On February 20Th, 2010, Jeremiah and I have decided to take off to Central America. We have always been interested in the Spanish language and culture and are looking forward to getting to experience it first hand. Since currently the job market isn't great in Alberta for registered nurses, instead of dwelling on it (though it is stressful) we thought this would be a good opportunity to make this trip as I am not tied to a position, we don't have kids, Jeremiah hasn't begun future studies yet, and we live with my in-laws, who have graciously made it possible for us to go as we can be rent free during our time away, making finances much less burdensome.
Our trip will consist of flying into Guatemala City late on February 20Th. We will then be spending 3-4 weeks in Quetzaltenango or Xela (pronounced Shay-La) studying Spanish at a school called Proyecto Linguistico Quetzalteco. We will study about 5 hours a day with a one-one tutor. The afternoons are spent participating in local activities and there may be some volunteer projects as well to take part in. There are often scheduled activities on the weekends, so we may get to do a bit of tourism in the area as well. We will be doing a home stay the first week and if it goes well will continue to do a home stay for the rest of our study time, as that way we can really fully immerse ourselves in the language and hopefully learn more. If the home stay isn't satisfactory, you can get placed in a new home, or there is a nice hostel across the street.The school has a service where you can have a guide direct you by bus and taxi from Guatemala city to Xela as it is about 4-5 hours away from where we will fly in. The school has recommended some places to stay near the airport that have pick up service as well, so we are deciding on where to stay the first night we arrive in Guatemala. The guide will then meet us the next morning (Sunday) and take us to Xela. We will start orientation and school on the Monday. Here are a couple websites to check out if you are more interested in where we will be going.
http://www.hermandad.com/
http://www.guatemala365.com/index.php?link_school=plqe
Following our time in Guatemala, we are very excited as we will go to see Uncle Brian Rude in El Salvador. We will go there after our study time, so either 3-4 weeks into our trip. With Brian, we will take part in his ministry and are very excited to see his work with the people of El Salvador. There will be commemoration events for Archbishop Oscar Romero going on when we will be there, so we hope to take some of that in. We will also be there for Holy Week and look forward to taking that in, and worshiping in various ways during those celebrations. Perhaps Brian will give us a bit of some touristy excursions as well!
In preparation we are trying to learn as much Spanish as we can to get the most out of the experience. Jeremiah is very dedicated to learning and loves language so he has done very well in his preparation. I like the idea of knowing Spanish, but find myself not as motivated at times, so I have been benefiting from Jeremiah's sometimes forced languages learning sessions at our chalkboard conjugating verbs, or through the ipod vocabulary memorization program.
We ask for your prayers as we embark on this journey. We have never travelled outside of Canada/USA so this will definitely be a new experience for us both. We feel blessed to have the opportunity and are thankful for all your support!
We should have some Internet access, so please do check the blog from time to time as we hope to put some updates on here!
God Bless
