Hola todos,
Have you ever heard the expression “uphill both ways”? Sounds impossible, si? It’s not. We started our week in Pasac with, what was described as a flat, 10 minute walk. In reality, we spent 45 minutes walking straight uphill on uneven, “roads”. The end result made the trekk worth it, though. We reached an amazing waterfall with a spectacular view of the valley below.
The next few days were spent “learning” ki’che. By learning, I mean we couldn’t even pronounce 3/4 of the words. All we really wanted to learn how to say was “Do you have a matress for me?” Good thing no is the same in every language. We also worked on kites (that we never flew, let alone saw again) and making jewlery out of coconuts.
On our final day, we had a bonfire on the roof of the community center. At la fogata, we exchanged gifts with the cooks and guides who helped make our week go so smoothly. That night, we were invited (actually, forced) to preform a series of skits for the whole town. They dressed us up in traditonal clothing. Fortunatley for the ladies, that meant the guys skirts were shorter than theirs. Fair is fair.
The next day, it was time to say goodbye. Pasac, challenging as it was, was hard to leave. Seeing the kids waving (and hanging on the back of our moving van, NBD) was bittersweet.
Ahora, estamos en Xela. AKA Quetzaltenango. We just moved in to our respective homestays, and so far so good. Today was our first day with our Maestros learning Spanish one on one. This is helpful because there are a lot of different levels of Spanish in our group.
So far so good.
Ahora, es tiempo para cenar. ¡Buen provecho!
Love,
Katie Schneider and Corey Simpson