Sights and sounds of market day

Today is market day in my town. Every town has at least one maybe two days that they have their market. Every one comes out to sell their products, offering everything from live animals to fresh produce, clothing, and DVD's. Anything your Guatemalan heart desires can be found in the market. I myself was excited to check out the wide array of fresh produce as this is something that has been lacking in my diet here (I am not sure why Guatemalans don't eat more fresh fruits and veggies because they are so plentiful here). Even though we headed out early to begin our shopping trip to the market (6:30am), the market was well filled with shoppers. There were men carrying their products to sell into the market, many times it seemed, carrying more then they weighed themselves. The large packs are carried on their back and are attached via a rope that is placed on their forehead and goes down around close to the bottom. I am flabbergasted as to how they carry so much stuff, many of them are well along in years appearing to be around 70 years old. This is how much of the stuff is brought into the market and carried in day to day life, not having the luxury of vehicles, Guatemalans seem used to the hard labor of carrying such heavy things (I will try to get some pictures of all this the next time I head to the market, so you can get a better idea of what it looks like). After I left the produce section of the market, we walked past the section where vendors were selling meat. I believe the set up they have here in Guatemala would utterly fail the USDA standards. Carcasses are hung from a hook in the open air and as buyers come for their purchases the meat is cut off. There is also chicken for sale along with many other parts of the animal that I am not sure should be eaten. I don't like walking through this part of the market, the smell is overwhelming and makes me sick to my stomach. I don't think I will ever purchase meat in this fashion, it just doesn't seem right. I made it out of the market without getting sick and with some pretty good steals, by American standards. The experience was intimidating but I anticipate it to get better with time. Hopefully it will be a little easier to navigate once I learn the ins and outs and improve in my Spanish, and maybe pick up a little of the Mayan language spoken here.