Lent - Cuaresma

Let´s see how briefly I can sum this up.

I´ve been feeling very homesick. My thoughts include: I don´t like the city, I can´t go out on my own, I don´t have friends to hang out with, I have too much work with teaching, I don´t like teaching, and the Interna´s leave me hiding in my bedroom to avoid them (which I can´t as much now that Solidea is gone). Basically everything I had romanticized about missionary work has lost its shiny appeal. There is still appeal, but it´s not shiny.

Then I went to the teacher´s meeting Saturday morning, it started with prayer and reflection. I thought that was a pretty cool way to start the meeting! One of the readings that morning was Matthew 4:1-10, Jesus´time in the desert of fasting and prayer.

Wow. That hit home. Pretty sure God spoke directly to me there. Here I am in El Salvador, had just been thinking about how much I don´t feel I belong and want to go home to escape, well, all the responsability. And here is this Bible story about Jesus fasting for 40 days and how Jesus felt hunger! It must have been an intense hunger, and I realized that I could connect on a much deeper level with this story as I have an intense hunger for home. This is my fasting this Lent. And I choose this without knowing how it would tie into Lent. What perfect timing. And a perfect oppotunity to turn to God and rely more deeply on him.

I had a very good meeting with the teacher´s after that. Went out of my way to meet some teachers and had good conversations with them. I´m very happy about that since Solidea and I tend to form a rather exclusive group by only speaking English. In fact, I´ve come to talk to the other teachers a lot more now that Solidea isn´t here and I´m liking that. Slowly but surely, this language barrier is coming down.