Coma lapa/Com a la pa/Co mala pa.....hmmm

OK so I now have my placement.  Things are really sinking in now.  No more vague cloudiness, I now have a little bit to work with in my imagination.

I'll be living in a town 2 hours outside of Guatemala City, 1 hour outside of Antigua called "Comalapa."  Right now it is a name that I am still not totally certain on how to pronounce, in just over a month, it will be home.  It is a Maya Kakchiquel town of about 30,000 people located in the department of Chimaltenango.  Again, this means very little to me now, but will soon mean a great deal.  The people of the town mostly earn a living through agriculture  (corn, beans, veggies, etc.)  And the climate is moderate.  That means cooling down to 40's and 50's at night and warming up to the 60's and 70's during the day.  So basically like Spring year round.  Doesn't sound too bad to me!

I also know I will be working in a fairly new, small school started by some community members to educate new leaders in their town.  They use Mayan culture in their education practices and teach trilingually including their traditional Maya language of Kakchiquel, as well as Spanish and English.  That's where I come in.  I will be teaching English and working with teachers with their English teaching.  I am so pumped to learn that this school uses Mayan culture in their school.  After reading "I, Rigoberta Menchu," I was under the assumption that schools in Guatemala were Spanish run and stripped Maya of their culture.  Maybe this particular school is different.  

...and once I get a little more comfortable in my Spanish, I may be doing some translating for groups who come for short term volunteer stays in Guatemala as well!  

Let me just say that I am so excited to hear about my position!  Not only will I be having an amazing experience for a year, I'll be moving forward in my career goals at the same time!  I guess my first year teaching experience is coming sooner than I had thought.  (I studied at NYU Childhood/Special Education) My western mind can't help but think "shoot two birds with one stone," but I'm sure I'm about to be schooled in that fast-pace, no time to waste mindset.  Though it does ease my nerves a bit to know I will be doing something I know a little about.  I was worried I'd be placed in a field that was totally new to me, trying to help out as much as possible will struggling to learn exactly what I was doing and making sense of it all.  However, now there might be more expectation for me.  I've heard the first year as a teacher is a tough one!  Throw in a new language, culture, and environment and let's see how that all stirs together.  It may be a rocky stew.  

Now I must start planning just exactly what my method will be to teach English.  Wow am I unprepared.  Thanks to Sr. Knowles, I have some ideas and activities in mind to teach a language.  He was my high school Spanish teacher and I owe all I know about the language to him.  He has helped me more than he even knows.  Other than that, its to the drawing boards!  If you have any suggestions at all, please let me know!  Wow, is that sweat dripping down my face?....yikes!

On another note, I've reading a bit about food and gardening with its connection to culture, lifestyle, health, AND the oil crisis, pollution, and global warming.  It is so interesting how interconnected the world really is.  It is a tangled web we weave.  Untangling it, however, may not always be as complicated as we think.  Anyway, I am planning to use some free time in Guatemala to learn more about gardening and living a more patient lifestyle  (eating only what's in season).  I am looking forward to eating foods that haven't been injected with metal and dusted with poison, as well as becoming more in touch with nature.  Who knows, perhaps there is still a country girl in me somewhere....(actually there is more than a little, get me out of this concrete, can't afford fresh food,  pigeon poop infested, go go go faster faster faster city!)  But more about my departure from this love/ hate New York relationship later...