Escuela de espanol, one of the main reasons why Jeff and I came to Guatemala, conveniently turned out to be our favorite experience in the country so far. Teaching foreigners to speak Spanish is a major industry in Xela, so you can find dozens of these schools just walking down a couple of streets. The 5 UVA Med students currently here are enrolled in 3 different schools. Our school, ICA (Instituto del Central America), is the oldest school in Xela. Two carpenters built the school in 1975, yep, everything from the building to the desks still in use. Their families manage the school and teach here now.
Jeff and I attend school 5 days a week from 8 am to 1pm, in a one-on-one setting. We are assigned a new teacher each week but have the option to request the same maestro. Our school often has several dozen students at a time, therefore we have quite a selection of teachers. Right now, the school has students ages 20-68. Popular countries represented in addition to the U.S. are Denmark and Australia. Each afternoon, the school organizes activities such as trips to local attractions or show cuturally relevant movies. On weekends, they take us on beautiful, long hikes. In addition to classes and activities, the schools here connect students with host families who will house you and feed you 3 meals a day for only $10 a day! We will write another post soon to tell you all about our host family.
My teacher, Jeft, is a 26-year-old master student in international business. Conveniently, master programs here usually take place all day on Saturdays. He is an excellent teacher: patient, structured, and full of fun examples to make grammar lessons less painful. He has a fantastic grasp of U.S. pop culture and is the biggest movie buff I know. I consider him an amature comedian because he regularly cracks me up with movie quotes, impressions, and sound effects. He also lets me talk and talk and talk and make many mistakes, then drills the corrections into my brain.
Jeff also enjoys his teacher very much. Carlos is an older gentleman who taught Spanish for many years to Guatemalan students. He has many tales about the Conflict and changes in the country over the years. Jeff brings home crazy stories from Carlos. We hope there isn't too much misundertanding from the language barrier. I have to admit that I am so impressed with Jeff's progress. With only 10 hours of Spanish lessons via Skype before coming to Gutemala, he is making leaps of progress every day, and now talking to our host family in long sentences and cracking everyone up at dinner with his clever use of vocabulary.
Because we've enjoyed Spanish school so much and would love to keep up the progress, we are extending our time in Xela by another week. After 3 weeks here, we will go to Santiago and work at Hospitalito Atitlan for another 3 weeks. We feel that this will give us a best balance of Spanish, culture, medicine, and service.
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