Semester Abroad: Guatemala, Part 1 – Guatemala City

Not long after I returned from my semester in Barcelona, I once again found myself looking for a way to leave the country. The solution? Another semester abroad! This time I headed for Guatemala to do a Study/Service program through CASAS. This semester proved to be much better than my time in Spain. There were only 8 of us in the program and we got along well. In fact, the first night I met someone who had graduated from my college – and had actually grown up in a town next to mine in Illinois! Her mom works with my brother-in-law’s mom, and we went to the same dentist! Small world, eh? We were all from different states, and one was even from Vancouver. We also had quite a range in terms of age – from 18-29. But, as I said, we got along well and had some fun during our time in Guatemala.

The first 8 weeks was the “study” portion of the semester. I studied at Semilla, a Mennonite seminary located in Guatemala City. I tested as “advanced” and got to have my own teacher one-on-one for 4 hours every day. This is me with my wonderful teacher, Violeta:



I studied mostly the Spanish language, but also a bit of anthropology and religion. It was in Guatemala where I finally learned how to read in Spanish. By the end of my 15 weeks there I’d read a few books in Spanish, including the first few of the Harry Potter books (I’ve now read them all in Spanish, along with a few other books). My speaking also improved a lot, especially with those with whom I was comfortable. According to one of the girls in the program, I speak fast in Spanish, just like in English ^^

Here are a few photos from my time studying at Semilla; the first was taken during one of our daily coffee breaks, and the second is a photo of some of us crossing the street from the bus over to the school:




While there, we celebrated Lori's 30th birthday:



On the final day of the study portion, all of the CASAS students, teachers, and staff posed for a couple final shots:

Besides taking class every morning, we also went on a lot of “field trips” to areas within the city and a few of us took some other classes, too (those of us who were there to earn credit for college; a few were there merely to improve their Spanish). Those classes required attending lectures and writing a few papers (I turned my final paper in about 8 months after returning to the States!!).

The National Palace and central plaza:

The "gorge", where a lot of squatters reside:

Salsa lessons:

On a croweded bus:

Mana in concert:

While studying in Guate, I lived with a host family in Zone 6. They were very kind, but unfortunately I didn’t get to know them very well. I was gone almost every weekend, either as a scheduled trip with the program, or on my own with some others from the group. But they were a fantastic family, and I did visit them after I finished my service portion of the semester (more on that later). They also had 3 terrier dogs, whom I loved (especially the puppy)!

Here I am outside my home in Zone 6:

I'm going to post a separate blog to highlight some of the places we visited outside of Guate. But before I end this one, a few more things about Guatemala: There are something like 23 national languages, the majority being Mayan dialects. Guatemala has had a sad history, including the Civil War which ended in 1996; I saw many of the affects of this war while living there. In spite of a hard past, it is a beautiful culture, with amazingly lovely people. It remains one of my favorite places on this Earth, and the number one place where I want to return. In fact I already have it in my head that I will return there sometime in the next 5 years to either study Spanish or serve in some way.

Here is a map of the languages of Guatemala: