Log 8: Last week in Tecpán

In our second week of Kaqchikel classes in Tecpán many things happened. We welcomed some guests from UVG (Universidad del Valle de Guatemala), which is a partner in the field-station project. We had with us the Director Ejecutivo Juan Carlos Villatoro, the decano (dean) Mario Morales, the coordinator of Turism Lic. Pablo Castro and one student, Samuel de León. The students stayed with us in class most of the time. They already knew some Kaqchikel and were able to catch up. The UVG people, including Pedro, and Masha met to discuss joint projects.

Mario, Juan, Masha and Pedro after their meeting

Dr. Peter Rohloff, one of the founders of Wuqu' Kawoq, also visited us during the week. He spoke with us in fluent Kaqchikel (picture coming soon).

In this second week, we began more advanced topics in Kaqchikel grammar such as antipassives, causatives, positionals and directionals. We learned how to use transitive clauses with ergative and absolutive marking and also how to haggle in the market!

Paulina bargaining in Kaqchikel with Rodrigo

In the last day of the our second week in Guatemala, which marked the end of our stay in Tecpán and the end of our classes, we received our diplomas. Though we were happy with the all we'd learned, we were a bit sad with the end of this first part of our trip. We all got really close during those two weeks. We had so much fun together!

Receiving Kaqchikel Diploma from Ixikamey