Pictures from the parade yesterday.
My host dad, Francisco, scaling the wall next to our house. 
The view of our town and another in the distance from my host family's field.
Myself and the host family after picking beans yesterday afternoon.
Yesterday was Independence Day in Guatemala and it was complete with numerous fireworks and parades. This month is patriot month here in Guatemala and last Friday, we (myself and other volunteers in my town) had a chance to go to the next town over and help some volunteers judge a contest at their local high school. Each class constructed a project, taking up the entire classroom, about Guatemala and its history. There were 7 of us and we were the judges who determined the winners of the contest. A pretty heavy duty, but we were up to it. We ended up picking the class that offered us the best food, not a big surprise.
On Saturday, I was able to go to Antigua after a Mayan Ceremony in Santa Lucia at the PC Center. We went to a bar and were able to watch the entire Notre Dame-Michigan game and parts of the South Carolina-Georgia game. That was pretty nice.
Yesterday I helped my host family pick their black beans by hand in the afternoon. We went to their field and filled a couple gunny sacks full of bean pods, then my host mom will shell them and we'll have beans forever. Last night we had fresh black beans and they were pretty damn good. When we came back, my host dad couldn't open the door to the house and had to scale a concrete wall to get inside--I did not expect him to be able to pull it off, but he did it with ease. I was busting up the entire time. That is all for now.
