Settling In

Learning a new language is hard. For all those people who say, “English is one of the hardest languages and Spanish is an easy language to learn” – I would like to present the following evidence.

IR – to go – this is one of the more common verbs in Spanish, I will break it down for you.

• Voy – I go
• Vas – you go (informal)
• Va – you go (formal)
• Vamos – we go
• Van – they go
• Fui – I went
• Fuiste – you went (informal)
• Fue – you went (formal)
• Fuimos – we went
• Fueron – they went
• Iba – I have gone
• Ibas – you have gone (informal)
• Iba – you have gone (formal)
• Ibamos – we have gone
• Iban – They have gone
• Ire – I will go
• Iras – you will go (informal
• Ira – you will go (formal)
• Iremos – we will go
• Iran – They will go
• Ve – you go (informal – command)
• Vaya – you go (formal – command)
• Vayan – they go (command)
• Yendo – am going

I hope you are still with me, if so, there might be some hope for you to learn Spanish. Just to be clear, this is only the most basic conjugation, the bare minimum for being able to speak conversational Spanish. There are many additional tenses and forms that need to be learned to speak, “like a native”.

When I left for my first day of Spanish School, I felt like my biggest obstacle would be the drive. A 45 minute drive one-way in the VAN while dodging buses, sugarcane trucks, other drivers who think they are in the Indy 500 and the ever present cows, chickens and dogs on the road. All of these were very real obstacles. The buses own the road and make way for no one. The trucks, heavily loaded with sugarcane, treat the road as their private highway. And this particular stretch of road is known for being used as a cow path, the locals call it something that translates roughly into “The Long, Narrow Barnyard”.

Surprisingly, my #1 enemy was none of the above, instead it was these innocent looking bumps in the road called “Tumulos”. I suppose in the states we would call them speed bumps. Here in El Salvador, they are fiendishly deployed at key places along the road and often camouflaged by faded paint and no warning signs. To the unsuspecting “gringo” driver they can be quite unpleasant. Driving along smoothly, eyes alert for buses or stray cows, a nice straight stretch of road, able to build a little speed and confidence. Then, WHAM, teeth rattling, knees banging the dash, stomach clenched and heart lurching. TUMULO!!

Even worse is when after a week of driving the road twice a day, you are starting to feel like you are doing pretty well. You and the van are old friends by now. You are cruising along in 4th gear when you see a rooster crossing the road. You smoothly drop a gear, brake a little and swerve slightly to avoid hitting it. After all that, it’s still pretty close so you glance in your mirror to make sure he survived. Sure enough, he’s alive and well but missing a few tail feathers. Chuckling at the sight of him squawking and scrambling out of the way, you turn your attention back to the road. TUMULO!!! O well, teeth were due for a good rattling anyway.

And yet, even tumulos are not my greatest struggle. That would be the Spanish verb, in all it’s forms and tenses. I enjoyed school and I still enjoy reading and learning new things but nothing I have ever done has prepared me for the rigors of learning a new language. I sit in church and concentrate with every fiber in my body and comprehend anywhere from about zero to 75% of what is being said. It’s like being on a phone call with someone who has bad service and you only get bits and pieces of the conversation.

Learning a new language is teaching me more than just another language. I am learning that communication is not the same as intelligence. So often, I have judged other’s intelligence by their ability to communicate with me in my language. I am learning to be more patient when others don’t understand. I can be impatient when someone doesn’t “get it” the first time but now I’m the one not “getting it”. I am learning that learning a language is far more than just memorizing the definitions of words. Sometimes, I can read a sentence in Spanish and understand every word but still have no idea what it is saying. Different languages have different rhythms and different combinations of words that can mean many things other than the dictionary definition of the words.

Fortunately, not all my time is spent studying Spanish. Last Wednesday evening after church(evening services here begin at 4 PM), we headed into Aguilares for pupusas. David led us to a hidden jewel on the edge of town. La Toma was an old railroad station, now repurposed into a small park. Various vendors hawk their wares around its edges. At one, short, smiling ladies with slightly smudged aprons are busy patting out pupusas and frying them to a delicious golden brown. At another, a sort of nachos are being served in half pineapples and at another, skewers of frozen fruit coated in chocolate.

The center of the park consists of small paths, winding around bright green bushes and colorful flowers. The paths lead to Amy’s favorite part of the park, a bright blue and yellow playhouse with an uncomfortably steep slide and a small swing. As darkness softly settles over the park, other young couples wander the paths and children run and play on the slide. If not for the small pickup truck driving around with a bullhorn blasting Spanish advertisements at an obscene volume, it could be any park in the US on a warm summer evening.

We look forward to getting to know the remaining staff of CICS as everyone is due to be here March 1 and 2, with a start date for school finally set for March 8. It has been much delayed due to Covid, normally school here starts in early February.

The extra time has allowed some projects to happen, including finishing out four bathrooms with tile, trimming back trees from the power line, grinding up coconut shells for mulch and repainting the school house from a dull orange to a dark blue.

Now as I sit here and write, we are at a beautiful little AirBnB in the little beach/surf town of El Tunco. Yesterday, February 25 was our 4th anniversary and this little trip is in celebration of 4 incredible years together. Yesterday, we ate lunch overlooking the ocean while watching the surfers conquer the thundering waves, then enjoyed supper as we watched the sun sink slowly into the Pacific. God has been so good to us, first bringing Mel and I together, then bringing Amy and Liam into our lives and now leading us to El Salvador. We eagerly await what the next years will bring.

I will extol thee, my God, O King; and I will bless thy name for ever and ever. Psalm 145:1