Casa Xelaju School, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala

The school is planted on a steep slope quite near the center of town. Depending on the time of year, there are 25 or more teacher/student pairs busy in the second and third floors of the building. The one-on-one instruction is great and each of the teachers are accredited by the Ministry of Education. I chose to have a different teacher each week for the range of experience. All of them were great.

The administration of the school was well organized. We had a wide range of weekly activities (see the school's web page for details) set up by Dustin, the school's "International Relations Officer".

Dustin also acted as interpreter on our outings; this was a blessing since it was hard to absorb all that was going on in English, never mind Spanish. He led us on trips to villages nearby Quetzaltenango and also on tours of local cooperatives. We usually went by bus but one time we returned in the back of a small halfton!

Each student was setup with a homestay family. Mine was fabulous!! I couldn't have asked for better. In spite of being able to speak only in Spanish, we got along just great. I was about 11 blocks - all uphill - from school. I did have trouble getting used to the altitude. At first I often had to stop and catch my breath after a few uphill blocks. I had a marvelous time with all of the teachers and the students at the school.

There was also a Women's Cooperative, "Xelabaj" housed in the first floor of the school building. I had a blouse from the beautiful print cotton made for me by Xelabaj.

The school administration also sets up trips for students. They organized my flights from Xela to Tikal and from Tikal to Palenque. Also, they arranged hotel stays in Tikal and Flores for me. Start early if you want this kind of thing set up though - the school has to interface with various agencies to get everything sorted out for you.