three weeks in: week two.

t has been quite QUITE a trip so far. I guess, as of today, I have been in xela for 2 weeks...and i'm not sure if it feels like more or less. the first few days, i was here with cari and brian, and after about 4 days, eric headed down here. cari y brian, then, took off about a week ago, so it's been eric and me this week. julie will join us tomorrow, and we are going to go hiking to the highest point in central america (and i will die a painful death...) and then head over to the eastern side of guatemala and up into belize for about a week before i return to xela for two more weeks.

xela is REALLY beautiful. it took me awhile to warm up to it entirely, but as we've hung around, it's really a town that has all kinds of nooks and cranies - plus a majority (yes) indigenous population - 90% or so in this area. it's surrounded on all sides by mountains and volcanos, so there are all kinds of neat things - hot springs, lakes, etc... - around to do and see of varying levels of touristyness.

the school, too, is awesome. most people stick around for 1-6 weeks, so, at this point, we know some of the folks here pretty well. they´re from all over the place, and we´ve encountered some pretty interesting folks. there´s a group here from a lutheran seminary..one of whom tore a tendon playing soccer and has been on bedrest, oy... and a mormon couple; 2 eighteen year olds from holland who are hells awesome and love to sing, a guy who spends most of his time guiding tours in alaska, and - most interestingly - a russian jewish immigrant who lives in philly, but who would like (for spiritual reasons) to move to israel... we got into it last night, which was NOT pretty (although i kept my cool very well, and we´re still speaking, so...). anyway, it´s a hodge podge of folks - those, among others, who have become our posse these weeks.

days are basically like this: i´m with a host family, who is AMAZING and you would love. so, we eat breakfast together (and i´m staying with another student, too, named sarah), then head to school about 8. from 8-1, we have one-on-one class with a maestro or maestra, where we go over vocab and grammar, but also discuss all kinds of political, cultural and social things. it´s been really interesting, learning about the war here which sparked the mass migration during sanctuary - the stories are horrifying. we talked a lot about some of the methods of torture both parties used on the people around - cutting open pregnant women and strangling the fetus with its umbilical cord while the mom bled to death, etc... Awful, awful

the day before yesterday, a new president was instated, so folks have been very forthcoming about their opinions on the matter. it has been pretty intense. anyway, it has just been such an amazing opportunity. i feel that, in the past two weeks, i´ve encountered about a semester´s worth of spanish. i can´t really use a lot of it yet when talking - i have learned five tenses this week, for example, and they´re still confusing - but my comprehension has sky rocketed. i can read the paper, for example, and only need to look up 10 or so words in a given article. so, i must say that it´s been a fantastic experience, so far, and i look forward to having another two weeks to continue this process.

afternoons and weekends, we have opportunities to volunteer and go to culturally significant places, etc... last week, we visited and painted a women´s prison, for example, so we learned how the penal system is different from ours (guilty until proven innocent, here. the prison we were at is basically just a holding cell for people awaiting trial...). over the weekend, we did some touristy stuff - traveled over to a lake which is surrounded by volcanos, did some swimming and such, which was really fun and helped us get to know folks around here. we then headed to chichicastenango which is a VERY obnoxiously touristy market town...oy. but, this week has been fantastic. monday, we went to a finca, or coffee plantation, where we saw basically the whole pre-roasting process. it wasn´t a cooperative, and it was pretty destitute. the owner of our school, enrique (who eric likes to call eric...), does all the narration on all our tours, and he called the coffee business "an open vein of guatemala." pretty poignant. but, he said the situation on the cooperatives is much MUCH better, so keep up the fair tradeing!

yesterday, we planted trees at a reforestation project, which was also very, very fun; today, we heard from an ex-military combatant. his story was horrifying - he joined the resistance movement when he was 12, after the military killed nearly his entire family. He lived on top of Tajumulco (the highest mountain in Central America) for four years, or so, working as the popular voice of the resistance on the radio show. he saw, did, experienced some pretty horrible things over the years, and has some interesting insights on the civil war, the current economic and political situation in guate, etc... one of the best insights he brought up was that these horrors and this warring is not a Guatemalan issue - it´s a human issue. and we need to learn to quit these things. needless to say, it´s been very informative, and a great experience.

We also celebrated Eric´s birthday with a bunch of folks from here, along with some Whitworthians who are studying in town with the Central American Study Tour. We had a nice evening of Indian food and beer. Anyway, we´re having a fantastic, informative time around these parts. Wish you all were here to enjoy it with us.