Our Spanish language school here in Pana
is called Jabel Tinamit, which means "beautiful town" in one of the
Mayan languages. The owners and all of the staff are Mayan. It's a
very professional, well-organized business, located in a lovely new building
around an interior garden. Definitely a step up from the school that we
attended three years ago. It's owned by a young couple (a year or so
younger than our oldest son!), Candelaria and Gregorio, who began their
business modestly 17 years ago. Candelaria told us her life story last
week during a cooking class. It's pretty amazing and very
inspirational.
The Jabel Tinamit School front entrance
When Candelaria was a child, it was not
common for girls in the Mayan community to be educated beyond the 3rd grade,
just enough for them to learn to read and write. Even that was a
hardship for many families due to the cost for uniforms and school
supplies. However, she was allowed to continue her eduation, eventually
graduating from high school.
Being the eldest child, Candelaria felt
enormous responsibility to do well in school. And she obviously
did! She has completed university and is hoping to begin a Master's in
Social Work program.
In the meantime, Candelaria and Gregorio have built this extremely well-run
school with curriculum that they have created so that the lessons are
consistent among the various "maestros and maestras". My
teacher, Carmelina, is a young woman whom C & G helped in school with a
scholarship. C & G are "paying it forward" in many ways.
Candelaria teaching a cooking class.
As for our daily routine, we arrive at
school at 7:45am, have a quick coffee, perhaps do a quick check of email, since
there is internet access, and then ascend the stairs with our tutor to a
beautiful, airy, plant-filled private space where we will spend the next 4
hours chatting and listening in Spanish, learning verbs and expressions and
much about life in Guatemala for indigenous people. We are loving it!
Carmelina, my teacher, is unmarried and helps out at home a great deal.
In every spare moment, waiting for the bus, riding on the bus, Carmelina is
studying English, using her "device" (Ipad?) to listen and practice.
Soon she will begin university classes on Saturdays, in addition to her
teaching job.
Mi maestra, Carmelina
Carmelina, I must say, is not only very
hard-working but also extremely patient! We chat and chat - in Spanish -
which is laborious for me and must be painful for her to listen to. But
she never waivers in her good humor. This is an example of a story that
she told me:
Yesterday was harvest day on the small plot of land that her family owns
outside of the pueblo. Her mother and an aunt and two cousins went to
harvest the corn. Her younger sister stayed at home to cook a special
meal of thanksgiving for the harvest.
Enough corn is collected during this one-day harvest to last the family for a
whole year. They hire someone to scrape the kernels from the cobs.
The cobs are then dried and used as fuel for their fire. The kernels are
dried and used, little by little, every day for tortillas. A neighbor
woman has a special grinding machine to grind up the kernels for masa, the
dough used for tortillas. Carmelina's mother and other neighbors take
their corn kernels to her each morning, as the tortillas must be freshly made
each day. Tortillas are a very basic part of the Mayan diet, not only for
their nutritional value but also for their historical and spiritual
value. They are served at every meal, and people don't feel satisfied if
they have not had their tortillas. Similar, I guess, to the idea that
bread is the staff of life.
Calla lilies on the table in the patio at school
Back at school, we have a brief "pausa" (break) in the middle
of the morning when we all congregate around the patio area for a small snack
and a relaxing chat with friends in English. Right now the other students
are mostly American, many of them in our age range, although the school offers online
Spanish lessons to students of all ages all over the world. The schedules
are very flexible, since the sessions are individual and the school is open 7
days a week. We have signed up for 2 weeks full-time (5 days a week) and
will continue after that for 2 days a week.
View from the terrace of the school
After our pausa, we are back at it for
another two hours. It's intense, and we're definitely dragging by noon,
when we emerge onto the bright street, busy with foot traffic and tuk-tuks, to
return to our casa for the mid-day meal.
Before we began our Spanish school experience, we were asked if we wanted
homework, and we said "Si". So each afternoon and/or evening,
we do our homework. It's actually helpful to review what we've learned
and practiced during our tutoring session. And the amount of homework is
not strenuous, leaving us time to participate in activities that the school
organizes for its students, such as the weekly cooking class or a class trip to
market.
Candelaria and Gregorio are an upbeat, intelligent, friendly force for good in
this community, offering a great product to Spanish learners. It's a
pleasure to be among their students at Jabel Tinamit, and we are giving our
aging brains quite a work-out!
Bruce and his teacher, Florinda, studying in the garden!
