After coming back from San Pedro and Lake Atitlan, my final week (week #3) at Pop Wuj Spanish School in Xela went by incredibly quickly. On Wednesday we went back to finish the stove. This time we have 3 guys and 3 girls volunteering. I can understand how the teacher says the actual building of stove probably only takes him a few hours, but since every time the volunteers are brand new, and he has to explain and teach the volunteers, so it ends up taking a lot more time, but oh well, the volunteers all come out of it feeling great as we have actually helped built something. That day because we had more bodies, the tougher jobs were taken by the boys, which includes climbing up to the metal roof and securing the sheet metal chimney. I helped with delivering cement to the boys, and also finishing the cement around the SS pre-fabricated stove top. I felt pretty good when we tested burning some newspaper in the stove cavity and see smoke coming out of the chimney. The family actually needs to wait for 40 days for the clay mortar to cure before using the stove or else it will fall apart. On Thursday I had agreed to do a couple hours of lesson in the afternoon so we have Friday off, as the entire place is quite ready for the Holy Week in the coming week. School kids have the whole next week off, and businesses have next Thur/Fri off. Since it’s the last day of class, my teacher took me to lunch. We actually rode in his motorcycle for 20-25 min to this European looking restaurant/hotel outside of town nested by a small hillside among some typical shacks and farmlands that don’t seem fertile at all - typical rural scenery. I was surprised it was open as the place seems quite deserted, but a lady came and took our order. The owner was from Austrian and he came to study Spanish and decided to stay and build this place. It’s quite nice but still pretty primitive. The food was quite good though. I had stuffed chicken with mashed potatoes and vegetables. Mmm! I ended up paying for lunch since I don’t feel right as the whole lunch might cost him 2 days of salary? Who knows. It wasn’t that expensive (US$25 total for both of us) but it is expensive for Xela’s standards. If I haven’t mentioned before Thursday nights there is always dinner at the school, cooked by students/teachers who volunteer. That night’s menu was grilled hamburgers. It’s not as involved as what some other people made the previous dinners but it was still good. Before dinner I was preparing my little speech in Spanish since the school gives out the diplomas for students who are finishing in that particular week. Apparently I was the only one leaving this week. My teacher said something in Spanish which I don’t entirely understand, but it’s basically thanking me for taking part in the various activities and completing the 3 weeks here. I did my speech and it was quite embarrassing but Mynor my teacher gave me a big hug. He‘s been a great teacher and I‘ll miss my short period of time there studying with him. After dinner we played a little bit more ping pong. I’ve been playing ping pong quite a bit with the teachers. They don’t have very nice paddles (all just wood and missing the rubber top part) but they are all very good at it. I learned a new word “Chula” which means “nice!” as Mynor kept saying “Chula!” whenever either of us (I was on his team) had a good hit. It was a lot of fun. Friday was uneventful except that I was sick! This is the only time on the whole trip that I feel miserable and miss home. I had a fever or something and I just felt week and sore. I ended up sleeping in the afternoon. I still went out to buy a bottle of wine from the supermarket for my host family as parting gift, and after dinner I felt a lot better so I went out to Central Park to meet up some of the people from school to say goodbye. Most of them I don’t know that well so it wasn’t that sad except for Melissa. I like her a lot and she’s been great company. Jen is going to Antigua with me the next day so we’ll save that goodbye for later. The next morning after breakfast I had to say goodbye to my host family. I had tears in my eyes when I gave Lety the mom a hug. With my limited Spanish, I just said thanks and take care (con cuidado) and they told me to have a good trip. It is a bit emotional even though it’s been only 3 weeks. I guess I just don’t like farewells. I have had a good 3 weeks here in Xela, and I am a little nervous about my next stop in El Peten. I will enjoy Antigua first though for the next 2 days.
