Pictures, Finally!

This post will mainly just be pictures. I figured you have been missing out since I have not been able to post them for some time. Enjoy.

This picture and the following 3 below are of the Independence Day parade in my town.

These girls are in typical indigenous dress that was once worn where I live but is no longer used. Unlike other parts of Guatemala where large populations speak an indigenous language, I have been told that there are only a handful of people that speak the indigenous language that was once spoken here.


I am not sure why it said pain, but I am sure it is not supposed to mean pain. I dont know how those little girls could impose any pain anyway.

This dancing gymnastics competition, as it was called here, is related to the independence day celebration because this was the qualifying competition in my town. The winner got to go to Jalapa for the Independence Day celebrations. The two photos are actually of the students where I work (my aldea) and I have been teaching English to these students. (On a side note, they will be finishing the school year next week and I will be administering a final exam... how weird is that). The students actually won and got to go to Jalapa where they placed second in the whole department.

Here is a pictue of corn. Wow. Actually it is a success of the work that I am and my NGO have done. If you look at the picture, you can see corn that is bigger to the right and corn to the left which is smaller, yet they were both planted at the same time. The corn to the right only uses organic fertilizers including animal poop and the corn on the right uses chemical fertilizers. Obviously it took more time to plant and fertilize the corn on the left, but the farmer saved some money and has healthier corn. Here is an example of a person who is starting to incorporate this organic method. In the past, he bought 5 bags of chemical fertilizer for his land. This year, he only bought 2 bags and bought 10 bags of chicken poop. Chemical fertilizer is costing about Q300. The chicken poop cost only 20-25Q. (1500-600-250) He saved Q650 this year which is about $85. To me, that is amazing. Now the next goal will get them to produce all of their own ogarnic materials so that they wont have to buy the chicken poop.

These 2 pictures are of the women in the group who have been going around to member's houses making vegetable and medicinal gardens. As you can see, the women are tough and get dirty. In the picture above, they are using pick-axes to loosen the soil.