Pablina

Since the day we’ve moved in I’ve been curious about our neighbor lady. Last week I told her that I want to come and sit with her and learn ZK. She smiled and jabbered away about how I need to learn ZK because she doesn’t speak Spanish. I understood very little, but her daughter translated for me.

Today Clay and I sat out on the street, waiting for an opportunity to come to us. It didn’t take long and our neighbor lady came out and Clay quickly offered her a chair. She came and sat with us. We learned that her name is Pablina and she is “about 78” years old. (And on the verge of death, as she put it.)  She speaks just enough Spanish that we can hold a superficial conversation.

A little while later our neighbor Alicia came out too, carrying her daughter. They sat with us too and before long a small crowd gathered. Everyone is curious, but often too timid to actually talk to us. They taught us a few new words and then we tried to explain some of the differences between life in Idaho and life in an indigenous village of Mexico.

 

I decided to bring out a picture book of Idaho. It was so much fun to show them pictures of deer and bear, of mountain lakes and streams, of the prairies full of flowers. How do you explain why a man would raft the rapids? Or how people can take a week to camp in the mountains?  How do you explain that not everyone has a corn field or a bean field? “Work” for us is very different.

 

 

 

I look forward to more afternoons, sitting in the street, chatting with my neighbors, sharing laughter.  I look forward to being able to share the Gospel in ZK so that they can understand it more completely.