Santa Apolonia here I come!

Just thought I would drop a few pictures from the past couple of weeks...

And of course, there is no better way than to start with food. Here are some Guatemalan beef tacos that are then fried and loaded with boiled cabbage. Probably the best food I´ve ever eaten!

With the beginning of Lent comes a whole slew of festivities. Here was the first Friday of Lent in Pastores. Every Friday a procession occurs in the streets with a float-type figure of Jesus carrying the cross as he visits different houses in the neighborhood that place candles, vegetables, incense, and a photo on the table. The procession then stops at the house to pray and recite one or two repetitive Bible verses.

So a large part of last week was spent in a town called Santa Apolonia working with the municipal coordinators, learning what they do on a daily basis. Thursday, the first day we were there, we traveled 3hours to Totonicapan on a trip that felt more like an Indiana Jones ride than a bus trip. It was wonderful to get to see a new part of the country and to visit the other site in the new municipality program. Friday, school was canceled for the a huge basketball tournament of all the teachers in the area. Very entertaining in that fouls and travels are not really considered in the refereeing process! I am seriously considering asking to be part of the team, if for no other reason than the stories and to feel like a tall person for the first time in my life!

In keeping with the theme of Lent, Sunday evenings are reserved for a much larger procession in Antigua where people create alfombras or rugs on the street out of dried flowers, wood ashes that are dyed, and various other organic ingredients. People spend hours making these for the procession of men from the various communities robed in purple to carry a very large and imaginably heavy float of Christ and his disciples through the town. It is a wonderfully interesting experience and I wish I was going to be in Antigua for Semana Santa or the week between Palm Sunday and Easter as I´m sure it will be a huge celebration. The good news is that I have two years to see it!

Well the jury is out! The day our entire group was waiting for has arrived! On Thursday we all lined up on the basketball court with our eyes closed and were lead out to a chalk map of Guatemala to stand on our site. Needless to say we were completely suprised, but Bethany and I now know for sure that we will be in Santa Apolonia, a beautiful town about an hour and a half away from Antigua. We will be working in about 25 schools between 2km and 14km away and I am really starting to get excited! I will be meeting with the superindentent and two of the driectors on Monday and packing up and leaving Tuesday to visit my site for the week toprepare for the next two years. It has all come on so fast, I will be a legitimate Peace Corps Volunteer before you know it.

As a final note I thought I´d leave you all with a story...

So as you can see, one of the volcanos in area has been smoking a lot recently. This is significant because of some seismic activity in Guatemala that´s been occuring. The other night I was asleep when we had a somewhat substantial earthquake (according to my Colorado standards.) Although I thought it was a product of my malaria medication, I did manage to wake up enough to realize "Oh this is an earthquake, maybe I should go stand in the doorway," but did not enough to actually do it. I thought this was funny considering the fact that earlier this month I awoke at around 3a.m. and booked it to the doorway at the mere sound of fireworks outside my window! Needless to say, this story sparked quite a response from my family and I just want everyone to rest assured I have learned my lesson, and will now be standing in all sorts or doorways, false alarm or not.