Paranoia, Paintings and People

Lourdes, Neria, Yo, Aurora & Antonia (one of Antonia's paintings is on the wall)

Sorry for the silence. It has been a long time since I sat down and wrote in the weblog. I have had many other things on my mind. But hopefully they have begun to clear.

Spanish learning is going well poco a poco as they say here little by little. I’m hearing much more distinctly and learning heaps of verbs which seems to be at the heart of the Spanish language.

I had a dream the other night that had some Spanish in it! They say that when you start dreaming in another language you really have a feel for it. I can’t claim that! But I did have a nightmare, and it had three Spanish words in it "alto y seco".

I’ve been staying at Montemayer while language learning at Córdoba (about 20 minutes in the bus) with Antonio and Lourdes Soto and their two little girls Aurora and Neria. Antonio was born in Montemayer, a small rural village. Renowned for its wine. He is a bit of a locally celebrated artist. He and his wife work for GBU which is equivalent to AFES in Australia. He is a rolly polly Pavarotti look a like, who has a song for just about every word said. He has a great voice, good sense of humor and speaks slowly and clearly which is good for me.

He used to be a baker but became allergic to flour! Fatál! as they say over here. (It is a “false friend” like many Spanish words that sound similar to the English word but have a different, at least slightly different meaning – we’d say tragic in the way fanatical rugby supporters are know - “football tragics”.) Now he’s an artist! And the house smells of oil paint which I’m a bit allergic to. Fatál!

Anyway…we go for a walk up to the local park with the girls in the afternoons, about 8.00PM! All the kids are out and there is a kiosk where you can buy drinks and ice creams and pipa'a (Sun flower seeds! I joke with Antonio that only the galahs in Australia eat sunflower seeds).

In this small Spanish village where everyone is related and everyone knows everyone else and they work out who you are by finding out who you are related to and when they know that you are so and so’s brother or sister in law it’s OK, they don’t feel panicky or something...

Anyway I’m with this short, round man.

So one evening after we came home from the park at 9.00PM to get ready for dinner at 9.30! That is early, I’m staying with Abel and Rafi Nuño, their supper is 10.30 at the earliest. This is taking a bit of getting used to for me who likes to go to bed at 10.30 PM and read and get up at 6.00 AM. Anyway, José (not the other Spanish fireman! Did you hear about the two Spanish firemen who were brothers? Hosa & Hose B) spoke to Antonio later and asked who is the “alto y seco chiquito”. I wasn’t sure what it meant but Antonio tried to explain that alto is tall and seco literally means dry, but the people in the country use “seco” as a way to say skinny. I need watering it seems! I got the impression that they were a bit suspicious of me, I didn’t know at the time that chiquito (“o” for a bloke “a” for a girl) was a friendly term.

Well a few nights later I had this nightmare. I was down the south coast surfing with some friends. We camped at a spot that had some local aborigines near. During the night all the aboriginal women came over to where our camp site was and started pointing at me and saying “We don’t like that alto y seco one, he has to go!” They looked like the island women off the new King Kong movie which I watched with the Richardson’s a few Friday nights before. They kept shouting “alto y seco!” And they took all my things.

That’s all I remember. But I have dreamt in Spanish or at least a nightmare, that’s something hey!

I actually tried explaining a piece of art to one of the blokes from the Cabra church in Spanish. I don’t know what I’m talking about either way! The art or the language!

It was at the opening night of the art exhibition. We got access to the Cultural Centre from the local council. Claudia Guevra de Vásquez is a missionary from El Salvador who lives about 3 hours away in a place called Pozoblanco. Here husband, Raul, is the director of the drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre there. Great family! Anyway Claudia is an artist. We held an exhibition of her work in the Cultural Centre at Cabra. About 70 outsiders came through. Her work is all Christian, and at the opening she went around to a few works and gave a Christian explanation, along the way explaining the gospel.

I didn’t know to much of what was going on. Although I went around with the drinks and bickies. One group of ladies asked me to explain one of the works. I couldn’t really so went and got Claudia. She spent a long time with them, going around the paintings and explaining what they meant. I’m sure she was able to share the gospel with them in an appropriate way.

One of my favourites was the 10 Virgins waiting for the return of the bride groom. That was the one I was trying to explain to Manolo, one of the blokes from Cabra church.

Manolo and Sensi are a young couple at the church in Cabra. They have 4 children. Sensi used to walk passed the church building and read the Daily Scripture notes in the shop front window. At the same time Manolo was working with one of the fellows from the church. They were both being challenged about Jesus and both became Christians. I really like them. They are very sincere and humble, godly people.

Sensi now does the window displays in the shop front of the church in the hope that there will be more like her who read and are challenged. Manolo is one of the regular lay preachers at the church.