Taking Guatemala

Travel time

I didn`t really anticipated how intense a travel time of 26 hours can be, until  I tried it. Luckily, and completely unexpected none of the four flights was delayed nor did I lost my luggage. Instead, I had quite interesting chitchats and some breathtaking views out of the window. Weird thoughts crossed my mind tho: how will it be it Guatemala City, will everything work out with the pick up from the airport and so forth...but all went well and i felt asleep in a cozy little hotel room in Guatemala City...

The first morning

The hotel I stayed for one night was a little cozy place, run by some old hippies believing in love peace and harmony. Their employee, Victor, is in charge to pick up the guests from the airport and make sure they arrive safety the next day at the central bus station. He is friendly, polite and talked to me in Spanglish about the performance of the German soccer team. We crossed several intersections secured with checkpoints run by private security companies and heavily armored, went by the historical civic centre, again secured by heavily armored military. But i will never forget when Victor showed me the huge volcano which surmount the city and the proud he had in his eyes about his hometown. The entire city seemed to be a mess, even tho it was Sunday hundreds of chicken-busses went by, 3 or 4 people on one motorbiked was not a rarity. Everything was noisy, chaotic but pretty in ts own terms.

Arriving in Xela

The ride with the bus from Guatemala City to Xela took 4 hours, having a half our lunch break after half of the trip. I saw just beautiful landscapes: green valleys paired with huge volcanos on the horizon, little villages with women caring food and goods on their heads, wearing colorfully and expressive traditional clothing. Again hundreds of chicken buses packed with people passed our bus in a ridiculous speed...I would have died most probably if i would have sit in one of those...

First Encounter

Getting from the bus station to the school was not difficult- the city is packed with US Americans, all eager to learn Spanish. As a matter of fact i shared a cap with 2 girls from California...At the school i got picked up by one of the nephews of my host mom. Not speaking one word Spanish at all was the most difficult part, for them as well as for me. Thanks to Google Docs we helped ourselves and could share some information. In the evening i finally met my host mom- Aldina. She is the most lovely, warm-hearted, patient and polite host mom you can imagine. She has students in her house for more than 20 years now. It seems there is nothing that could make her made or angry- even tho i could barely talk to her, just smiling and gesticulating was all needed in order for us to figure how to share the space for the next three weeks. Another nephew of her is staying with us as well, perhaps my age and highly interested how Bayern Muenchen performed last season. -Why is everyone so into German soccer?!
Getting familiar with the city didn¨t became as complicated as i thought, once you get used to instant coffee and a dead steer (!) on a Pickup early in trhe morning when you leave the house.

Going back to school

My fisrt day at the Projecto Linguistico (http://plqe.org/) was just amazing. It is a non-profit school which was founded in the year 1988 after 2 students , involved in the rebellion against the regime in Guatemala disappeared and got killed later. The idea of the school is to teach foreigners not only the language but also the history of Guatemala and tries to raise awareness for human rights, democracy and civil society. In my one on one class, which took 4 hours today i felt dizzy and developed a bad headache. On the other side it is a unique learning experience and i couldn¨t encourage someone more to come here to learn and participate in this amazing project.

The next few days

In the upcoming days I will try to learn more about the culture and get familiar with Xela and its surroundings. Of course I will keep you posted, for now:

Hasta Luego