Xela Graduation

Written Friday, Feb 4, 2011

Today was our last day of class at the Xela school. It’s hard to believe we’ve been at it for 2 weeks already. Around about Wednesday of this week, I hit the saturation point and for the past few days, the vast amount of information trying to penetrate my brain has mostly run off. If I wasn’t writing down everything, there is no way I would remember it. There are times when I’m having a conversation with my teacher or the school director and I find myself struggling to recall the most basic words and concepts. At that point, it’s pretty obvious to anyone conversing with me that I’ve checked out because my jaw goes slack and my eyes glaze over as I probe the nether regions of my brain trying to get the synapses to fire.

I have really enjoyed our time here. I feel like I got very lucky with my teachers and had great experiences with both Saul and Vilma. Jeff has had a good week with Estuardo and is comprehending quite a lot. He’s still a bit shy about speaking Spanish, and I don’t give him many opportunities to get a word in edgewise, so we both have to get better about letting him speak. Our homestay situation has also been great. Violeta is a wonderful lady, a great cook, and I feel she is now a good friend.

Tonight will be our opportunity to graduate, and the dinner this week is to be of an international flavor. We are to bring something typical of home, so Jeff and are making Tuna Hot Dish using the ingredients on hand. Yesterday we went to the super-mercado and bought noodles and a dry mix to make cream of mushroom soup, plus cans of tuna, of course. The super market has very few fresh vegetables on hand because there are so many vendors in the street and the adjacent market selling every fresh fruit and vegetable imaginable. We are jazzing up the hot dish with peas, green beans, onions and carrots, which were all ridiculously cheap and fresh. Violeta has all her pots and pans stored in the oven and I’m not even sure it works, so the final stage of baking the hot dish will have to happen at the school. I think we’ll be able to present a fairly authentic hot dish.

Today as Vilma and I practiced conversation, she asked about tonight’s activities and I told her about making the hot dish. As I described it, she got very interested in trying it, and so there I was giving her the recipe in Spanish. I would love to be at her dinner table the night she decides to try it out.

We have a lot to prepare yet before the party, including speeches in Spanish and practicing our music for the celebration. We will be singing De Colores, a very popular song here in Guatemala and one that I learned in my first week with Saul. Jeff will play his mandolin and we will give our Spanish singing our best effort.

One thing we managed to fit into our schedule this week was a trip to Chicovix, a little town that sits atop a volcanic hot springs. For about 50 cents apiece we were able to take the bus there, and another $2.50 apiece got us into the hot springs. There is a building that has many small rooms with baths that can comfortably accommodate two adults at a time. So Jeff and I got our own personal room. The guy running the place showed us to our room, then climbed down into the bath and pulled what looked like a sock out of a pipe in the wall. Hot water immediately began to flood the tiled hole in the floor, and within a few minutes, we had a private hot tub experience. You can also use their swimming pool, which I did, and that was nice too. The water is tepid, so it’s not a shock to your system coming from the hot bath. Just a nice change of temperature. The whole trip took about 2 ½ hours, and was a nice break from studying.

Update: Saturday morning

The hotdish turned out great. In true Minnesota fashion, it was meant to be small and ended up huge, so we have leftovers. Mmmm. Our song was well received and many teachers and some students joined in and sang with us. We have diplomas to prove we graduated.

Next up… La Escuela de la Montana.