Mis Maestras (My Teachers)

The language instruction at PLQ is all one on one with highly experienced, skilled and dynamic instructors who all appear to be as much invested in their relationships with the students as they are with PLQs history of progressive activism. Each week you are assigned to work with a new maestro so you can experience different teaching styles and benefit from relationships with individuals from varying backgrounds. Among them are social workers, former Guerilla soldiers in the Guatemalan Civil War, sociologists, philosophers and more.

Rosario, my first maestra, is a veteran PLQer who has worked there for over 20 years, teaching 10 hours each day - 5 with one student during the morning session, then 5 with another student in the afternoon session. Incredibly, she doesnt seem to get frustrated or impatient with the broken Spanish she has to listen to all day long!

One of my favorite things about the language instruction is that you can take it out of the classroom. Last week, Rosario took me for a visit to the Mercado de la Democracia,  a bustling "everything" market where you can find diapers, leechee fruit, funerary wreaths and nail polish all within a jam packed 3 block radius. Rosario taught me about market etiquette in Guatemala and we bought her a fresh rose to decorate her desk back at the PLQ.

This week I am working with Paty, another veteran Maestra who began on the same day as Rosario.  She is a coffee addict and a talker like me and weve been taking time out of the classroom to practice grammar at her favorite local coffee shops. I am excited to continue connecting with the amazing teachers here at the PLQ during the 6 weeks I have left at the school!!