Thursday, January 22, 2009

What a way to end!!

Here is our first workshop! From left to right Hermana Graham, Cesar, Goodson (the Haitian), Jose, Sarah, Ricardo, Pedro, Julio, Marcos, Yoseline, and Me!

Today was the last day of our workshop and it was so great! We were a little nervous to start out because not everyone was there and we were afraid that we were going to have only a few graduate with us, but they trickled in one by one. We had a bit of a scare at the beginning because the camera we had used for recording had gone missing. It was found quickly, though the heart attack we suffered was not that much fun. We ended with 8 alumnos including one of our Haitian friends. We were really surprised to learn that he worked nights, so he would get off work at 9 a.m. and come straight to the workshop. As my dad said, ´People who are willing to work and sacrifice will always be successful even if that success is not defined in terms of money, wealth or possessions.´ It was hard for us to work with him, but he was just so wonderful and willing to work.

We started off by finishing the end of the section we should have finished yesterday, but I actually think it went off really well so that they could see how important some of these parts were. After that we had them make some phone calls to actual companies. Marco, one of the PEF students started off calling a contact of one of his friends to try and get more information about refrigeration because he wanted to work in that field. The woman was so nice, gave him so much information and then said that their might be an opening and invited him to call her back the next day to set up an interview. What a way to start! He asked her if their was anyone else he could talked to to which she replied ´No I´m in charge of hiring.´ He hadn´t even thought that he was going to get that opportunity so it worked out really well for him. After that phonecall everyone was a little nervous, and one of the other PEF students, Julio, said he wanted to call but then got really nervous. I told them what had happened to me the week before and then I told them what Hermano Nunez told me, ´This is nothing that a child of God can´t do.´ He wasn´t convinced so he and I went to the phones outside the classroom so he could do it with just me sitting with him to help him if he got stuck. He started off well, but then got nervous and it didn´t work out as well as we had hoped. He and I sat down for a few minutes and talked about things that he could do differently and he seemed a lot better after that.

After the phone calls we finished up with making resumes and then talking about how to be successful once you had a job. This involves talking about making sure you are aware of all of your responsibilities because ´I didn´t know´was not an acceptable excuse. We also talked about planning for disasters before they strike (ie: the babysitter is sick, who do you leave the kids with, you are sick two days in a row, your car breaks down, stuff like that) They responded really well to this part because they understood how important it was to KEEP a job.

All in all it was a great workshop. I am so proud of them and what they were able to accomplish in those three days. Two of the PEF students, Marco and Jose invited us to an institute dance next week, so we are excited about that!!

Then tonight I took the metro by myself all the way across town to visit Roxanna. She is from Puerto Montt, my first area in the mission. She always came with us to lessons and she is living up here now with her husband and their adorable little boy, Julian. I spent some time with she and her family, and then they put me on a bus to get back to the Subway station. What happened next is kind of a funny story.
This is Roxanna and I in her house. It was so good to see her!

The bus and subways here run on a system where you have a card taht you charge with money and then you sipe it every time you get on. When I got on the bus to head to Roxanna´s house from the subway station, I thought to myself that I should put some money on the card, but I thought I´d have enough to make it back to the subway station and I´d do it there...Well I was wrong. So I get on this huge bus and I have no money, and I look at the driver and say ´What do I do now?´He said I could just sit on the little ledge by him and he´d take me anyways, which I was grateful for. I started talking to him and he was telling me about how the bus system used to be better because they made commission but that they didn´t now so he didn´t really care if people paid or not. We talked about the church a lot because he wanted to know how I had learned to speak spanish so well and then he started asking me about the bus system where I lived. He started laughing when I told him that I didn´t know too much about it because I had a car. We got closer to the subway and a lady got on who had the same problem with not having money on her card so the bus driver asked her where she was going, she said the subway and he said ´Could you take her (pointing to me) with you so that she gets there safe?´The lady (Jaqueline was her name) said of course so she got me to the subway station and we rode most of the way back together. I was so grateful Heavenly Father put these people in my path, otherwise I would have never made it home!

2 comments:

  1. I am so glad that your workshop ended so well. Good luck to those kind people looking to support their families. What a great thing you are doing. I am glad you made it safe to the subway! You are always reminded how much Heavenly Father loves you. I am so glad you are blogging so we can know what you are up to!

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  2. Jody, I love reading about your adventure! I cant believe your going to be 25 this week! We're old ladies! I'm so grateful for our heavenly father watching over you down there. Happy birthday sister I love you!!!
    Bynze

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