My very last Feria in Guatemala...

This past January my town had their "big" town fair. The first time I experienced the town fair was definitely an experience. Now that I have experienced 4 town fairs, I can safely say that I am "town-faired out". A week of not sleeping because my house was vibrating to music that lasted until 2 am and seeing way too many drunks roaming the street was not exactly ideal, but I'm glad I now know what a town fair is like in Guatemala.

I just wanted to throw in here the Midwife Kits that were donated by MedWish Foundation. My dad helped me pack all the supplies. Unfortunately the airline would only let me take 2 boxes with me, so I had to leave 2 behind. I am still trying to figure out how I'm going to ship the 2 remaining boxes to Guatemala. If anyone has any ideas please let me know!

The boxes all ready to go.

Walking into the soccer field filled with people.


During the town fair all the area schools in our municipality decorate floats. Here are a few of my favorites. This year was by far the most creative year with float decorations.

This float actually won. The theme this year was "medio ambiente" or The Environment. Here children were dressed in the traditional clothing of my town and were building a miniture mud home! When the parade started they started building the mud hme and then when they arrived to the soccer field they completed the mud home. Very creative! Mud homes here in my site and many rural, indigenous sites are all made out of mud. It is the cheapest and an environmentally friendly structure.

Ferris Wheel.

Here are all the elected "Little Queens" from all the schools in my town.

It can get pretty packed here.

Here is my town's Queen from last year (the girl at the top of the stairs), the reining queen with the wooden crown and the reining "sports queen" on the right for the year 2011.

This right here is what kept me up at night! Live bands that play throughout the night! This band was the "feature" band for the town fair and man, they blew. The lead singer had the worst mullet and looked like he was stuck in the 70's. Not only did he look rediculous, he sounded rediculous.

Here I am with my sitemates Stephen and Val.