Mi Maestra (my teacher) Elena de Aragon

You may wonder, who was my teacher? Elena de Aragon! For six months, 4 hours a day, Elena had the ______________ (insert your own word here, possibly "joy" or "challenge") of helping me learn Spanish.

Class was in a beautiful setting. Christian Spanish Academy (CSA), located in Antigua Guatemala, has about 70 teachers. The school has a great reputation, to the point that they are full for this coming summer.
The school is well run. When students arrive they are tested, assigned a teacher and a table. On Thursday of each week each student is able to shared his/her schedule for the next week, and request a new teacher or a new table. I did change tables a few times, when I felt that my "learning ability" had dried up in that particular location. On the other hand, I never did change teachers. Elena was excellent. Very quickly she "learned" to appreciate my humor and but even more important than that, she was an excellent teacher.

What happened in class?
In the first few months, we spent a lot of time working through CSA's grammar book and workbook. Even though I entered the school with a little bit of Spanish, I failed the entrance exam and needed to start at the very beginning. As I progressed through the grammar books, less and less time was spent in them and more time was given to conversation. Sometimes we would read the Bible, sometimes the newspaper, and sometimes we would go to the market and learn the names of things there. The more I learned, the less Elena would speak English. Many times in class, the first part was spent with me telling what had happened since our last class. Since class was one on one, there was no one to hide behind and the pressure was on. Of course, Elena was very patient and gracious. She continually corrected me and many times my stories would be interrupted when I wanted to know "why is it said that way?"

Elena deserves an award in Patience. Many times there were words that I had switched in my mind and needed to relearn. For example, the word for hair is "cabello" and the word for horse is "caballo." Elena particularly enjoy when I went to get my "caballo" for a haircut. And her patience was demonstrated when it took me weeks to get it straight in my mind.

Elena, if you ever read this, muchas gracias Elena por tu trabajo. Tu trabajo es un regalo de Dios. Muchas gracias.