Training

   Recently we have been preparing for the field by participating in some training programs.  This one, was second language acquisition school.  Going into it, honestly I was wondering what in the world they were going to teach us about acquiring a second language without actually teaching us the language.  However, at the end of the two weeks, I was feeling like I could spend a lot more time figuring out different phonetic sounds, some of which we don't make in English, and how to work with a language helper effectively.  All in all, it was a tremendously good experience.  We can now definitely see how acquiring language and culture, or "languaculture," as we have learned to refer to it, will definitely be a full time job for us once we hit the field.  And, yes, it is going to take a while.  We are so blessed to be associated with an organization that expects us to "only" learn language and culture for the first 1-2 years before attempting to make an impact in any other way.  We were also very encouraged by our interactions with the other families there.  The kids made fast friends, and we all got to enjoy not being "that weird family that is moving to the other side of the world" for a couple weeks, since all the families were preparing for moving into different cultures.  I think we all came away from the experience feeling better able to attack some of the challenges ahead.