My name is Melissa Shephard and I work in Graceland’s Department of Communications. January 5-20 I will be in San Pedro, Guatemala on the Transcultural Nursing Experience winter term. Although I wasn’t a Nursing major (I graduated from GU back in 2011) I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to accompany our wonderful School of Nursing on this trip.
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| Guatemala on the map. Picture courtesy of http://bit.ly/WepdkR |
San Pedro sounds like a wonderful, small community. It rests on the shore of Lake Atitlan, a scenic lake formed out of an ancient volcanic basin. The small villages surrounding this lake, like San Pedro, are inhabited by the contemporary descendants of the ancient Maya (which I think is too cool!)
In San Pedro, we will focus on learning as much as we can about the Spanish language and culture. We will be taking one-on-one, four-hour lessons at a local Spanish School (which I’m very excited for and intimidated by) and participate in a number of cultural activities (including salsa dancing and let me tell you this—this girl has absolutely NO rhythm—I’m thinking the locals might get a kick out of watching me try salsa!) We’ll also be visiting local health clinics, a hospital, a medicinal garden and a school for the developmentally disabled, where we’ll make rounds with a cuadaro (natural healer.) During our trip we will be staying with a local family. The family my friend Karlee and I are staying with has a nine year old girl and I’m already excited to meet her!
We fly out early Saturday morning, and I’m nervous about getting everything ready to go (I’ll admit it—I’m a worrier) and concerned about my extremely rusty Spanish skills (sorry Professor Jiménez!), but more than anything I’m so excited. The Spanish language and culture has always fascinated me and I can’t wait to broaden my perspective of the world.
Wish me luck!
-Melissa
Glad you're able to go! Sounds like a wonderful experience! Safe travels - take lots of pictures and write all about it! :)
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