I know, i know-it´s been awhile. In short, i´ve been busy getting to know the town, the people, the projects.. and this last week actually helped a school with some art projects (i know, me, art....??) so i was relieved when the paper mached globes actually hardened and became paper mache! we are participating in earth day with a local school. the kids are really great, as is the teacher. and it was a nice way to get acquainted with the school where i hope to continue doing environmental education.

Also, i am fortunate to have a park nearby (like.... 3 blocks away) where we are developing a trail so i´ve been able to hike several times in thelast few weeks.

Not much else to report, just wanted to post some pictures from my town and my host family. Here we are at some pools near the pacific ocean.... They took me the first week i arrived. In the front is my host brother lemas, with Handy, who is friends with Cesi, the girl to my right. Cesi is my host sister. Everyone in the family, and friends of the family, have been so great about including me... the Guatemalan people are soo hospitable and have constantly shown it by inviting me into their homes, showing a genuine interest in who i am, where i come from, and what the helll i´m doing here in Guatemala..... most of them don´t understand why i wouldve left the states to come here. A majority of the people in town here have either gone to work in the states and come back, or have close family there working right now. I´d say a good deal of the town has been constructed with money coming from the states.... Its an interesting aspect of the culture here that i´m still digesting.

I´m getting to have a better idea of what i am going to be doing here for the next two years. One thing will be continuing with the second half of the trail that the volunteer before me started, and continuing to help with the construction of a playground-bbq area for families, birdwatching in the park, environmental interpretation for the trail... Another aspect of my work will be environmental education in the schools which i think is really important. Guatemala is a small country with big environmental issues... it might already be too late, but i think its still important to try to instill some values in the youth about caring for our earth while there is still some left.

On that same note, i will be continuing to try to do something with the garbage, countywide. One idea is to start a recycling center, continue to educate people about trash, and so on. The appalling thing here is that there is no national trash management program. The majority of the country either burns their trash or tosses it in a ravine somewhere. So here we have a truck that comes an picks up trash....only to then dump it off a cliff somewhere. The problem is that trash treatment plants are incredibly expensive...

So it looks like i´ll have my hands full here. right now am busy following the current volunteer, audrey, around like a lost puppy as she scampers trying to finish her projects here. I think i´m lucky to have her around for a little while to see how things work around here, to continue meeting important people, etc. and will be sad to see her go. I hope i can rise to the challenge of continuing with the great work she has started here. And below a couple of photos of the park, the trail and views of the surrounding area but i forgot to turn them and now i can´t find the delete key sooooo i apologize to your necks ahead of time. yikes.