Nov 17 San Andres

I just returned from an afternoon trip to San Andres.. a small Quichi Mayan Indian town on the side of a hill with a beautful old church with front painted bright yellow with characturers engraved in relief on the fascade.Saw an interesting ceremony whereby a man dressed in hooded black jacket and black bandito like mask pulled himself along a rope strung from atop of the cross on the top of the churches roof to a large pole on the opposite side of the square in front of the church..All the while his campenaro friends dressed similiarly were whistling shrillingly. Afterwards we walked up narrow streets up the towns hillside to a Mayan shrine where Saint Simone ...or a wooden  likeness of..sat sitting in a room alongside a house in the courtyard  complete with burning candles,smouldering fires and the like.Down below spread out the town of San Andres.
This morning we only had three hours of class as we had a lecture on the Mayan book Popol Vuh¨¨.The speaker spoke solely in Spanish but fortunately there was an interpreter.
My spanish is getting better and I find I can have conversations wih my teachers and the family I live with.I speak Spanglish...I,m sure it sound weird to the spanish listeners bt I get .My pronumciation is atrocious and I continue to have difficuly understanding the speakers...oh  well.
The day before yesterday I went on a hike up El Muela...a local volcanic hill ....unfortunately it ws cloudy and we couldn,t see anything from the top.Yesterday I went with four others on a walking tour around Xela.I saw a beautiful old theator.Stone on the outside and all wooden inside...We went by some old schools and even saw a dance academy.Last night the school had a spanish movie.
It is 6;30pm now...soon I weill go back to my residence...dinner at about 7;30 and I will do homewrk and read a book.I,ll need to prepare myself for tommorrow when the teacher will ask me to speak about the Popol Vuh lecture.
I am kept very busy and find that with all the activities and clases and homework I am really focused.Good for my mind.Totally detoxed now.No time or opportunity for nasty diversions.
Hey..did you ever get the expense cheque from VACFSS.?Did you deposit it in my savings account.?
How is Sasha finding it going to work in the dark wet morning.I was thinking about her this am as i was walking to school in the sunshine.Its only a five minute walk for me.