I woke up to a beautiful Guatemalan morning, at 7 AM, despite the low-flying clouds coming through the mountain range. It was such a gorgeous day for a drive! Hitting the road, we saw how windy it was and enjoyed the view from the car as we drove to Quetzaltenango, well known as Xela, from Antigua. The drive went through some good 2 lane highways, but then we came up to some unpaved roads with the hustle-bustle of construction workers around them. We had to stop right there, along with fellow cars and buses. There had been some serious landslides caused by heavy rain the last few days, making the drive through rather treacherous. Many of the native Mayans (Indians) took the opportunity of the delay to sell their wares to the people stuck in traffic.

Resuming the drive, it took us around 4 hours to drive to Cuatro Caminos, a major intersection on the Inter-American highway outside Quetzaltenango. That was where we met Jose Sam, another Deaf Guatemalan. He’d had to ride on the bus from his hometown, Cantel, to the intersection for an hour so he could meet us. We got in the car and drove about 15 minutes down to Cantel. Certainly a big difference in our traveling! I got to meet his family – Sandra, his wife, and Flor, his daughter. Sandra is Deaf, and teaches at a Deaf school near her home. Flor is a CODA, and is regarded as the best interpreter in the area.

Sandra was excited for the chance to introduce me to a trio of Deaf Mayan sisters around the corner from her home. Their family has 10 sisters and 1 brother in total, and the girls are the three deaf siblings in the family. I had the opportunity to join them in their harvesting of the corn field they own, where they do their own crops along with their own livestock. Elvia, the oldest in the family, explained all about guipil (Mayan traditional dress), and its production. The family makes good money off the guipil. Hilda, the second oldest sister, showed me their livestock, and mentioned that the family, as a tradition, always buys a piglet in June and raises it until a day before Christmas, when they kill it and have it for their big family feast.

They also raised chickens and chicks, and one big chicken can feed a family of 12. She gave me a fresh maize tamale, wrapped in green corn husks which helps preserve the flavor of the corn. It was the best tamale I ever had! Noelia, the third eldest sister, discussed her experience as a street beggar, and how Noelia’s grandmother made her stop begging and use her talent for making clothes. She listened to her grandmother, and now she has success with the clothes she makes with her two other Deaf sisters.

Sandra wanted to take us to her school, a Deaf school, so I could see for myself. I was so thrilled for the chance, as it is only natural for visiting Deaf people to want to see the local Deaf schools! I was very impressed with what I saw – clean classrooms, decorations, books, pictures, desks and so on. She said that the school currently had 135 Deaf students, ranging from Kindergarten to 6th Grade, and included an early childhood program. I asked about the 7-12 grades, but it turned out that students in Junior High School (7-9 Grades) usually went to mainstream schools with some interpreting, and spent their last three years of pre-college education without any interpreting. I was stunned! Only 10% of the students manage to finish high school. Guatemala has 4 Deaf schools, none of them capable of having residence programs. Essentially, the old days of having students stay at the school were gone. My heart sank, feeling like as if it was the Titanic and it had just hit an iceberg. However, I was very impressed with Sandra, since she really puts hard work and effort into increasing the standard of education for Deaf Guatemalans.

I finally had a chance to meet a certain local Xela Deaf man, Marco De Leon. He went to the United States for college, and stayed for two years. Marco took me to meet some Deaf people, around whom I would do my assignments on. It was an interesting drive – we had to drive through the back roads of the city, on unpaved roads. I got to meet another Deaf Guatemalan who knew other Deaf people up in the mountains. I was excited – there would be more great assignments to come for me!

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