Lots to catch you up on...

This is a shout out for Ben, my awesome sitemate who lived in Zunil. He decided to wrap up his service and head back and it was sad to see him go, It was great to have him closeby, like a crazy older brother. Zunil's gonna miss ya pal!

Also please note my finger in this pic. Yup, you see right. Medical tape. Funny story of the week: I fractured the knuckle playing basketball with the teachers in my district. That meant guatemalan hospital and lots of radiation exposure. Worst of it? we lost.

I finally got my traje (the word they use for the women's dress here). After more than half a month's income and lots of patience, it is finally done! Now to give you a little background, the women here wear this everyday. The shirt, called a guipil, is handwoven and the design is specific to Almolonga. The skirt, called a corte, is made in another town but has to be sown together here.

The neckline was hard to decide on. Women here often have an embroidered collar, but to be honest it comes out super expensive. So I decided to do some simple bling and call it a day.

The guipil comes as two pieces of woven cloth and then it's sown together with embroidery to cover the seam. It's looong! But only the patterned part shows when you wear it. (more pics to come when I sport it throughout this year!)
Here is Pia, the lovely pup that has warmed her way into my heart. Her previous mama was a peace corps volunteer who was incredibly mature and decided to look for a good guatemalan home for her rather than let her live the American life.
Precious, right? She and I take long walks in the fields every afternoon, where she rips apart every single trash bag she finds. Everyone asks me if she bites. At first I thought this was so strange. I mean, what was I going to say, 'Yes, I enjoy taking my vicious dog out into the streets where she can prey on young children'. But dogs serve a purpose here, they stay tied up in the houses and bark. Job description: scare the living daylights out of everyone, friend or foe. So as if I wasn't enough of a freak, add a dog on there. And yes, she sleeps in my bed!