It is 6:55 on a Sunday morning. Tinny-sounding merengue blasts from a radio in the next room. The smell of food wafts into my bedroom.
I hear someone knocking on the door next to mine.
“Felipe! Desayuno!”
Then, the knuckles rap on my door.
“Donna, desayuno!”
I wasn’t expecting such an early wake-up call, although I was already awake. An hour earlier a thunderous BOOM shook my little twin bed. It was succeeded by a pair of blasts equal in magnitude.
I feared that war had broken out and I’d have to whip out my reporter’s notebook and abandon my Spanish language-immersion course. But the blasts, I later learned, were simply fireworks for someone’s birthday.
After tossing on some clothes, I padded to the dining room table to join my host family and the two other students rooming there.
My hosts, Julio and Sylvia Coronado Munoz, take in students to earn extra money and to meet people from other countries. They have two daughters: Gabriela, 2, and Leslie, 9 months.
With a monthly income of about $100, the Munozes are, by Guatemalan standards, middle class. Their home consists of a dining room, four bedrooms and a bathroom with indoor plumbing.
Despite the simple surroundings, there were complications.
The concrete shower stall had a garden-hose knob and something resembling an upturned can with holes poked in it for a shower head. A pair of wires lined the wall from the can and led to a light-plate with a switch. The switch turned on the calentador, or water heater. It took me a couple of cold showers before I lost my fear of being electrocuted.
My room, like those of the other students, consisted of a twin bed, a small wooden dresser and a table. There was no closet, and no electrical outlet. The room was illuminated by a 60-watt bulb.
Most of the day’s meals-cooked primarily on a two-burner stove-were prepared in the morning, covered and left unheated on the stove.
I was initially relieved to discover that my housemates spoke English.
Catherine was a teacher from New Mexico and Phillip was a teen-ager from Belize. Their Spanish was much better than mine because they had both been studying at the Proyecto Linguistico Francisco Marroquin for almost a month. I was dismayed, however, to learn that they were purists about not speaking any English.
So I braved a strange tongue much like one drives a stick shift the first time: with a lot of lurching, sputtering and false starts.
The first breakfast was mildly disastrous. Everyone began quizzing me about why I was in Antigua and what I did for a living.
I had memorized enough of a spiel that I could recite it sounding casual.
“Soy una periodista. Vivo en Florida y trabajo para el periodico The Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.”
After that, I was in trouble.
It’s not that I didn’t know any Spanish. I had had three years’ worth in high school-14 years ago-learning it crack-the-code-with-a-dictionary-style. But I had never spoken it much.
In the 4 1/2 years I’ve lived in South Florida, I have struggled to attend a smorgasbord of adult-education Spanish classes. Invariably, I drop out because of work commitments or out of frustration with fellow students in an intermediate class who still can’t pronounce the alphabet.
Then I found out about total-immersion programs in which you live with a family in a Spanish-speaking country and attend school for four to eight hours a day.
I picked the PLFM because it is considered the best-albeit the most expensive-of the Spanish language schools in Guatemala. It is the only school licensed to administer the U.S. Foreign Services exam, which measures competency.
I knew that two weeks wouldn’t make me fluent. My goal was to get over the feeling of embarrassment I felt when I spoke Spanish.
On the first day of class I was assigned a tutor and a building (the school has five scattered throughout the city). I sat at a little table in the school’s kitchen with my maestra, Alma Elizabeth. She used huge sheets of newsprint for a drawing board and worked from several textbooks.
After some initial conversation-in Spanish only-she figured out my strengths and weaknesses.
From then on, I spent the mornings learning verbs and how to conjugate them. Then, we would spend about an hour in conversation. It was here that my fears of speaking a foreign language ended.
Strangely, when we started talking about current events or the arts, the words came quickly to me. I might not have always had everything in the right order or tense, but I made myself understood.
By about the fourth day, though, my brain became overloaded. I think all students hit this point. I simply could not answer a question Alma asked.
To break the tension, Alma pulled out a children’s vocabulary card game, which we played until the break.
During breaks, I happily lapsed into English with my newfound friends. We swapped stories and tips on everything from visiting the Mayan ruins in Tikal to the best medicine for the intestinal bug that afflicted most of us.
The majority of the students were professionals-a flight attendant, a teacher, a nurse, a banker and a career Coast Guardsman-and we were all there for the same reason. We didn’t mind taking cold showers or wearing the same clothes a couple of times before washing. As a friend put it, there were no debutantes in this crowd.
The second week, I got a new teacher, Aura Marina. In contrast to shy Alma Elizabeth, Aura wore dramatic makeup, beads in her hair and skin-tight pants. She taught Latin dance classes on the side.
Also, Aura spoke a lot of English. So whenever I got stuck on a word I didn’t understand, she immediately told me its English counterpart.
I continued learning more verb tenses and strengthening my speaking skills. She told me I spoke more than most students do after two weeks. I took the compliment.
One afternoon, Aura and I had emotional conversations about the 1976 earthquake and Hurricane Andrew. Another time we went with a few of my classmates and their teachers to a museum with Mayan musical instruments. Aura and one of the other teachers played an impromptu concert on the marimbas. The xylophone-like instruments produced a simple, haunting music.
My second week also marked the departure of Felipe and Catherine-leaving me on my own with Sylvia and family.
I was a little nervous about not being able to communicate. But things worked out through a mixture of words and actions.
Sometimes when Sylvia was busy making dinner, Leslie would get cranky and cry. So I held her and entertained her with a doll. Gabriela, not wanting to lose my attention, brought her yellow plastic tea set to my room so we could have a tea party.
I don’t think Sylvia and Julio understood why I was spending two weeks-especially my vacation-to learn a language.
To explain it to them, I used a phrase Aura had taught me:
Vale la pena. It is worthwhile.
TOTAL-IMMERSION PROGRAM TUITION DETAILS
Getting there: American, United, Aviateca (the national airline of Guatemala), Lasca and Iberia all fly from Miami to Guatemala City.
Taxis and buses are available from the airport. If you are registered at one of the schools in Antigua, an airport pickup is possible for $30. Upon return, you can arrange a minibus ride in advance through any local travel agent for as little as $9.
School: Proyecto Linguistico Francisco Marroquin is the oldest of the many language schools in Antigua. I used a Peoria, Ill.-based service called Language Link to help me make my reservation and accommodations. This costs $35, and is well worth it if your Spanish phone skills are weak.
Tuition is $125 per week for seven hours a day of instruction with a tutor. Lodging with a family, including all meals-except Sunday dinner-is $50. Call Language Link: 800-552-2051 and ask for Kay.
Practical information: Antigua, 40 minutes from Guatemala City, is situated in a valley surrounded by three volcanoes. The weather is generally springlike, although days can get quite warm. Bring a light jacket, rainwear, comfortable shoes and walking shorts.
Health: It is advisable to bring aspirin, bandages and some anti-diarrhea medicine. Never drink water that has not been purified, and stay away from unpeeled fruits and street food.
Advisory: The U.S. State Department has issued a travel advisory to U.S. citizens in Guatemala following attacks on several women in outlying areas. School officials say there have been no problems in Antigua.
