Survey Trip: Guatemala & Costa Rica Report

*For a summary report without the complete travelogue read our prayer letter here. Read our administrator's report here.

Dear Praying Family,

Thank you to all who prayed for us during our trip to Guatemala and Costa Rica last month. We had an enjoyable and profitable trip! We joined our mission’s administrator, Bob Trout, in order to evaluate the options for language study in these two countries.

I grew up in Peru and speak Spanish fluently. However, Angela will need to study Spanish in an intensive, immersive setting before we can step into ministry together when we arrive in Peru. I also need to improve my Spanish since all of my education has been in English. We are considering Guatemala as an option for language study because I would be able to take classes in Spanish at a seminary and develop the vocabulary and language skills for preaching and teaching.

8/27/04 Guatemala City, Guatemala

We arrived in Guatemala City, Guatemala and took a taxi to the Central American Theological Seminary (Seminario Teológico Centroamericano - SETECA). They have multiple tracks and degree programs from diplomas to doctorates. All told about 1,300 students are enrolled. They have an "internado" or resident student program. Most of these students participate in the Monday through Friday day classes. They also have an evening track and a Saturday (all day) track. The masters & doctoral programs have their own schedule.

The newer building on the left holds the library, computer lab, offices, and a few classrooms for the graduate programs. The buildings on the right were built between the World Wars and include classrooms, single student housing, the cafeteria, and offices. The chapel is out of the picture on the right.	*Click on any image to view a larger version in a new window. Use your browser's back button to return here.
The library has over 20,000 books. About 30-40% of the library is in Spanish. I was immediately able to find nine books in Spanish on one topic I am studying.

At lunch time we ignored the McDonalds down the street and ate at a national chicken fast food place.

We ate supper Friday night with two dozen resident students in the cafeteria. We shared a table with a girl from Honduras, a guy from El Salvador, two Spaniards, and a Cuban. There are several Cuban students here. Their government allows them to study for one or two years at a time. There are a number of Peruvians here as well. A group of students from Honduras were selling snacks at break time to raise money for their missions trip to Pucalpa in the Peruvian jungle. The seminary has students from all over the Spanish speaking world.

From what little we’ve seen of Central America in Costa Rica and Guatemala nearly all of the roads in the cities are one way streets. We even saw divided highways with 2 lanes on each side where all 4 lanes were going in the same direction.

We stayed in a little apartment on the seminary campus. They charged us $52 for three nights and at least one meal every day.

I spoke with a CAM (Central America Mission) missionary about the language school situation. CAM missionaries had surveyed language schools and decided that the Christian Spanish Academy (CSA) in Antigua was the best option. We will visit Antigua once Mr. Trout arrives on Monday.

We visited a local church with a missionary couple we met. The church had a special music program to celebrate its 28th anniversary.

8/30/04 Guatemala City / Antigua

We had a great conversation (OK, Angela says I had a good conversation – in Spanish) at lunch yesterday with a guy from Lima and a Cuban about the quirks of Guatemalan Spanish. We've discovered a few things on our own too. If you ask for a bottle of water (agua) at the store they will ask you what flavor you want! It's like "coke" in the States some places. Water means soda. You have to ask for "pure water" if you want real water. When I asked for my pure water "sin helada" (not cold) the guy looked at me funny and then asked if I wanted it "al tiempo" (on time?) – I guess that's how they say “not cold” here.

Married student apartments on the other side of the soccer field.	The seminary's radio station is the building on the left. The music department is out of the picture on the right.

I sat in on an Old Testament Theology class in the Master of Theology program. The professor, Ismael Ramirez, recently earned his doctorate from Cambridge. It was a very interesting class! Most of the professors at the seminary are native Spanish speakers. The faculty is well credentialed.

Welcome back to the smog! Just like some parts of Lima, your feet turn black from the soot if you walk about barefoot in the house. I have to say the fumes and clouds of smoke hanging in the air behind the busses were worse here than in Lima. It’s a lot better when you get off the main roads. They say Antigua (where we would probably live) is a lot better.

We had to start thinking in quetzales instead of dollars. The exchange rate is about 7.5 quetzales to a dollar. Things appear more expensive, but you can buy a pair of shoes for 189 quetzales which is a little over $25. A bottle of water costs only 1 quetzal or 13 cents.

We met Mr. Trout at the airport and rode 45 minutes over the mountains to the town of Antigua. Antigua is a small colonial town of 16,000 with cobblestone streets.

We stayed in a beautiful little hotel where they turn down your covers at night. The hotel used to be a cloister for the nuns who would use a tunnel through the arch across the street to avoid being seen on their way to the school on the other side. Everything is in walking distance in Antigua. We were surprised at how often we heard English spoken on the street. There are a lot of tourists!

There are many schools that teach Spanish in Antigua. The best school is the Christian Spanish Academy (CSA). CSA has 44-57 tutors who work one-on-one with each student. They test the students to determine their learning style. The school offers specialized programs for missionaries and nurses. They also said they could work with me at a more advanced level. There are several clinics and hospitals around the town where Angela could volunteer and work on her medical Spanish. We looked at a very nice little apartment which we could rent for $350 per month. The school itself seemed rather expensive, but it comes out to only $6 per hour for individual tutoring.

Click to visit their website.

9/1/04 Guatemala / San Jose, Costa Rica

Bright and early on Wednesday morning Angela and I caught our plane to Costa Rica. We took a taxi from the airport in the capital, San Jose. The Taxi driver was listening to one of their two English radio stations. It felt strange to hear a report on traffic in the city from a voice that sounded like it was on the radio back in the States.

Just when we had gotten used to dividing everything by 7.5 to pay in quetzales in Guatemala we had to start dividing everything by 400 to pay with colones in Costa Rica. Now things really look expensive!

The language school in San Jose.

We visited the language school where all ABWE missionaries currently study Spanish. They have a classroom setting with small classes of 5-10 students. The Costa Rica language school definitely has a very good support system. They have over 100 students (mostly Americans) at any given time. The school takes care of all paperwork for visas. There are other ABWE missionaries planting churches in the city. The city itself seemed cleaner and safer than Guatemala City. We heard San Jose even has a Sam’s Club! San Jose would be an easier and more comfortable transition.

Conclusion

In the end we returned from our Central America jaunt with a better understanding of the options. Our administrator approved the Guatemala school for us. All things considered we believe Guatemala will be the best choice. We believe that option will best prepare us for future ministry in Peru. Please pray with us as we near the time when we will have to make that decision.

Jonathan and Angela Stone