Language School and Home Stay

Our first week here in Xela is coming to a close; this week has been a busy one, full of lots of new experiences. As they warned us, the weather in Xela (being that it is very high up in the mountains) is rather cold. Naively I thought it couldn’t possibly be that cold, I’ve lived in IL and PA. In the mornings and nights it is especially cold. Even during the day if the sun is not out it is so cold I had to buy a scarf and a warmer jacket.

Sunday morning myself and the 14 others parted ways and moved into our new homes with our host families. My family is the Pérez family; there are three young boys and a girl ranging in ages between 5 and 15.  They have been wonderfully welcoming and helpful to me.  I have my own room on what I think was once a roof top that was converted into more bedrooms. Though I was sad to say goodbye to my new found friends, it is nice to have my own space and not be living in a hotel out of a duffle bag. Our family’s only real obligation to us is to provide three meals a day and a bedroom. My family is very nice, the boys always want to color with me or play tag.  I suppose after noticing that I am always shivering, my host mother decided yesterday that I needed to go buy a jacket, so she had Andrea (my host sister) take me to buy a couple sweaters! They have all been so wonderfully hospitable and patient with my broken Spanish.

We started language school on Monday morning, as expected it is a real challenge. Each student spends five hours a day one on one with a teacher, working on whatever it may be that needs improving.  There has been a couple days this week that I wondered what the heck I am trying to do here. I just keep reminding myself that mastering a language is no easy feat. At times it is overwhelming to be completely immersed in the language, but it seems to be the most effective way of learning. I have a lot of improving to do!

 I am learning so much more here than just the language of Spanish. The civil war here has been a topic that as a group we have been learning about, it is very interesting to be living alongside people who have such remarkable stories to tell; people who have seen unimaginable things in their lifetime. I have found myself talking with my professor for extended periods of times about the war and the current politics, it is fascinating. This week we heard from a variety of very different speakers; a Guatemalan military officer, a woman ex-guerilla leader and women whose husbands were killed by the military’s “Civil Defense Patrol”. It has been interesting hearing all of the different sides and accounts of what happened here.  As an out-sider looking in it is easy to point fingers and say what one particular group did was better than the other, I am learning that what one person sees as “truth” may not be another’s. I am in no position to make judgments; I cannot and will not ever understand or feel all of the factors that led people to make the decisions that were made.