Leaving Xela

Today, I departed Xela and moved to Antigua, to spend my last week in Guatemala. I will have a week of language school and then fly home next Sunday, May 17.

My family in Xela are wonderful, and I will miss them very much. Living with a family is a very deep and rich experience, part of the immersion method that can be very powerful. Not everyone has such a good experience, so if anyone is anticipating this kind of travel and language, I can say with confidence that it pays to insist upon a family that will take your education seriously. If they are in it just for the money, don´t hesitate to ask for another family.

It´s a bit easier to post now that I am staying in a guest house in Antigua, with wireless internet. This is my plug for Hotel Posada La Merced: charming, clean, private bath, wireless internet (yea!), close to the language school, a short walk to Parque Central, quiet, lovely back courtyard, kitchen, cable TV. Being in Antigua is sort of like not being in Guatemala anymore. I think of it as my Guatemalan vacation from Guatemala, from the urban busyness to a small town retreat.

Spanish language schools are one of the biggest sources of tourism for Guatemala. In the city of Xela, there are at least 60 schools. Antigua has many schools, also. If I have the time later on, I would like to work on language skills while also building up a SCUBA record of dives on one of the islands of Honduras, in the Caribbean.

La Familia Garcia Rivera, minus son José, 20














Diego, 13, and Fernando, 6














Abuelo Oscar and José, Don Oscar´s son















Davíd, 1



















Andrea, 9, the only girl of the family, and like another 9 year old I know, loves pink and Disney and fashion











Fernandito, also called Fer; a live wire














Ana, yo, mismo in the family kitchen; the house was built by Abuelo (grandfather) Oscar´s grandparents, and has withstood earthquakes, speaking of which, we had one on May 3, 6.1, lasting several seconds, enough to scare the ¿"/( out of everyone, but Xela had little damage; the epicenter was closer to the Pacific coast








My teacher for this past week, my last in Xela, was Rufina, to my left; others are Carlos, one of the school´s directors and a maestro (teacher), and two of the maestras. Enrollment is pretty light right now, but June will bring dozens of new students, mainly from universities all over the world.

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!