Voy a Guatemala

After five months back in the states, I have decided that it is time for another trip. I had returned to the states with the idea of settling down and getting a full time job, but I have found that so many of the jobs that I am interested in either require, or prefer, bilingual candidates. Instead of settling for an unrelated job, I have decided to attempt to make myself more qualified by spending three months at a Spanish language school in Guatemala (much more exciting than spending three months with Spanish language cds...).

I will leave for Guatemala on March 4, 2006 and spend 14 weeks in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. I plan to spend 10-12 weeks studying Spanish and working on local social projects at the Asociación Centro de Estudios de Español Pop Wuj

I hope to return to the states able to work with our Hispanic population and hopefully, finally, to get a job.

For those of you who are interested in my travel stories, I will try to keep up a regular series of trip reports. For those of you who do not speak Spanish, I apologize ahead of time because as I will be immersed in the language and the culture, I am going to try to avoid writing long stories in English until I return, assuming that is possible. Feel free to translate anything you do not understand.

Gracias!

If you have anything that you would like to donate to the families and communities of Guatemala, the following list is a wishlist provided by the school. I will not have extra room in my bag, but I may be able to bring a separate bag of donations.

Our wish list includes the following items because they are in high
demand, hard to come by and more expensive than in other countries.

For our projects: daycare children, scholarship recipients, and
latrine construction project

* Used/new clothing and shoes-for babies, children, adolescents, and
medium-sized adults (things XXL are less useful)
* Lice treatment-NIX, one-application type
* Adult Tylenol
* Children's Tylenol-either chewable or in liquid form
* Children’s Cough Syrup
* Nutritional supplements
* Vitamins-for either children or expecting mothers (especially needed as
vitamins and minerals are prohibitively expensive in Guatemala):
* Calcium/magnesium, Vitamin D for older women, Folic Acid, Multi-vitamins for
children, Pre-natal vitamins.
* Cortisone cream-for one of our scholarship recipients who has a chronic
dry skin rash
* Cassettes-for one of our blind scholarship recipients to use in his studies
* Toys
* Children's books in Spanish