Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
per week for 25 hours of instruction and room and board with a local host family. Xela
also tends to attract a rather humane crowd and so there are plenty of operations that al-
low you to combine your language instruction with some time working with charitable or-
ganizations. The following schools are recommended for their consistently good marks on
student evaluations. If you're a college student, you may be able to get college credit with
several of these language schools. Ultimately, you'll have to check the schools out to see
which one works best for you. This is just one of the many things to consider when visit-
ing potential schools. Rates go up between June and August, when college students come
down in droves. Useful websites for checking out schools include www.123teachme.com
and www.guatemala365.com .
Proyecto Lingüistico Quetzalteco de Español (5a Calle 2-40 Zona 1, tel. 7763-1061,
www.hermandad.com ) is an extremely popular school often booked months in advance.
Students have the opportunity to volunteer with the school's Luis Cardoza y Aragon Pop-
ular Culture Center, next door, providing art, music, and computer skill instruction to un-
derprivileged local children. There are also opportunities to work in reforestation projects
andmeetwithhumanrightsworkers,formerguerrillacombatantsandunionleaders. Celas
Maya (tel. 7761-4342, www.celasmaya.edu.gt ) is another fairly popular school and is set
around a pleasant garden courtyard. There's an adjacent Internet café.
Run by a cooperative of experienced teachers who are very active in social projects,
Centro de Estudios de Español Pop Wuj (1a Calle 17-72 Zona 1, tel. 7761-8286,
www.pop-wuj.org ) is another highly recommended school. Escuela de Español Sakribal
(6a Calle 7-42 Zona 1, tel. 7763-0717, www.sakribal.com ), a school founded and run by
women, has a project benefiting civil war widows and orphans. Inepas (15 Avenida 4-59
Zona 1, tel. 7765-1308, www.inepas.org ) combines quality language instruction with a
widely recognized service-learning program.
In business for more than 30 years, Escuela de Español ICA (19 Avenida 1-47 Zona
1, tel. 7763-1871, www.guatemalaspanish.com ) runs social welfare projects that include
a medical clinic, adult literacy education, and reforestation. Juan Sisay Spanish School
(15 Avenida 8-38 Zona 1, tel. 7765-1318 or 7761-1586, www.juansisay.com ) is named
after a self-taught indigenous primitivista painter who was massacred in his home village
on the shores of Lake Atitlán in 1989. It's run by a teachers' collective involved in
numerous social projects. Ulew Tinimit (7a Avenida 3-18 Zona 1, tel. 7761-6242,
www.spanishguatemala.org ) is a good setup, allowing plenty of one-on-one instruction
time with your individual teacher.
Volunteer Opportunities
There are several volunteer opportunities available in and around Xela, as there's plenty
of work to be done in Guatemala's impoverished Western Highlands. Any of the town's
language schools can help you get plugged in to volunteer projects. A particularly helpful
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