Vacation is over...they put me to work!

After a long weekend of working on vet school applications, planning trips to Tikal and Lago Atitlan, and studying (yes...studying) for my online genetics course, I was finally given some work today!

I will be helping with a music festical in a nearby village called Santiago Zamora. The festival will have a choir competition in the morning where 5 of the schools supported by CasaSito and their partners will send a choir from their music program. Each program will receive a small donation and a musical instrument for their growing collections. On the afternoon of the festival, we have found 3 local bands to play some indigenous, salsa, and rock music. Local women will be selling textiles and organizing all of the food for the festival. Several local NGOs will also set up booths. This festival is not a fundraiser for CasaSito, rather a way to get our name out there.

So, today, I went arond to local Spanish schools where tourists take classes while they are in town. We are looking for volunteers to help us set up and work on the day of the festival. We are having a mass meeting tonight for volunteers interested in helping out. Then, after lunch, I went back out to the Parque Central and passed out fliers. I felt like I was totally profiling...1) only talked to white/non-Guatemalan looking people and 2) started by asking if they spoke English. At times I placed myself next to the many people on the streets passing out fliers about various tours and shuttles...everyone just walked right by them but paid me full attention when I asked for it. Totally not fair, I know. If only the travel agencies would hire white, English speakers, they would get a lot more attention I think. I'm actually really excited to do some more advertising. Anyway, I got to meet a lot of cool people including some Peace Corps volunteers, a dude who plays in a drum circle in the Parque Central on the weekends, and a girl who's been working at an orphanage for children with AIDS.

Anyway, that's all the time I have. Off to the meeting to see if we can get some volunteers to help us with the awesome music festival!