Blogger won't insert my pictures at the appropriate point in my story =( so here is the Baile de Disfrases in my friend's town-For some reason it is popular here for the men to don elaborate costumes, complete with creepy masks, and do (sort of) choreographed repetitive, foot shuffling 'dances' during feria... Here they are.

Here I am in front of the Catholic Church watching the music and costumed dancers

Ferris wheel and fast food stand at feria

This weekend flew by-Got to check out the feria in my friend Stephanie's site. Feria (kinda like a carnival) is one week out of the year when a town celebrates their patron saint by having a carnival. The whole town turns out to see Folk dances, enjoy the street food, and really sketchy looking carnival rides. We enjoyed churros-deep fried dough sprinkled with sugar, street tacos, pupusas - a feria staple hailing from El Salvador, and ponche, a fruit cider that you can get spiked with a little whiskey for a few quetzales. Feria is prime ground for people watching, and was especially interesting in Steph's site because her town, unlike mine, is mostly indigenous, or of Mayan descent. The women still wear traje, public announcements are made in both Spanish and Mum, the Mayan language spoken in the region. This represents a whole other dimension to the Peace Corps experience, experiencing it through three layers of language barrier instead of just two-most meetings and intereactions in the community are conducted in their native language. I'm impressed by all my colleagues who work in this context-the Mayan communities are generally more closed off and suspicious of outsiders because of the civil war, apart from the language barrier.

Although I've experienced most of the big tourist attractions in Guatemala, I am pleased to realize that many more authentic travel experiences await in the sites of other Peace Corps Volunteers and plan on making more trips to get to know other obscure Guatemalan towns. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get to know a foreign country in the way that is open to us as Peace Corps Volunteers and I plan to aprovechar (take advantage of) while here.