Towards the end of our intensive Spanish program, we put our español to the test by taking a Red Cross certification program (Saturday mornings) covering emergency first-aid, trauma and CPR.  Obviously everything in the course was in español (including the final written test!) but we did it.  Our instructor, Fernando, was an excellent teacher who spoke clearly, methodically and patiently for us.  We snapped pictures of every PowerPoint slide which had a lot of new medical terminology we needed to memorize, plus used Google translate on our phones during class if we stumbled on a particular word.

And we just got our certification diplomas!  It took a couple of weeks to get all the signatures.

Our language school sponsors a kind of academic “Boys and Girls” club after school.  On Friday afternoons we volunteer at the little one room “schoolhouse” for neighborhood kids.  The room is filled with kids ranging from 5 year olds to middle teens.

Here’s what it looks like!

Xela is in a valley at about 7,500′, but the club is way up the mountain side overlooking the city. This is the view from the club with the afternoon thunderstorm starting to roll in from the north…

We’re way past due for updating our blog! 3+ months ago we started a formal academic program of Spanish in Xela.

It’s a program designed for university students who want immersion Spanish and credit for 2 years (4 semesters) of Spanish.  It’s 5 hours a day, one-on-one with your teacher across a small desk.  Exhausting, but excellent.  Afternoons and weekends were spent memorizing, memorizing and more memorizing of verb conjugations in multiple tenses, grammar forms and lots of new vocabulary.

At the end, the school had a “graduation” ceremony for us which we appreciated! We got our diplomas and a letter describing the program for our records.

Leslie with Aury – not only her teacher for 3+ months, but a good friend as well!

Don with his teacher Judith.  And proof of our course completions!