the center of my town & my home!

so here's some pictures of the center of town from the view from the top level of my house, it's a huuuge open balcony! wooo! and so the center is pretty small, because there's only 2,000 people in the town, but it's bustling. well not in these pictures because it's 6 am. but all the other times, it is. kids playing basketball, walking around, eating food, playing soccer, just kicking around, hanging out. it's really awesome, there's a lot of activities in it. to the right is a huge beautiful catholic church. and then to the right of that is a huge community center with little shops and then big open space for different community activities. once every month there's a huge celebration of some some sort with food and dancing and everything with most all the members of the pueblo! so that's really cool, it's a tightknit community with lots of stuff going on! and then we have a market twice a week so people from the surrounding pueblos come to sell and buy all sorts of fruits and vegetables! so i love that!

and then, here's some pictures of my room!! it's got a tin roof which i LOVE because i really enjoy the sound when it rains. it's really calming. so they made it all up for me with shelves, a dresser, a bed, a table! i still have to buy a stove and chairs, but other than that, i'm set! so that's great! so here's those pictures-- i posted a lot! i hope you all enjoy!

btw- no internet in my site!!!!! i'm pretty sure that i'm the only site of the volunteers without internet, so that's a unique experience!!! i've enjoyed speaking to you all so frequently, but it just can't happen like this when i move! i'm sorrrry!!! but if i could, i totally would, you know it!!! i love you all very much! hope all is well in the states!!! woooooooo!!!! mucho amor!!!! : )

here's some pictures of baja vera paz!!!

these are pictures of my town.. the streets and all.. there's one of my schools and the volunteer i'm replacing.. and then to the left of her is my counterpart, the superintendent of the schools, and the director all the way on the right. then there's another picture of my school with the bridge in it. there's 2 rivers that run through my town with cool big rocks around them! and then another picture of the dirt road i walk down to get to that school. but it's really cute, surrounded by mountains, in the middle of nowhere, 3 hours down a dirt road! ah, but it's gorgeous, there's such little population out there so there's just mountains and mountains and it's so lush and green! and it's super safe too because it's the last stop on the really long dirt road, so no one goes there unless they live there or live near by!

some photos of the wedding of my homestay sister! and my san mateo family!

so here's some photos of the wedding that was a couple weeks ago! it was really nice, the bride and groom and everyone walked down the street of san mateo and arrived in the downstairs of our home where like 75 people were waiting. and the whole legal ceremony took place.. and they kissed and everything, and it was really cute!! then we all walked over to the church where they had the religious ceremony.. and there's a picture of us in front of the church. and then the other picture is of my homestay mom and dad, my little brother (oh really he's my nephew because he's my borther's son), and then my other little brother, edy.. we're really close, playing uno for hours always, and i help him with his homework a lot tooo!

my san mateo family!!

these are some pictures of my homestay brother and sister and my cousins in front of a fountain in antigua!! and then some of my homestay mom and dad and grandma in front of the church!! yaayy!!! and then we all piled into a pickup truck.. like 15 of us!! ahh!!

some more of the ruins & wedding preparation & the walk to get baptized

these of some more of the ruins & huehuetenango, the city! others are of the buuuge amount of women making tomales for the wedding!! they made sooo many tomales!!! all of us taking the camioneta and walking to the big beautiful church where my little brother got baptized!!! wooo!!

huehuetenango mam ruins & my family in san mateo!

so these pictures are from everywhere. the ones you see of people are my family here in san mateo.. the ones you see of ruins are of the ruins in huehuetenango.. hours from here, where i went to visit another volunteer!

my site!!!

hello all!!
i hope all is well with you all!! i miss you lotsss and love you lots!!! thanks for checking in!!
so my site! ah! it's the cutest thing ever, i love it!!! its 3 hours on a dirt road.. ahhhh!! gotta take 5 buses to get from here to there. it's pretty crazy, totalllly totally out there!! it's the last stop in the middle of nowhere.. so i gotta backtrack if i wanna go anywhere else.. it's reeeally tranquilo and super friendly and really cute with cobblestone streets and a really nice big park and a couple futball fields and little tiendas. i live above a pharmacy with a family, i live in a little apartment behind their house.. it's really cute and they completely furnished it for me!! i'll show you all pictures! my site visit was sooo packed with activities.. and apparently that's how it's gonna be always.. up early and activity activity activity of all sorts.. so i'm gonna be on my feet lots and moving around!!

soo yeeah, the first day i got there we all planted trees, all the kids, the parents and everyone.. it was a reforestation project that the volunteer, hannah, that i'm replacing and other members of the community planned as a response to the increasing pressure to log their land for major companies. then there was cultural night in the huuge community center thats in town.. and then there was a maaagic show!! ahh!! it waas really fun. then we hung out and ate pizza and the magician performed card tricks for us! the next day, i watched hannah give an HIV/AIDS presentation. which was awesome! i'm gonna be doing a lot of hiv/aids work in my town and the surrounding towns.. which is so important on so many levels, most honestly. so i'm really excited about that!! then we ate some egg sandwiches and then i helped judge a debate among the kids about the death penalty and abortion.. really heavy topics for them and it was their first debate, so it was a really big deal. they did an awesome job though!!

