Guatemala, Summer 2011

Me and Queren, my Guatemalan friend

Guatemala is a beautiful country. I didn't think I would miss it so much once I left last year (August 2011). There was so much to miss! My host family, my host mother's stories and delicious food, the engaging Spanish classes through Máximo Nivel, my amazing teacher at the school, the diversity of music you’d hear from people’s cars or shops on the street, the loud “Hola morena!” people (mainly men) would call out to me on my walks throughout Antigua, the cultural sensitivity of the people and their compassion towards “los gringos”, the adorable children and their liveliness at the school I volunteered at, and best of all, meeting Queren, my conversation partner through Máximo Nivel, because she is now one of my closest friends. 

“I don’t think I want you going there,” my Dad told me several weeks before I left. “I felt much better about Costa Rica. We hear too many bad things about Guatemala.”

I suppose that’s true. But don’t we hear many bad things about the United States, too? We hear “bad things” about every place on the globe. In fact, it’s statistically more dangerous to live in the state of New York, for example, than in the country of Guatemala alone. Crime rates, low or high, are inevitably present everywhere, and while no one place is perfect, we’ll find most people to be cordial and friendly, and your safety highly depends on how cautious you decide to be.

While in Antigua for six weeks, no one tried to shoot me or threaten to hurt me, which I'm sure were my parents' worst fears. The primary purposes of the trip were to immerse myself in the culture, hone my Spanish speaking and comprehension skills (before delving into the Spanish curriculum at Cornell), and volunteer for a couple of weeks at an elementary school nearby my homestay.

After a month and a half I came back in one piece, more culturally understanding, open-minded, and mature than before.