I am back in Xela after 2 weeks at La Escuela de la Montaña, which is in a small village in the mountains, with many trees and plants everywhere. It was a welcome change from Xela, where I found that I was out of breath a lot. Not only was I breathing in so much exhaust from the cars and buses as I walked through the streets, on the tiny sidewalks, but the city is at about 8000ft, which I am not accustomed to.  Although it is called the Mountain School, I believe we were at a lower altitude, and I found it much easier to breathe.

At both schools, we had host families. In Xela, I stayed at their house, with my own room. I lived with 4 wonderful women (3 sisters and their mother). They also had 2 dogs and 1 chicken, who slept in a cardboard box in the house at night, roaming the yard during the day.  She laid her first egg while I was there!

I loved my host family. One sister worked part-time in a lawyer's office. Another sister worked remotely for a television station in Antigua, and the other sister attended University. They all also helped their mother tend the store that was connected to their house. The bell was always ringing when there was a customer, and they took turns going to help them.  I got into the rhythm of joining them, with my knitting, every evening to watch their telenovela (soap opera) before dinner.  It is a good way to learn a language -- watching soap operas.

The mother, and sometimes the sisters, made the best meals. The most typical food was eggs, refried black beans, plantains, and of course, tortillas -- always tortillas -- but it seemed that every meal was different, and delicious.  When I was sick with the flu for a couple of days, she made me chicken noodle soup.  One morning, she made pancakes. And one of the best treats was arroz con leche - rice with milk and sugar, for drinking.

At the Mountain School, we didn't sleep at our host family's house, just ate our meals there. The people in this village were extremely poor. They cooked our meals over fire on stoves made of cement blocks and metal. Many of the men would wake up at 4am to sometimes travel very far to go to the coffee farms to work, and it wasn't always sure that they would have work.  Some families had much nicer houses because one of the family members was in the United States sending back money.

To get to the United States legally from Guatemala, you need to have $125 US dollars just to make an appointment at the embassy to ask for a visa, and they will most likely say no, unless you know someone with influence, or have even more money.  So it is basically impossible for almost all of the families in this village because $125 is a TON of money for them.

Of course, most of my time this past month has been spent studying Spanish - in class 5 hours/day, 5 days/week, one-on-one with a different teacher each week. Then I had a lot of homework as well. Before I arrived at PLQ, I was a bit overwhelmed by the idea of so much time in class, but I was happy to find that the time really flew by.  All of my teachers were great at balancing teaching new grammar, practicing with exercises and worksheets, and conversation.  I spent a lot of time in classes talking  with my teachers about visions of the future, possibilities, politics, education, plant medicine, and so much more.

The last day of my second week in the city, my teacher and I really bonded when in the middle of a grammar lesson, the table started to shake. We were actually up on the second floor of a wooden building, a bit outside of where everyone was studying. The whole room began to shake quite a bit. Un temblor! They didn't call it an earthquake, more of a tremor, but it lasted at least 30 seconds, maybe longer.  Everyone was safe, but it was definitely a little scary, even for my teacher, who is used to them, with so many volcanoes and a fault line in this part of Guatemala. This was my first earthquake experience ever.  Apparently, it was a 6.5 at the epicenter, just over the border in Chiapas, Mexico. We were far away from there, so it wasn't as strong for us.

In Xela, I went on many field trips my first week. One of them was a hike to the viewpoint of a volcano, where the last picture of me was taken in my last post.  Our guide led us up this steep dusty trail so fast at 7am on Saturday. I love hiking, but I like to go slow, stopping every few minutes to look at plants or birds, so this hike was very hard for me, especially at 8000ft.  But we had to get to the viewpoint quickly to see the smoking crater before the clouds rolled in, which they did only 15 minutes after we arrived.  While our guide was telling us stories of his time fighting in the war, in those very mountains where we sat, we heard a rumbling sound, which, if you weren't paying attention, might have sounded like an airplane. But there were never airplanes flying overhead, and it was the volcano.  Then we saw thick smoke rising from the crater above the clouds. This place is very alive.

My second week in the city, I skipped a lot of the field trips so I could learn how to weave with a backstrap loom at a place called Trama Textiles.  This is a women's weaving cooperative where women from all over the surrounding villages, which are quite poor and still living with the effects of 30 years of civil war and a corrupt government, can bring their creations and get paid a price that they think is fair.  The women who run the organization, who are also Mayan women, have a store where they sell these beautiful clothes, bags, and other fabrics.  They also offer classes about weaving and embroidery.  So I spent 11 hours, over the course of a few days, on one project.  I have been trying to support these women's cooperatives when I can. There are so many little stores where you can buy these beautiful items, but I am often skeptical about who is profiting off of these sales.  So with the cooperatives, I have more confidence that I am paying a fair price, and that it actually goes to the people who did the work.

There are so many more stories to tell, but there is only so much I can write on my phone.  I am sad to be done studying Spanish.  I learned so much! But I've been feeling like there is a wall in my brain between everything I know and my ability to speak the language. I am hoping that my next 6 weeks in Mexico will give me the opportunity to practice more and break down this wall. I leave for Chiapas tomorrow morning. I am excited for the next leg of my journey, but sad to be leaving this beautiful country where the people are so nice.

If you have any interest in learning Spanish, I highly highly recommend PLQ and La Escuela de la Montaña. Not only do you get so much out of it, but your tuition truly goes toward supporting the local communities here and their projects.