Faces of Guatemala

Guatemala is a spectacular country, full of brilliant colors, textures and patterns and beautiful people--a photographer's dream.

As the"official photographer" of this expedition, my job is to focus on the camera viewfinder so everyone else can focus on the work at hand. So far (in 5 days) I have taken almost 3000 shots.

I packed a color printer so that at our women's health fairs in each village we can offer to take portraits for a small fee (1 quetzal, about 12 cents.) Many of the women may not have photographs of themselves or their families. Photographing the Mayan families has been a big hit with the women and a joy for me.

Yesterday in Chicua, Sheila was tranlsating forme as I took portraits. One woman asked to have Sheila adnme be in thephoto with her- which started a trend, the next 20 women wanted the same photo. We were sort of like mall. The photos are pretty funny, the beautiful solemn Mayan women in their beautiful huipales, flanked by two very tall, pale, grinning gringas in dull clothing.

Post and photos by Susan