First Contact

After 2 unsuccessful attempts to make contact with Maranata (my internship site), I finally went today and actually had a meeting. It was short, but productive.. the best kind (though I have to admit, I did not much expect that!). As it turns out, we decided it wouldn't be a good idea to teach English and nothing was mentioned of Spanish literacy, but we did decide firstly, that I would go with Pipi on Thursdays for the women's Bible study. Cool. That'll be a few hours a week. Also, I'll probably lead a devotional of my own on Monday mornings to free Elvira (one of the directors) up to do administrative work. Also, on another day, I'll be leading some "workshops." Elvira was saying these women have a tough exterior shell due to the kinds of lives they've had. She said they don't even really know how to loosen up and have fun. So maybe I'll play games with them every other week. The idea was thrown out that we could watch a movie and discuss certain themes that go along with it, so it isn't just mindless entertainment. One of my favorite ideas (besides the games) was lessons in femininity. At first they were talking about life skills workshops, but i can't cook or sew .. or pretty much anything necessary for life. So I was a bit discouraged. But then she mentioned femininity. There are women in the program who don't know to to approach beauty. Some have worked the streets, others have been involved in drug trafficking and ganglife. So needless to say, ideas of beauty have been distorted. What I can do is teach them about how God sees them. Help them find their own beauty. They mentioned teaching them how to use makeup, paint their nails, wash their faces, do their hair. I feel like this would be a big sleepover drawn out over months. It'd be so much fun. I really need to think of a plan though. At first they were saying I should do 6 hours a week to get it all in before the end of my 3 months, but I need to do more than that so I can also focus solely on writing for the last two weeks, which is where the second devotional came in. I'm hoping to squeeze in 9-10 hours each week, otherwise I feel like I'm pushing it with trying to research and interview and everything with the Toba.

That's all I got so far, pray for the planning stages and that God will reveal to me my gifts and how I can be of use to Maranata.