I’m sure you’ve all heard by now about the terrible 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile earlier this morning. I was looking at the information on the United States Geological Survey site and thought it was worth posting. As of 2:30 PM February 27th, there are 59 earthquakes that have occurred in the past 24 hours. We received a warning from Peace Corps Guatemala about a potential tsunami on the Pacific coast. Thankfully we’re safe from ocean-based threats up here in the highlands

More can be read about the main 8.8 earthquake here.

Our camera is out of commission, at least until I figure out what’s going on with it. So no new picture updates for a bit. Everything’s going well, we’re soldiering on with work in a new community and I’m studying for my CCENT certification after passing my A+ exam this past week while Sarah was in the Peace Corps office for a meeting.

It’s hard to believe that in four months we’ll be closing down shop in our town and getting ready to start new lives in the States all over again! How time flies…

Last Thursday, December 10th, Sarah and I had the chance to visit the home town of the closest volunteer living near us. It’s about twenty minutes in pickup in the same valley in the foothills of the Cuchamatanes, the mountain range that extends into the neighboring department of Huehuetenango. Her town is considerably more ladino, meaning there are more Spanish-speaking people and the social mores are relatively looser. The percentage of indigenous population is over 90% where we live, while in her site it’s around 70%. Whenever we talk about the neighboring town in-site, people always proclaim enthusiatiscally, “Over there, people dance!”. To us, however, the town seemed pretty similar. It has a nicer town square and municipal building because the municipality isn’t as staggeringly poor as ours.

Both of our towns have a very strong ganadero presence, meaning many people make their living raising cattle for beef. Both towns have their festivals back-to-back, with ours starting in late November. In reality our festival starts in early November and ends in mid-January, but that’s neither here nor there. Anyways, one of the main attractions of both festivals is the rodeo. It’s generally a small-scale affair, and there was one occasion where the guys managing the gate let two extra bulls into the pen after releasing the first bull with rider attached. Whoops!

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