Theo's Na'atik Adventure
Background: When I was twelve, my family and I traveled for nine weeks throughout Latin America. Na’atik was our first stop on the trip, to help us learn Spanish. We loved Na’atik! Three years later, my mom organized a trip so I could travel alone to Na’atik.
And so, as a fifteen-year-old, I returned to Felipe Carrillo Puerto. I was nervous. My trip was my second time flying alone and my first time traveling alone internationally. I was going to visit people I barely knew in a place I barely remembered. But I loved the place and now would happily do it again. In fact, I can’t wait to go back next year. Mexico turned out, like many things, to be much scarier as an idea than as a reality. Once I arrived with my family, I immediately felt safe and at home.They were inclusive and spoke slowly so that I could understand them. Dona Maria was a stay at home mom and she cooked the meal and did the other chores. The food that she cooked was delicious.
We would have some sort of meat, tortilla, and a third item for lunch and dinner, and lunch was almost always a hot soup. Don Jose was an accountant. Abi and Elias were two of their children and they both played instruments well. Abi played the drums and Elias played guitar, piano, and he sung.Catherine and Simon did a great job organizing everything, and it was always clear where I was supposed to go and what I should doing. Visiting Bacalar, a famous lagoon of seven colors, was very fun, and so were the Mayan ruins nearby. Bacalar was beautiful, and it was really fun to play with Clayton, another teenager traveling on his own, and the others. We went out on a pontoon boat into the lagoon, and we were able to swim in two spots. I didn’t put sunblock on my back but it was worth it to go swimming anyway. We also met a girl named Claire, who spoke almost completely fluent Spanish and Maya. She was studying language in college.Overlooking the lagoon was a fort that Claire, Clayton, and I went into to explore.
There was a room of pineapple painting that I think had been done by students for some sort of fundraiser. After Bacalar, Claire, Clayton, a woman whose name I don’t remember, and I went to eat dinner at a taqueria. The food was delicious but I felt slightly ill. I don’t know why, I must have eaten something bad but the day before I had only eaten at home so I’m not sure why I felt ill. I ended up feeling ill for the rest of the week though. After dinner, we went to get ice cream in the center square. I didn’t get anything because I felt ill but everyone else seemed to enjoy their ice cream. After ice cream, we went to the Maya museum. Clayton and the woman had met a man who made instruments earlier. They saw him in the park and so they called him over. Claire translated for them as they learned about the various instruments that he had made. He had carved them from wood and Clayton and the women bought three in total.
When I was coming to Felipe Carrillo Puerto, I completely forgot about the visa form that I needed to fill out. I didn’t know all the information on it and so I started to get nervous. I texted my mom from the airport in Cancun as soon as I landed and luckily, she texted me the information quickly. Unfortunately, I couldn’t process the information. The Customs lady spoke bad English and I spoke bad Spanish and so I struggled to explain why I was going to Felipe Carrillo Puerto and with whom and what I would be doing. Eventually she was satisfied with just Ananias’phone number and the address of Na’atik. (Na’atik sent Ananias to pick me up at the airport and escort me back to town by bus). Then I had to find Ananias. I found him quickly and he was awesome. He got me all the way to Catherine and Simon, who took me to my homestay family. My homestay family was at church when I arrived and so Catherine, Simon, and I sat in under a pavilion watching some local boys playing soccer. They were very skilled and they impressed all three of us.
The next day I went to track and was surprised that it was easier than I remembered. I think that my height made the running easier for me because I was not running as far relative to my height. Those were my biggest events in Mexico.
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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.