Photos, finally!

I'm finally getting around to posting some much-needed photos! Starting from a while back, then... March, to be precise.

My training group at our Swearing-In ceremony
My APCD, i.e. my boss, Flavio, with the four of us from my training town.
Brittany and I with our Spanish professor, Jorge... what a good guy, I still miss our Spanish classes...
The two of us again with Martha, our Country Director (the Director of Peace Corps-Guatemala)
Big-group dinner after Swearing-In, at a pizza place in Antigua with ruins in back! Good friends Johanna, Oliver, Brittany, and Maria
After Swearing-In and dinner on the town, Rebecca and I decide it's time for some hard-earned celebration in Antigua.
Last day before the move to my new site, on the roof of my hostel, settling the final details and getting ready
One of my first weekends here my host family got real excited about climbing Campana Abaj, the summit of the mountain we live on. It's mentioned in a post below; here we are on the ascent, Arnulfo and Hugo leading the way and still in good spirits...
...with Emiliana and José Arnulfo and Emiliana not so convinced this is a good idea. Turns out they were right.
Let's just say we got back a little wet. First day of the Rainy Season! What are the odds?
But still, people are in good spirits.
An adventure, we're calling it.
They all made fun of me for getting down and washing dishes with the ladies who prepared the meal - or rather, they were making fun of Yovani and Luis who never do that, and here I was on my knees.
Kate held a training course for youth from the village in Tourism Guiding and Natural Resource Management, to train them to be guides in our park and also to be better-trained in managing the parcel of the Communal Forest they belong to. Here I am facilitating a game of "Birdie on a Perch" (any PRPs reading this will love that...) we called it "Chipe in su Nido" or Warbler in its Nest.
The youth in the course, on Graduation day, with we the park staff
The point of the course was to create alliances between our CDRO Association Directorate and the Board of Directors of the Parcialidad to which all these youth belong. This photo includes all those actors involved in the course, on graduation day.

I love this picture of my counterpart, Yovani, doing what he does best. Here he is at one of the 8 stations on our trail, teaching what habitat is.
Emiliana is on my village's Water Committee, Comité de Agua, which is in charge of capturing water from springs up the mountain that will find its way to all the homes. It's a big (unpaid) job that takes up a lot of weekends, like this Sunday when I went with to do some maintenance on one of the tanks/tubes that had broken. A good group of folks who take the time for the needs of their community receiving little in return.
Kate and I went over to Doña Delphina's house one day when she and Gabi were preparing chuchitos (like what we would consider tamales) for a big group. We helped! I still say I did more, since Kate was off playing with the kids most of the time :)
Me at the piedra! The piedra (really, its name is just "rock") is used to grind pretty much anything - in this case, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, roasted red peppers, roasted tomatoes, and bread crumbs.
We went to the inauguration of the Interpretive Trail at another park not too far from here, where another PCV and some friends of Kate's work. Luis, walking right behind me, was one of the artists who worked on the project in that park.
Ellory and Chris came to visit me for a day at the end of their semester studying in Quetzaltenango (the city otherwise known as Xela). I wanted to show them the park, and little Hugo and cousin César wanted to come too. Here we are hugging one of the bigger trees along the trail in the park.
Outside the park entrance, all of us! It was a fun visit, but too short... guess you'll both have to come back soon, guys!
The Volunteers in the departments of Totonicapán and of Sololá just south of me, hosted a party to welcome all the new recruits. The Lago de Atitlán is in Sololá, so naturally our party was on the lake, at a place you can only get to by boat. Theo (Ellory is his little sister) met up with us to join in the fun - and also to join in on the mango-yogurt and avocado-cracker snack.
Did I mention the party was a costume party?
The Lago de Atitlán, historically speaking, was an enormous volcano that monumentally exploded and left a huge crater in its wake. But it's still a volcanically active place, so now it´s a highland lake surrounded by active volcanoes. Good swimmin hole, eh?

My host family and I went down to Aunt Rosa's house ("Tía Chochi") for Mother's Day, Día de la Madre. Tía Lita (Aunt Margarita) and her daughter Narda made stuffed turkey, and the meal was scrumptious! Only problem was, we all overstuffed ourselves and the whole extended family had bad gas for the next day. haha...
They decided to dress me up in traje, which I wasn't at all opposed to! I got this pretty purple corte (the skirt) and huipil (the blouse) and took a photo with Ixchel my host sister and Emiliana my host mom. They don't smile much in photos, but I can assure you they are giggly, happy and funny people. I had a good time that day. (p.s. they made me stand down a stair or two so there wouldn't be such a height difference. hehe)
I only let them convince me to dress up in traje if Narda did, too. She doesn't wear the traje, and nor does her mom Tía Lita, but all the other women in the family do. So the aunts all begged her to dress up in traje too. And this photo ensued.
One morning when out birding with Kate, two younger siblings of one of the assistants came with. We found a big tree to take a picture of.

... It's a pretty big tree, folks.
Here are some nice shots of what the highlands of Guatemala are like... beautiful forests, lots of fog, gorgeous sunsets on my walk home, etc.





The rest of these photos were taken in the park on Kate's last day, the day of her "despedida" (going away party). Everyone pitched in to help make the meal (Yes, even the men!). We're all going to miss her.

The kitchen in my park: Yovani, Gabi (Luis's wife), Luis, Kate, Don Nico
Don Boni, with help from Juanito (Luis and Gabi's son)
Lunch: fried fish (mojarra)! and salad and avocado... man I love food in Guatemala! (mmm... better qualify that statement...)
You'll note the only blond in the photo: my friend Jen was visiting for a couple days and joined in on the festivities
Not sure what was so funny... probably Yovani, as usual.
Did I mention I made the cake? This was quite the undertaking the night before, Jen can attest to that as she was staying with me! It turned out wonderfully. It also instigated an interesting conversation that morning with Don Bonifacio on what pride is (k'iche' is his first language, and I don't think anyone had ever explained to him what "orgullo", pride in Spanish, meant) because I said I was proud of the cake.
Kate, with her traditional middle piece for the guest of honor at any party