Flores

July 11th - 16th

On Monday, Hannah y yo started clases de Espanol a la Escuela de Dos Mundos. Manuel, mi maestro, is a very nice university student that speaks less English than I do Spanish. Although this goes right along with the whole immersion thing, when I actually need an explanation about something, I get a quizzical smile. Todo bien. I just feel that at some point an explanation regarding when to use imperfecto vs preterito would be extremely helpful...mainly so people I am speaking with no longer shake their heads in disappointment. We study one-on-one for 4 hours in the morning and spend the rest of the day trying to understand what we did during that time. He is very fascinated with the fact that Hannah and I are nurses and will randomly ask questions regarding blood or death while I am trying to conjugate verbs. It  keeps me on my toes for sure...and I now have a greater knowledge for infrequently used verbs like "to lose consciousness," "to drown," "to bleed out," and "to die." At the very least, I can use it to impress in day-to-day conversation... like, "Enjoy your swim in the lake, also do not drown!" Estoy aprendiendo.

Monday marked another milestone for us as well - our first ride in a tuk-tuk!! These little rickshaw, three-wheeled little beauties of transportation are incredibly practical and cheap...two of my favorite words. They have some version in almost every country, I believe... it would be like a motorized version  of the pedi-cabs that circle around NYC. So fun! We rode to the "Maxi Bodega," the Guatemalan version of Target or some all-encompassing store... except, if you didn't catch this already, Guatemalan. All I know is that, in sticking with our amazing diet, we bought the tie-died marshmallows that we grew so fond of in Pacaya.



During our afternoon study time, we get to enjoy the cacophony of musical sadness that occurs between 3-6pm from the students in the school next door - beginners attempting to play their respective instruments, be it the clarinet, flute, saxophone, violin or recorder.  Yes, that's right, I said recorder. It kinda sounds as though cats of all ages are being thrown from the roof. So if any of you have ever wanted to torture someone, just let me know and I will make you a recording. The rest of the day is spent studying, exploring, writing, or attempting to conversate with our Señora over a meal. Typical meals thus far: Corn Flakes y pan con jugo naranja, sopa con papas y zanahorias, y frijoles con queso y platanos. Nom nom.

On Tuesday, Manuel brought his "Learning English" textbook in so we could go through it and see if there was anything I didn't know how to say in Spanish.  It looked like a pre-schooler's book, with pictures of planes and cars with their name underneath, a picture of Denzel Washington with "actor" underneath, and pictures of various articles of clothing with their respective title. Here I am, making all this progress and then I realized this must be exactly like my book looks like to him...saaaad. For dinner, we had empanadas de "sixinche" or "orejas de arboles," crazy mushrooms that look like ears that when cooked well taste exactly like meat!  Although they tasted amazing, I did write in my journal "if this is my last entry, it was the mushrooms!...just in case.

The themes I keep landing on for discussion topics aren't really appropriate for my knowledge level of the Spanish language. Somehow, I usually end up discussing religion, politics, and spiritual history. Umm....que? Those are things I try to steer clear of in English conversations, much less Spanish. Yeesh! I figured since I always wandered into these types of conversations, I should read up. Talk about depressing...I basically learned that Guatemala has yet to see a President that isn't corrupt, doesn't launder/steal money, doesn't oppress the citizens or make major private money-making deals at the expense of the general public. From my reading and from talking with Senora y Manuel, it sounds as though huge political platform points we see in the US do not really exist here - no one has addressed the huge financial gap in classes, lack of education opportunities for the lower classes, minimal health care, and other very basic human rights.  The Guatemalans we've met so far are resilient people...it would be insanely difficult to remain positive in light of the seemingly hopeless situation they have had for hundreds of years.  Yet, they are strong, proud, and hopeful people amongst it all.

Thursday brought us new friends... Alvaro, a Salvadorian who lived in California for some time and has now relocated to Flores, is a very nice gentleman whose concrete understanding of both languages has cleared up some of the many questions we have about Spanish grammar.  Although nuestros maestros have been instrumental in our learning the basics, their explanations of certain things (in Spanish) really don't clear things up for us. Rather, we are more inclined to say "nevermind" and move on (if possible). Alvaro has helped us to understand concrete basics like how to ask someone respectfully to repeat something said more slowly...crucial! We also had the distinct honor of visiting an orphanage of young girls (ages 3-16 I would guess) in nearby San Benito. We were immediately embraced with hugs and kisses from most of the girls and quickly organized a game of futbol. It resembled more of the kindergarden "pack ball" game, where there is only a clump of people running around together and you cannot actually ever see a ball. Yep, that was it. So much fun! After enough of the girls had dispersed to exercise other forms of entertainment, I wandered upon a small group of five that had broken off to practice their self-choreographed dances to various pop songs. If they had "Entonces, Piensa Que Se Puede Bailar," one of those girls would be on there in a few years for sure! Also, did we all have the short attention span and never-ending energy combination when we were younger?

Friday brought one of the best days thus far! Sadly, I learned that I had been calling mi maestro the wrong name the entire week!! It is Daniel, not Manuel! Ahhh, how rude and embarrasing! Luckily, I found out in time before I him wrote a thank you letter and put my mistake in writing. My first letter in Spanish! Super exciting!!  My last day of class was with Wendy, a hip and chic 19-year old with whom I was able to hold a conversation. We shared various stories and spoke in depth about various types of music. At the end of one week of classes, I can truly say my Spanish has improved greatly; though, now Hannah and I feel we need a week to practice all the tenses we have learned in daily conversations before we cram any more information into our brains.





After class on Friday, we took a lancha, a small, wooden, motorized boat to La Playita, an area or clearer waters and thatched-roof huts on the lake that surrounds Flores. Our lancha driver, Victor, I have officially claimed as our Guatemalan abuelito. He is so kind, gentile, and a great historian of Flores and surrounding areas. He told us stories about the Mayan origins of many natural elements, of life in Santa Benito, and of his own life. He waited in the lancha while Hannah and I studies Spanish on the docks and later swan to ensure we were safe and had a ride back. When were in the water, you could make a 360-degree turn and physically see five different skies. It was storming across from us, cirrus clouds to the right, cumulonimbus clouds to the left, and cumulus clouds floated by above us. How relaxing!  When returned to Flores, we walked into a block-party type fiesta where families were meandering through an aisle of neighbors selling various traditional foods and postres (pastel as they are referred to in Guatemala) to the beat of classic Latino canziones. The best part was that Hannah and I were actually able to recognize most dishes in both their Mayan and Latino names, thanks to our Señora's amazing cooking!! A small victory but one nonetheless!  After dinner, we invited our Señora to come to the fiesta...initially, we thought we made a mistake inviting her because she had her fingers in her ears due to the loud music and was giving the evil eye to all who passed in motorized vehicles. Within seconds of finding a place to sit near the water and away from the speakers, she was having a blast people-watching, educating us about traditions, and greeting fellow neighbors who seemed surprised she was out! Classic! 



After a "best out of 10" game of rock, paper, scissors (or piedra, papel, tijeras rather), we decided to walk around a bit before retiring for the night. Today is Saturday, and on the agenda is a huge list of nothing! Errands and bookings will get done for sure, but beyond that, we will walk around and practice Spanish with friends of old and new. 

Miss everyone and hope all is well! You are thought of every day and it brings a smile to my face :)