First off, all of us here on the trip want to wish Chris and Paul a very happy anniversary.

And now, on with the show...

Thank you to all who are visiting. I have heard throught the grapevine here that there are a number of people checking up on us through this blog. I hope I am doing the trip and our group justice in my descriptions. If anyone wants to comment or communicate with me, you can either leave a comment by clicking on the comment button at the end of each post or you can email me at nathannurseguat08@gmail.com. I hope that is the right email address. I set up that email just for this trip and I never email myself. By the way, the blog is now listed on the home page of Edgewood College's web site. A very big thank you to whomever was responsible for doing that.

Today was a very different day for us. Yes, I know you are all waiting with baited breath for the descriptions of the shopping trip to the Antigua market, but you will have to wait, just like we did.

Fortunately for us we had a wonderful time waiting. We visited with Franklin from As Green as it Gets. That is the organization that we got our coffee from for our fundraising. He also is a fascinating individual. A transplanted American now living in Guatemala, Franklin and a small staff run this non-profit that helps Guatemalans with loans, business incubation, exporting, management, whatever they need. Another grassroots organization making a difference for the people here. Franklin took us on a tour of the town and we met some of the coffee growers and other businesses and people that he works with. We all now know so much more about how coffee is grown, harvested, and prepared for us to buy. Coffee is a very labor intensive commodity. We learned how to sort out the good and the bad beans (by hand, bean by bean) had some fresh roasted over an open fire coffee, learned about all of the uses for the coffee byproducts (fruit is used for fertilizer, they are making their own biodiesel, and many other things), and even had the opportunity to plant a coffee seedling. We also met a young Guatemalan woman who started her own business thanks to a loan from As Green as it Gets (which from now on will be abbreviated agait, because my fingers are getting tired). She takes the misprints from the company that makes burlap sacks for the coffee and makes them into beautiful bags of a variety of shapes and sizes. I am sure many of you will have the opportunity to see some of them when we get home, because a few people (and by that I mean pretty much everyone) bought something from her. Anyway, she is 21, and she has gone from making these bags by herself on one old sewing machine to 7 sewing machines ad employing a number of women in the commuity. Her bags sell not only in Guatemala but in some stores in the United States. She is her own little international business, thanks in large part to her desire and a small start-up loan from agait. AGAIT is also involved in reforestation projects, biodiesel (for their own use), and is looking to expand into cosmetics using locally grown an harvested products, and son (we hope really soon) chocolate. We were so amazed and impressed by what agait has been able to accomplish with the people in this area. Make sure to visit them at www.asgreenasitgets.org.

OK now for the shopping. We broke up into groups and headed off. Amazingly enough we were much faster than a herd of turtles today. (If you don't get the reference, check a couple of posts previous) The descriptions I give of the shopping will not do justice either to the market, which is very cool, or our group, which is also very cool but in very different ways. I will make no mention of who bought what, in case some of the items are to be gifts for others, except to say that I did buy something for my wife, and I sure hope she enjoys it, because I don't think I can return it for store credit.

Anyway off we went into this maze of little shops. Imagine if you will a small closet. Now imagine that closet packed with textiles, woven blankets, shirts, wooden carvings, ceramics, or any number of other items. Now imagine a couple hundred of those closets running together, aisle after aisle. That is as close as I can get to describing this place without showing pictures. It was amazing. People and products packed together. Vendors caling you into their stalls, asking you what you are looking for, haggling over prices, a little Spanish here, a little English there, and suddenly a sale. Then off to the next stall and it starts all over again. Not a place for the faint of heart.

Like all of the rest of Guatemala, Karen seemed to know almost everyone in the market. We have come to the conclusion that Karen knows all but 17 people in Guatemala, and that's only because 10 of them were born today. Anyway, she led a group of us around introducing us to people, making deals, showing us great things, and being very entertaining. It certainly helped having a guide to get us started. By the time we were done, however, all of us seemed to be getting pretty good at shopping for deals. Our driver/guide/translator/all around great guy Eric went along and helped another group in the market. I will write more about Eric in a future post, because he deserves his own note. We finally finished our tromp through shopping paradise, otherwise known as purgatory for husbands, and met at the van to go back to the hotel. I walked over to a tired looking Eric and said "Es como tenemos diez esposas" (It's like we have 10 wives). He could only laugh and nod his head in agreement. As much as I may want to be considered "one of the girls" on this trip, I cannot make that last step into the world of shopping.

There were so many other little things that happened in the market. I hesitate to add any others here. The repercussions that may follow such a lapse in judgement are just to horrible to take that risk.

We are off to the orphanage tomorrow. More handwashing sessions. I am sure you will all be tuning in tomorrow to find out how that goes. I am thinking that I should videotape the sessions and put it on the blog. That way you too could share in the wisdom of the 15 seconds. After the orphanage we are off to Chichicastenengo and what is said to be the largest open air indigenous market in Latin America. Yes, that's right, another market. Well, by that time we won't have been to a market for at least 18 hours. Besides, we're going so we can get a taste of the flavor of the people and the country, right?