Language Barriers & First Day of School

It always seems that language barriers are the most horrifying thing when you are traveling out of your country. Questions that arose when I began my journey were: 'how would I get to the bus stop? How will I know how to buy my groceries? How will i know which direction to go in the car, bus, budapest....etc.' The list can go on for miles... but never did I ask myself "How would I be able to worship at church?"

Yesterday, I was picked up at 6:30 AM (North Carolina time 12:30 AM) and we headed out towards Veroce. Veroce is where a church is located that we were going to attend. It took a whopping 1 hr and 30 min to arrive. When we arrived, Anna (Sandor's daughter and a very good friend to me here in Velence) and Mariann (a friend that was a translator when I was in Muncaks) had band rehearsal. Church finally started and everything was in Hungarian. At first, I was a little disappointed. I sat there and felt discouraged. I felt like I could not sing the words, I could not hear the words and therefore, felt that I could not get anything out of Worship. About 10 minutes into their singing... I closed my eyes and began to pray to God... asking again, "Why am I here?" All of a sudden, God picked me up and I realized what the words that they were singing where not the entire picture. It is not what you sing or what you hear but it is what you feel. I stood there and let the spirit take over and because I did that I was able to worship in my own way. I was able to see that through their voices and their songs they were praising God and I too was able to overcome my difficulty with the language barrier and praise God with them. Therefore, it was so much better now that I could overcome that and worship with the others.

After worship, I went and ate at Mariann's house (below you can see pictures) Her mother fixed us a very good meal and I felt right at home with her family!

Later that afternoon- I was finally feeling the jitters from being in the house so much... I was tired of sitting around, tired of sleeping, and felt like it was time for me to venture out. First thing, I went to the school that I would be teaching (check-i found it first try! & pics are below) Then I decided to go where the Vice Principle had shown me -- A beautiful mountain that overlooks all of Velence! It's beautiful --pictures to come! (check two---found it in one try) ...then I went to the gas station, pumped my gas and paid for it!! (check three- very excited!) and then I went and picked up Anna from her house (Another check just for making it there driving!) It's like Velence is becoming a second home to me. I know the roads and I am loving the sights.

Today!-
I arrived at school at 10:45 this morning. Class began at 10:55. Today would be my first day of observing. I was going to be observing Melinda, the Hungarian English teacher! She is so sweet! I went into the classroom and she told me that the children had been asking about me for days now and that they would be really excited to see me! So, I prepared myself for the children and really had no clue what to expect! The bell rang and the children started coming in. It was so cute, kids were coming in and they would see me. They would awkwardly stare at me and then smile but rush on by. It was quite funny... their expressions are something I could not even explain, other than excitement. This too made me excited! The children sat down in their seats (I was at the back of the room!) and while Melinda was talking, everyone of those kids were looking at me! Melinda started class and they were very responsive, which is great!

They finally got to meet me and when she said 'turn around and say hello', they all turned around said (in English) "Good Morning Miss. Jessie!" They are so cute. I will try to take a picture soon! I went with them to lunch. There was one little boy, that kept turning around winking at me.. He sat at the front of the room and was very cute. I asked Melinda later about him and you could tell by her face expressions that he got on her last nerve...she said that he was a trouble maker. His name is Donnie and he already melted my heart. Haha.

I did want to mention one thing to pray for. There are 26 children in this classroom. As I watched their assignments being done, I realized that quite a few of them did not get it. They were merely looking over at their neighbors paper and taking their answers. I worry that some of the kids have no clue whats going on. A lot of the papers were not done correctly at the end of the class and they are not checked by a teacher. This worries me. Hopefully, I can get the courage to talk to the school about a grading policy that will help the children really want to participate and learn English!

Well that's it for today. I'm sorry, I really could not get into my normal writing pattern...so hopefully, my blog today was not too long or too boring !

Thanks for the prayers! Love,
Jessie