Language studies in Guatemala 2017

Here are some photos from my last Trip to Guatemala in 2017. Featured are friends and family that I met on the way, and some of the mayan textile designs that I love...

In this photo, me and a fellow student and office assistant at Utatlan School of Language pose for pictures as her mother and sister who are visiting sit close by having coffee and bread.
I had the opportunity to meet and have lunch with family members at a few famous places in Quetzaltenango, and funny enough one of my uncles in Quetzaltenango actually supplied coffee for our school every morning, and had a wonderful cafe just down the street, where I found a copy of Eckhart Tolle's The Power of Now in english!

Out on the finca, wearing pants with pockets hemmed and designed in Guatemala, I watched as my mom's hermano and a team of men corraled the cattle into the pens and fields where they were raised, and loaded onto trucks by horse and lasso to be transported and sold to butcher shops in the area. The cow would be slaughtered the next day, early in the morning, and by 6am as the markets began to fill, the entire cow was sold from the bones to the best cuts. Very early into the day, people will be asking for the tongue and often, if my grandma did not reserve the tongue for herself at that time, it would be put on hold or picked up by someone who got there earlier.
As I love and connect with all life, this is especially painful for me, however as I accept the natural way of life, and I also do my best in my own personal choices to mitigate suffering. I am grateful that with no scrutiny, my abuela will often cook alternative meals for me as I never was a fan of the red meat industry either in Guatemala, or the United States, and all of my cousins, aunts and uncles, friends and family support me as I speak about and regularly post green peace, health conscious material..

For four hours every day, Monday-Friday, for 5 months, I would conversate with my teacher and friend Ms Yuvisa over coffee or chamomile tea. Here I am with my spanish teacher Ms Yuvi at Utatlan International School of Language studying Mayan Astrology and hyroglyphs with another teacher and his student. 
The table cloth is one of my absolute favorites as they would not only use these cloths to decorate their rooms and spaces, but the women would also use them as wraps to carry their babies on their backs as they walked down the avenues and travelled between towns.

My school took a trip to Lago Atitlan and my friend and fellow jiu jitsero athlete Charlie and I kayaked out toward the middle of Lago Atitlan, and explored the town and along the waters edge. 
Here I stand on the edge of Parque Central in Quetzaltenango with a bag of freshly squeezed orange juice on Halloween Day 2017, with the old commerce building behind me that is now my school and other commercial residences, and my favorite Mayan Typical Shoulder Bag, in pink.

Traveling in Guatemala helps me reconnect with my ancestral roots, and learning about the influence of my pre-colonial, indigenous ancestry, through the living remnants of such a great civilization, is truly a gift, and a blessing. I am honored to be a descendant of this family, as the history of my people's movement has always been characterized by struggle, and faith, and always led to diversity and cultural expansion. From my dad's ancestors in the Isle of Wale, to my mom's in the rivers of the East, all the way to the Iberian Peninsula where once again, my family's ancestors would immigrate, through the gulf coast, into Central America, where German, Spaniard, Jew, Indigenous Mayan, alike, would cohabitate the Yucatan and central forests of low volcanic steps, took my family in, and where they built a home, in the village of El Xab, Guatemala, in the Department of Retalhuleu.

I look forward to posting pictures weekly of the sites and activities I experience on my Journey to Guatemala this December!
 



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Hi there! My name is Camila, and it is nice to meet you.

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