Last week I wrote about how we have moved to Arequipa to go to language school. This week I’ll tell you about the school about our daily routines.

We chose ABC Language School because it was highly recommended by some of our missionary friends in Iquitos/Nauta area. The school has been teaching missionaries for over 30 years. It is operated by Pedro Cornejo and Julio O’Brien both native Peruvians. Pedro is also a pastor at the church we are attending on Sundays. Right now there are 10 other students besides ourselves. Class sizes are small and focused. Some students are from the states, one is from England, one couple is from Switzerland and our classmates are a young couple from Denmark.

We have classes Monday through Friday each week. We usually are up by 5:30 am doing homework and house chores. We leave our house at 9:45 and walk 2.2 kilometers to the school all downhill. Classes for us begin at 10:20. We have grammar class first followed by Practice at 12:20 pm. By the time class ends at 1:40 pm our heads are usually spinning and our stomachs are empty. The past 4 weeks have often been rainy in the afternoon so often we got a taxi back to the house. We are usually finished with lunch by 3:00 pm and are ready to crash for a while.

Denver is young and has picked up Spanish faster than Ruth and I. He is in separate classes from us and at a higher level. Truly it is harder to teach older “dogs” new tricks.

School is going well and we are really glad we are doing it. Many things that we have learned in the Spanish we picked up in the jungle now make sense. Some of our “Spanish” we are relearning because in the jungle they talk an Amazonian dialect. The difference in the dialect may be likened to the difference between Britain English and American English. Some pronunciations and expressions are different but you can still understand each other. We are really grateful for this opportunity to go to
language school.

Stan