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.