Spanish course in Guatemala

The four weeks language course in Guatemala has been part of the Travelworks project where we were supposed to stay in a Guatemalan host family. The A.P.P.E. Language Academy (Academia de Profesores Privados de Espanol Guatemala) is known to be one of the best if not the best language academy in Antigua, the former capital of Guatemala so we could benefit from a very intense private lessons. The morning lessons were completed by afternoon excursions to different sites around Antigua and the school organised also weekend trips to Tikal, the ancient Mayan civilization, Lago Atitlan, etc.

Antigua and also Guatemala City, the present capital of Guatemala is surrounded by a lot of still active volcanos and therefore concerned with loads of earthquakes, two of them we could experience. We visited one of the active ones, volcàn Pacaya where we could go very close to the lava stream. It is also impressive to see how the ancient Mayan culture is still present, especially in the small 'pueblos' of the Lago Atitlan. No wonder why you cannot find sleep in the night when the people of the village are celebrating mother's day or Santa Semana with their nightly processions..  Very strange experience also was a ritual of a Xaman who was going to heal an old sick man. The Guatemalans live their ancient Mayan rituals especially at Easter time ('Santa Semana') and also the Mother's Day. Some religious rituals include strange habits, eg. on Halloween, they have lunch (or dinner) on the cemetery, that means they eat together with their deceased relatives. Also the indigenous people which are the poorest people in Guatemala sell their handmade clothes and accessories sometimes in a quite offensive way. It can happen that they follow you all the time with their goods for sale.

I enjoyed also the time I spent with my host family, really nice people. As it was the first experience like that so I was not used to live in a family where I don't really belong to. But they made any effort to welcome me and the other students. They live a very simple live but I have the impression they enjoy it sometimes more than people at home or in general people used to the benefits of a developed and sophisticated country.