March 15, 2015. The world-reknown outdoor market of Chichicastenango, Guatemala. Open on Sundays and Thursdays the space lives to serve Mayan communities in the mountain area of Santo Tomás. Not only full of color and smells, but also full of emotion. This is the prepared food section of the market, shown is a number of people all enjoying local dishes made by women of the surrounding villages.
March 15, 2015 on the steps to the world-known Santo Tomas church, many Indigenous and ladinos women gather to sell flowers and textiles to locals and tourists. The church serves as the hub for the market. People off all walks of life can be found here.
Sitting on the floor, at the bottom of the stairs to the Santo Tomas Church in Chichicastenango’s church, a woman accept 20 quetzales form a passerby. She is a mayan women. She does not speak english.
A Mayan woman, accompanied by a child, sits on the floor of the market selling vegetables.
March 15, 2015. This vender is set up in the heart of the market. He sells hand made bags, shoes, clothing and various textiles.
Vitelio Humberto De Leon Noriega, 55, stands in the middle of his bamboo plantation located in the outskirts of Chocolá, Guatemala. Here he harvest’s bamboo to create various pieces of work such as furniture, candleholders, mugs, baskets and more
Vitelio Humberto De Leon Noriega, leads the way to his bamboo plantation located in the outskirts of Chocolá, Guatemala. The land was given to his as part of a government program to better the lives of people living in rural areas.
Vitelio’s employees work in the back of his house under a tin, metal roof supported by bamboo.
Three of Vitelios’ employees work on a sofa frame in the back of his house.
Vitelio is a supervises his employees as they work in the back of his house. He emplyess people form the coumnity and provided oppurtunity for individual wanting to learn his craft
Florinda Garcia, 42, waits in the hospital, having traveled over an hour from her home to the clinic in Chocolá with severe pain in her abdomen. An examination found that the pain was caused by gallstones, an ailment that would require Garcia to undergo surgery for the first time in her life.
Florinda Garcia’s family waits for her during her surgery. Fifteen of her family members travelled to the clinic in a borrowed pickup truck to support her during the procedure and the two days she spent recovering from the operation.
As Christian, 3, is prepped for a hernia operation a medical volunteer/ traslatior hold his had as he is given anesthetic by the doctor. He arrived to the clinic in Chocolá with a severe pain in his groin. His mothers waits for him in the post-op room. She is scared because she nor her son or anyone she knows has under gone surgery before.
Dr. Ken Eveland, general surgeon and vice president of Refuge International, and Jordan Bentz, a 3rd year medical student and EMT, perform the hernia operation for Christian, 3. The Surgery takes about 2.5 hours to perform.
March 9. 2015. Susana Castro, 54, stands over a wood burning fire pit as smoke rises from a pot of chicken being fried. She lives just across the road from the St Thomas Clinic in Chocolá, Guatemala. She provided food to patients and the families waiting outside the clinic to see Dr. Castillo.
Susana worked and saved for a year to buy a refrigerator, she's currently saving for a stove.
Every morning at 4 a.m, Susana Castro begins her work patting tortillas, crusting tomatoes with peppers and herding chickens or meats to be fried. Here she peels roasted tomatioes to be crushed for salsa.
Along with preparing for the days food to sell, she also tends to her 2 small children. Both attend school in the main city up the road a few miles away form the clinic. Her goal is for them to have a career of there own one day just as she has.
Castro spends hours of preparing until lunch time at the clinic food, fruits, juices and sodas she will sell throughout the day.
Castro Works in a small self made Kitchen. The structure is made of bamboo, wood panels and cement blocks she uses to house her wood buring stove.