I´ve arrived

So the first couple days have been really great- BUSY, and full of new sights, sounds, and smells. I am living in Antigua which is about 40 minutes away from Camino Seguro/ Safe Passage. I have my own room but am housed with one other volunteer from California, and four girls from other parts of Guatemala who work and go to school in Guatemala city or Antigua, and la dueña (owner) Julita Lima and her son. While I carry a bagged lunch to the project we all help cook dinner and eat together.
On Thursday I visited the Guatemala city dump, the Church building that the project started at.

Despite its poor condition it is still being used for mass today, while the project has moved to a much better home. After we visited la guarderia or pre-school building (and the most adorable children in the world) we went to the main educational reinforcement center. All the kids get free meals at the program as well. I did not know before getting down here but the original informal name that was given to Camino Seguro was ¨comida segura¨ which refers to safe food, or food for sure. This is because the mothers who brought their children to the project knew it was a place they could bring their children to get food. This continues a bit today as the kitchen staff informed us that they have noticed fluctuating numbers of children who come to the program depending on the food served the day before. This Thursday was also the feast of Corpus Cristi (a bread of a different type) and below was a street celebration taking place outside a school.

There were many parades and much celebration on Sunday too. I was in San Pedro on Sunday, and at the end of the mass that I went to there were a whole bunch of announcements in the native indigenous language. Also all the people were dressed in indigenous clothing, women with formal dress with beautiful patters and head covering. I stood out a bit, but I actually knew two of the songs:-) Many people in the streets wore traditional clothes, and you heared it spoken in the streets in Panajachel and San Pedro a lot some of the variety indigenous language, but people would also mix it with spanish, so I would understand a little bits and pieces, a word here or there.