A few from Guatemala

**Redleg** · 03-06-2009, 09:31 PM

I took my first trip out of the capital this week. A group of military doctors and engineers came down from the states to do a recon of potential sites for a humanitarian assistance mission. I tagged along as a learning experience. Here are a few photos and notes about the trip.

This is the road into the first village we visited. The green building is their school. The buildings on the right farther down the road are houses.

This little guy was getting in the way of his sisters while they were pumping water from the village's only well. It was installed this past November by a US organization (they only knew that Americans had done it). Before that, all their water came straight from the creek where they wash clothes.

I watched as this girl carried probably 3 gallons of water balanced on her head for at least a quarter mile before she disappeared over the hilltop.

This is the school at the second village we visited. Note the pines - it is Caribbean Pine. I wasn't expecting to see pines at all in Central America!

The folks in most of the villages raise turkeys to sell. This little guy had lost his mother and was peeping around outside the school.

This is the school's crapper.

These kids go to a school closer to town. They were fired up because I played marbles with them.

This is the chapel at the Guatemalan Army Special Forces school.

The Guatemalan flag.

This monument is along the road entering the special forces school. It reads " If I lead, follow me. If I hesitate, urge me on. If I retreat, kill me."

**Idlewild** · 03-06-2009, 09:39 PM

What an unbelievable adventure! Don't know what you do for a living....but you could quit tommorrow and take up photojournalism if you so wished. Great images. God bless whatever it is you're doing over there. The green school-I have photographs of that EXACT same locale from when one of my cousin's led a mission over there with her physician's office, she's a nurse practitioner. Dude, givin' me the goosebumps, I gotta tell ya. It's selfless work and your to be commended.

**trailertrash** · 03-06-2009, 09:47 PM

Makes you want to catch a plane and head on down... Of course you probably need a few weapons over your shoulder.

Making a difference is what it's all about.

**ccleroy** · 03-06-2009, 09:56 PM

Thats awesome RL..........

**Redleg** · 03-06-2009, 10:00 PM

Idle, thanks for the kind words. I'm on active duty in the US Army as a Foreign Area Officer. After 7 years (and 3 deployments) I decided I'd had enough of the Field Artillery (although I do miss it at times), and I submitted to change my MOS. This is a pretty routine process that every officer gets at the 7 year mark. My request was granted, albeit surprisingly, and they sent me to Monterey, California for language training. We moved down here to Guatemala as part of my training. I am traveling the region until July, when I will start a 6 month course with the Guatemalan Army. After all this is complete, I return to the states for grad school. After that, I will be fully qualified for a variety of jobs, to include "embassy duty" as well as various stateside positions.

As for the photos, all were taken with a Nikon D70S with a Nikon 18-70 F 3.5-4.5. Most were taken in aperture priority mode, and I adjusted the exposure on a couple to + 1/3 or +2/3. All are straight from the camera, with the exception of the flag. I tweaked the saturation a little.

I hope to have some more photos next month. I'm headed to Argentina - Cordoba, Buenos Aires, San Carlos de Bariloche in Patagonia, and Ushuaia in Tierra Del Fuego. I'm headed to Peru at the end of April as well.

**Idlewild** · 03-06-2009, 10:40 PM

Originally Posted by Redleg

Idle, thanks for the kind words. I'm on active duty in the US Army as a Foreign Area Officer. After 7 years (and 3 deployments) I decided I'd had enough of the Field Artillery (although I do miss it at times), and I submitted to change my MOS. This is a pretty routine process that every officer gets at the 7 year mark. My request was granted, albeit surprisingly, and they sent me to Monterey, California for language training. We moved down here to Guatemala as part of my training. I am traveling the region until July, when I will start a 6 month course with the Guatemalan Army. After all this is complete, I return to the states for grad school. After that, I will be fully qualified for a variety of jobs, to include "embassy duty" as well as various stateside positions.

As for the photos, all were taken with a Nikon D70S with a Nikon 18-70 F 3.5-4.5. Most were taken in aperture priority mode, and I adjusted the exposure on a couple to + 1/3 or +2/3. All are straight from the camera, with the exception of the flag. I tweaked the saturation a little.

I hope to have some more photos next month. I'm headed to Argentina - Cordoba, Buenos Aires, San Carlos de Bariloche in Patagonia, and Ushuaia in Tierra Del Fuego. I'm headed to Peru at the end of April as well.

Keep 'em coming....and watch your "six"!