the next day, there was a huuge meeting with all the directors of all the municipal (so my town and all the surrounding towns that are part of the municipal).. so i presented myself in front of like 35 directors from all the schools. and then later on i went around to all the schools with my CTA (who is the superintendent of all the schools.. and one of the people that is going to be helping with me projects and stuff).. so i met all the directors more personally of the 4 schools i'm going to be working at-- 2 middle schools and 2 diversificados! then later that night i ate dinner with my family and uppacked some stuff and yeah, went to sleep! woke up and took 5 buses to get home to san mateo! and now i'm here! ah! i'm gonna download some photos for you all to see because i love you all so much!!!!!!!!! : ) all the best health, happiness and love for you all!!!!!!!!!

ahhhh!!

hey lovely friends and family!
thanks for the birthday wishes all!! i miss you all a whole lot and i apologize for it being a while since i've posted! it's been preeettty busy round here! last weekend i went to a wedding on saturday for my friend robyn's sister! it was the first time that i heard wedding music for real! so that was really cool! then the next day i went to the baptism with my whole san mateo family! seriously left the house at 800 in the morning with over 20 people, piled in the back of the bus a juntos. it was a graand day! we waited outside of this beauuutiful catholic church right in front of the park in antigua for about an hour before the baptism. my brothers, sisters, cousins and i walked around the park, took pictures, ate icecream, watched the people walking around. it was very relaxing and nice for so many people to be together for such a special occasion. i took pictures of bryan with the water and everything, so i'm totally gonna make a photo album for them soon before i leave.

so i found out where i'm living for the next two years on my birthday!!!! my birthday was absolutely marvellous. i woke up really early and my homestay mom gave me a hug and wished me a feliz cumpleanos!!! then i went upstairs and my homestay brother presented me with a beautiful red rose that smelled sooo wonderful! i helped him with his homework for about an hour. then my homestay sister presented me with a beautiful card that wished me health, happiness and long life! and then i ate pancakes with honey.. mmm!! and coffee!! and then my little cousin helen gave me a little paper box with feliz cumpleanos and she decorated it! it was so cute!! and then i went downstairs to get changed and my other homestay sister norah, the one with the litttle cutie baby boy, bryan, gave me a beautiful bracelet made out of volcanic stone that has pictures of jesus and mary on it! oh! and my friend tiara gave me a sweet friendship bracelet of pink, red, yellow and orange, the colors of passion and fire!! i love all my gifts, it was just such a special day from beginning to end in all possible ways!!! it was marvelous, i am so grateful for my friends here, and my family who truly showed me how much they care about me on that day. it was wonderful, i was almost in tears when i kept recieving such cute gifts and the thought behind them is so pure and sweet!

then we went to san miguel and we found out our sites!!! i'm going to santa cruz el chol in baja vera paz!! at first, i don't think i said a word for about an hour because i was just so surprised and taken aback!! but then i talked to my boss about it more and how beautiful it is and how much the volunteer there loves it and how great my counterpart is (the person who i'm working with on the projects, whose gonna help me get to know the community and all), and all that jazz! so then i got suuuuuuper excited! i'm gonna be near a couple of other volunteers, and i'm about 2 hours away from the jungle where there's monkeys and beautiful flowers and its really greeen! there's lots of places to go hiking, swimming, caving and all that outdoors stuff! my site has a central park, cobblestone streets, and apparently a beautiful old church!! so it sounds phenomenal! i'm going to visit it tomorrow, ahhh!!!

then we all piled in the van to go to antigua! we all went to burger king!! yaaay!! and i got a birthday crown, yaaay!! and free icecream!!! yaaaay!! and then we went to the restaurant and hung out a bit, i showed all my pictures of all you guys!! and then we went to another restaurant and hung out and talked a whole bunch, which was splendid!! we ate some pizza and then i read a spoken word poem that i had been writing for a few weeks, which was really meaningful and special to me, especially on my birthday. i had never read aloud anything that i've written at all, nor have i ever really completed anything to read before. i recited it again, along with my friend sidney on the drums, at the 4th of july party! i will type it up for you all to read, it all rhymes and has rhythm. it was really liberating to write and definitely more to actually say.

today we went with our counterparts, mine is really nice and seems extremely dedicated to the program, which is awesome! tomorrow me, rebecca and ryan are piling in a car to our sites to stay there for four nights. wooohooo! ah! i can't believe tomorrow i am actually going to see where i'm living for the next 2 years, this is so crazy to me! sometimes it just hits me how incredible and unique this whole experience is. sometimes its overwhelming, a little sad and confusing, and sometimes its like i'm on an awesome spinning ride at a carnival, i would say rollercoaster, but i was never a fan, i like the spinny rides instead. and then you get off the spinny ride and the world is topsy turvy, your feet trying to find their grounding, your head trying to make sense of the surroundings, your eyes not really believing their sights or how to make sense of what they see, which is so much a different sight than before the ride, before the spins, before the adventure. and since i've gotten off the plane, the ride has begun. and now as i'm moving into my new sites, in a new home with a new family and community and job.. the ride is increasing in acceleration, in speed, spinning more and more. i will let you know along the way how it is all going! ahhhh! quite a riiiide!

thanks for listening, thanks for your thoughts, thanks for your love, thanks for your support, thanks for being a part of my life here. i hope you all are having a wonderful week and day! and i hope your 4th of july was fuuuun!! i'll be gone until next saturday, about 4 hours away in my new home, SANTA CRUZ EL CHOL!!! yaaaaaaaay!!! i'll let you all know how it goes!!! adios!!!! : ) i love you alllllllllllllllllll!!!! me amo todos!!!!!!!!!!!! : )