I served as an agribusiness volunteer in the Peace Corps from 2004-2006 over 27 months of working and living in a remote Maya Village in the highlands of Guatemala. This past week I went back for the first time to reconnect with volunteers with whom I served. Nothing has changed and everything has changed.
This is a country with people close to my heart still after all these years. I'll add more photos to this as I finish processing them.
A view of Volcan Aqua from our AirBnB rental house.
From left to right (backrow) Brian, Joshua, Brianna, Lena, Emily, Justin
From left to right (front row) Joe, Kelsi,Matt, Justin (not pictured Mary.
12 Years ago we too almost the same picture. Albeit, with a lot more volunteers. A lot of the crew left before they finished service but this crew remained. Some even serving multiple tours in other locations and countries.
The new Training Center, is now a fortress. It's also huge as it houses all the staff with the office moving out of crime ridden Guatemala City. It really swanky now. My memory had us working and training in funky shacks, very Peace Corp-ish. Now there is a workout room and tons of computers and super fast internet!
No more agricultural volunteers serve in Guatemala and haven't since 2012. A tragedy and the excuse the Peace Corps gives is they can't find anyone skilled enough. Anyone can be taught to plant crops and do animal husbandry. This is a real need in Guatemala for such technical expertise and extension work. I hope they restart the program with the Ag Ministry again soon!