Swearing-in and celebration
These are from swearing in at the Ambassador's residence and the subsequent festivities in Antigua.
Me and my training group from Pastores (from left: Becca, Jessica and Ashleigh)
Me and the Parramos chicas (Katie, Dana and SueEllen)
That's Dave on the right
Pastores being silly
Dude! 
Training school
These may be some of the cutest kids ever. They attend the school in Pastores where I trained during the first three months.
The one on the right was my favorite (shhhh!!)
Site visit
So here are some photos from my site visit about four weeks ago. I don't have any updated pictures of Jacal at the moment, but here you go...
Vista from the health clinic
My school in Buxup with 16 teachers
Cuaresma y Semana Santa
So I think I've mentioned somewhere below what big deal Cuaresma and Semana Santa (lent and holy week) are here in Guatemala. The lenten celebrations in Antigua are world-famous. Every weekend during lent and nearly every day during holy week, they have these processions. On the streets the people create what are called alfombras (carpets) out of dyed sawdust and other natural materials (kind of like rose parade floats, only in the form of a carpet and with religious symbolism). As a form of pentitence men and women sign up to carry statue-floats of Jesus or the Virgin Mary (the men carry Jesus; women carry Mary). The floats are so big it can take up to 100 people to carry them. They work in shifts, walking on the alfombras throughout the town all day long. It's really quite an amazing thing to see, although after going three or four weeks in a row, it starts to get a little tedious. On Good Friday, we got up at 4 a.m. to go see the procession in Antigua. It was an interesting cultural experience, but I probably don't need to do it again. Here are some pictures to show you what I'm talking about.
The procession in Pastores
Alfombra in Antigua 
A man working on an alfombra in Antigua
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