a little review of what i've been up to!

WOW! okay so it has been sooooo long since my last post and i am so sorry for the delay! things are going well, but slowly here in guatemala. i have switched over in the office to work only with the womens office which will be a good thing. i have done some work shops for womens groups about self esteem and about their citizen rights. i look forward to delving in deeper into many issues soon!
my friend deb from alaska came to visit me in la demo in feb. that was so great, we hung out during the town fair, met lots of people and took in the sites, we even were able to relax by the pool!

so, feb. was the month of visitors and my friend rachel came all the way from vermont to visit me, we hung out, hiked a volcano, we were even able to head out on lake atitlan with a canoe. what a beautiful morning that was! pretty much had a great time catching up and eating yummy foodso after rachel left, i had a little down time in my site to get ready for semana santa, the week of the saints. this is the week before easter and is a huge celebration here in gutemala. there are processions in many towns. they first make these rugs on the streets out of flowers, pine needles, dyed sawdust, you name it and then they process over them. also during semana santa families take a trip together to some other location. i was lucky enough to head to mexico with the family where i am living. we went to some lakes and even though it was cloudy managed to have a great time, bbqued tortillas and all!

near some other lakes, i came across a foto opportunity with some mexican police officers...no i wasn't arrested because so far it's illegal to arrest someone for being too cool. ha ha

on our way home from there we stopped on the side of the road for some watermelon and corn on the cobb. yum!!!

in the first couple weeks of april mom and ron came for a visit. that was so great! we started out in antigua and then they headed north west to my site. everyone in la demo loved meeting them and they also loved meeting everyone! after my site we went to the ruins outside of huehuetenango and then stopped in xela for a couple days and then off to lake atitlan. beautiful views from our hotel. the last couple of days were spent in antigua where we had a wonderful last meal together!

my apartment in la democracia

here i am on the porch of my little apartment in la democracia. i have two rooms, one has my kitchen and bathroom and fridge, table chairs etc. the other has my bed, couch and is more of a sitting room. to get the best idea of what its like i am accepting visitors at all times! come on over!

the neighboring kids never hesitate to take me up on my invitation to visitors. they love checking out what the gringa is up to and how i live my life. some of them are also interested in learning english. one little girl keeps asking me how to write certain words and to teach her to write in english but she doesn't know how to write period. too funny!
this is the view from my porch, looking toward the center of town and also toward the surrounding mountains. truly a beautiful spot where i am, on every side there are tall, tree covered mountains.

new years at lake atitlan

headed to panajachel on lake atitlan for new years. it was great, abou 30 of us from our initial training group met there and had a great time dancing in the new year. it is such a beautiful lake and i was so excited to be able to go for a new years swim. i spent new years day with friends, swimming, relaxing and eating delicious food.
these are picturs from one of the sunsets. wow, the weather was warm and the views were gorgeous. you should really come visit!

my friend cynthia, another volunteer, and i on our way to go swimming! que rico!

christmas stateside

so i headed to san diego for christmas, it was really great to be able to spend some time with the family...and to be able to fill them in on my goings on here.

niels and cyndi were so sweet to plan a Thanksgiving dinner for me since i wasnt able to partake in one here in guatemala. how strange they dont celebrate thanksgiving here- ha ha ha.

so the one thing that made it feel like christmas was people putting up some christmas lights on their houses, or around their yards.

the main tradition here is for people to eat tamales on christmas eve night at midnight. yum, tamales! i took a bus south before christmas and there were huge lines of people waiting to send packages on the bus. turns out most of the packages were tamales that people were sending to their relatives in other parts of guatemala. too funny, i rode on a bus with hundreds of tamales below me...people even send them to their family in the states, i guess there are no tamales like mom's tamales.