Language School

I am having a great time studying in my first week. I need to post a photo of my teacher for this week, Lesvia. She has been putting me through the paces of Level 1, reviewing present tense regular verbs, numbers, and I have begun to add technical terms from Pastoral Care (La Cuidad Pastoral) and medical care (enferma, enfermedad: sick, nurse). I am pleased with the recall I have for previous studies.

My class is in the afternoon. Lesvia and I sit across from each other at a table. For five hours, she teaches me, we talk about the lesson, I practice conversation, and many other helpful one-on-one lessons. We talk about current events, also.

Proyecto Linguistico Quetzalteco de Espanol is part of a larger collective of projects that exist to advance the rights of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala. We see films, hear lectures, and visit places of significance to the indigenous peoples, especially in relation to the internal armed conflict that lasted for 36 years, ending only recently with what I gather are poorly enforced peace accords. I won't go into it in detail here, but suffice it to say, the indigenous peoples have had a horribly tragic history, and the average US citizen doesn't know the half, not even the tip of the iceberg in which we are implicated.

Every day I go out for a walk and make myself talk to lots of people about lots of things. This morning, I chatted with Sr. Juan, who managed the guest house in the mornings, about the sound I recognized to be a sump pump under the patio floor. He explained that the house has a cistern, and clean water is pumped from a well into the cystern, then we use it for our showers, washing up, etc.

My friend, Cindy, arrived last night. She has had a terrible time with a recurrent bug she picked up on a trip to Cambodia a few years ago. She was en route to Xela from Antigua and had to stop off in Panajachel, on Lago Atitlan, to go to bed for a few days. I am glad she was able to travel yesterday afternoon and is feeling better. We are staying in the same guest house. In fact, she is about to make our lunch here in the guest house kitchen. It's good to get started here with a friend who has more time in study and speaking.

Today I have a big review at school, to see if I can move into the next level and some other time than the present in conversation. However, there are many ways to communicate using the present tense; and, as they say, there really is no time like the present!