Even the Stork in the Sky knows her Seasons: No. One. Speaks. English.

I've finally made it to Pichilemu!

Every three months they begin a new teaching phase in Pichilemu’s YWAM base and the phase is taught in both English and Spanish however out of the 11 students in my DTS so far only one other person and I speak English as our first language and she's a 29 year old bilingual studies graduate and lucky enough to be Mexican American. To say that I’m the whitest guy here would be an understatement. I've been here for about 36 hours now and everyone I've met has been really positive, and I feel like they genuinely like me, but I can't really talk to anyone except for Jose, my 16 year old Colombian roommate who's taken 5 years of English. My emotions seem to be running really close to the surface and since I've got here I've felt like I could weep at any moment if I let myself, just because I wasn't expecting to not be able to understand anybody. I feel really stupid because everyone is getting to know each other and I'm more on the peripheral picking up a word here and there.

Before I left for this trip I thought that if I picked up some Spanish along the way that would be a great secondary goal but at this point it's not optional, I’ll have to learn Spanish if I want to do anything. I’ve been praying about it and I know that God doesn’t have me here on accident, just in the last couple days leading up to the trip He’s been providing for me financially and emotionally, I even saw one of the fourth grader I work with at Soquel Elementary IN Chile (Her family and I took the same flight). So I know that learning Spanish is one of the challenges that with His help I’ll overcome, and I’m definitely going to try and learn it fast. I got a chance to talk to one of the young Chilean pastors today while we were on a short walking tour of downtown Pichilemu and she told me that during her first DTS she went from speaking no English to becoming the group’s Spanish to English interpreter over the course of the 6 months and she told me that she prayed that God would give her the language, and He did.

God would make me rely on him solely like this. I feel like when I’m at home I always have everything figured out and that I try to include God, but if I don’t, everything still usually turns out fine. In this case however I feel like this is God’s way of making me cling to him and I think that is something He wants me to do por vida.

Here are some pictures from my first day and a half