Language School

Yesterday was the beginning of school, not only for Danny and me, but also for the Guatemalan children.  They began a new school year yesterday.  Their school year begins in January and ends in October.  School was a wonderful thing for me, the beginner, but a little more intense for Danny.  He is in between the beginner and the intermediate stage.  I learned numbers, colors, and greetings, while Danny learned lots of vocabulary and verbs.  Danny goes to school in the morning for four hours while I do Brayden's school at home.  Then after lunch, I go to school for four hours.  My teacher is really great and very patient with me.  A huge blessing for a slow learner!  At 6:00pm when I was done with school, I walked to the bus stop about a fifteen minute walk.  I didn't have to wait long for the bus, however it was full!  When you think of full in the states, you would think every seat is filled, right?  Well that and much more.  The seats were over filled, the isles were filled, even the top of the bus was filled.  Needless to say there was no seat for me so I had to stand on the steps and hold on tight.  At each stop, I had to get off the bus to let someone off then get back in position after even more people piled on too!  I wanted to laugh out loud, but no one else was.  It is what they do everyday when school is in.  I cannot imagine how many people were on that bus, but it was a lot!  What an experience!  My stop is the last one on the route.  I finally got a seat the next to the last stop, but I was by the window and there were two others in the seat with me.  I did not realize that same bus was on it's way to Guatemala City after my stop.  I was waiting for everyone to get off, because my seat mates were not getting up.  I realized at the last second what was happening, and quickly got off at the last second.  Danny and the kids were waiting for me at my stop.  They met a group of sisters that had to sit at our bus stop for a very long time waiting for their oldest sister to come on my bus so they could get on another bus to go to a different city.  It was 7:00 at night and these kids still had not made it home from school.  This is their way of life and that is how it is for so many Guatemalans.  We have so much to learn about this culture!

Kim