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  Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
Friday, June 8, 2007

Hello everyone,
How is it going back in the states?  Things are going well here.  I seem to be catching on and in a few weeks I will be a pro. 

Sorry if my blogs are lengthy and I keep jumping around to different topics.  I just have seen so much that I want to share that I write down everything I can think of.

Every morning I have Spanish class from 8-12.  Then I grab a quick bite and catch the 1:10pm bus to La Esperanza.  I teach from 2-5pm and then catch the bus back to Xela arriving anywhere between 5:40-6pm with traffic.  Then itīs an errand or internet, dinner, homework and preparation for teaching my classes the next day.  I have been really busy this week and trying to adjust to a full schedule after the last week of not having much to do.

My Spanish classes are going well.  I am learning Spanish and about the culture here.  They teach by one on one instructors so we talk a lot which I like because I want to speak Spanish. 

The bus is not something I am fond of but I am definately getting used to the 40 minute bus rides to and from La Esperanza.  I was getting carsick on the bus a lot earlier this week, but Iīve found that a good lunch and drinking plenty of water earlier in the day helps.  It also helps when it isnīt terribly sunny and when I donīt have to ride backwards. 

I have seen a lot of the city and the way of life here by riding the bus.  Women carry items they are selling or buying in baskets or bags perched on top of their heads.  Women with children and bags getting on board burdened with their load trying to get to the bus terminal to go to another town.  They pack us in like animals.  We are sitting and standing on top of each other and leaning into each other with each bump in the road or quick brakes tapped on because a car pulled out in front of us.  I am more careful now and I always have my backpack in front of me so I donīt lose any more items to quick hands.  I donīt really carry any valuables with me, but I am still being careful.

Tonight when the bus stopped for me in La Esperanze they put me in the front seat with the driver.  Another man hopped in later down the road beside me and I was in the middle praying we wouldnīt be in an accident because we donīt have seatbelts.  It was interesting to get a full frontal view of the route.  Earlier I thought I was on the wrong bus because I didnīt recognize the route, but then I realized I was sitting on a different side than I have been on earlier this week.

The buses here in the city are mostly vans.  The big school buses are only used to get to other cities.  They pack people in just as tight on those buses and I am anxious about they day I have to ride one of those buses.  The buses and cars here are mostly manual transmissions and the way everyone drives they should be recruited by NASCAR.  Today I was glad I didnīt get carsick on the bus, but everytime I get off and sit down to type I still feel like I am moving.  The driver is the top dog and he concentrates on driving.  A younger guy will hang out the door or windown and look for people wanting to get on the bus.  At every stop or crowd of people standing by the street he will yell the destination of this bus.  If you want to get on you hold your arm straight out.  My bus is Parque, Parque, Parque.  When you want to stop you say Pared, por favor - stop please.  You hand the guy who has jumped off the van while it is still moving your 1 quetzal coin and get off as fast as you can before it takes off again.  What a difference from back home!

My classes were much better yesterday and today.  I have 2 small classes of 10-12 kids and 2 big classes of about 20 kids.  The bigger classes are both my second classes of the day and they like to talk a lot.  The schoolroom has cement walls, tile floors and a tin room.  It echoes a lot which makes it even harder to hear.  When the rain downpours I canīt compete with it beating down on the tin roof.  I was happy that this hasnīt happened the last 2 afternoons.  I taught them body parts in English and we played Simon says.  They all seemed to like that game and I hope it helped them remember better.  Iīve been teaching simple sentences slowly with new vocabulary of verbs and nouns.  We also played hangman starting with one word and then a full sentence.  Hangman also helped them learn how to pronounce letters in English.  The letters they struggle with the most are i, e, g, h, y.  Theses are the same letters I struggle with in Spanish.  The kids are great most of the time and you can tell that some of them are sponges and really want to learn.  Yesterday I tried to explain to them that they could write how to pronounce each letter by the letter so they would remember how to say them, but with my limited Spanish they didnīt really understand.  Today I was really happy when many of the kids asked me to say a letter for them both in and after class because they were writing by the letters how to pronounce them.

I am excited to finish my Spanish classes so I can do other volunteer activities in the morning.  There are so many opportunities to help here.  A girl living in my apartment volunteers at a womenīs shelter here for single women who have been abused.  She helps out in the daycare center where they babysit the kids so the women can work.  I really thought I would see outright poverty when I got here, but I havenīt.  Of course they donīt have as much as we do and one can see poverty and homeless people but it doesnīt stand out like I thought it would.  I do know it is out there and I truly hope I make a difference these next 4 months.

Thank you for your messages and prayers.  Send me your questions in case I did a poor job of explaining something.

Hasta Luego,
dianaj25

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