Spanish Spain & more SPANISH

Yesterday Amanda went to a Spanish fundraiser for relief from the earthquake in Lorca with some you the youth from the Spanish church. I opted out since it would be 15 hours of pure Spanish  and I am neither physically nor mentally prepared for such an endeavor yet. I stayed in Roquetas, went for a long run on the beach and enjoyed a few hours of sun at the beach on the lovely Mediterranean before I had to return to the house and prepare for Kids Club.  Kids Club was great and it is really helping me improve on Spanish. Some of the girls made me pictures and cards and I am likely to treasure them forever. Its just a unique thing to be able to spend time with these African children.

Today we went to church which is always a little tiring considering its all in Spanish. I know I am complaining a lot about how everything is in Spanish and etc and yes I am aware that the language that is spoken in Spain is Spanish. I just didn’t realize how physically and mentally exhausting it could be when you have to communicate in a foreign language on hours upon end. But anyways, Church is getting better because my Spanish is getting better (ish). After church we went to an American restaurant, which was quite interesting and very good. Though there were several grammatical errors in their menu when using English. But I don’t blame them, learning a foreign language is hard, so I hear. After lunch Amanda and I went for a long walk/hike on the beach where we saw many topless Spaniards ranging from 1 years old to 70+. It is quite a culture experience to walk on the beach and see half naked people, literally. But  I also find it intriguing and beautiful that these woman (who aren’t always in the best shape, at all) have such confidence in the bodies that god has given them. I don’t think I will ever reach such a level of confidence, much to my mothers appreciation I’m sure, but it is an aspect of Spanish culture that I do respect.

I also found out recently that Amanda and I will be able to go to the south of France on the French Rivera with the Whitleys for their team meeting. So this summer so far is just getting better day by day, thanks to all of the wonderful prayers ya’ll are giving me I’m sure. So keep it up! Thanks!

Its Friday Friday Friday

So Fridays are Ladies class where members of the Spanish Church come to roquetas and help the women learn to sew, cook spanish food and read and write in spanish. I may have said this before but if they are able to read and write in spanish they can get certified by the state to work. An amazing thing happened today. One of the women who has been attending the class for a year now showed up today with her certificate from the state for work all because of the womens class. Norma, the spanish lady from the church, who has been running the class and Tiffany were so touched that they both teared up. It is amazing to see already what the Whitleys and this church have done, through gods will, to change these peoples lives here. Because of this class offered every friday, this woman is now able to get a job and support her family.  It was quite moving.

At the class another woman from the church made a spanish dish and taught the women how to cook it as well. Its this flour sort of thing that is from spain that you cook in a frying pan that is very similar to grits but a bit dryer, it was delicious. What was really entertaining was to watch the African women eat the Spanish dish. While it was new to me as well, they acted as if it was the strangest thing they had ever seen on a plate in their entire lives. If that wasn't funny enough, the faces they made as they ate the dish were even better. It was just funny to see this woman react in such a way to Spanish food when a lot of people foreign to Africa would argue that African food is the strangest of all the world's cuisines. It was really amusing.

After Ladies class we went to the twins soccer game which I was really excited to see. They are only 6 and I was very interested to see how the worlds most popular sport (and my favorite) was addressed in Spains youth. While the twins have only been playing for 6 months, clearly some of their team mates had been dribbling soccer balls as they left their mothers womb. These kids were amazing. Im sure some of these 6 years old could teach me a thing or two about soccer. It was just cool to see how seriously appreciated and important soccer is to the Spanish, especially at such a young age. That is something I respect immensely.

Tomorrow is kids club again, my favorite, I love the kids here! Please keep me and everything and everyone else involved here in roquetas in your thoughts and prayers!

market day

Today Amanda and I went to the market here is roquetas. A street across from the Gran Plaza (aka the mall) is shut down every 1^st, 2^nd and 4^th Thursday of the month for the market. It was quite an experience. It was not like the touristy markets that I am use to seeing on vacations filled with t shirts towels and bags all bearing the name of the current location of the market. This market is a real market, a market for locals selling food, clothing (even underwear and socks) and cooking supplies. It was quite an experience that I enjoyed, especially the fresh churros and café.

After the market, we decided to venture out and begin some of our duties that we are supposed to be keeping up with during our stay for the next two months: visits. We decided to visit Endye (sp?) the African woman whom we had visited Monday with the Whitleys. We just showed up at her house unannounced around lunchtime (2:30) bearing some of the vegetables we had gotten the day before. She graciously welcomed us in and we ate with some of her family from one large platter again of rice and fish. The same rituals that had occurred the previous visit occurred again today.  We remained at Endyes house for 3 hours simply eating whatever she offered to us, chit chatting in broken Spanish and watching Spanish soap operas also known as tele-novellas (these are quite interesting and from I can understand This is apparently a big part of out job because the biggest thing that we can do to show Africans that we care is to simply spend time with them, no matter if we really understand each other or not. This is definitely going to be a learning experience for me, as I do have a difficult time for sitting still for 3 hours and doing a lot of nothing. I pray that God will grant me patience, as I am sure most of my friends and family pray that I have on a daily basis while interacting with me. Maybe God has put me here because he also believes my patience is something in need of improvement.

