They drove me to their house in Antigua, showed me to my room and promptly went to watch one of the little boys play soccer. It gave me a chance to situate myself without feeling like I was neglecting them. The family is all very nice. There’s Rony and Teresa, my host parents; Amilcar (9), María Teresa (8)and Andrés (6), their kids; and Dalila (13), their niece. As you can see, there are a lot of people named “Teresa” in the house this week; fortunately the others go by Tere and María. There’s also one other student in the house, Pamela, a librarian from Rhode Island.

The kids must be used to having students in the house because they are very outgoing and love to show us their homework or old family photographs. Amilcar is quieter than the others but if you get him talking about fútbol, he won’t stop. He was very excited when Barcelona beat Arsenal the other day. And of course, they are all excited for the World Cup even though the Guatemala team didn’t qualify.

Rony and Tere both work at the school I attend, PROBIGUA (Proyecto Bibliotecas Guatemala: http://www.probigua.org/?lang=en). I have class in the morning from 8 until 12. “Class” actually means one-on-one tutoring with a native speaker.  Right now, there are about 10 students being tutored, mostly from the US. Later in the summer, enrollment increases drastically as more people are on vacation.  In the afternoon or evening, the school often holds an activity for the students. Today they are giving salsa lessons in the afternoon and tomorrow we’re going to a macadamia nut farm.

At this point I still have access to internet everyday, so I’ll try to get updates posted more frequently.

Take care.
Theresa

go to May 22