Seeing Guatemala Through New Eyes

My recent Sustainable Sharing with Guatemala (SSG) annual site-visit to AFOPADI in Guatemala was made special by my traveling companion, Kristen Kepnick (above in blue with one of my best friends from the village). Kristen has been a fellow SSG board member for several years, but before the group materialized, she helped me at the Worldview Global Activism Expo and we were on the Board of MELA for a number of years before that. Kristen has performed the SSG Thankless Task of secretary for a while and will soon be our VP!
This was her first trip to Guatemala, but Kristen has traveled worldwide, so she was the perfect combination of open and not scared :) She's a wonderful photographer and has an amazing heart. Her Spanish is better than mine and she's younger, so I was delighted to see anew...
Below are a few of Kristen's photos from a lunch visit to the house of the new AFOPADI Agricultural promotor. He worked with AFOPADI in his village before and now walks the half hour to work with the other two agricultural promotors at the AFOPADI office in the village. This means he is often walking up to six hours a day to visit people's land when he is not working on the AFOPADI demonstration fields.

Kristen loves animals...these dogs are on the cleanest floor I have ever seen in the villages.

Here's her artistic view of coffee.

Kristen catches me admiring Chepe's home garden.

Checking out the coffee virus is the perfect activity for plant geeks.

Here Kristen captures our friend amidst the typical mountainous backdrop.

Finally, she immortalizes Chepe having a moment with his cow...