My placement site has been chosen and I cannot be more excited! I will be working with an organization called Ceipa, which works through CEDEPCA-Centro Evangelico de Estudios Pastorales en Centro America. Of course, I have no idea what most of that means, but I will find out soon enough!
My location will be Quetzaltenango, aka Xela. It's about four hours west of Guatemala City and the second largest city in the country. Each weekday I will work at Ceipa with their elementary education program. They have small schools for children who have to work and have missed years of school and are now too old for their grade in public education. I will be in the classroom supporting the teacher and spending one-on-one time with the students tutoring and mentoring them.
The climate in Xela is cool all year round, which is perfect, because we all know I complain about New Mexico summers all the time! The population of Xela is a combination of ladinos (people who don't identify themselves as Mayan) and Maya Quiche people. My housing situation is not confirmed yet, but I will most likely be living in a Mayan community just outside Xela.
I will start off with five weeks of language school in Antigua. My Spanish skills are nonexistent, so I am hoping language school can fix that!
Y'all can expect an update once I get more information!
