getting the word out...

This past weekend I was at a Women's Seminar put on by the Child Development Foundation (CDF) that I do volunteer work with.  We were down in the town of Esperanza.  There were close to 100 women in attendance.  It was amazing.  The theme of the conference was Redeeming, Restoring and Rebuilding Broken Walls.  And the subjects covered were issues that survivors of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC)have to face after they are rescued.

The first night we learned about what CSEC is, where it is happening and the cultural factors that facilitate it here in Belize.  The second and final day focused on the effects that CSEC has on the victims and survivors.  There were talks on the Physical & Medical Effects, Social Effects, Psychological Effects, Spiritual Effects and a talk on the Effects on Society.  The presenter who was scheduled to talk on the Spiritual Effects became ill and I was asked to take over for her.  I was grateful not only for the opportunity to be of service but also for the two days notice I was given to prepare.

I was able to include a portion of my personal testimony about sexual abuse and healing along with teaching about who God is and how we can help others toward spiritual healing and wholeness.  Afterwards we had many women come forward to share their stories of sexual, physical and verbal abuse.  So many powerful stories were shared by the women for the first time.

After a time of small group interaction where they were given scenarios to work through and then the final speaker covered what we as women can do in our homes, churches, workplaces and communities to break the cycle of abuse.  We ended with a time of breaking into pairs to pray for one another.  Some of the women who were not comfortable praying aloud were given the option of having someone pray for them.  It truly was an incredible weekend for all of us involved.

There are other seminars CDF has scheduled...one coming up with be in Benque that will be completely in Spanish.  Oh, how I wish that my Spanish skills would allow me to sit in on that one and hear the hearts of the women in the Spanish speaking community.  One of women who will be presenting told me that she is taking Spanish lessons at the University of Belize. And she suggested that I look into free classes that are sponsored by the Venezuelan Embassy here in Belmopan.  I am thinking of contacting them this week and I think it would be good to have a Spanish tutor as well.  In Russia when I was learning the language I needed lots of live language practice to truly get it!

This coming week we will be presenting at Our Lady of Guadalupe Highschool and next week at Belmopan Comprehensive Highschool.  Please continue to keep the work CDF in your prayers... there is still much to do to eradicate the problem of sexual exploitation here in Belize.

learning new expressions

Tom came home from Yakutia yesterday and we are so happy to have him home. He told us about an expression he heard there. If someone is totally irritating you and you have had it with their behavior to describe this situation you can say that the person is "sitting in your kidney."

Thought for Today

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.

Nelson Mandela


When I read this quote this morning it brought tears to my eyes. I know that God is speaking very clearly to me about the importance of further study. Tom and I talked about me being his translator many years ago... I will continue working towards that goal. I will keep on trusting that God will honor my efforts so that Tom and I can work together to bring Healing and Recovery to the hearts of those caught up in addictions and life dominating hurts.

for reals...

I know that I said I was done last week after we gave our talks in class. But, I had one last thing to do today and that was my assessment. It was a long and grueling test, followed by an interview with the director of the school. I survived... and I am so glad that is over!

Arina told me that the two year course that my class just completed is like a Christmas tree and the Advanced Course would be the ornaments to decorate it! So in August I will start putting the trimmings my language tree!

We made it!!!

Spencer and I did our sermons today and it went very well!

For Spencer it was his first time speaking in public, his first time doing a sermon and he had to do it in front of our classmates who have all graduated from seminary and he just finished high school last month! Tom and I are so proud of him!

I am grateful to be at the end of this phase of language learning. Two weeks ago I was ready to quit school... I was the oldest person in my class and I was feeling it. I felt like my memory was not as good as my classmates and that I was never going to remember which cases went with which verbs and what ending to use for nouns or adjectives even after studying for two years!

I am grateful to Tom, for not letting me give up, to Joyce, Stephanie and Sveta who prayed me through this year of school, and above all to God for bringing me to a place of acceptance about my capabilities. Our teacher told us today that since she has been at the school we are the second class to make it all the way to lesson 125!! I am so glad to have stuck it out to the very end!

