The Guatemala Outside my Clinic

Obviously, the clinic is my primera passion aqui en Xela...however, I get home from the clinic around 2 everyday and always manage to pack a lot more into the day.

In the afternoons, I have a wonderful job in at Miguel Angel Austurias Spanish School, the same school where I learned Spanish in January. I am the student coordinator at MAA, which involves the grueling work of socializing with students from all over the world, taking students out salsa dancing, hiking up mountains and volcanoes with them, helping out with potlucks, answering phonecalls and emails, and much more...all things I can't believe I actually get paid for! Though the job does take quite a bit of my free time, I really enjoy meeting all the interesting students, making friends with all the Guatemalteca maestras, and helping out with the activities. It doesn't hurt that I make a whopping $1 per hour, which is actually just fine for me to live on!! I'd recommend this school to anyone.

Also, here's a little publicity for one of my good friends here. Karla is an intelligent, patient, university-certified teacher who would like to teach people Spanish over skype at the almost miniscuel rate of $10/hour. Karla is trying to put her daughter through collegia right now, which is fairly expensive, and so could use some extra financial support. Please email me (cstumpemory@yahoo.com) if you are interested or if you know anyone else who'se interested.

Apart from my school job and the clinic, I love to go hiking up the volcanoes that surround Xela. Each weekend a group of my friends and I set out for new and old climbs. No matter how many times I do the same mountain or volcano, I never get bored. Below are some pictures of my last climb up Santa Maria, from the top of which it is possible to see another volcano, Santa Agito, erupt. Que bueno ondo!




Other things I do include:
1.) cooking with the incredibly cheap fresh fruit and vegetables (I can buy a pound of blackberries or strawberries or a head of broccoli for 20 cents, and I can buy 4 red peppers for 50 cents...seriously, I'm in heaven!),
2.)salsa dancing,
3.)attending the various festivals, which are plentiful (it seems like there's something new to celebrate at least every week),
4.)watching pirated DVDs in español that haven't even come to theatre yet in the states,
5.)steam bathing,
6.)studying,
7.)playing soccer,
8.)taking crazy aerobics classes choreographed to loud Spanish hip-hop and pop music, that I can't get enough of, and
8.)participating in possibly the greatest game of all time, fuzball!

Everyday I can't help but be overwhelmed by how blessed I am to have this opportunity. Thanks to all my friends and family who've helped make this possible!