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Josh and Jared in Guatemala |
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 During the last four weeks Jared and I (Josh) have had the wonderful opportunity to study Spanish in Antigua, Guatemala. We flew into Guatemala City and were picked up at the airport by someone from the school. He drove us to our host homes, where we have been staying for the last four weeks. I am staying maybe ¼ of a mile from Jared so we do basically everything together. We both have private tutors every day from 8 in the morning till 12 in the afternoon. Antigua is a very old city (hence the name), with cobblestone streets, and ancient buildings everywhere. It is a very beautiful city located near the base of a volcano. The neighboring volcano, Fuego, is still active and often shoots some of its gray ash into the air for us to see, and sometimes at night it will spray bright red lava into the sky. It is quite a beautiful scenario. We have been studying for four weeks now and are thoroughly enjoying our time and are learning a lot. Neither of us really knew any Spanish when we came down here, but are getting along quite well in Spanish now. We still have a long ways to go and only one week left, but I think that the time has been very profitable for both of us in many ways.
Two things impress me more than the rest about Antigua. The first is how the whole world comes here to learn Spanish. I did not realize how many foreigners would be here, but as it turns out – the majority of the cities income is based on people touring the city. In our school alone we have only met a few students from the States, the majority have been from Switzerland, Germany, London, and Canada. People come here for vacation and then study in the Spanish schools for a week or two and then continue to tour the country. Antigua is located in a good place for people to use it as a hub for touring other places like Honduras, El Salvador, Mexico, and Costa Rica.
The second thing, and probably most impacting is how dark the city is because of Catholicism. Every week and sometimes multiple times a week there are Catholic parades or Catholic fiestas held in different pueblos (close towns). The people live very immoral lifestyles and then go watch or join a parade and consider themselves very spiritual. They don’t look for truth, and are very blinded by “religion.” In the city itself there are few evangelical works but none are really strong or have a strong testimony or effect from what we have heard from the locals. It is such a dark place and I wonder who will take up the burden for these people? Who will come here to a modern Ephesus - a city where the world comes to study and learn Spanish - and be a light in a dark place?
-Josh Roland
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