Lisa goes to Central America

Hygiene training!

This is a quick update on how things are coming. So I know the trip is coming up only five weeks away for Jenn and I J Then we head to
Nicaragua (and then I go many places).  I started to think last night about how much there is to prepare and seemed to get a bit overwhelmed. The idea of keeping the hygiene trunk under 50 pounds seems ludicrous to me. How many questions do I really have for Jodi? So we have finished hygiene training and I seem to have more questions more ideas and less time than I did before hygiene training. However the last hygiene training went well. I feel ready to go teach people hygiene and teach people how to teach hygiene. I know my lessons. It is nice to realize that. I still need to study and prepare. However, I think that we are coming close to being prepared as we can before we go. The school year is winding down which is a relief I guess.  I am getting my malaria meds next week. Things seem to becoming together for Jenn and I.  I am excited. I am also tired.   

 Please continue to pray for us and the communities we are going to go to.

Ok so right now my Spanish is fairly poor, but in learning another language I am beginning to understand my ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) students problems. I am lucky to teach numbers and Math but my subject matter (geometry) is very vocabulary heavy. For an ESOL student to walk into a Geometry class or any class for that matter and have to understand what is going on must take all the concentration in the world and must be a nearly impossible task. A quick story I have a few Geometry students in my seventh block class (names are changed) Fred (American born and raised) and Jorge (has lived here two years and is from Peru). We are currently studying for SOLs and they both took Geometry last year failed the class passed the test. Jorge is taking Algebra 2 and Geometry so that he can graduate this year. Jorge has a tough class load and has to work at night. So I have allowed him to study for other classes during our SOL prep. Jorge and Fred were both studying for there USVA History SOL and Jorge was struggling a bit with a particular packet. Without this knowledge Fred says aloud that packet is easy (that Jorge was doing). I then asked him if he had ever studying American history and he said no (I had never thought about it but should have realized that – I mean do I know Peruvian history?). I started to connect my ideas with his. I realized that if I was put in the same situation as him I would be struggling immensely too. First I would have to overcome the language barrier quickly and then be tested on things that I had never seen or known where the rest of the class had had the information since they began school. Would I have been an A student? How would I have dealt with it? I know I would want grace. I see the grace I have been given everyday from my Hispanos friends.  They are a blessing to me and are helping me overcome my cultural gap and in beginning to understand them. They have shown me grace upon grace. I get shy because of the many mistakes I make but they always respond in love and kindness.

In reflecting on this Many times we/I are/am judgmental toward those who are different. Maybe stop before you speak, take a few steps in their shoes, and then have grace. God often asks us to take care of the least of these, somehow that equates with justice in his book – and it seems to me justice is very important for him.  My question for myself is who is that in my Northern VA life? I don’t have the poor with me most of the time. At least not in the way we see it in the developing world.  It’s my ESOL student who is going to school full time and working 7-midnight every night. It is the child in my classroom who doesn’t have a lot of friends. It is the girl a venture with a checkered past.  It is the coworker who may be a little too emotional.

So this has little to do with the details of my trip but it struck me. In part because of my slight love for U2 and Bono and his social justice themes but also because of the discussion we had at lunch yesterday. At lunch yesterday (mother’s day) we had an interesting discussion on Grace and the current direction the church is heading and where our generation fits into it.. After the conversation my brother sent me an article by Francis Stockman discussing Grace and art and the Protestant and Catholic Church (http://www.tollbooth.org/2007/features/grace.html). The following from the article struck me:

In the Book Bono on Bono by Michka Assayas (by the way a must read). Bono compares grace to Karma me makes an interesting comparison. He says with Karma you reap what you sow but grace interrupts karma and we no longer reap what we sow, we get what we don’t deserve.