Later we go to Segundas house with two members of the Spanish Church for her discipleship. Segunda is an African woman from guinea and she has recently been saved, she has come to believe is God and wants him to be a part of her life. Rebun and his wife Maria, the two members of the Spanish Church, have agreed to drive down from Almeria every Thursday (we kind of forced them to deicide upon a consistent day lol) to help Segunda begin her new walk with Christ.  This was the first meeting so it was a little rough but her kids are adorable and hopefully the next one will go smoother ( lets just say communication gaps occurred in regards to time, it is spain after all!) Tomorrow is womans class in the morning and they will be learning how to cook a spanish dish. hasta luegooo

Veggie day!

So every wednesday is veggie day, where joel, amanda and I go to one of the local vegetable warehouses where all the vegetables are sorted, cleaned and etc. Every wednesday, working with the food bank, they give the extra vegetable, that they weren't able to sell, to local groups and organizations who work with the food bank to get food to those in need. The whole reason there are so many refugees here is because of the work offered in the green houses here. This area of Spain provides all of Europe around 75% of all its vegetables. These vegetables require a lot of manual labor before they end up in someone's salad in germany, so the Africans come here in hopes of getting a job at one of the green houses. This area is also known as the "sea of plastic" because right outside the city the area is filled with hundreds of greenhouses. These greenhouses do not so much look like fancy green glass buildings, as I had expected, but more so like plastic tents. My point of this long explanation: there are LOTS of vegetables here.

But  anyways, we pick up the extra vegetables every wednesday, take them back to our place and bag them up for all the people we give them to. We give some to our neighbors and local "friends," to the women who come to the women's class and etc. We also give some to the woman who live in the brothel around the corner, another long story I may tell another day. It was cool to meet the other local organizations that are helping people on this area and I must say a few of them where quite characters.

a few things I have learned in Spain thus far summarized:
-milk does not come refrigerated here (yes, this freaked me out)
-neither do eggs
-everything closes from 2-5. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. so don't have an emergency of any sort during this time
-as in America, pedestrians have the right-of-way, but here the Spaniards fully claim this right. They claim this right so far that they will jump out into moving traffic with their baby stroller in tow.
- lunch is like 3 hours long.
- they don't eat peanut butter
-or pancakes
-there are a lot of Chinese food restaurants here, I've already eaten at 3 and I've been here barely a week.
- the store around the street makes fresh bread twice a day for 48 cents (I may come home a few or a lot pounds heavier).
-Spaniards have no sense of time and are always late.
-and they do not like to plan ahead, and when they do the plans are always changed last minute. ( this has been a learning experience and is teaching me to be more flexible (ha!))
-and last (for now, I'm sure Spain has much more to teach me) of all I have learned that the Southern Spanish coast is BEAUTIFUL.
I love it here.

my first real african culture encounter

Today Amanda and I went with the Whitleys to have lunch at an African friend of theirs home. The woman was very very nice and had spent all morning cooking lunch for all of us and a few friends and neighbors. Apparently this woman welcomes anyone to her home for a meal or whatever and would die before turning someone away. The family is from Senegal and the food was amazing. It was a rice dish with chicken and onions and peppers and we all ate from one big platter together. We each had our little corner and went to work. What was also interesting and a little strange was the woman would grab the chicken from the platter and break it apart with her bare hands and drops pieces of it into each of our eating areas, which may sound gross but it was actually really cool to experience the closeness of their culture. Later, a guy, who is a friend of the hostess who is also from senegal, made some traditional Senegalese tea which took some time but was really cool to watch. For those who don't know me well, I hate tea, but when you add 4 cups of sugar to anything I am sure to like it. That being a major component to their tea, it was delicious and I loved it.
I also learned that these Africans love to have company over for hours. So we hung out for a few hours talking and just watching tv. Mrs. Whitley (tiffany) said that the woman would love for us to come over any and all the time and that just sitting on her couch and watching tv there would make her love us. If all I have to do is be fed and sit on a couch and watch some tv to make friends around here it looks like I am going to be quite a popular girl in this neghborhood ( and a quite large one too, or gorda as they say here). But it was a really cool experience to really just hangout with africans and get a feel of their culture. I am really excited to be spending my summer around these kind hearted people.
Later Amanda and I are gonna go to the beach and chill and run. Running on the beach is an experience in itself, considering that everyone stares at you while you run by them. I guess it is rather difficult to blend in around here when you are tall, blonde and a bit pale. Amanda and I are also trying to make some friends with the locals but except for being constantly hit on and "hollered at" by spanish and romanian men, we have had no such luck. Tomorrow we will be having our first go with the public bus transportation. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers, we need it.

