Me in Traje (the Traditional Mayan Clothing)

My host mom, Juana, and I

I know this is a bunch of pictures of me (and my host family) but bear with me.

Traje (pronounced traw-hey) is the traditional Mayan clothing.

One of the things that I love most about Guatemala is the vibrant Mayan culture. Below are some of my blog posts about different aspects of the culture.

- Mayan ceremony

- Traditional Mayan folk dancing

- K'iche' one of the many Mayan languages

- Mayan language map

- Mayan saunas 

- Mayan ruins 

- Mayan numerals

- Cinta: The Mayan

headband

In Peace Corps Guatemala each volunteer had to live with a host family. This was partially to help keep us safe and accounted for and partially to help us integrate into the community. In my case this was extremely helpful. I lived with a LARGE host family. My host parents had nine children and their children had children. Not all of these people lived in the house, but many of them did. At any given meal there were 15 people. 

Another thing that I loved was that the Guatemalans I met really wanted to share their heritage / culture with me. My host mom would dress me up like her doll. She would pick out an outfit for me, one of her many trajes. This included four pieces: the wrap around skirt, belt, apron, short-sleeve top, and sweater. Then we would go around the house and sometimes around town and take pictures. 

Sheryl and I. This hot pink number was one of my favorites.

Princess. I'm not kidding her name is princess.
Not even princesa (princess in Spanish)

Juana liked picking new places to take pictures.
Any place with flowers was a good spot.

Corn drying in the front of the house

Genesis Cristal, one of the youngest in the family

Michel and Sheryl

My two best friends in town, Lidia and Rosemeri. They are both teachers in the local school.