A much awaited excursion was made with my teacher to the famously renown Mennonite Bakery. Spectacular!! I finally found a place to buy ‘Pan Integral’ (whole wheat bread and buns – a pure luxury and novelty here), soy milk (although a powder and sweetened) and american cheese. Most food that we take for granted as…
I discovered anew the beauty of second hand books this morning with my teacher; Spanish grammar books are terribly difficult to come by in Guatemala. Several stores sell them new at extortionate prices ready to pounce on the many students of the some-50-odd Spanish schools here in Xela. However, many treasures were found and purchased…
Today’s school activity involved taking a chicken bus to HueHuetenango to see Los Ruinos with Aimee and maestro Mario. Basically the chicken buses are retired US/Canadian school buses and the bus I took to Xela was by far a more ‘luxurious’ Pullman (these are mainly retired Greyhounds). I was really quite surprised by the low…
I can hardly believe it myself … I actually BOUGHT a Nokia CELL PHONE! Wow, this in incredibly techie and modern for someone who has never owned and rarely has used a cellular telephone. But indeed, with the incredibly cheap pay-as-you-go cell rates + the incentive of receiving FREE phone calls, whether locally or Internationally,…
I’ve been informed today that the Guatemalan postal system is completely unreliable and corrupt, and that receiving or sending any articles in the mail can not be counted on, unless sent or received through a public service such as UPS or Fed-Ex. Because of this small tidbit of information, I’m not too sure about how…
wow, so much to learn! and the days keep flying by, even though we finish our daily classes at 1pm. every day there is some sort of activity to participate in, if i so choose. it seems like a wonderful opportunity to turn down … any cultural experiences, that if pursued on my own and…
Juan Sissay is a non-profit collective that does much for the community. This is one of the leading characteristics that intrigued me into approaching it as my first Escuela. Today’s weekly venture? Teaching English at a local school 10 minutes from the city centre. Nine of us from the school piled into the back of…
I awoke to the ‘snap, crackle pop’ of firecrackers exploding in the streets … I was somewhat disoriented, not knowing what was going on, and curious as to whether this was to be a typical awakening to my life in Guatemala? At first it sounded like brief but sporadic splashes of lightening, and then with…
How interesting to come to a country not knowing the language … Now I know truly understand and empathize with what it feels to be a minority!! The ability to really speak with anyone on an intellectual basis is impossible at this point and my attempts at forming an intelligible, unambiguous sentence is like pulling…