sunday in spain

Sundays in Spain have a bit of a traditional feel to them, whether you are religious or not. We began the day by stopping for churros for breakfast on the way to church in Almeria. Its this delicious fried dough that you dip in chocolate that is very different from the Mexican churros I am used to eating back in the states. That along with fresh squeezed oj (its literally made right in front of you) and cafe seems to be the typical diet of a Spaniard on Sunday mornings.
After that we made our way to Church in Almeria which was quite an experience in itself. Its a small Spanish Baptist church where everything is conducted in Spanish (duh). While it was difficult for me to get a lot out of the message being taught given I don't speak Spanish well (yet!) the worship was beautiful. It was very empowering and beautiful to see people worship the same God that I have known all my life in another language halfway around the world. It was just beautiful. It was also very long (2.5 hours), but I made it through!
After we ate lunch with the Whitleys the pastor (who is a woman!), her husband and another family. Another thing I have come to learn about spanish culture is that lunch is more than just a meal and getting on your ( as we americans tend to do). Lunch here is a large part of your day lasting typically 2-3 hours, or more. It is something I will have to adjust to to say the least. After trying to converse for the past 8 hours in spanish,  I am now thoroughly exhausted and going for a run on the beach. That is something I don't think I will ever be too tired to do, it is just so nice out here!

Spain at Last

So we finally got internet in our apartment ( which is quite a luxury) from our great cbf field personnel the whitleys. I am living in an apartment in roquetas de mar with another student Amanda who goes to Samford. In the past three days we have done a lot including me falling in love with Spain! The language barrier has been a bit of a challenge, (especially when I first arrived in madrid and was trying to ensure that my luggage was getting on my next flight (spain is not a very english friendly I have come to learn)). On thursday I finally arrived in Almeria after a very luxurious flight from the US in business class thanks to my wonderful boyfriend I finally met the Whitleys who is the family that is working in Almeria with the African Immigrants. They have three children who are adorable and they have been more than welcoming to Amanda and I. We have agreed we already feel to be a part of their family. Friday morning we helped (somewhat) with the womens class they have every friday morning in the bottom floor of our apartment. Mrs. Whitley and another local Spanish woman are teaching these African woman to read and write in Spanish so that they may be able to get jobs. They also are teaching the woman how to sew and cook spanish food as well so that they may support their families.  It was really cool to see and be around these woman. Already one of the women that had been attending the class for the past year had gotten into a course to help her train for a job because she was now able to read and write thanks to this class.  Two woman brought the cutest toddlers with and I of course took it upon myself to entertain them the entire time. After that we went to the mall (yes there is mall!) and ate paella, which was delicious. The next day I went for a run on the beach, which is gorgeous and then there was Kids Club at our apartment/house? where the African children come over on Saturdays to play games, have snacks and maybe even hear about Jesus, though we have to be careful because a lot of them come from Muslim backgrounds. At the beginning of the day I got a little overwhelmed and upset because I can't speak spanish well and felt as if  couldn't connect with the kids. But soon, after a few arts & crafts, I began to interact with the children with my small capacity to speak spanish and a lot of their help. The girls were so sweet and kind and helped me a lot with my spanish. I think they were so great at helping me because not long ago a lot of them were in the same position of being in a foreign country and not knowing the language and many of their parents still do not know Spanish.  Later I connected with a lot of the boys by playing soccer with them out in the street. (arts & cratfs and soccer, I'm in heaven!) It was really cool to interact with these children and to just see their beautiful smiles, especially when knowing that these children live pretty hard lives. When working with the african immigrants we try our best to respect their culture which means wearing long skirts. It has been a struggle to have to replace my shorts with maxi dresses but Im learning to deal and it is worth it every time you see a smile on these people's faces. After kids club the Whitleys took us to a castle, that is the second largest one in spain , second to the Alhambra. It was gorgeous and pictures will be posted soon. sorry this post is so long, none of my future posts will be this long. Later I had my first cultural experience with Amanda at a convenience store where I wasn't allowed to use my card bc I had to but atleast 12 euros worth of stuff, random number I know. And then I set the stores alarm off because I carried my cart past the checkout line, apparently youre not supposed to do that. Oh! and you have to basically put down a safety deposit to use the grocery carts, weird. And while all this is going on, it is ofourse going on in spanish, a language I barely know. Thankfully Amanda is basically fluent and I may never go any where with out here, atleast the first week. I promise. Its just 3 days worth of information and being the first 3 days, a lot has happened. Or at least it feels that way. But this will be the longest FOR SURE. Please keep me amanda, the whitleys and everyone else involved in all this in your thoughts and prayers! if youve actually read this far, I'm impressed. peace out.