An Afternoon to Remember

Servando, Pat and a young lady from Guatemala City visiting Santa Cruz,

In August while at Santa Cruz on Lake Atitlan, I met Noê & Servando. Servando who was then 15, lives in Santa Cruz. He is quite a personable young man. He gave me his email address & has kept in touch regularly on Facebook.

To be honest I was a tad unsure as my Spanish is still in its formative stage! Not to worry! Servando is an amazing, talented and affable young man. We quickly began talking over the lunch menu. He asked me many intelligent questions:

• What music did I like?
• What my family is like?
• Was I religious?
• Is futbol popular in the U.S.?
• Have I heard of "Rammstein," a German industrial metal band formed in 1994?

We talked at length about careers. He wants to work in cinema. We talked about the advantage of researching several possible options just in case the cinema field did not work out.

Enter the young lady from Guate (Guatemala City). She overheard us talking. It turns out she is familiar with cinema in Guate & has specific contacts for Servando. Gracia a Dios! This was terrific for him. Later in the conversation, I was able to obtain recommendations of Guatemalan & other Latino films to use to improve my Spanish at home. A muy amable chica!

Enter Pat Tropie I met Pat on Servando´s Facebook friends page. Pat is from Washington State & lives in Santa Cruz 6 months a year. She is head of an NGO which assists Santa Cruz youth in many important ways. Please check the site out at amigosdesantacruz.org

There we were, the four of us, talking animatedly about the experience of Lake Atitlan and their youth. As is often the case, words cannot adequately express how impressive a young man Servando is. A truly gifted individual personally, in his contributions to Santa Cruz, in his interests, and I think future.