I am grateful for the lessons I have learned along the way... not just about the language and the culture but also about myself. One lesson that I can share is that I had been shying away from talking to certain women here out of fear. Last fall I invited this person over and we talked about the fact that she had not been in my house the entire time we have lived here. I realised that my fear was affecting our ability to bond with the very people we came here to help. After that I made it a point to speak to her every week at church, and then we attended a 5 week Bible study together and even a concert! I found out later that she thought I didn't talk to her because I couldn't speak Russian. Not true! I was just afraid to make a mistake or look stupid!

Our church family is so patient and loving with us... I don't even understand why I was afraid in the first place!

Anyway, Spencer and I are done with the first level of our Russian language learning. I am chilling here in the apartment with my wonderful, supportive, incredible husband, and Spencer is out painting the town with his friend Vlad!

and on day four she finished writing!

Spencer and I are working on our final talks for the last lesson at our language school!

Tom has been cheering us on, advising us on scriptures, and helping us anyway he can. He has been good about making me go outside for a bit each day and take a break from all the writing. Today he made dinner! Which was quite a treat!

On Monday Sasha will look over our talks and help us with correctly pronouncing everything... it still helps me to place accent marks over the correct stress in a word! Sasha has been such a blessing to us... she makes sure that we are the ones figuring out for ourselves how to say things correctly and gently corrects us to keep us on the right track. For only being 24 her patience and wisdom amazes me!

Please keep Spencer, myself and our classmates, Blythe, Donnie and Sarah in your prayers as we each speak on our chosen topics Thursday in class.

This past month has been rough at school and I have tried not to complain. Each lesson was progressively more difficult than the one before and at times it felt as if we went from middle school to university in one lesson!

We have been told that not every class makes it to the end as we have. And I don't know if I should be happy about that or not!!!

Brain overload...

This week our class has moved into preparations for our final lesson. The men have to preach and the women are to give a Bible lesson. Our most recent assignment was to write a lesson on one of the 10 commandments.

Each of us spent time with our bibles, dictionaries working out our thoughts in Russian and putting them to paper. My classmates and I all agreed that this is very draining.

Personally, I felt physically drained when I was done with this assignment. I could not think, my arms ached and I just wanted to veg! Spencer finished typing his and he is off to bed... he said he felt weak and needed to rest.

It is amazes me that when we are called upon to use "maximum brain power" it affects us not just mentally but physically!

Live Language!!

One of the new verbs that we learned this week is one that means to reap, cut or mow. It is also used for shaking hands or for saying that a piece of clothing is very tight and is squeezing you!

Today I heard this verb used on the bus.

There was a woman behind me who was quite upset with the lady who sat down beside her. She accused her of squeezing! Her seatmate was quite indignant in her response to the accusation.... curtly replying she did no such thing.

Even thought I knew that both the ladies behind me were upset with one another... I was thrilled to have understood the conversation!!

Natural Disasters

When Sasha arrived today I had the news on TV... they were showing the devastation from the earthquake in China.

We ended up having a discussion on earthquakes in California. I explained to her what it felt like when I experienced my first one and the damage that I have seen close up. We then went on to discuss tornadoes!

I am grateful to be at a point in language acquisition where I can have these types of conversations. She taught me a few new words which I need to write down before I forget. Whenever I don't know a word I just describe it and then Sasha is great at telling me what the word is!

After that we actually had a discussion pertaining to my current lesson... we talked about the Fine Arts; theatre, ballet, music and artwork.

Earthquakes to artwork in two hours time!

lost in transation...

A while back I got an email from a friend in America. She had received an email from a Russian speaking person, the person wrote in English, but something got lost in translation.

The confusing words were in the form of a question:

Can be eat phone?

At first glance I thought “this guy is a nut!” Then I read it again. I laughed. And I wrote back to my friend. The Russian verb ‘to eat’ is the same as one of the verbs that means ‘to have’.

