Thursday, June 19

I am so flooded by experiences and impressions that it is hard to gather my thoughts, let alone sit down and write them. In addition, I am fighting a losing battle with internet access in Guatemala. What a pain! Uploading one photo (if it happens at all) can take up to 20 minutes.

The weather these days is beautiful. Typically we have a rain, often heavy, in the late afternoon or eveing, and then it is bright and clear in the morning and well into the day. I hope I am giving a sense of the beauty of the area through my photos. Guatemala is known as "The land of eternal spring." I have been trying to get out every morning to take a walk along the lake to one of the docks (embarcaderos). Someone could easily write an ethnography about the culture of the lake, with the fisherman out from very early morning to la lanchas which move across the lake all day.

I am teaching a lot! So far this week I have taught six classes, and I have four more scheduled. We are having a hard time fixing a schedule that works for everyone because my classes are in the afternoon, and we have had a sudden influx of students, pulling many of my students out to teach.

Earler in the week I began to communciate my concern about the imbalance of my teaching but not getting any classes. I won't even say I was complaining because it is hard to complain here; there's too much beauty and too many kind and warm people. As a result of my talking, I got an offer from Julio for an hour of Spanish every morning at 8:00.

I am spending time very day with Selvin, the office manager, and with Rafa, whose official role I don't know; he does a lot of teacher training and covers the office as well. Through them I have been learning more about how the school operates and also sharing about our lives. Rafa and I have been talking about meditation and spirituality, and I gave him a book written by my meditation teacher. he and I are also going to collaborate on some classes. I am so excited about that!

It's time to go teach, so I will add more later.