The Halfway Point

It is hard to believe that six weeks have already come and gone and that I am halfway through...I will be sad to leave those I have been able to form friendships with as well as the Latin culture that I enjoy, but I am excited to be able to return and spend some time with my family.

This past week I spent time in the schools with the tutoring ministry, as the women´s groups only meet every other week. In one of the schools I was with the third grade, and they were going to work on reading. We called them up to read one by one, and the second girl we called stood silently staring at the book. That is when her classmates told me that she did not know how to read. I decided to sit down and work with her one on one, and soon realized that she did not even know the alphabet. She has the alphabet memorized and can recite it, but when I pointed to a letter and asked her which one it was, she was silent. I felt so much frustration at an educational system that teaches by memorization only and copying down items from the board. I also realized, however, how blessed I was to be able to learn to read. My classroom had the alphabet posted on the walls, and we daily recited the letter with the sound it makes and the key word that went with each letter. We also had materials with the different sounds we would recite: ¨fl in fly, fr in frog, gl in glue, etc.¨And finally, I was blessed with teachers who wanted to make reading fun and taught in an exciting way.

This week I hope to start interviews in the women´s groups, and I ask that you please pray for me. Pray that God would build openness and trust between the women and myself, and that I would be bold and confident as I start this part of my research. I thankyou for your prayers and ask for your continued prayers for me and my time here. I look forward to sharing with you upon my return.

And a somewhat funny learning experience...My hosts believe that I eat anything, and in general I am not at all a picky eater...Also, I grew up in Peru, so eating rice everyday and the different typical foods is great. They have learned this past week however, as have I, that I do not like tripe or cow stomach....I cannot seem to get used to that :(

Hope you all are well!