Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Peeking into the Future: The Site of the Field Station

One of my purposes here in Guatemala is to act as a pilot of the linguistics field station collaboration between the University del Valle de Guatemala and the University of Maryland. It's an exciting position to be in, and not just because I could come out of this coalmine a canary (on the contrary, I think I'm far more likely to strike a vein of gold,) but also because I get to see how such a project takes shape. And then report my observations!

To that end, Pedro took me to pay a visit to the UVG campus outside the city of Sololá - which is where the field station will be located.
Sololá is highlighted in red. Patzun is all the way to the right. Image courtesy of Google Maps

Sololá is perched high above Lake Atitlán, which is the deepest lake in Central America. Also, it is spectacular. Luckily, our drive took us along the ridge above the lake and Pedro was kind enough to stop off at a scenic vista so I could feast my eyes.
The view from the side of the road. Here's Aldous Huxley on Atitlán in 1938: "Lake Como it seems to me, touches on the limit of permissibly picturesque, but Atitlán is Como with additional embellishments of several immense volcanoes. It really is too much of a good thing." 

In the clouds
Upon arriving at UVG, Pedro introduced me to Dr. Jaime Roquel, the Executive Director of the Altiplano Campus (UVG has several campuses, including one in Guatemala City.) He was very welcoming and gave us a tour of the campus. It's a large area, divided into three main spaces. There is a main area for the classroom buildings, cafeteria, and auditorium. There are fields and greenhouses for the agriculture students. And there are garages and workshops for the engineering/mechanic students.The university offers degrees in social sciences, engineering, agriculture, and science & the humanities.
Some of the classroom buildings - and potential locations for the physical presence of the field station!


Another perspective of the lake from the very edge of the campus 
Pedro has many exciting ideas about the future of the field station. For instance, he would like to set up a language exchange adjunct where UVG students can interact with incoming students/linguists at the field station to trade knowledge of Mayan languages with English (for example), and vice versa.

Dr. Roquel, Pedro, and I

'No'j Tinamit; Universidad del Valle de Guatemala; Campus Altiplano'
Kaqchikel word of the day: tinamit (TEEN-a-MEET) - town, city. The "N'oj"in "N'oj Tinamit" probably refers to a day of the Mayan calendar. It's actually the day that corresponds to the one on which I was born! As a result, the 'Mayan name' with which I went by during Kaqchikel classes was Ixn'oj.   

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