Piñata Fiesta

Three days and 23 hours of Spanish class later. . . all is well. I worked through a quick seven hours of class on Monday and took it easy at night in the breeze filled “loft” space en nuestra casa. 

Edwin

Katy (one of the owners)

Mildia

Tuesday was a full eight hours of class, but this week I have two new teachers. Mildia in the manana y Edwin in la tarde. It is good to have different voices to practise listening to. It is crazy how different every person speaks when you don’t know the language. In the evening I went to a movie for 20 Limpiras, (translation $1.05 Canadian.)  I saw “Machine Gun Preacher” which is a great movie. Look it up and watch it if you haven’t seen it. It is a re-energizing movie. . . a good reminder to myself to never become passive or complacent. There is much to do in this world.

Yesterday, after a long day of class, I got to experience my first Spanish birthday. Complete with a Spiderman Pinata (how did they know he is my favourite?!). The extended family was all there as well as a couple bonus gringo travelers who are staying at the house. It was a BBQ fiesta, followed by hopeless swings at a moving piñata blindfolded. Somehow I ended up playing an hour of pelota with a couple of the kids (Eduardo y Luis). That involved some serious sweat.

Pelota

Spiderman

I have two more days of 8 hour classes. My goal is to complete about 100 hours. I think I am heading to an organic cooperative coffee farm tomorrow.

Hasta pronto todo! 

¿Cómo te va?

I guess it has been a couple days since I wrote anything. Sometimes I wish I had some sort of invisible  reporter following me around taking notes on my day, but that would allow me to go into an unbelievably unnecessary amount of detail. . .  and if you know me at all that really isn’t needed.

SO, in a “nut shell” I am very happy to be here! Lots of things are happening around the house because Inmar is preparing for a Mayan festival this Saturday. A bunch of local artists have turned the upstairs of the house into a massive work shop. These people are talented! Inmar is also currently involved in a battle against incompetent local governments, and “the north” (that would be us). I can’t go into detail here, but I will just say that it involves U.S. universities thinking they have the rights to things that are not theirs, and a local government that turns a blind eye. The good news is the people of Copan are saying NO THANK-YOU! =)

Also, since the last time I was here my family has turned their garage into a mini hostel with a bunch of bedrooms. Over 20 people have passed through since I got here. Needless to say Mama Gilma is busy!

So far so healthy, I have had a few stomach problems but that is expected in 35 degree heat and a diet change. Mama Gilma found out that I was in a bit of pain and made be a special soup yesterday, it was amazing.

Ixbalanque, is as fantastic as before. I think I know about half of the teachers from last time. I have one of the new teachers; Ana, she is pretty awesome. I have also made friends with the first male teacher I have seen here. His name is Edwin, and we have some good “bro time.”

Front of School

Inside my school

Inside again

Last night I met some of Inmar’s friends Freddie, Abraham, and Pedro, and I was able to hack through a reasonable conversation en espanol, pero solamente porque ellos saben algo ingles. It was still encouraging.  

In other awesome news I discovered that there is an UrbanPromise Copan! It was just starting up the last time I was here. If you aren’t familiar with this organization, they rock. They have many locations across North American including a few in Toronto (where a friend of mine currently works). They do fantastic work with under-privileged children and a lot of the focus in Copan is on all different varieties of Art. I met the director yesterday, and plan on getting involved with this organization while I am here. =)

That is all for now!