- Self-discovery and self-understanding: I was introduced to the Enneagram which I am now obsessed with learning more about. It's a structure made up of 9 distinct personality types, with each number on the Enneagram indicating 1 type. It is common to find a little of yourself in all 9 of the types, although one of them should stand out as being closest to yourself. This is supposed to be your basic personality type. The most frustrating thing about the enneagram is that you have to decide for yourself which type that you are! A couple of hours of learning about it was definitely not enough time for me to figure out my own type so I've been doing a lot of reading on it and still cannot decide between two types. I think that I am either a 2 or a 4... Maybe you know!? I would recommend trying to figure out what you yourself are, though, as it can definitely be a helpful tool for self-growth as well as understanding your strengths and weaknesses. I will warn you, though, that it's very easy to become obsessed with figuring it all out! Give it a try.
- The Enneagram is not the only self-discovery tool that I have recently become obsessed with. We also all had to take a Myers-Briggs personality test which summed us up in a compilation of 4 letters. I didn't like it at first because I feel like it kind of puts you in a box, but once you read the description of what personality type you have, you can understand it a little better. You can take a test here and become just as obsessed as I have. Once you find out what you are, there is a website with great descriptions of each type that you can go check out here. It's crazy how right on it ends up being! I'm an ENFJ which just says it all.
- Communication: We have had a couple of different lectures on communication that have also tied in conflict-resolution and living in community. I think the hardest thing for me is going to be trying to maintain communication with everyone back home. I am not going to have a phone nor will I have frequent access to the Internet so keeping in touch is definitely going to be a challenge for me. We have also learned the "harsh reality" of the homesickness, loneliness, and the "February blues" that we are sure to encounter, but we have also learned ways to prevent it from getting the best of us which is reassuring. On the other side of communication, we have learned about communicating with the people around us at our mission sites- our fellow missionaries, the people we're going to be working with, and the people in the community. It's important that we have a strong support system at our mission and I look forward to building that once I'm there.
- Stress and Violence on Mission: Unfortunately, none of the sites that any of us are going to are exactly safe, however, there are many ways to stay safe and keep yourself from getting too stressed out and frustrated. We learned the importance of being familiar with two types of violence: Structural Violence, which is visible and is customary behavior with a destructive outcome and Cultural Violence, which is invisible with the intention to harm symbolically through words and images. We learned to be peacemakers and serve as a healing presence to the people that we are going to be working with. As for stress, we learned about positive vs. negative stress and burn-out which I already knew a lot about from my Counseling courses (Yeah Scranton!). We were presented with the Karasek Model of Stress in Mission which describes the different types of stress that we may encounter. I always like learning about anything that has to do with people interaction so I found this to be very interesting!
- Cultural Issues: CULTURE SHOCK... It's bound to happen to anyone moving to another country. I do feel a little more comfortable, though, as I have already lived in México a couple of different times, although they were much shorter than a year! We've learned quite a bit about the cultural practices of our countries, how to go about acculturating ourselves, and the reality of the Iceberg Theory as well as the Developmental Model of Incultural Sensitivity which I found to be most interesting.
- Critical Thinking and Social Analysis: This was one of the heavier topics that made me feel like I was in college again. We learned about the significance of self-knowledge and modern adult education which are truly so important in order for us to make any kind of a difference in the world. We learned about the strengths and weaknesses of human perception- [We hear (see) what we understand.]- This led to the differences between the right brain and left brain which took me back to high school biology class! We also learned about the relationship of time-span of social change to individual life-span and how there is such a gap there. Economics, which I hate, came next followed by oppression which was easier to keep up with as I've studied so much about it. Intense, right? This is why my brain hurts!
- Retreat: Luckily, we got to take a break from sitting through lectures and we spent our second weekend on a very relaxing retreat. It was held at a gorgeous old mansion that is so perfectly isolated in the woods with lots of deer, a beautiful pond (which was my favorite), a swimming pool, and some pretty amazing nature. The best part about the retreat was that we were given a lot of much needed quiet and alone time that we used to go outside and sit by the pond, take walks, listen to music, and journal. It was so nice to have some time to just be in peace and admire the world as it is. It has definitely been my favorite part of the orientation.
- Movies, Books, and Food!: When we weren't escaping from the MACC, we've been spending a lot of our nights watching movies in the media room that they have here. We have watched The Preacher's Wife, The Bucket List, Al Otro Lado, and The Mission. I definitely want to recommend Al Otro Lado to everyone. It is a great movie about immigration issues in México, Cuba, and Morocco. As for books, I have been so excited to finally have time to just read for pleasure! I finished my first book, The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen, which was very good and is recommended to all the ladies. Some more books that I have and plan to read are The Kite Runner, Love the One Your With, Three Cups of Tea, The Alchemist, and Eat, Pray, Love. I'd also love some suggestions for some more good reads throughout the year. Moving on to food.. It's been great! The MACC serves a nice, healthy variety which is always good and we have also ventured out for some delicious Mexican and even some Pizza Hut for the nights we were just too stir crazy!
- Oh no, there's more: Some other topics that we have covered or that are still yet to be covered are Latin American Reality, Sexuality and Intimacy (That was an interesting one!), Communication with God, Keeping Healthy in Mission, country presentations (each group has to present), Missiology, Christiology, and Ecclesiology. We also still have to go over our contracts (no turning back!), go over the "nitty gritty" to hopefully be given some more details, have a family conference call so that our parents can get all of their nervousness out and ask their millions of questions, and lastly, attend our sending off ceremony which will be held on Friday evening. After the ceremony, we're finally free and have the weekend to spend with our families. My mom will be here which is great!- We plan on doing some exploring as well as getting the last bit of things that I forgot to get back in Jersey.. Woops! It should be a very nice weekend. :)
Well, that is just about it for now. It's been an intense past 3 weeks and I am extremely excited and anxious to get to México! I am leaving on the afternoon of Monday, August 25th. As I already talked about, I have no idea how much Internet access that I will have so I have no idea when the next time I am going to get to write will be. This obviously goes along with e-mails as well. If I do not get back to you right away, don't worry, I will as soon as I can. I will also make sure to send you that mailing address as soon as I get it. Alright, well please keep me in your thoughts and prayers- you're all in mine! And best of luck to all of you returning back to school (especially Scranton kids!). Stay happy and healthy and keep writing and telling me about your lives! I love hearing from you. Buenooo, aDiOs, but just for now ;)
***NOTE: I uploaded all of my pictures that I've taken over the past 3 weeks to a Shutterfly album. You can go check them out by looking under the "Links" section of this page located at the upper right side and clicking on the MY PICTURES! link. That is where I will be uploading all of my pictures throughout the year so be sure to keep looking!
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