So the question should be:

Is there a phone?

When trying to write in a foreign language do not rely solely on an electronic translator… it just might lead you astray!

whew!

After school today I felt so relieved that I survived another week of class that I celebrated by purchasing a new blouse... perhaps I was motivated by the theme of our new lesson that we received just before class ended; clothing! Or maybe I just wanted to reward myself and I am trying NOT to use food as a reward!

We spent the bulk of this week learning to express our opinions through agreement, disagreement, doubt, and so on. It was a challenging week but a great one. It felt good to learn how to express myself on a deeper level.

Some days in class I get frustrated with making grammar mistakes. Learning Russian grammar has not come easily for me. I blame my age. I daydream about being ten years younger and tell myself that I would be doing so much better if I had started sooner!

I remember talking with someone a few years ago about my frustrations with the difficulty I face memorizing all the grammar rules and getting used to the 6 cases that Russian has. She told me that she did great with grammar but it took her a long time to build her vocabulary. I truly love words... most nights before going to sleep I read from my Russian dictionary. Learning new words is not a struggle for me.

I work everyday on memorizing the grammar rules, declining words properly, and reviewing which cases go with which verbs. I keep praying that someday my over 40 brain will pull it all together. At least I can look back on this journey with thanksgiving for how far I have come!

Teaching English... I can do that!

The BLTC was asked to provide English lessons to the employees of the OVIR's office....which stands for Office of Visa, Immigration and Registration. They decide who can visit our area, who can live here, and who can be deported from Russia for up to 5 years. This is a very important relationship to develop... the administrator recognized Spencer and Tom from their passport photos as she has processed our paperwork many times before. She was delighted to meet them in person!

In English they shared about themselves, their families and practiced dialogues from the lesson about meeting each other. There were 5 OVIR workers, four of which will probably start the twice a week class beginning in March. Today's meeting was simply a preview of what the lessons will look like.

Tom enjoyed being able to teach the letters of the Alphabet "as speaking English is within his area of capacity". (his words not mine!)

Happy 100!!!

Monday, February 11, 2008

Spencer and I have finally made it to Lesson 100 of the 125 lesson course that we are taking at New View Language School!

It is amazing that we have come so far...I keep thinking about when we first arrived here in Russia... we didn't even know the alphabet. And today Spencer talked on the phone for a few hours with his Russian friend and I sat in the living room with my friend Lena R. working on our Bible Study material for tomorrow!

Praise God with us for this progress!!

back at language school

Monday, February 4, 2008

Spencer and I were back in class first thing this morning. We were both awake and dressed and ready to go right on time! Spencer even had time to scramble some eggs for us so we could have breakfast before we left. He is such a sweetheart!

Today in class we were working on the prefixes that go in front of the motion verbs... our lesson lists 13 of them. As I was working with my language helper she said not to work on memorizing the table, but to focus instead on paying attention to how they are used by the Russian speakers around me. So for the rest of our session each time one of those verbs came up in our conversation she called attention to it. Lena R. is truly a gem!

Tom went back to school today as well... only he decided to play a practical joke on his teacher. Just as he reached the front door of the building he called her to tell her that he was not coming. She asked him why and he said because the weather was so nice he was going to stay home and she told him that he was a grown man! He told her again he wasn't coming... as he approached the door to the school office he could hear her saying "guess who just called and says that they are not coming to school?!" He opens the door and all of the teachers busted out in peels of laughter! I think our teachers got a great American culture lesson... don't you!?

language helper

Thursday, January 31, 2008

I started working with Lena R. this week as my new language helper. She is Valodia's wife and Sasha's mother. Sasha is in Germany for a few months so her mom asked if she could help me out. Lena knows Russian grammar very well and is an excellent helper for me.

