I haven't forgotten the blog! Unfortunately, my camera died when I made my last post 2 months ago. Although I was able to obtain a camera in the States (thank you to my bestest bud!), it's really tricky having things sent here since the country (including the postal service) is full of corruption. I know too many people who have chanced it only to have items stolen or arrive for them to them half eaten (everybody loves chocolate). But fortunately, we have a new couple here from Austria (currently living in the States) and they are having visitors come down this weekend so my mom is going to overnight the camera to them so they can bring it. YAY!
So let's see. What have you missed in pictures? Me with braids ( I think everyone here is now used to the length of my hair constantly changing!) I've been really busy with bible studies some of which are totally English and others which are "Spanglish" (half English and half Spanish). I have to prepare quite a bit for those. I've been visiting a few other areas and seeing how great a need there is in Spanish. (I'll publish a seperate post with a couple of good experiences I had with other folks.) Over and over, I am encouraged to just jump in and move over to Spanish but at the moment I'm still on the fence. Everyone else seems to see my improvement and I am able to converse in Spanish for the most part but, I dunno. We'll see :-). I will be VERY excited when December is over because the people here have an affinity for fireworks and live bands at all times of day and night. From December 1-7 people in Granada celebrate the city's patron saint, Mary. They place huge cardboard cutouts of angels in all of the streets slowing down traffic even more. Every night, there is a live marching band that walks down a different street carrying a 7 foot tall image of Mary along with a smaller hand held version. Anyone desiring a "blessing" sits outside their house and when the Mary's pass by, they touch the small one and give a donation for their blessing. I'm not sure where the blessing money goes. This goes on ALL night. I was at a friend's house spending the night when the band came down the street at 3:30AM! All month long, people set off fireworks. The fireworks here sound like we are at war and being bombed. They begin as the sun is setting and continue until sunrise. They celebrate Christmas Eve here like New Year's Eve in the States. Everybody is in the streets partying and at the stroke of midnight, all the fireworks go off. I was leaving a get together that night and as we all piled into the back of my friend's pickup truck to go home, a crowd gathered around us. The band suddenly appeared and got in front of us and started to lead an impromptu parade with us at the head! This is not the first time I've been in a car when people randomly got in front of us with a banner and decided to start a parade with us leading the way lol.
I gave my first talk as a householder (assistant) in Spanish two months ago. This was when my camera was dying so my friend recorded it on her phone. Now as soon as I can figure how to transfer it off, I will post it (shaking my head). I do have a couple of random pics that I took with my phone....
I think the baker was having a bad day. I feel like the sad cupcake when everyone else seems to be picking up Spanish rapidly and I feel slow :-(
Ok. I still don't think I can explain this. I came out to wash my clothes when I realized Clemen beat me to the clothes line....to hang meat out. At first, I just turned and went back in my room since it looked really gross and I didn't want to revisit that visual as I was eating dinner. (Ignorance is bliss here with the food, sometimes). But, I finally asked if she was defrosting it and she said no, it needed sun. One person told me they salt it and put it in the sun because it is so fresh. I dunno. Like I said, I didn't ask too many questions!
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