Mi vida entera está en el subjuntivo

Wow, an entire week has passed since I posted, and it is probably due mostly to the fact that I recently discovered that phone calls are free from Guatemala on gmail.  Es loco!  I can call the States from any computer with a mic —which is not that easy to find, believe it or not—so now when I am at the internet cafe I use up most of my time dialing mi familia y mis amigos.  Of course, I am not there that often because now I have to pay to use the facilities.  When I was a student at Celas Maya I received 5 free hours a week which I used up primarily to upload pictures to this blog.  My new school has the equivalent of Wangs and if I am lucky enough to get online, it is usually time to go back to class.

So where do I begin? I have been at Pop Wuj for a week now and it isn’t that much different than Celas Maya, except that they use part of the proceeds from tuition to fund a medical clinic and contribute to the safe stove project.  The classes are structured pretty much the same way, 8 until 1, with a 1/2 hour break at 10:30.  Sometimes a school bell will ring, but not with any consistency like at CM.  I am probably learning just as much as I did at CM, although this teacher lets me speak more, in conversation a veces but since the poor guy probably wants to choke himself every time I pause and say “ummmm” and then spit out some mangled version of a sentence construction, he mostly makes me read articles in Prensa Libre and El Quetzalteco out loud to him.  I honestly think he is multitasking. He gets his students to read to him instead of reading the paper himself,  and he can work on their pronunciation at the same time.  I actually can’t believe I am paying someone to listen to me read the newspaper out loud.  I can do that on a corner in Inwood, and maybe even make a few bucks. The entire exercise makes me long for Pat Kiernan, maybe I can get a job at NY1 en español.  It does help with my pronunciation which is pretty damned good, close to excellent if I must say so myself, but I was always good at this part of foreign language learning, even French. My voz alta is envied by many an estudiante and it gives the impression that I am more fluent than I actually am. I also read out loud faster and more naturally and sometimes even understand what I am reading while I am reading it.  So what if I can’t actually express myself, that’s probably a blessing in disguise.

All kidding aside, Oscar has definitely helped me improve speaking. In addition to reading the paper—four days of the Chilean miners and their amantes was more than enough for me—we do reading comprehension exercises where I read a story about Mayan history or traditions, out loud, of course, then I reread it slowly in my head while Oscar runs errands, texts or stares out the window at the traffic, when I am done I tell him what the story is about in mis propias palabras and then he gives me a few paragraphs to translate in written Spanish.  I absolutely love that part, and all three of my teachers say my translations are very good.  I don’t really know what to make of that assessment given that their grasp of English is questionable, but at least I am writing something correctly and cohesively. Oscar also chooses topics for us to discuss, and we ask each other questions in the tense of the day. This is usually a pretty productive exercise for learning how to use different parts of speech and expression.  Although he does also seem to be a big fan of the lecture instead of actual conversation. My male teachers are just not that interested in hearing about life outside Guatemala. Lo siento, but if I have to endure one more conversation about the freakin’ military, maestro, you are going to have to listen to how I make soup out of chicken bones.

Still working away on the calendar and updating another flyer in multiple languages.  So far it has been translated into French, Italian, Catalan and English (the English by me)!  I really am hoping to have everything finished by the end of this week, because me and Stef have a meeting with the printer in Guatemala City on Monday (yikes!)  I already made contact with the printer in Spanish via email asking for page specs and he understood me and I understood him!!  I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it really is for me. I had to ask about specs for bleed pages and folds and write a professional letter in Spanish. 

Tomorrow’s post will be mostly dedicated to the safe stove project with some musings about Xela nightlife. I put a few pics up here from last week that I took with my camera phone, but I will be taking the Canon T1i with me tomorrow. I also shot a little video with some beautiful children last week that I hope to convert and upload as well. 

Back to work now. Hasta mañana!