“Do you have a preference as to the type of family you’d like to stay with?” It was Sunday afternoon and I had just arrived in the Guatemalan western highlands town of Xela. I was about to begin eight weeks Spanish-language tuition, a mandatory provision of my Australian Volunteers Abroad placement in Central America. I thought about the language school co- ordinator’s question for a moment before shaking my head. “Not really. Whatever you’ve got.” Someone dispatched a young boy to summon a member of the family the co-ordinator chose and a few minutes later a woman by the name…