las arañas, las naranjas, la cosina, y evangelismo

Language is a funny thing. There are many times it is challenging and brings me to tears, but then there are other times that it makes me laugh.

Last Saturday my friend Heather and I were given the job of moving a pile of wood and rocks from one location to another. In the process we saw a scorpion and some massive spiders! Now, in Spanish the name for a spider is araña...and in an effort to practice my Spanish I kept repeating what I thought was the Spanish word for spider, but instead found that I was saying naranja (the word for orange). Needless to say Heather (who is fluent in Spanish) was practicaly on the floor laughing...and as soon as I figured out what I was saying, I was laughing too. Kinda strange to hear someone say that there are some VERY big oranges out there...imagine the confusion on people's faces when I repeated these words later...sigh. :p

This week I have been helping in the kitchen. I think its my least favorite place to be. I am getting to be quite good at peeling and cutting potatoes and carrots. Its a pretty demanding job, but thankfully I'm not the leader...so all I do is follow directions. We eat a lot of potatoes and rice around here. Can I say I'm getting just a little tired of potatoes and rice? The reason for this is because of our limited budget, so we have to be creative with what we've got....I'm really missing a lot of our foods at home :s...yesterday I was craving a grilled cheese sandwich.

Each week we have a certain country's dish (a country that is represented in our group). So far we've had Bolivian, Peruvian, and Argentine. I'm trying to think of a meal we could do "on the cheap" with potatoes and rice :s...I keep dreaming of a big Pancake breakfast ... or something for a dinner. BUt I'm not very good at this stuff....and cooking is just a little different here, with some of the ingrediants that are most common in the States being more expensive or almost non-existent (we have to make some things by scratch). Any ideas?? I'd be so appreciative of some good ones :)

For the last two Saturdays our team has split into two groups of four to explore the community surrounding the mission training center and basically work on getting to know our neighbors. My group has focused primarily on the neighborhood right near where we are. We are out in the country, so it is a lot of farmland, with the houses set back off the dirt road. Some homes are obviously of the wealthy farmers, and others of the workers. Making contact with people is a challenge, but we've made headway :). Yesterday we met a worker and his wife who imigrated here from Bolivia (Jesus and Paula, with a little six month old baby girl). They work in the brick factory next to us and are believers. There isn't a church close by, and having no car or form of transportation they are unable to go to church. They seemed very happy to meet us. I desperately wanted to be able to talk to Paula, but with the language barrier all I could do was smile at her. They seemed rather young...he was probably 24 or 25 and she couldn't have been more than 20 years old. We hope to chat with them again next Saturday :).

The weather has really changed around here. The days and nights are cold. I have finally pulled out my sweaters and other layers and jackets to help with the cold. It is definitely fall! I am enjoying the coolness, but am definitely not looking forward to the winter...I hope my clothes are warm enough.

...on to more adventures :)