ed u c ati o n
Story and photos by Jan Kurtz
“What do you mean….go to school for your vacation?” was the reaction I got when asked what I planned to do for my next trip. School is different in Cuernavaca, I began. Classes are held under a sun umbrella by the pool! I live in a house filled with colorful tiles, white washed walls dripping with red budding bougainvillea vines and a waterfall gurgling into fountains. Every morning, Rosita’s mother sets me a place at the end of the dining table before rejoining the hired señora in the kitchen, where they scramble eggs with salchichas, squeeze fresh orange juice and heat corn tortillas. After breakfast, I step outside, into the city where Hernan Cortés, 1519 Spanish invader, and La Malinche, his Indian translator/lover, vacationed. Uneven sidewalks lead past chipping turquoise and pink painted walls down the street toward the unassuming colonial building with iron grating shut over a wooden door. Overhead, a small sign announces: Spanish Language Institute. Passing through the darkened entryway, one enters a sunny, lush courtyard flanked with bungalows of classrooms. This is the school founded by Rosita, family and friends. So, do you want to go along, I inquired of the four women I hoped would accompany me. Not as my students, but…I paused to look for any glimmer of interest. Six months later, Abra Fisk, Heidi Purdy, Sue Bowman, Tyra Osvold and I were at the Mexico City Airport trying to explain the large suitcase overflowing with children’s underwear we had collected to deliver to Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos orphanage. After some discussion, the customs agents released us to the outside, where Rosita and Raphael waited with grins and hugs. Raphael kept pace with the late afternoon Mexico City traffic, while Heidi, sitting “shotgun,” was shooting everything. Volkswagen taxis. Click. Balloon vendors. Click. Billboards. Click. When the metropolis gave way to the mountains, Raphael slowed to take the switchbacks and I strained to glimpse the volcano, Popocatépetl and his princess, Ixtaccíhuatl. We had studied their legend and now, they were appearing before us. It was dark when we were unloaded into the waiting arms of our host families and total Spanish immersion. Morning reunited us under the promised school sun umbrella for placement testing. No time for travel weariness! School orientation was followed by a walking tour of downtown Cuernavaca. Mañana: Mexico City for the Shrine of Guadalupe and the Pyramids of Teotihuacán. Sunday: Pequeños Hermanos. Monday: classes.
Going to school on vacation, from bottom to top: Tyra Osvold, Abra Fisk and Sue Bowman learn about paper made from Maguey, Abra reads to a “Pequeño,” flower stalls in abundance, Abra and Heidi Purdy study by the pool, dancers at the old and new Basilica, Pyramid of the Sun. 26
FALL 2011 | her voice