Good morning everyone!
Well, it's the end of week one and here we are again keeping you up on what is going on in Spain! We did this a little differently this time. We both wrote a little bit about what's going here and how we are FEELING. Mine (Jenn) is first and Chelsey's is second. So, go get a snack and a cup of coffee and start reading :)! Thank you again for your support and your prayers! WE LOVE YOU ALL!
During the first days of ou
r stay I was welcomed with open arms and embraced in the sweetest way. I’m not gonna lie! I was scared to be here. I have never been this far away from home! Luckily, I have Chelsey, my best friend a
nd security blanket, here to be that piece of familiarity that keeps me feeling safe. I am so very thankful that the Lord gave me such an amazing friend to do His work with. So, when we arrived I was so tired and hungry that all I wanted to do was eat, shower and sleep! The other voluntarios helped us with our bags, got us something to eat and showed us around.
So, what have I been doing all week? What is the food like? What are the people like? Do you still have jet lag? Do you know Spanish? These are all the questions I’m getting. Basically what we do here is a lot of behind the scenes work. We do a lot of chores during the day so the school can run more smoothly…basically the voluntarios are kind of a big deal…..haha yeah, something like that. This week my schedule (our schedules change every week, so, mineThere are 16 voluntarios at the school and all of them, but Chels and I, are GERMAN! So, not only are we learning Spanish, but we are also learning German! Yay for that! I don’t think I have ever met a more w
elcoming bunch of people! They are so nice and are so eager to help us and I feel like I have known them way longer than one week! I am so excited to spend this time with them and to learn all about them. I love hearing the 3 languages when we are talking or praying. It’s a constant reminder of how God is everywhere!
is very different from Chelsey’s) looked like this.
Wake up at o’ dark
30
7:30-8 Exteriores- sweep up trash
8- breakfast
8:30- devo
9- Spanish class (right now were watching Grease in Spanish, but we actually do work!)
10- general work (I could do anything during this time from sweeping to moving beds…)
11- snack time J
11:30- Go to the office (now this sounds really important but its cleaning dishes…but basically its something my family can be proud of…I work in an office in Spain…yes that sounds so nice)
2:15- Lunch
3- Random work or Help in the English Class (that’s right, as a native speaker, I get to help with English Class)
After that I just have
dinner, but isn’t that nice?!? What a great schedule J.
The food is very good
. It’s just kind of like school food except on the weekends when we cook for ourselves and when we go out to the city. The people are so sweet and so welcoming! America should take notes because Spain is full of loving people. I don’t have jet lag anymore….we lost that the 3rd day? Not sure when that happened but it wasn’t very bad. And to answer the last question from above…no I do not know but a little bit of Spanish, but you can be excited to know that in the matter of one week I have remembered enough from high school to basically understand when spoken to…it’s just responding that is difficult.
I am not going to write a lot about what we have been doing in Spain recently because I just looked over Chels’ shoulder and saw that she covered that! Ha! Ha! But I wanted to share a little bit of what the Lord has been showing me! I can see how the Lord is going to teach me so much. I am away from mo
st of my distractions and I have a lot of time to think about what the Lord wants me to do. I feel like this first week is preparing me hear a lot from the Lord and I’m excited to share more about what He is doing!
So to wrap this giant blog up, the Lord is definitely present here and the people are definitely Loving God and Hi
s people. It can be seen all around us here. And I hope to bring more of that home!
Chelsey’s Blog January 22, 2010
This has been the first full week in Spain! And the Lord has already been an incredible and faithful provider. At the school there are about 16 volunteers ages from 19-24 and all of them, but Jenn and I, are German. They have ALL taken us both in with an amazing amount of love. I don’t think I have ever felt so close to a group of people this quickly. When I think to myself, “Self, you have only been here a week.” I don’t believe it beca
use I feel as if I have known these people for much longer. The 16 of us spend the ENTIRE day together. I already feel apart of the group, and it is only day 8 of being here!!! God is so unfathomable because He has already begun to work in me in Spain. He has ALREADY blessed my time here in Spain and I am excited for what else He has in store while I am serving Him and the people here. I am extremely blessed to have been given this opportunity and to have it fall right in my lap!! The Lord is the only thing that opened all the doors I needed to make this experience possible! I am very blessed to have Jenn here with me. I have told her many times, that I don’t think I could be here without her. She is a JOY to live with in
a foreign country. We are like two peas in a pod!!! No, but seriously, it is such a blessing to be sharing this experience with her. It is great to have someone to look at and say, “WHAT?!?!” when all the other volunteers start speaking in Ge
rman!!
To answer the question, “What are you doing in Spain?” -
Every week our schedules’ change, which I think it is nice because you are never doing the exact same thing for more than 5 days. This week, I honestly had a GREAT schedule. The day starts at 7:30 AM and I cleaned some
bathrooms, then at 8 we have breakfast with all the volunteers, along with the youth pastor. 8:30 we have a devotional one of the volunteers writes. 9 we go to Clase de Espanol, which the last two days we have watched the musical Grease, the songs are still in English, which is AWESOME!!! After class, I get to clean more bathrooms and do other general cleaning things. From 11-11:30 we have Bocadillo, which is where we literally take a break and “chill” and have a sandwich in the social room (That is a room for only the volunteers with couches and table and books, etc.). Then after that, I had Trabajo General, which me
ans General Work. We basically do whatever Fernando tells us to do. On Tuesday and Thursday, I got to go help with the English class for first graders, during this time. I loved that!! They were so cute! They are working on animals right now. I hope that I get to do that more in the future. Then we have lunch at 3 pm and then I go to the OFFICE, which means, you guessed it, CLEANING DISHES!!! It has absolutely NOTHING to do with office work! Hahaha!! After office I have a break until it is time to cook dinner. During the week the cooks mak
e our breakfast and lunch, but the volunteers have to make their own dinner. Then we all eat dinner at 8pm then most days we are free after that. On Wednesdays before dinner we have Testimonio, where one of the volunteers gives their testimony and talks about how God has moved in them during their time here. And on Thursdays we have Barcas AKA small group-esque things in the city. People from the church meet at the old church, which is in the city, and have a time of worship followed by dividing up into different
small groups. Right now there are only girl voluntarias in my small group. This is like a small group in the States, except in Spanish!! Before the Barcas Jenn, Ruben (our volunteer coordinator, and friend) and I went to the city to run some errands and see the city some more. Then we had this delicious thing called a KBop, (it is like a chicken wrap, but better!) ...YUMMM!! At night we just chill in the social room, play cards, watch a movie, etc, etc....So it is pretty awesome!!!!! That is the typical weekly schedule during the week fo
r a volunteer!! WOO!!
Check week numero uno off the list!!! We survived!!!!!!
These are my pictures that I am taken so far! YAY!! Check em out if you want!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2380795&id=23917468&l=64becead8c
