Written by Central America Students, Sophie & Anna
This week we got to stay with local families in home stays, while still going to school at PLQ (Proyecto Lingüístico Quetzalteco)! We moved into our new homes on Sunday, and have been living with them for the past week! We’ve been able to enjoy tasty meals, practicing our Spanish with our families and exploring the city of Xela (Quetzaltenago) even more!
The school rotates teachers every week, so we all got to experience different learning styles with new teachers. Our Spanish really started to develop and become a little easier because we have been fully immersed in the language for a full week.
The school also has after school activities that we got to go too. This included a presentation about Guatemalan/International Adoption. We learned about how corrupt it used to be, following the end of the Guatemalan Civil War. We also got to go to Salsa class again, which is always a highlight!
On Friday, our last day at the school, we had a graduation ceremony. We were all asked to prepare a story, poem or song in Spanish about how this experience at the school has affected us. This was a bit of a challenge, and some of us were a little bit nervous, but we all did it! You are now talking to Proyecto Lingüístico Quetzalteco graduates! YAY!!
Our Top 3 Highlights of the Week:
👨👩👧👦 Getting to now our homestay families! It has been such a blast to get to now them on personal levels and practice our Spanish with them!
🗣️ Getting to increase our Spanish skills at the school with new teachers.
🌆 Having our own independence to explore the city and having some of our own space with our own room in the houses.
What’s been challenging this week?
Our group has been challenged by the blockades in the city/ all around the country. We tried to get to our next location at Atitlián Organics on Lake Atitlán, but were unsuccessful due to a blockade about 15 minutes out of the city. The blockades have also been affected the amount of produce and meat getting into the city. Therefore, some of our meals have been vegetarian!
How’s the group doing?
Being in home stays has definitely been a little bit challenging for group dynamic because we have all been split up. We have been able to see each other at school, but during that time we are in one -on -one classes with our teachers. It’s been great to have the independence, but it is also a big change when you go from sharing a room with 4 other people and seeing them everyday for most hours of the day for the past 3 weeks to only seeing them once a day for a shorter period of time. Nevertheless, we were able to have a group meeting and learned a lot from this week of more independence.
One final thing …
This week has been a lot of fun, and we are so excited to (hopefully) get to Lake Atitlán soon!
To our home stay families – THANK YOU SO MUCH! Thank you for letting us stay with you, cooking us meals, and helping us with our Spanish! You have given us an experience we will all always remember.
To our families – we are safe! I know it can sound a little scary to not be able to get through to our next destination, but we are in a safe place and the blockades/protests we’ve encountered have been peaceful. It is quite powerful to be able to experience and watch people fight for what they believe in / democracy! ❤️
