Hello dear friends of the Juan Sisay Spanish School! This is the fourth Newsletter we send to you and the very first thing we want to do in this Newsletter is to say thank you for your interest in the School, in Xela and in Guatemala! You receive this Newsletter because you subscribed on one of the schools homepages (either http://www.juansisay.com or http://www.juansisay.de) or are a known friend of the school. If you want to unsubscribe from this Newsletter just reply to it (using the same email-address, you used for subscribing) and change the subject to "unsubscribe". Content: 1. Two Newsletters in two days? 2. About Guatemala 3. About Quetzaltenango 4. About the school 5. About the families 6. Contact 7. Older Newsletters 1. Two Newsletters in two days? This Newsletter is written irregularly, normally I try to write one every three weeks or so. Yesterday I had the time and mood to write you some things I figured out recently, but today I got a mail with some more news. Because of the fact that some of them are time-dependent, I decided to write this very soon. Also I have to excuse myself for sending you more than one copy of the third one yesterday, that was due to a problem with my mail client. Sorry for that! 2. About Guatemala Not only in Germany elections will be held very soon, in Guatemala the election campaign also started. The party of the actual government FRG began some activities to gain the votes of the indigenous people by distributing small amounts of ground to the rural villages. It seems like they want to buy their votes, unfortunately the majority of the people couldn’t realize, that they are betrayed by getting not much more than nothing but being expropriated when necessary. 3. About Quetzaltenango + There is another new discotheque in Xela. The place is named "Xs" it has a disco and a bar and is just some minutes away from the school. It is located in the 14th Av, 5th Calle in Zona 1 + Another Internet Café opened in Xela, too. The name is "Internet de Xela," it is in the 7th Av., 8th Calle. It is not as beautiful like the Cafetera Net, but it is another place to reduce the time to wait for a free PC. + A gay organisation started its work recently. It is called "Arcoiris". They offer parties, reunions to discuss the situation of the gay community, sexual education and much more. If you want to get more information about this, you can contact Wilberth Gonzales via eMail: mailto:rg1881@yahoo.com. + The indigenous women of Xela asked the women of Guatemala in general to boycott the brewery; one indigenous was prohibited to enter a restaurant in the capital because she was wearing her typical clothing. Because she is a graduated anthropologist, she has a bigger influence to the press and her words are heard by more people in Guatemala. + In Teatro Roma there are special performances every 15 days about different topics. The last one was "El Loco" from Gibran Jalil Gibrán. + On the 17th of July the "Ballet Folklorico del Inguat" will perform exclusively for the students of the Spanish schools in Xela! This is organized by the ACEEQ, the "Asociacion de escuelas de Espańol de Quetzaltenango" in which the Juan Sisay Spanish school is also associated. 4. About the school + From the 15th of July on every student in his first week have the opportunity to take on hour of dancing classes (Salsa y Merengue) for free at the Latin Rhythm Dance Studio. + The work of the reforestation project of the school started in mid June and will last till end of august. This year, about 4.000 pines, alders and cypresses will be planted in. We would like to say "Thank you!" to all students and ex-students of the school for all the help and donations which helped us to realize this project this year. But most we have to thank you for the help to plant them! + On the 23rd of July we will start again with the English classes in the Pacajá school in the rural area. Classes will be held on Tuesdays in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd year. A very special and warm thank you goes to Margareth Rose and Brad Seagle - they worked more than one month every afternoon in the school and invested a lot of time and energy to teach English to the children and to develop our community. + In the early august we will celebrate our dinner with the children of the project "Educación para los Nińos". We will play together and teach them about the importance of dental hygiene and some ecological topics. We will also give vitamins to the children who need them most. + In June we had our youngest student ever: Naomi is not older than five years! + The school organized a special three-day-trip to Coban Alta Verapaz from the 5th to the 7th of July. We visited "La caverna (caverna = cave) de Chicoy", an impressive place for Mayan ceremonies and the Rey Marcos-hollows, caves with stalagmites and stalactites, which was found four years ago after being unknown for more than 1. 000 by the people. We also visited the Quetzal biotope and some other interesting places! This was a very beautiful trip and the students liked it a lot so we decided to offer more activities like this! 5. About the families + Some of you may know the Loarca family (Kelly and Rich for example) - you know have a little friend more in Guatemala. Lilian and Giovani got a little boy named Allan Giovani on the 4th of July! + And for the ones who have been with Don Armando and his wife Edna, also Diana gave birth to a little girl! 6. Contact http://www.juansisay.com (en) http://www.juansisay.de (ger) info@juansisay.com 7. Older Newsletters You can find the older Newsletters and even this one here: http://www.juansisay.com/archiv/index.htm in pdf-format and also as a flat text file. Ok, that’s it for the moment; I hope to be able to send you the next Newsletter soon (but maybe not that soon ?). Hasta luego, Andreas Webmaster & Coordinador Internacional