By: Corinne Seink '27

So far, one of my favorite days here in Guatemala was when we traveled to a public school in the middle of Antigua. At this point, we were already a few days into our trip and I was very tired from early mornings and late nights with lots of walking, however seeing the kids and the fun I had re-energized me completely. I remember, at this point the only real conversations I had had in Spanish were with waiters I had a mental script for, or Guatemalans who also spoke English and were able to understand me, regardless of my broken Spanish. However, the kids and mothers at this school only spoke Spanish, or the local Mayan language. I was incredibly nervous. 

At the school, we broke up into three sections: a dance class (led by Mrs. Anzaldi, various sports including American football (led by Mr. Anzaldi), and a painting and drawing station led by Nina, Stephanie, and I. The first round of children approached and sat down with their mothers, ranging in age from only one to about twelve years old. I tried to speak with them, showing them the paints and canvases we had, however due to my nerves quickly grew silent as they began painting. 

As this round of kids were finishing up, and a new set ran over after playing sports, I wished the kids goodbye and decided I needed to try to speak and get over my nervousness. This time, however, I had a different tactic. I greeted all the children, gave them the same run down on the materials, then sat down with them and tried speaking directly to the children next to me instead of the whole group. This seemed to work as I quickly picked up a broken and slow, yet proud conversation with a young boy named Christian.

I soon realized speaking with the children was much easier than with the adults, as we had a similar vocabulary level. Christian asked if we could draw a picture together, and we went back and forth suggesting various things to add to our landscape. El sol, los nubes, un árbol, la lluvia, etc. This interaction left me feeling more confident in my speaking abilities and I cherished all the connections and interactions I made with the many kids after this. And as we cleaned up the mess of paints and began driving back to the airbnb, I decided I would try my hardest never to stay silent out of fear of saying the wrong thing, because while I made many mistakes when talking, the connection and interactions I gained by doing so was incredibly worth it.

#JumptheWorld