It was early afternoon when my squadmate & I chose to head into town to buy some snacks and drinks for another friends birthday. We walked 15 minutes to the closest bus station to wait on the next bus to bring us into town.
Many horses trotted by and even some cows all with their shepard closely behind waving to us. A man soon approached us and it started out as a typical conversation with a local Nicaraguan trying to speak English and my friend and I using our Spanish, but it quickly turned in to sexual harassment. As we noticed this, we stopped conversation, said we don’t understand and began our own conversation for what we needed from the store. Just a minute later a 18 year old boy noticed us and turned around at the bus station. He used his small amount of English & lots of hand gestures to translate what was happening. We got across that we were uncomfortable & he persuaded the drunk man to leave us alone and go somewhere else. We thanked him and thought that was the end of it.
But this boy ends up sitting down next to us as he was anxious to speak with ‘un gringo’ (a white person). We missed two buses because we were continued to talk. We went through each other’s names in each other’s languages, alphabet, fruits, pronunciation, and more.
While we sat and conversed, mostly in Spanish. I couldn’t help but think, wow- my high school and college education is coming into use. Sure it has made a huge difference with my previous jobs, and my perspectives on many things… but this was something different. After almost 7 years of sitting in a classroom, I got the experience of conversing with a local in their homeland. Sure, he gave me a lot of grace for my terrible grammar as my verbs were more than likely conjugated wrong 99% of the time, but I was speaking a second language. Something I chose to learn years ago.
I remember failing quizzes multiple times. I remember humiliating myself in front of my class while I had to read out loud. I remember lots of tears and frustrations. I remember relying on my sisters and google translate for my papers. But now- so many years later. I felt proud. I felt nervous, but excited. I noticed my confidence grow. There was laughter. There was communication. There was the joy of helping each other with their own language.
It’s amazing be able to truly experience growth even if it spreads out over multiple years. Those days of sitting in a classroom for an hour, I experienced growth. And to think I’m in month 7 of the World Race where there’s constant community, chance for growth, ministry for 8 hours a day, & so much more. My growth has increased immensely. And I still have 4 month more to go that I can I can press in, and feel all of the emotions as days come and go, and experience more of not just the world, but of myself & my intimacy with the Lord.
As the conversation slowed down, and realizing the time that had passed, we began to wrap up our conversation. Checking on the time for the next bus, the drunk man walks on by as our 18-year old friend says there- I have stopped a tuk tuk for you, go jump in, tell him ‘moyogalpa’. We hurried on and as we drove off, I turned around. The 18-year old and I both waved, smiled, and said goodbye in each other’s second language.
