The Setup

I realized that I never mentioned the third school that I was signed up for. Lo siento!

So, way back in the day when I was considering leaving Xela and then decided to stay, but change schools, I toured quite a few and fell in love with two, Celas Maya and Pop Wuj.

What drew me to Pop Wuj was a dedicated Medical Spanish program that had been at one point, according to their website, associated with Doctors Without Borders. But that wasn't even the first thing that I fell in love with. I remember very clearly, sitting in this drafty, concrete prison of an internet cafe that was down the hill from my first homestay. It was pouring rain and I was soaked and cold, and I was gchatting with my mom while I was reading through the Pop Wuj website. Mom knew it was late-ish and dark outside and I wasn't safely home yet, and I knew she would worry until I was back to my house. We were mid-conversation and all of a sudden I typed "OMG!!!!!!!!!!!" and then didn't type anything else or respond to her for several minutes. This was, in retrospect, not the smartest thing to do. I was freaking out over what I was reading on the Pop Wuj website, but poor Lisa had know way of knowing that. All she knew was that it had only been a week since the abduction, and typing "OMG!!!!!!!!!!!" and then "disappearing" for a few minutes could have meant any manner of terrible things.

But what I had discovered is that Pop Wuj had a relationship/contract with a local Mayan midwife and it was possible for students to do their clinical portion of the program with her. I was floored. The website was incredible. There was a separate .pdf that detailed the Medical Spanish program and the various components of it and I was getting lightheaded while reading it. We would have 4 hours of Medical Spanish immersion lessons, plus daily Cultural Competency Seminars, given by a host of professionals including physicians, anthropologists, midwives and historians. In addition, each student would have to choose a topic of public health that interested them, research it in the context of life here in the highlands, and then present our findings, in Spanish, to the other program participants.

As if that wasn't awesome enough, the school operated a medical clinic that was located on the first floor of the building. The patients were mostly indigenous and if they lived in the communities where the school's other services were operating (a daycare, a reforestation project and a stove project) then the health care services were free. The clinic is funded in part by an increased tuition for Medical Spanish students, and I was only too happy to pay it. Per the school's website, it is run as a cooperative and was founded by 8 teachers who wanted to form a school that reinvested in local communuties in sustainable ways.

The projects I mentioned earlier are:
Daycare -- Single parent households are very common here. I don't know what the statistics are, but there are many children whose fathers are not around for various reasons, and whose moms are working day and night in order to survive. The daycare project is a safe place for these kids to go while their moms are at work. They are able to eat a nutrituous meal, have help with their homework, take English lessons, or just play and be kids. Pop Wuj employs guardians and teachers for the kids, and then students of Pop Wuj are encouraged to visit and help out with the various activities.

Reforestation -- baby trees! Many families here still cook over open wood fires, and this results in deforestation which further compromises the topsoil as well as putting at-risk, mountain-side communuties even more at risk for landslides during the rainy season.

Stove Project -- not only do open fires cause lots of trees to be cut down, but they contribute to an increase in respiratory problems for those that live near them. For children who grow up in a home with an open fire, their lungs look they have been smoking for decades. In addition, they are quite dangerous. Some of the most common, most preventable, and most acute injuries in rural communities are burns. The problem is, a wood stove is often cost prohibitive for most families. So once a week, Pop Wuj takes students and stoves and cement into the mountains and builds stoves for needy families. They hike up steep hills with all the equipment, climb roofs, cut chimney holes, mix and pour concrete, and assemble the whole thing. A wood stove uses 1/3 of the wood that an open fire does, and is much safer.

Scholarship -- school is only "mandatory" here until 6th grade. And many students don't last that long, for various reasons. One being that uniforms and supplies are very expensive. Another being that some families are so poor that they must put the children to work at an early age, selling tortillas door to door, or combing through dumps for scrap metal, or selling gum and candy at intersections. The scholarship program is for gifted students who want to remain in school but whose families cannot afford to let them. The fund pays for the students' expenses, in addition to paying the family a small stipend to help make up for the fact that the student can't work.

As I mentioned, all the families that are within the catchment of the other programs are entitled to free primary health care from the clinic the school runs.

So, back to weeks and weeks ago. I freaked out while learing about all of this on their website. And then I was saddened to learn that all the slots in the Medical Spanish program were full for the summer. The Program costs almost twice what I had budgeted, and that didn't include the $150 application fee, that you had to pay regardless of whether they accepted you. So when I found out there wasn't room for me, I figured maybe it was for the best because I couldn't technically afford it.

But then I received an email letting me know that following Tropical Storm Agatha, there had been some cancellations, and a few more slots had opened up. I applied, tried to make myself sound not at all desperate to work with the midwives in my mini application essays, and waited nervously for their response. A few days later I learned that I had been accepted, and knowing that most Ivy League medical schools send their student doctors here, I felt totally out of my league.

Next installment soon to follow. Promise!