Graduation Day

It's hard to believe that 5 months have passed since I arrived in Cochabamba to study Spanish at the Maryknoll Language Institute.
There vision statement is to be a leading Center for missionary formation, committed to the Reign of god, living intercultural relationships in and from Latin America for the world.

(faculty)


For more than 40 yrs. The Maryknoll Language Institute, located in Cochabamba Bolivia has assisted people with linguistic and cultural preparation for intercultural service.
Since 1965 more than 10,000 people have studied Spanish, as well as the Andean languages Aymara and Quecha here.
All language courses consist of 4 daily classes taught by 4 different Bolivian teachers 5 days a week.

(me & Kitty)

The schedule and teachers change every 2 weeks. This allows the student to experience a number of teaching styles and perspectives.

(Mario)


In addition to the language classes there are periodic conferences and workshops on theology, missiology and intercultural ministry.

(Tatiana)

The teams of teachers meet between classes.

The students come from all parts of the world. They are professional Catholic religious as well as human development, service professionals and other Christian missionaries.
The graduation service was put together by different committees made up of students and faculty. The amount of creativity and talent was very impressive. The whole day was so beautiful, inspiring and entertaining that I didn't want it to end. The liturgy committee chose a passage from Isaiah 6:8 to be read in 7 languages:Aymaran, Quechuan, Spanish, Korean,Vietnamese, Sign and English by faculty & students..

"Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,"Whom shall I send? And who will go for us and I said, "hear I am. Send me". Isiah 6:8

Following this, students in groups of 5 read their speeches in Spanish

After each group of students gave their speech they made their hand prints for a class poster

Yours truly gave her speech in Spanish with heart pounding.
I came to Bolivia to prepare for missión work and the best preparation I received was to experience being ministered to by my host family, Mary, Alfredo & Marcos Gamboa. The unfortunate experience of fracturing my wrist in February made me more vulnerable in every way. The difficulties with my heavy cast and afterwords Physical Therapy made each day an additional challenge and I have no doubt in my mind that without the loving care of my host family I would not have been able to persevere through these five months.

I now know more deeply than ever before how important and enabling simple kindness can be to someone’s life. Having experienced their loving kindness through those difficult months I know I will be better at my ministry because of it.

Also I can’t thank the professors, administrators, auxiliary staff enough for their excellent dedication to us students. They created a friendly and supportive atmosphere in which we could best learn to speak Spanish.

Finally my volunteer work with the boys and girls at Casa Nazareth and Marde de Dios helped me understand what the initial desire I had to come to Cochabamba was about. I have always loved children and enjoy being with them. I have 4 teenage granddaughters who I love very much. When I look at them I see the sun and the moon but when I look at these children who have been abandoned ,abused or orphaned I see the face of God.