In reply to Devin.

Good question regarding "summer" vacation in Guatemala. It does have to do with the seasons, but not for enjoyment. The break coincides with the huge coffee and cotton harvests that happen at the coast. Many families migrate there for seasonal work. I just heard today that Delmy's 12 year old former caretaker went to the coast with her older brother (though she wasn't even in school) and her job there is to fix him his meals while he works all day--the work is crazy hard labor, which is why the young men here prefer to migrate to the states. Our friends Katal and Niko who just moved out here live in the poorest aldea in our municipio say that about 40% of their aldea migrated just after school closed.

In regards to my traje mishap. I think Fletch exaggerated a little; he didn't even know it'd had happened until I told him. I was all proud of my new traje and tried to tie it on according to what they'd shown me the last few times. And for all we (Fletch and I) could tell it looked good, right? So we walked down to the school all dressed up, headed to the ceremony. All the little girls who saw me began to giggle uncontrollably, ostensibly because I was wearing a corte. Everyone clicked their tongues and smiled and nodded as I passed by showing their approval. It was all to be expected. We entered the salon where diplomas were being passed out and went to stand with our host sisters, Masha and Lena and kids. Our neighbor Petlon was with them. She turned slowly and looked me up and down, checking the whole thing over, then clicked her tongue and shook her head rather than nodding. Her eyebrows lifted and she pointed at my corte with her lips. "Your bottom layer is longer than the top," she said, shaking her head some more and turning back to the ceremony. It was all very smug, ridiculous, and funny. It was SO obvious to her. Since the corte wraps around me like 3 full times, there are a couple of layers. A bottom layer was indeed sticking out the bottom from under the top wrap by about a half inch--can we say "faux pas". :) Later I had little Lina check me over and fix it up so as not to look like a dork again. Thankfully I was only asked to sit on stage once it had all been fixed.