Well I've finally made it. I graduated and have finished my course. Reflecting on what I went through during the last five months, there were times that I thought I would not make it. Moments during the course when it was all too much, or my feelings would rise up and cause me to think it would be easier to continue on without this training. But it has been valuable training, and I am not one to give up on any commitment that I make. So I stuck with it. It wasn't easy either. Sometimes our cultures clashed, and sometimes our understandings were not the same. At times I could not understand the methods used, but I know that in the end it was all worth it. I changed. Well, at least some things have really changed. I entered the school with a heavy heart. My face reflected this clearly, and I knew that there was not a smile on my face very often. There was not much I could do about this at the time, but during the course this changed. The first part of the course saw me crying almost without stopping at times. All of the heavy sadness that had been stored up in my heart was now pouring out. I got so mad once that I wanted to put a hole in the concrete wall. This was the time that a whole lot of sadness eventually poured out of me before God. It was releasing, freeing, liberating. The whole course was a journey of change, of discovering who I was and who my God was, and of growing in my understandings of all of this too. In the process I have learned a new language (Spanish), rediscovered my God, and made some awesome friendships which I hope will last a lifetime. Even though I fought with the regulations, argued with the decisions, and disputed the assumptions. Even though I was on my last warning before being sent back from our last outreach. Even though it was hard at times. There have been great changes. My God won. He had the last say. This course did not fill me with knowlege, although I certainly did learn a lot. It did not turn me into an Argentine either, although I now understand a lot more about them and their culture. What it did do, was change my life. It created in me a foundation of certainty where there was none, and reinforced the other foundations that were already in my life. I have only good things to say about this course, and I would recomend it to every single person I know. And I graduated! Yeehaa! Take care, Rob.