In Which Our Heroine Bids Farewell

I have two confessions to make.

The first is that I've listened to what the right sidebar of this blog has been trying to tell me for a while now - 133 posts last year, 14 so far this year, and something is definitely awry. I think that as much as anything, it has to do with volume. The longer you live in a place, the more stories and knowledge you have to share and the more and more aware you become of the culture's complexities. And suddenly a once straightforward task feels as if it would be either impossible huge or unfairly reductionistic. So, I'm afraid to say I'm calling it a day...

But not before I make my second confession...

... which is that when, in the previous post, I said I had shared my description of Australian culture with "someone", I was actually talking about my boyfriend's Mum. And, smart people that you are, you will see that in order to have 'a boyfriend's Mum', I must have a boyfriend! Well I do, his name is Pablo, and he's a wonderful man and such a blessing to me. So far we have been very good for each other, but it's a pretty crazy thing to even contemplate joining your life with another sinner, and crazier still when they're from another culture. So we would really appreciate your prayers that God will guide our steps and give us all we need to make wise decisions, to treat each other very, very well, to be a blessing to the people around us, and to always love our Lord Jesus even more than we love each other.

... and so this is it folks. Thanks for reading - I also send out monthly updates via email, so if you'd like to receive those, just let me know in the comments section. Be assured that I love you guys!

Expressive & uptight

Here is my shorthand description of the Australian spirit which I shared with someone the other day - "We are a reserved but relaxed people". They said, "Oh, so they're the opposite of Chileans then.".

Accuracy & acceptability

Gosh. Let me give you chocolates and flowers and tickets to the opera and all the pretty things for I have been a very bad correspondent. And what I really want is for you to take me back and read my posts, but with neither promises nor hope for change. For I may be so again and there is way of no knowing.

 . . . 

Righto then. So what I actually wanted to say is that in the year and a half I've been here, I've had the very great privilege of learning from men who would never have found their way down to lil' ol' Tasmania (including Australia's very own Peter Jensen!), thanks to various conferences and intensives put on by Fundación Generación and the CEP. It's also been great Spanish practice, observing what the Chilean translators do with different English expressions and words. And here's something I've noticed time and time again... No matter the country (we've had speakers from England, the US, and Australia), in English, we tend to be fairly blunt about negative things. We just go right on and say thing x is "bad", "difficult", "misguided". But there must be an internal balking at such unwielding assessment in the Chilean mind because I always hear "pretty bad", "rather difficult", "it could be said that it is misguided".

It's quite the opposite when it comes to positive conclusions. The English speaker's enthusiasm is chastened - "good", "enjoyable", "understandable". But the Spanish-speaking translators seem unable to restrict themselves to such faint praise - it's all "excellent", "really fun", "very easy to understand".

This makes a lot of sense to me. To put it positively, when it comes to the unpleasant things in life, English speakers are more realistic and honest, while Spanish speakers (or Chileans at least, but I suspect it's more broad than that) are keen to be careful and not cause any unnecessary offence. I'm not sure what to make of the English speaker's take on life's good things ('cos mine's an unusually exuberant style), but perhaps it is equally accurate, whereas the Spanish speaker latches onto anything good and by amplifying it, celebrates it!

La serpiente era más astuta...

I never told you, but the most discouraging stretch with my Spanish has been over the last few months. My expectations were so low before that I was always feeling heartened by my progress, no matter how small. As the one-year mark ticked over I was actually doing pretty well. I could get across most of what I wanted to say and understand most of what was said to me . . . but I still made so many mistakes and was very limited in terms of the fluent, precise expression you have in your native tongue. I'd come so far, but, finally, it was the distance I had to go that was getting to me.

Well I may not have told you then, but I'm telling you now . . . because it's no longer true! As of about a month ago, my Spanish really turned a corner. I write things for my teacher and don't get too much wrong. I'm well on the way to grasping and feeling the significance of the classic English-language confusions - the two "to be" verbs (ser and estar), the two past-tenses (imperfecto and indicativo), and the subjunctive. I even think in Spanglish! And the other day the strangest thing happened - we didn't have enough Spanish Bibles to go around so I ended up with an English one. As my friend began to read the passage I was following along in my Bible, thinking to myself "Gosh, it's quite different to mine - must be a different translation". It took a verse or two before I twigged that it was actually a different language! :)

Stgo

my corner of town
the Plaza de Armas

poor suburb in the rain

the cordillera after the rain

my corner, this time with carabineros and youth long-gone

Frutos del País

Watch the opening credits of this show and you'll want to cash your savings and fly to Chile ahora mismo. It's beautiful! And even without Spanish, it's easy viewing. The episode currently up is of Melinka, a tiny little island south of Chiloé. The wild southern heart of Chile. And how much does that ferry at the start make you think of Bruny!

With a little help from my fridge

After much thinking and planning, then meeting individually with 'my women' to talk them through what I had in mind, I'm happy to say that last week my grupos de discipulado finally got going! Attendance was a bit patchy and it was an intense week (in large part because of the demands made on my Spanish), but it was wonderful! Most of the groups had a getting-to-know-you time, but, within that, we were able to encourage each other with God's truths, and each group finished up sharing favourite Bible verses and explaining why these words had been important for us. Now everyone has to memorize one verse by the next meeting in a fortnight's time . . . except for me. I have to memorize five. And as my friends who tried to help me learn Greek and Hebrew will testify, I can't remember things, even two minutes later! But I'm sure going to give it a good Aussie go...