Tonight we worked on my current lesson from language school and after that I read aloud for her the first lesson in the Women's Bible study that we will start next week. Lena helped me with putting the stress marks above the words so I would know how to correctly pronounce them if called upon to read aloud. I am praying this doesn't happen but if it does I want to be ready!

We also decided that I should write out my answers to the study questions in Russian and then on Mondays she will look over them for grammar mistakes so that I can make corrections before the group meets on Tuesdays. That way I can feel free to share my answers and take part in the group discussion.

You’re going where?

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

"Alida, where are you and Tom off to?"

"The circus"!

"no, WHERE are you two going?"

"to the Chinese circus!"

"WHERE?"

"The Chinese circus!"

"ooooh, you mean CIRCUS?"

"Yeeees.... wait, what did I say?"

"You said Chinese cheese!"

"Ooooh! I’m sorry, I thought I was saying circus!"

I said “sear” and what I should have said was “tseark”… the joys of speaking Russian! At least I gave someone a good laugh for the day!

that's not appropriate

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

The lesson we just finished at Language school is about what is not appropriate to talk about. Apparently some of the same subjects that people don't like to talk about in the US are the same ones we should not bring up here.

Politics
Religion
Salary
Sex
Painful Past
anything too personal

Of course the rules are different for close friends. But, think of what you feel comfortable sharing in a circle of friends, at church or at an office party.... we don't always lay it all out there for the world.

We try to have boundaries and say what is appropriate. Isn't it interesting to know that others do it too!

glimpse of Christmas!

Friday, December 14, 2007

Each year the New View Language school has its Christmas early. We do this to include as many students as possible since December is a time when many are traveling for various reasons. This year we had 98% of the students and their families together... only two students or families were not represented!

This year Blythe, Sarah and I planned a very low key celebration. Brennen and Stephanie opened up their home which was a great location. There was room for everyone to move around and be in the same room. Everyone had a great time and it had the feel of a big family get together... take a look at some of the fun!


Tom feeding Joseph
















Shari and Ted leading the caroling















Spencer dragging the little ones around!




















Potluck!















O Christmas Tree!

Superstitions

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Our lesson this week has been on superstitions. I am not saying that all Russians believe these but these are a few that we were taught or were told to us by our Russian friends:


If you spill salt it means you will quarrel with someone
If you find a horseshoe on the road that is lucky
Whistling in the house means you will lose your money
An empty bottle on the table means someone will die
If you give someone a tissue they will cry
If you give someone something sharp there will be a quarrel
If your eyes itch you will cry
If your left palm itches you will receive money
If your right palm itches you will meet someone
If your cat washes himself that means guests are coming
If you break a dish that is lucky
If you hand someone money over a threshold that is bad luck
If your cheeks are burning someone is saying something positive about you
If your ears are burning someone is speaking negatively about you
If you wash your hair before an exam all the knowledge you have acquired will be lost
If you have not studied before an exam, sleep with your textbook under your pillow and you will wake up with the info
Newborns cannot be shown to people for 40 days or someone could put an evil eye on them
The number 13 is unlucky
If a black cat crosses your path you have a go a different route
If you leave home and forget something and you decide to go back and get it… you have to look in a mirror to avoid bad luck
If your son looks like his mother and your daughter like her father your fate promises to be happy
If you were talking about someone or you happened to think about them and then see that person, he/she will have a long life

What superstitions do you know about?

culture questions

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

I was going over the culture questions from our lesson with Sasha. They were about setting goals, complaining and what makes a quality life... one of Sasha's answers was intriguing to me.

She told me that young men are told to do three things:

1) plant a tree
2) build a house
3) have a son

I love the imagery involved in this answer, for me it illustrates the path of patient endurance, stability and leaving behind a legacy.

There was one question that she didn't know the answer to. Spencer's language helper Vlad was also here so we asked his opinion. He couldn't answer the question either.

What does the "ideal Russian" look like?

Tomorrow I will ask my teacher at school. If you were asked about the "ideal American" or the "ideal____ fill in the blank with whichever country you are from", what would you say!?