Goals...

Yesterday, all of the new directors and coordinators were gathered together for a day-long training. I was invited to come to this training. A special guest speaker from Caracas was presenting the material. Of course, the entire workshop was completely in Spanish and the workshop covered some intense material. My goal of the workshop was not to see how much I can learn about the new planning methods that were presented or to be able to analyze the strengths and weaknesses that are present and determine the problems, the causes of these problems, and the best solutions to these problems. My goal was simple… to see how much Spanish I could understand without a translator. I think this was too intense of a workshop for me to try something like this. By the afternoon, after concentrating with all my strength on trying to understand what was going on, I had given myself a headache and still wasn’t sure of everything that was being said. O well. I know that when talking one and one with someone, if they talk at a relatively “normal” rate of speed (not super hyper speed like people here speak), then I generally can understand most of what is being said, which to me is great progress.