The month of may

My most sincere apologies to all of my curious friends and family for the lack of written entries in the last month. I’m alive and well and happy, but the season of midterms has arrived and has taken my free time by storm! So far I’ve survived three midterms, but I still am preparing for one additional written test and one more term paper.

¡Qué baile! : Every Wednesday, three of my friends and I teach an elementary class just outside of Montevideo in one of the poorer neighborhoods. La Universidad Católica organizes community service opportunities for any of its students that wish to participate. So it was through the university that my friends and I have the opportunity to spend time with 30 energy-filled 11-12 year olds during one of their breaks. We are allotted one hour for activities and games with the goal to help them practice and apply the English they are learning. That is background for the real story. It was our first Wednesday with the students and the class was sitting in a circle playing a game. I was seated between Lucas and María when Lucas leans over and asks me if I am a good dancer. I whispered back something about having two left feet. Hearing that he loudly whispers back “So you are a really good dancer?” Before I know what is going on, and in the middle of the game, all of the students sitting around me start whispering, Erica dance, just dance, Erica show us one of your steps, come on dance Erica, dance. Laughing at how much of an instigator Lucas is, I quiet them and explain that I really am not a good dancer. However, the rumor started and there was no way to stop it. By the end of the hour, the entire class sincerely believed that I was a great dancer who simply didn’t want to dance in front of them and all 30 students were chanting “¡Qué baile! ¡Qué baile! ¡Qué baile!” (Dance, dance, dance!) To add to the hysteria, my friends were doing nothing to help me, but with smiles and laughs chanted along with the students knowing that dancing is not a talent of mine. Two weeks later the students are still not convinced that I am a poor dancer and still repeatedly ask me to dance.

Salto, Uruguay: Last weekend I traveled with the Campus Crusade for Christ group from Montevideo to Salto, the second largest city in Uruguay. It is about 6 hours north and is known for its abundance of hot springs. We spent the weekend with a group of university students that want to start a Cru group in their city. The weekend was filled with a lot of good teaching and fellowship. It was encouraging to spend a lot of time getting to know everyone better as well as see the excitement and joy the students had for Jesus. The weekend away gave an obvious boost to my Spanish confidence and I loved spending time with only Uruguayans. Andrés, the National Director of Campus Crusade here in Uruguay, asked me to share how met Jesus and how I got involved with Cru. I ended up sharing my story at 2 church services and 1 of the teaching sessions. It was a challenge and an encouragement because I had never shared my testimony in Spanish in front of such large crowds. Not only did I get to work on my Spanish all weekend, but also I had the opportunity to do a lot of driving. Andrés let me drive the van as much as I wanted and even gave me the keys so some girls and I could go to a flea market on Sunday. The driving is more intense because the driving rules aren’t enforced nor followed. And so the defensive driving that I use when I ride motorcycle in the States was incredibly useful.

Two stories are sufficient for today because quite honestly, I have to think to write sensibly in English. I’m at a point where I’m not accustomed to writing or talking in English, but neither am I able to fully express myself in Spanish.