Ampliación

I have caught up a little on the goings-on of friars, family, friends, and partners in ministry at Church of the Good Shepherd. Their doings inspire me and make me think about how I can be and do the good, adventurously, when I return to New York City. 

I feel tapped for words, but I will leave a few here and add to the cyber-trail that is this blog. 

Settling into a good rapport with Profesora Vicky and Profesor Óscar. We were ambling through photos and descriptions of typical Guatemalan dishes and learning some of the colloquialisms. Both very useful indeed. One of the students, José, a Maryknoll lay missioner, told me he lived in Guatemala for a few years and offered to tell me more about it. I will need to take him up on the offer of conversation. With Profesor Óscar, somehow we got onto a sidetrack of conversation that went on for two hours. I gave him impromptu lessons in U.S. history and geography, drawing maps of the country from the colonial era to the present and explaining how my country acquired its territory from the Dutch, English, French, Russian, and Spanish (to say nothing of the indigenous nations). I hope my dates and facts and maps were roughly accurate! Migration and war were never very far from the currents of conversation. It is a very slow process, trying to think in Spanish. But thinking slow helped me to focus on the essential details in my description of U.S. expansion. And I do think that what I said in Spanish was mostly faithful to what I wanted most to say with the clarity of English. 

So here is another first in the quest to acquire a language: now I almost prefer to ramble on in a conversation instead of merely plowing through new grammar lessons. I welcome the opportunity to converse at length for the good it will do to amplify or expand my palette of vocabulary; and let me choose from my tool bag a greater number of the grammatical instruments in there, and use them correctly. 

On to Wednesday, the middle day of the week. Wednesdays have been the most difficult day for me because these were the long days: classes followed by volunteering at Nuestra Casa. I have concluded my stint at the girls’ shelter. But even without the volunteering, last Wednesday was still a hard slog. I hope for better tomorrow. If only I can imagine it is like the beginning of the week or the end of the week. Holy Spirit, amplify your signal!