A day for patience

1/16/10

Today is a day for learning and growing in patience. This morning I got to spend several hours with my new friend Ms. L during the Betel church service, during lunch, and afterwards in a lengthy talk. I mostly listened while Ms. L shared with me her beliefs in God, showed me nearly 300 pictures of her family, her ceramics, her home, and her lovely, treasured garden. She believes that nature is God which is understandable since she was raised in Armenia during Soviet rule and while living there was an educational psychologist and scientist. She is also a philosopher and deep thinker. I am deeply thankful that in the very brief time that I have known her that she has chosen to trust me and share her thoughts despite her somewhat intense struggles conveying her intelligent thoughts with the English language. I am reminded of my great-grandmother when I'm with her and am in awe that my kindness (from God) has already touched her immensely; it is truly a blessing from the Lord.

Aside from my interactions with Ms. L, I was reminded that I am going to have to be greatly be patient with the men in the program here. I have been proactive to try and prevent things like ink running out of the printer and taking steps to get (very necessary) spare keys made. I know my requests haven't fallen on deaf ears, yet, these two requests and others have yet to be fulfilled for various reasons. I don't write this to criticize anyone; it is here as a reminder/challenge to myself to be gentle, patient, and supportive throughout my internship with Betel.

I am enjoying growing in patience as I help Eduardo practice his English and he helps me practice my Spanish. Eduardo says that my Spanish is good, but he's being extremely gracious. It's improving as I use it more and more, but I certainly wouldn't call it good. Today he asked me to read and translate some Spanish songs. There were some things I didn't know, but he helped me I was able to translate it all. We also talked about life in Europe compared to here and Muslim culture. Little by little I'm hoping to become fluent.

Lastly, tonight is a part of me growing in patience. At dinner, an old friend (formerly very close friend) purposefully antagonized me despite multiple attempts and requests to get him to stop interrupting another friend from telling stories of his recent music tour. As I write now, my heart feels sad about it. There are feelings and thoughts that I couldn't express to him. I said that I forgave him, but my heart is battling hanging onto the anger that wants to stay within. We disagree on key points of tonight's interaction. We haven't been close in so long, and I've recently been personally reminded of the pain and loss of our close friendship.