Xela & Spanish Studies

my spanish student school visit to one of the oldest churches in central america !

To me, travelling is more than just a vacation. It is more than just removing myself from the daily USA life to relax. I travel to learn. To learn about the world, other people, other ecological and social environments.  Also, as a solo traveler, I learn alot about myself. I have time to reflect on my own life on long shuttle and bus rides. I can try new things to decide what changes I need to make in my life path.  It´s a time to challenge myself and expand my mind.

a home visit to try some fruit wine and watch how they make textiles

For these reasons, I chose to study Spanish for one week at a great school called Pop Wuj . I took some time to research exactly the type of school I was looking for and what they did for the local community, as well as providing extra activities after classes. Pop Wuj is a nonprofit cooperative that was started by teachers in 1992.  They provide a medical clinic a few times a week where medical Spanish speakers can work hands on with the local people.

Also, they assist with environmental projects such as replanting trees, building safe, fuel efficient stoves for rural families and a scholarship program for local Gutaemalan children, among other things as well.

my spanish teacher, Ana, and our completed stove we helped build !

Read about the safe stove project here: http://proyectospopwuj.blogspot.com/p/environmental-program_7819.html

making textiles

I had classes daily for about four hours, one on one, and also stayed with a local family as a home stay! What a great experience to immerse myself. The family was very nice and although the language barrier was difficult, it forced me to practice and learn new words. The mother and daughter would help cook meals and I was provided with three meals a day. I have never ate so many tortillas in one week ! Every meal, I had at least two, sometimes three, as all the tortitllas are handmade with corn and taste way better than anything we have in America.

I was in a larger city known as Xela or officially as Quetzaltenago. I´m not used to big city life. The noise, the pollution, the trash, the cars, the trucks, but eventually I did get used to it, but missed my small town of Moab even more.

my host family !!!

city life !

I attended a movie night, walked through the market with my teacher, had a group dinner with over 30 students (where I also had to give my thank you speech in Spanish to get my certificate), helped build a cement stove with other students for a rural family, attended a premiere of an independent, eye opening film called Ixcanul spoken in their native language and went on a village visit with other students.

I could write so much more about this one week experience, as it has been a highlight of my trip thus far !