I have now been in Quixaya for three weeks working with a local organization here. These are all pictures taken from the small town where  I live.

You can see these volcanos from the highway directly beside the town, one is called Pacaya and erupted just a few years ago. If you click on the picture you can see a trail of smoke coming from it, it is the one on the right hand side. This picture was taken at sunrise when I was waiting for a bus to go to Escuintla. Escuintla is a department in the South, just south of Guatemala city. I was helping organize a workshop with women regarding political participation and women's rights.

This is a picture of the town where I live and the volcano that lies directly behind it. The volcano is called Toliman and is clearly visible from my bedroom window. It doesn't look that huge here, but as shown in the first picture its well above the clouds.

I am living very close to Lake Atitlan, which is a volcanic crater lake. The town that is nearest to my village is called San Lucas Toliman. Around the lake there are three volcanoes which make the view amazing. This is a picture of where another intern stays, you can see the lake and two volcanoes in the background. We went to visit and to learn more about permaculture!! http://www.permaculture.org/nm/index.php/site/key_concepts/

This was taken at about 8am, maybe not the most flattering picture but the background is amazing. Later during the day it gets cloudy and you can't see the volcanoes at all! 

The water is contaminated, but the locals swim in it all the time. So we think it won't kill us! It was totally worth it anyway and we are all fine so far :)

 The next pictures were taken in and on my way to Panajachel. Pana is the largest tourist destination around the lake. I was feeling claustrophobic in my small community and wanted to get out to be in a different place. So I headed there! It was definitely the most amazing view of the lake I have seen yet, simply because you can see all three volcanoes.

As for the work I have been doing, it was a slow start of following people around and asking lots of questions. But now I am incredibly busy planing workshops and activities all over the country to help form a national commission of women. 

The organization I work has several different programs. I am working specifically with the gender program, but one of their main programs is regarding fair-trade coffee and access to land for landless farmers who work for 20Q for a 12hr day on plantations. 20Q is about 2 dollars and 30 cents and definitely not enough to feed a family.

Coffee grows best at high altitudes and Lake Atitlan, because it used to be the crater of a volcano is at about 1500m above sea level. Therefore, there are several fincas (plantations) that are owned by a few very wealthy individuals that control wages and access to land.

Also the plantation owners are knowing for killing people that try to organize unions or any kind of labour standards. Furthermore, often workers are too poor to have their own plot of land and have to pay to stay at the plantation creating a cycle of debt in which they are never able to pay the plantation for the home-stay. When they aren't able to pay, even though they work constantly in poor conditions, they are violently evicted and even killed.

 Unfortunately, violent evictions have become a trend and multinational corporations often use these same tactics to get rid of people. Including Canadian corporations http://www.rightsaction.org/video/elestor/



This picture is from a small hike up to the foot of the volcano to see a honey bee farm. The organization is producing organic honey to sell.