl still living at home (about my age, speaks excellent English). But for this month the parents are mostly in Santiago (about 3-4 hours away) house-sitting... So for the first few days it's just been Magda (the daughter) and her friend Fernanda (who is staying here at the house for about a month - mas o menos). So the three of us have been having a great time, I knew I loved them when they turned on 'All the Single Ladies' and started dancing around the house when we were cleaning up from dinner. Definietly a good time. They're both super nice, speak English, laugh a lot and have plenty of free time, works out very well.
The father came home yesterday and it's the first time I've had a good belly laugh since arriving here. He speaks nearly no English but had me laughing within thirty minutes of being home. He'll only be here until tomorrow before he returns to Santiago for a time, but it's been great having him around - he also did the grocery shopping and bought TONS of fruit since I told him that's what I liked. He does know the word 'adopted' and let me know that's what I'd be for the next couple of months - so nice.
The house is situated on a YWAM base and it seems that people on the base don't really leave. I'm being seriously discouraged about attending the language school in town (about a 15 minute walk) and encouraged to take an hour long class once a week with the YWAM students - not quite what I signed up for. Or, I was given the option of paying someone on the base to teach me because "selfishly, if finances are going to be spent [she] would like them to go to someone at the mission". I'm pretty sure I'm just going to go to the language school, also this will get me out of work a couple of days a week. Haha, it's such a funny concept paying to work here. It's like I've bought myself into slavery and am now looking for ways to escape - okay super exaggerated but it's still funny. I know that's where I'm going to learn the most Spanish because Gacho (Gabriel, the pool boy) only knows Spanish and tells me to practice. I don't really know how the DTS kids do it, they are in classes and doing work all day every day.
I don't really know what the big picture purpose is for me being here, I'm not quite a YWAM base sort - even the fact that I want to walk 15 minutes to class instead of stay on base seems foreign to some of the people here. However, I do have a few who are encouraging me to get off base, mostly because they know that's where I'll learn mas rapido.
I'm having a blast. I didn't think it'd be this fun this fast.
Missing everyone tons, naturally
Mucho amor!
