Semester Abroad: Guatemala, Part 3 – Santiago Atitlan

After about 8 weeks of study in the city (and many fun weekend excursions), it was time to start the second half of my semester: a service assignment. I was sent to Santiago Atitlan with the plan to teach English for about 7 weeks.

Santiago Atitlan is one of several Mayan villages scattered around the amazingly beautiful Lake Atitlan.

This is a view of the village (sandwiched between the mountains) as seen from across the lake:



A closer-up view of Santiago Atitlan:



And here is a view from my bedroom window:



This view is from the back of the village, on the road down from the cemetery:



I lived with a family while there; the mom and one of the sisters helped me learn how to do back-strap weaving. In the end I didn’t spend much time doing it (which I regret now), but I did manage to finish one table runner. Maybe one day I’ll go back and make something else! I did learn how to wash my clothes the Guatemalan way, however, which was actually somewhat fun!

I was also there during the highly anticipated election day and watched the results on TV that night with my host family. Another event I got to witness and participate a bit with was the Day of the Dead. The cemetery was full of people decorating tombs and paying their respects... and also, naturally, there were ice cream vendors roaming the grounds to keep everyone happily fed...

One of my friends from the program was able to come down around the mid-point to visit. We spent some time wandering around a couple different villages, and went kayaking out on the lake:

Anyways, I mentioned above that I was meant to be teaching English… due to some different reasons (including scheduling conflicts and myself getting ill a couple times) I only ended up teaching the kiddos I was meant to teach a few hours. Mostly we played bingo. I really had no idea what I was doing! I bet I could do a much better job now (after teaching here in Korea for nearly 3 years)! So, basically, I was just there enjoying a vacation in the most beautiful place I’ve yet to see in this wonderful world of ours! To be honest, most of my time in Santiago was spent either sitting down by the lake, drinking cola and reading, or taking the boat across to Panajachel.

While drinking cola down by the lake, I met an artist who had a shop down by the lake; I ended up giving him a couple English lessons and then I gave several to one of his daughters. The two of them took me kayaking on my last night in Santiago and he even painted me a picture to take home with me!

My host family usually spoke their native language, Tz’utujil, which made it difficult for someone like to me to practice my Spanish. Apparently I did it enough, however, as my host family back in the city was impressed when I went to visit them at the end of my time in Santiago! All in all, it was a pretty nice adventure and experience for me – but I definitely could have gotten a lot more out of it if I had been more motivated! Hopefully I learned from my experience, and I definitely enjoyed all of my time spent in Guatemala. I've been wanting to return ever since I left! One day, God-willing, I will, and I plan to see more, do more, and learn more that time around!