truth #8: South Africans call it a 'bathing costume'

On last Thursday, Darren's sister, Kerry, came to visit from South Africa. She will be staying in Ecuador until the day after Christmas. It was nice to have a roommate again, even if only for a short while. We hit it off immediately. During the course of the weekend, Kerry joined us in our usual activities. This included Santay Island. First, let me preface this by saying that the children on Santay are absolutely wild and crazy but at the same time very cute. As Kerry was getting to know the kids, of course solely through playing with them and the interpretations of others as she does not speak much Spanish, she would tell them her name. However it seemed that they could not quite get 'Kerry' out so instead she became 'Kiwi'. I, now, call her by this name and will refer to her as 'Kiwi' from now on. Also during this trip to Santay, I had great opportunity to practice my newly found skill of communicating in Spanish. I had several long conversations with some of the girls that came to help at Santay from a nearby church. And also some conversations with the mothers of the children on Santay. And for the first time ever, I could actually understand most of what the children were chattering to me... One little kid, Leonardo, who strangely reminds me of Lennart (the OMer from Holland) particularly talked with me a great bit. I think that both of these boys have more in common than just the name.

Let me tell you a little story: When I got my sunburn two weeks ago, my legs swelled up horribly! Well one of those days, Lennart decided to give me a hard time. So he started calling me 'Chub-itha' instead of Tabitha... No worries it was all in good fun and I will get my revenge one day :) Well when I was on Santay this weekend, little Leonardo, would ask me "What is your name?" I would say "Tabita", then he would respond "oh, Chub-ita", I would say "No, Tabita", then he would say "oh, Aug-wita", I would then quite firmly respond with "No, with a 'T', Tabita" then he would say "oh, Tabita". You might think oh how cute, he finally learned to say her name correctly... No, he knew the whole time what my real name was as we went through this process at least 10 times over the weekend... Kids


Kiwi loved the weekend and the children of Santay. After we returned from Santay on Saturday morning we went to a Historical Park in Guayaquil. It was very nice with lots of the native animals from Ecuador, some of the original buildings and a walk through village/farm from the 1800's. It was fun but also SUPER hot. I think we finally introduced Kiwi to the weather of Ecuador, but the nice thing is that once you experience a real 'hot' day here all the other days feel cool in comparison.

Also during the weekend we went to several church services and also to an Evangelism workshop. Darren was not able to be right next to his sister during all of these things so it actually turned out that I was the translator for her quite a bit. My translation was by no means perfect but I could at least tell her practically all that was going on. I never understood how hard translation is until I had to actually do it, and I mean really translate and not what I did in Peru but as the person is speaking I had to translate even though they never paused... wow! One of the hardest parts was remember which language to actually speak in, if they were talking in Spanish for example about how Jesus is the Light, He would say "Jesús es la luz", I would translate that into English in my mind 'Jesus is the light' but then my mouth would get confused about which language I was suppose to say it in and it would come out like "Jesus is the luz.. I mean light, which is luz in Spanish". Once they were talking about Jesus being Lord over us and they used a word that I only knew to translate as 'landlord' so I turned to Kiwi and said "Jesus is our Landlord, but that doesn't make sense.. but that is the only way I know the word" then I just kept going. Kiwi was laughing so hard at me the whole time about my translations. I am laughing at myself about my translations and now my English. I have digressed, I say things like the sister of Darren, instead of Darren's sister (yes I erased and corrected that at the top of this blog). I hope one day they will finally separate themselves in my mind, English and Spanish, however, they all tell me it will never happen..

Though I greatly enjoyed the company of Darren's sister (they both left for the jungle yesterday morning and I will be leaving for the states before they return) I will not see her again this trip. We had many fun times together, especially over the differences in our English. First, she has an amazingly fun and beautiful South African accent. Second, they say things like "I am going to take my bathing costume with me to the beach". I tend to just turn and stare when she says things like that.. then we have a long discussion about the differences between SA English and American English. It is crazy that even though people speak the same language there are so many differences. But then again I love it as things would be much more boring without all these fun surprises! (let's hope that I still hold to that when it comes down to the wire with my visa!).

truth #7: Change will come

Buenos Dias my friends and family. Finally I can say that I am WELL! After two complete weeks, the worst of days happened to be on the day that I last wrote on my blog, my sunburn is completely gone. I must say this is the first time in my life that I have been SO excited about seeing my own beautiful WHITE (mind you, NOT red) skin... Honestly if being in hell is like being in an eternal fire... those who do not know Christ have never been burned... I was not able to walk for four, almost five whole days, then it took a week after that for all the pain and swelling to completely leave. I think that even all the nasty peeling has finally quit as well. Praise God, I am now so much more thankful for the ability to walk without pain!

Many of you know that one of the most frustrating things about moving to another country (non-English speaking) is the language barrier. This one area has been a HUGE struggle for me during my three months here. More than I ever imagined it would be. I am finding out that my experience here is entirely new and different from my experiences in Thailand. My lack of Thai in Thailand didn't bother me or get in my way of ministry near as much as my lack of español here. Maybe it is because my job in Thailand revolved around English, as an English teacher of course, and my job here requires Spanish. This has been quite a bit of stress for me, especially since my English speaking, Norwegian roommate returned back to Norway a month ago. I think I floundered for a bit, and I am talking the frustrating floundering! It seemed that everywhere I turned there was some sort of miscommunication (normally it had to do with me agreeing to do something that I had NO idea I was agreeing to) which now looks a bit funny but at the time just made me want to pull out my hair and cry... I say all of this to add a HUGE

HOWEVER,

This week, something happened, something clicked. Suddenly I am talking in Spanish to people in the office, I am understand my non-English speaking Spanish teacher entirely in her explanations, I am talking with children, young people, older people, ok, basically everyone! Mind you it isn't always pretty or even the correct grammatical form but I am COMMUNICATING! This is mind blowing! I even shared my missions testimony in Spanish, talked with a woman on the Santay Island about her life and God. I know that these things must sound so simple to you. Most of you are able to do this with EVERY single person you meet in a day. I think that sometimes we don't realize what abilities that we actually have until they are taken away from us. Just think, you have the ability to walk outside your door and have a casual conversation with your neighbor, to share your testimony of God's work in your life, to impact someone by showing interest in their life! At times I find myself even asking God why I couldn't have stayed in the United States and done ministry that I know I can do. Why do I have to come and work in a place with a language that I don't speak and ways that maybe I am not used to. Why? Because He has called me, because it is Him that works in me, because when it is all said and done it will not be the work of Tabitha that is being done but His work! I don't know all the outcomes, I don't know all the changed lives, I don't even know how this will change my own life but I can tell you this, change will come. What is it that God has called you to do? Don't give up, LET Him work in you, listen to His voice.