Faces of Na’atik: Shiloh
Hi! My name is Shiloh. I am nine years old. In August of 2022 my family and I went on an adventure to Felipe Carrillo Puerto. I was nervous and excited to take my first trip out of the United States. After a 3-hour bus ride from Cancun to Carrillo our Na’atik coordinator, Érica, met us at the bus station. We took a taxi with Érica to meet our amazing host family and to settle in for the night.
We attended Spanish classes at Na’atik for five days. On the first day Érica gave us a tour of the school. After the tour Érica introduced us to our Spanish teachers. My teacher’s name was Talicia. I loved her so much. The rest of the first day Talicia and I talked in Spanish and wrote in our notebooks so she could learn more about my Spanish abilities.
On the second day the school gave us bikes to use during our stay. My family and I rode our bikes to and from our homestay every day. The city of Carrillo is very flat so it is easy to ride bikes everywhere. The pace of life is slower in Carrillo and everyone rides at a more relaxed and carefree pace. It is also very hot in August so everyone needs to preserve their energy and drink plenty of water. After school and lunch every day my family and I signed up to go on local adventures around the area. The school of Na’atik helped us set up tours to swim in the lagoon, visit a Maya beekeeper, make screen printing t-shirts of Maya art, a visit to a Maya herbal center to learn about the healing properties of local plants and to eat at a local restaurant.
Exploring Carrillo by bike
My learning goal was to practice my Spanish within the culture. So my teacher Talicia invited me to her house and made me delicious tortillas! She took me to the museum and taught me more about the Maya people. Many of the people in Carrillo consider themselves Maya first and Mexican second. Throughout the week Talicia and I did fun experiential learning for kids my age. We played games and went for ice cream and I practiced ordering different flavors in Spanish. I had the opportunity to play soccer and go swimming at the local pool with Talicia and her nephews who were my age. The water in the pool was like a hot tub which I loved but after an hour we needed to leave because it began to rain really hard. We rode back to the school to celebrate my mom’s teacher’s birthday by singing in Spanish and eating tres leches cake.
Visiting local stingless bees at a meliponario
On the last day of class Talicia and I worked on a couple of projects, played games, and went to visit a kid’s arcade to play video games in Spanish. I liked how my teacher was always fun and in a good mood. At the end of the last day, Érica, the coordinator, gathered all of the students into the library and we played trivia in Spanish, celebrated another birthday and then had a graduation ceremony where I received my certificate and took pictures with my teacher, Talicia. I have to say from my experience Na’atik is a great school with amazing staff!!!
Graduation with my teacher, Talicia
In addition to excellent schooling, our host family was wonderful! They treated us like family. They were so nice and filled up their pool for us so we could swim every day after school. My host mom made amazing traditional food for us for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. She also prepared special juices or fruit milk every day with different types of fruit. My favorite flavors were dragon fruit, strawberry, and watermelon. In my host family there was one grandma, two 13-year-old twins, one 17-year-old cousin, a mom, a dad, two kittens, two dogs, and 108 mini birds. All of the animals lived outside and I enjoyed visiting and playing with them in my free time. I hope my teacher and my host family will come to visit our family in Wisconsin someday soon!
My time in Felipe Carrillo Puerto was incredible and I would like to share that with everyone and say, muchísimas gracias.
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The best way to experience the Mexican lifestyle is in person, with a Na’atik Immersion experience. Not only do you live with a local Mexican-Maya family, sharing home-cooked meals and free time, but also receive expert instruction in your chosen language at our school. Best of all, every immersion experience helps fund our subsidized and free local education program, helping local students to access opportunities and make their own futures.