Page 32 - Lenten Devotional 2023

Week 3: March 13-17 (cont)

travel to. The call was from the Puerto Rican government asking me to come to their
island to train for four days and to deliver the entire training in Spanish. Never before

had I experienced anxiety from a training request like I experienced with this one. My
anxiety was the result of one clear fact - I don't speak Spanish.

I tried my best to convince them to not have me come in person to deliver the training,
but rather allow me to hire a Spanish-speaking person who would record the training in
Spanish for them to do as a self-paced course. Instead, they were insistent on me

coming in-person. So, I was confirmed to travel to San Juan, Puerto Rico, the first week
of February in 2019.

I spent five months translating all the program and training materials into Spanish and
hired a translator to be by my side during the training. But, none of this seemed to ease

my anxiety. Instead, as time got closer to leaving, my anxiety and concerns increased. I
was worried about a lot of things. I worried about going to a new place I knew very little
about. I worried about how the group would perceive me as an English-speaking

Midwestern white woman. I worried about how they perceived people from the states,
in general. I worried about not speaking their language and whether I would be able to

effectively communicate with the trainees. I worried about the flow of the training as
everything I said would be translated back to them by the translator. I worried about
the group being two times larger than I usually work with. I worried about my stamina
throughout the 4-day training – twice as many days than I usually train.

The day came for me to leave and I had to talk myself on to the plane to go. At one point

I even thought, “If there was ever a time I would welcome a training to be cancelled at the last
minute, this would be the one.” But, the call to cancel never came and my trip to San Juan
proceeded forward.

I arrived at the training site on the first day 45 minutes early. I took a deep breath, said

a short prayer, opened the door and walked into a room that was full of people all
speaking Spanish and with a lot of energy! My first thought was,“Oh my gosh! Am I late?"