{"id":1340,"date":"2012-02-08T15:57:28","date_gmt":"2012-02-08T19:57:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/crosscultural\/?p=1340"},"modified":"2012-02-16T12:49:25","modified_gmt":"2012-02-16T16:49:25","slug":"language-learning-laughter-love-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/2012\/02\/08\/language-learning-laughter-love-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Language. Learning. Laughter. Love. Life."},"content":{"rendered":"

Our past week has been filled with all of these \u201cL\u201d words.\u00a0 Our weekend consisted of an excursion to the highlands of Chichicastenango where we stayed for 2 nights at the Ruth and Naomi Project.\u00a0 We were surrounded by another new language,<\/em> K\u2019iche, which was spoken by many of the natives of this city.\u00a0 We also were able to learn<\/em> more Spanish, especially when we were forced to speak Spanish at mealtimes and for every English word we spoke we had to pay 1 Quetzal (1\/7 of a US dollar).\u00a0 As you can imagine this made things more difficult, but we usually found a way to communicate the words we didn\u2019t know by acting them out.<\/p>\n

The whole trip has been filled with laughter<\/em>, specifically when we play games together or when we are on the bus.\u00a0 Nels and I shared several laughs when we offered to help make tortillas at the Project.\u00a0 The women in the kitchen had smiles across their faces while Nels and I struggled to make the perfect tortilla.\u00a0 Needless to say it was an unforgettable experience and we had a lot of fun!<\/p>\n

\"Handmade<\/a> We have already learned so much on this trip and I can reassure you this isn\u2019t a vacation!\u00a0 This weekend we heard the pastor of the Methodist Church there in Chichi speak about the start of the Ruth and Naomi Project.\u00a0 It was founded after the city was bombed and there were many orphans and widows with no jobs or money.\u00a0 This pastor started a project for women and taught them skills such as weaving so they could make money for themselves. \u00a0We got to visit this project where the products were sold and speak with the ladies.\u00a0 They were so proud to show off what they made and it was meaningful to purchase their hand-made goods because we knew the money was going to support them.\u00a0 I could see the love<\/em> of God in them as they spoke and provided us with a delicious lunch.\u00a0 I also have witnessed love from the hosts that we had last weekend and of course from our host families every day as they normally go out of their way to help us with whatever we need.<\/p>\n

God has definitely been present with us here, especially this week as it has been a more difficult one for our group.\u00a0 He has kept us safe and protected each one of us.\u00a0 With the obstacles that have come our way, I have been able to see the face of God.\u00a0 Our group truly is becoming like family and I feel the support of everyone.<\/p>\n

-Laura Beckler<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our past week has been filled with all of these \u201cL\u201d words.\u00a0 Our weekend consisted of an excursion to the highlands of Chichicastenango where we stayed for 2 nights at the Ruth and Naomi Project.\u00a0 We were surrounded by another new language, K\u2019iche, which was spoken by many of the natives of this city.\u00a0 We … Continue reading Language. Learning. Laughter. Love. Life.<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4009],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guatemalamexico-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1340"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1344,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1340\/revisions\/1344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/intercultural\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}