Now that we’ve returned to the village, life is back to “normal”, whatever that is. Right now, I hear sheep baaaing outside my window. That is normal.  

When we go away, it’s easy to forget how pretty it is here. There is a wheat field just above our house. Alberto and Chalio took us there because they said it was neat; they were right. Yesterday, Manuel took us to see the village bread oven we keep hearing about. They use it to make sheka, a traditional semi-sweet bread made with lard. The oven is constructed of clay and mud, and to use it you simply fill it with wood and light it on fire. When the fire is done, you sweep out the coals and start baking. The oven was still warm to the touch from when they fired it yesterday.

I am back to gardening. The neighborhood kids ran a hose from a nearby river over to my garden so they could water it, completely without any prompting from me. I was very proud of them. In the short time since I took this photo, this batch of broccoli has grown to nearly knee-high. My first batch is starting to go to seed, so I need to harvest the few that haven’t yet, and eat them.

Speaking of agriculture, I took a picture of Nas Palas hoeing his field, with the help of Galindo (who is now doing much better). Check out tiny Alberto, age 5, getting in there with his crazy kid hoe. Whenever someone turns over a field, the chickens all converge from wherever they’re wandering in the valley. They know that there are tasty worms and bugs to be found when the dirt is flying.

Emily is still teaching Lina, Galindo’s sister, how to bake. They usually do biscuits, but sometime they mix it up. Here we see them making gingersnaps. They locals love ’em, even though they’ve never had anything like them before. But they’re not a picky folk. If it has any nutritive value whatsoever, they will probably like it. If it has sugar, they are guaranteed to like it.

This is life in rural Guatemala.