Stockman says the following based on that idea

 “Grace is more valued with those who need its interruption. But when grace interrupts those who receive its benefits, it should cause those who are turned upside down to start using it, not for their own selfish ends but for the good of others; it is the fruit of grace’s interruption. For followers of Christ who aim to bring God’s Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, the respect that they give art in their community will deem whether they make any impression in interpreting how it is on earth to conjure how it is going to be in heaven. Grace is a thought that can change the world but it is also an imaginative engine to propel the change

We therefore come to realize that this grace is not only the ticket in, and the energy when we get in, but the very life of the Kingdom itself. It is not the help we need to live the principles of the Kingdom; it is the Kingdom. When we look in the mirror in the morning we should see grace staring back at us in how we see ourselves, not in the karma of being affirmed for how beautiful we are, but in the eyes of a God who loves us as we are. As we relate to friends or strangers we do not treat them according to what they give to us or what they have achieved in themselves that makes them deserving of our attention but by grace. When we find ourselves in conflict scenarios we don’t continue a karma driven dominated stand off but seek grace to interrupt. When it comes to social justice issues like Bono’s debt relief campaign or in HIV/AIDS advocacy or encouraging Fair Trade or environmental action we do it not because those we will struggle or deserve it but because grace is our driving force to serve rather than be served.”

So I was thinking about hygiene training as I was preparing for it and talking to people who helped me to prepare. This is about the fourth time I have been through training so I am relatively used to talking or hearing the subject matter. We have to talk about certain bodily functions often. When talking about certain lessons words that may have received giggle or embarrassment (such as diarrhea doll- talks of dehydration in infants and some solutions and latrine perceptions – what are perceptions of latrines and how can we encourage proper use) are now said without question or thought. It brought me to the idea of desensitization of the mind. Now I am not saying that my mind is a rubbish mess when I finished with my training but more I realized how quickly exposure to ideas words pictures can change for the good or disintegrate one’s mind.  I notice that what I expose myself to has more influence over my mind than I would like to admit. Which draws me to Paul’s paranesis to the Philippians:   4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Paul says these words because our minds are vivid yet week and are easily influenced by what is around us. What am I really exposing myself to? It is necessary, helpful, or praiseworthy, or is unnecessary, distracting or sinful?  

For me if I am not exposing myself to pure and right and praiseworthy I will not be able to serve God in the manner that He asks, because my mind will not be focused on the right things instead it will look like Donald Duck’s mind at the end of Donald Duck and mathmagic land. (yeah I am a math teacher).

So what I really have to say is thanks. Thanks to everyone who came to the hygiene training. It was a great time to hang out and learn more about how to teach hygiene in the developing world. Thanks to all of you who have been supporting me financially. It has been a blessing to watch money slowly come in – knowing God’s hand has provided it which in turn helps teach me how to trust God with my assets and money. Thanks to all of you have verbally encouraged me – I feel very blessed and a little overwhelmed. Thanks to all who have prayed and are praying for the Nicaragua, Guatemala, and
El Salvador trips – we all feel your prayers and are grateful for them. It has been exciting seeing people at work and at church get excited about the Living Water trips that people are going on. It is exciting to see people getting excited about service in general –  for instance The Central Union mission on Saturdays and the trips to Pass Christian Mississippi. I am excited to see God work in my life through these trips but also work in other lives. Thanks for being a blessing

So things are coming together slowly. I am pretty excited about them. First, my travel itinerary is finalized and all tickets have been bought. I am registered to go to Spanish school which has been interesting because my original school was completely booked for two out of the three weeks that I wanted to go. I decided to go to a different part of
Guatemala (Xela) to study from July 2-13. I am excited about the school but a little nervous about the traveling to and from as a Gringa. The schools in this area a little cheaper and they also provide afternoon activities that do a lot of teaching on the culture so it could be a really neat cultural experience. I am also excited that I do get to spend a week at the school originally recommended to because I am very excited about seeing Antigua and I have heard this school is phenomenal from several people in Hispanos en Cristo.  As the trip nears I realize how leadership I will be asked to do with how little experience I have. I may know the lessons well but I have only been in country once before so it is a bit overwhelming. I have been blessed and God and Living Water trust me.  It is exciting to see God work to bring things together. Everything I see, I see God’s hand guiding. For instance being able to watch people slowly contribute to the trip (both prayerfully and financially. The amount of support I have received (especially through verbal encouragement) has been overwhelming.  

Several Prayer requests:

• That First, I will be prepared to go and follow God in what I do.
• That the teams that I am leading that they will understand my instruction.  We will work well together.
• That our teams will seek God first.
• For the communities that they will be prepared to accept hygiene lessons.
• For the communities that they will be prepared for the well.
• For the teams and the communities that they will gel well and we will show God’s love and humility.
• For Saturday the final day of hygiene training that I will know my lessons and be prepared.
• For safety in travel