One Week of Classes Done!!!! I really enjoyed them and feel like I have definitely learned so much in such a short amount of time! Now if I could only remember to incorporate everything I've learned into my everyday conversation.......

Our professor Carolina for the 9-1 class is really nice and focuses alot on conversing with what we've learned, so that has been great. We have covered so much this week - Present Perfect tense, tons of vocabulary, Direct Objects, Indirect Objects, common phrases, a random rabbit trail to discuss Gustar, etc. Luckily all parts of speech are incorporated simultaneously, so we are able to continue to practice what we've learned as we begin focusing on something else. Hopefully I will actually remember to use it all in my everyday conversation....... :)

In my afternoon tutoring classes, I've been working on reinforcing what I'm learning in class as well as working on reflexive verbs and the perfect preterite tense... Marco drills me a lot and everyday makes me explain what I did the previous day using reflexive verbs, direct objects, the perfect preterite tense, etc. I am now in the habit of trying to make sure I remember the vocabulary for my routine for the day so I will be ready when the questions begin. Also, they ask us a lot about our background, career, etc. to get us talking which allows them to see where we are as well as correct our pronunciation and grammar, so this has provided a great segway for me to talk about God as I share what I do and why I'm in Peru. Its been pretty cool!

Right after classes Friday, Lisa from Efata Ministries picked me up and school and took me to Efata so I could spend the weekend with them. It was so awesome!!!! I was able to SIGN the whole weekend!!!! It was GLORIOUS!!!! I had missed signing..... :( I spent hours playing with the young kids and being grilled with questions by the older kids. Luckily they were all very patient with me as I picked up some of the Peruvian signs and used Spanish to try to figure out what I didn't know. It was sooo much fun!! I was also able to hang out quite a bit with my friend Elena who works at the school and attends the church at Efata. She knows quite a bit of ASL, so she would be my "interpreter" when I didn't know one of the Peruvian Signs. I was also able to converse in spoken Spanish with some of the ladies there soooooo much better than when we visited Efata last year. It was quite encouraging how much I was able to understand and be understood! And I actually did just a tad bit of interpreting for Elena when a lady who didn't know sign language wanted to say something to her, I made sure I understood what she was saying in Spanish, then interpreted it to Elena, then had to voice in Spanish what Elena signed. It was in interesting "preview" to what I'm sure I will be doing, at least in part, in the future. :)

Sunday was a huge blessing to me as I was able to join the Deaf for their Sunday School time, the Deaf Service, and the combined, Interpreted service. The video with this post is the special music that was performed during the combined service. It was such a blessing!

#peru #deafministry #spanish #video #missions