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 hain 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!
