I woke up and met Estela, the woman who cooks for the students and looks after the guesthouse. She made me vegan pancakes that were quite delicious, and I also had a nice helping of fresh fruit.
After breakfast, she walked me to La Union, where I started my first day of class. After the first hour, it felt routine and like I'd been studying and living there for much longer than 24 hours.
My teacher's name is Yaneth. La Union features a one-on-one teacher/student program, so Yaneth and I spent the first hour conversing freely in Spanish. We talked about everything from the length of Catholic weddings to what one can do when her/his friend is dating someone who is clearly bad news. At one point, we even got into the topic of media bias. Granted, my teacher was speaking very slowly, but I was still shocked by how much I could understand. My Spanish is still very elementary, but what I do know came back quickly.
I did learn that when attempting to say the main industry in Detroit is auto production, don't use the word "coche" (which means car in some Spanish-speaking countries) while in Guatemala as it has a different meaning there. Apparently, I told my teacher that everyone in Michigan works "in pigs."
I was struck by how friendly people are in Antigua. While I had a break from school, I walked around a bit. An older man on the street immediately struck up a conversation with me when he pointed at my jacket and declared that it was too hot to be wearing such things. I smiled and attempted to explain that I get cold easily. He then told me he was originally from Spain and asked where I was from. When I told him the United States, he said, "Ah, the country without a name. The United States of what?" I answered, "America," to which he responded, "America is not just for the US. It's not a country; it's a continent. We're Americans, too. Your country has taken over that name."
I nodded my head in agreement and thought, "Yes, that's kind of what the US does...take things over."
After class, I went to an information session about volunteer opportunities the school has. It was supposed to be a group trip, but I was the only one who showed up. I was taken to a place that was a combination school and home for children with severe mental and physical disabilities. The children were out of school due to it being the week of Guatemala Independence. However, the project director gave me a tour of both the school and home.
Apparently, the majority of children at the home were abandoned by their parents and spend their nights in giant cribs (with ten kids to a room) and days lying on mats on the floor. One of the rooms we went in must have had 30 children in it, all on the floor, unable to move. It was such a sad sight, especially knowing that many of them have no families and this is all their lives are most likely going to be. I was comforted by the fact that the staff seemed to be very caring, but still, the evidence of the lack of resources for people with disabilities in poor countries was abundantly clear.
In the evening, I met my third housemate, a 28-year-old guy named Nery. His family is from Guatemala, but he grew up in the Bay Area of California. He knows Spanish already, so he's in Guatemala to, as he puts it, "learn the culture."
We chatted for a while before he suggested we go on a walk around town. He showed me where Central Park was located and also pointed out several bars and restaurants. I actually saw quite a few vegetarian joints along with a cute place called the Bagel Barn (a coffee shop full of people with their noses in books) that plays Spanish movies every night. It looked quite tranquil and like a lovely place to study. Coffee shops, studying and foreign films - wow, it feels like I'm in college again!
When we returned back to the house, we ate dinner and had a rather lengthy chat about MMA. Apparently, UFC pay-per-view is free and available in our rooms at the guesthouse. Between that and the Much Music Channel (Canada's equivalent of MTV that actually - gasp! - plays music) that Guatemalan cable features, I'm watching more tv here than I do at home. Stop the insanity!
Some shots of my school:
To view more pictures of my trip, go check out my album on facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment