WHAT TO DO WITH A CHILD IN GUATEMALA (IF YOU MUST...)

View from Plaza Mayor (Main Plaza) of the Historic Center

Weather: Spring-like with lots of rain.

Keeping up with this blog has been difficult, due to the fact that I have accepted to work on several projects. I accepted, all around the same time, to turn in a long, in-depth article on the recovery and renewal of the historic center of Guatemala for a local major newspaper. I also had to turn in a research proposal for the Historic National Police Archives.

BTW, if you read Spanish, you can read the online version of the article by clicking here.

Then accepted to work on a couple of community-building projects. One of the project positions I accepted is with a partnership program between the City government of Guatemala and International Cooperation from the European Union. This is a paid position, of course.

The meetings are long but very productive and actually, the members are all young-ish--at least, much younger than yours truly!--and very enthusiastic, as well as knowledgeable, so it has been a real pleasure.

The pleasure is compounded by the fact that at the end of the meetings, we end up at the neighborhood pub. A good time is had by all.

Some of my (unfinished) prints from silkscreen printmaking workshop

While I was taking on all these projects, including an unpaid position as chair of the board of a non-profit organization that is a partnership of businesspeople and government for the development of the Historic Center, I also accepted a job as a thesis advisor for a master program in Communication, at the local Jesuit university.

Then, I had to start an intensive printmaking workshop and a copperplate printing workshop I had signed up for weeks ago!

Finished print (inspired by a music magazine cover and my nephew's mohawk)
(not all of my stuff is this wild)

I couldn't very well drop out, being that we had been chosen via a selective process which meant that we were taking the spot others had also applied for, and the instructors are accomplished experts in the fields of copperplate and silkscreen printing. This is something I didn't want to miss out on.

Either way, some days were brutally busy but you know, you keep your head down and just forge ahead and next thing you know, there is breathing space again. And so here I am!

One thing I really enjoy of all this is that I get to work most of the time at home. It rains every afternoon, so it would be a bear to have to drive in rain and chaotic Guatemalan traffic. I get to sit at home, listening to the rain fall outside my window, or else, while I listen to Last.fm radio online and drink tea, coffee or iced Coke, depending upon the mood. Sometimes it does call for hot chocolate ...

Street of Historic Center of Guatemala City

By the way, for expats who miss Pandora radio in the US--one cannot get Pandora radio outside the USA--there is Last.fm, where for a monthly fee of US$3, one can get pretty much any type of radio station one may desire.

Right now I am ecstatic to have re-created my Steampunk radio station from Pandora, and also created a Baroque music station. My music taste runs the gamut from Blues, to punk and indie, to Baroque and Medieval. Last.fm works well with all of this.

Cobblestone street of Historic Center, Guatemala City

The Boy's Visit.

I received the visit of my 8-year-old nephew from the USA, Little Louie. Is he 8? Going into 3rd grade, anyhow.

Either way, my youngest son is 21 and living in his own place at a university town in the US while he finishes his degree. It has been a very long time since I have had to share my life with a young child (thank goodness!). Hence, there was little I had around me to entertain the kid, unless he wants to read Freud, or so I thought.

Turns out that we have several computers on the premises, so he was quite happy with one of the laptops all to himself and required little else in the way of entertainment!

Our "artisanal pizza"

We also made pizza "from scratch," which involved Betty Crocker's pizza mix, some decent quality mozzarella, common tomato sauce and a few dried spices. It turns out pretty good, thin crust and toasty. The boy was happy as it was the first time he "made" a pizza which wasn't the frozen kind. And I let him use his hands as much as he wanted to.

The pizzas came out a bit ... uhhhh, how shall I put this ... artisanal? Nevertheless, tasted really delish. I mixed dried herbs into the flour before adding the water and then sprinkled basil onto the basic tomato sauce. The kid loved using his hands to spread the tomato sauce and cheese. Mud or tomato sauce, doesn't seem to matter. For some reason, kids just love getting dirty.

Basic supplies for a homemade pizza (+ 1 cup of water)

Another afternoon I took him to feed the doves at the main plaza. That was interesting. All the Guatemalan kids run around chasing after the doves to make them soar in flight in large groups. Louie told me that the other children were "breaking the rules."

Yeah, I know. I was like, huh?

Well. He has been taught to respect animals and not scare them needlessly. Damn, this kid is better raised than mine ever were!

So he complained that the other children were scaring the doves and that wasn't proper. (sigh!) This child is too well-behaved. You know what I mean? I used to be a hellion. Nevertheless, I am not one to complain about any child in my care being too well-behaved! The better behaved, the happier moi.

Little Louie feeding the doves

When I had to go to art class, which I wasn't about to miss for babysitting duties, I took him with me and registered him in the Chess classes they have for kids there. I had called previously. The hours coincided perfectly with the time I would be in class myself, in the same building. Great!

Although it seems I forgot to explain to the teachers that the boy's Spanish wasn't, well, all there, so to speak.

Children at chess school, Centro Cultural Metropolitano

So I dropped Little Louie at his classroom--by then he had acquired some survival Spanish and what he didn't have, he'd just have to figure out!--and went to my class.

When I returned, he was miffed that all the other kids had taken a snack to chess school and I had forgotten to prepare one for him ... at snack time, he had to eat his Tic Tacs!

Well. All the other kids have mommies and I am not a mommy! I am just the aunt with her head in the clouds, I guess! ... but otherwise, he had loved it, made new friends. Kids will communicate across language barriers somehow.

Also, from what I understand, his short "mohawk" haircut had been quite the ice-breaker. I think his mother is enamored of Angelina Jolie's boy with the mohawk hair. But he looks cute.

Rainbow sprouting from mist in the fountain, Plaza Mayor, Guatemala City

The classes cost the equivalent to US$10 per month, so I paid a whole month even though he was staying for a few days. Worked out pretty well.

I thought he had spent a very boring few days with me, and turns out that having a laptop all to himself (he's into computer games), making his own pizza and going to chess school had turned out pretty well.

The best fun, as he told my brother, was feeding the birds at the plaza, where he got wet by the mist expelled by the giant fountain and ate ice cream from the vendors carts to his heart's content. Luckily, he survived that without catching any sort of diarrhea-inducing germs.

Street of Historic Center, Guatemala City (National Palace at the end)

So the aunt feeds him ice-cream from street vendors and the uncle--my beloved husband--spent hours exchanging fart and poop jokes with him, which for some reason I shall never comprehend, both of them seemed to find absolutely hilarious. We are definitely NOT the best influences on the child. But then, what kind of parents send their child to visit the aunt and uncle living in downtown Guatemala? I mean, really!

Oh well, he survived. And so did I!

Street and church dome, Historic Center, Guatemala City

Ah well, it was kind of sweet.

Moving on.

The inn has been very busy these last months. Very. One of my favorite guests lately was a gentleman from the Shalom Foundation, who came with two specialists to work on a pretty impressive children's hospital being built quite close by. All of the gentlemen were Southern to the core: Tennessee, Alabama and Kentucky being their places of origin. All very courteous and nice. Loved them!!!!

I also love their work. The specialists work on medical equipment wiring. They invited us to go visit the hospital they are refurbishing in a huge, ancient house nearby. I couldn't make it but my husband did go and he came back tremendously impressed. It is a charity hospital, but it will have all of the technology and layout proper of a private hospital back home in the US. What a wonderful project!

You can read more about what they do by clicking here.

National Palace and Street in Historic Center of Guatemala

Upcoming these days we have reservations from some groups of college students coming to study Guatemalan history, I assume, a group of artists coming to a convention, an international tattoo artist and so on. Groups make it interesting. Especially young ones. They tend to do things like order pizzas, light candles in the garden and sit around strumming a guitar and singing till very late at night. People travel around with guitars, which mystifies me.

The tattoo artist seems to have been especially invited to come give a demo and make some tattoos. For sure I don't want to miss out on that!

Cobblestoned street on Historic Center of Guatemala City
(with historic building at the end)

The political situation here, in crisis mode, as always. People hate the government, distrust the authorities, public hospitals' staff have to go on strike just to get attention to their demand for basic supplies. Same old, same old.

Same levels of crime (sky high), but violence seems to have been abating somewhat (somewhat as in a little) especially since they fired the---is it the third one they fire in the last year or so?--the Chief of Police and several of his immediate officers. For armed robbery, of all things. There are so many government and authority officers on trial for corruption that one loses count.

I guess it should be a good sign, but frankly, feels like a drop in the ocean.

On a lighter note, just read a fascinating article by Sean B. Carroll on the latest oceanic fossil discoveries, which are over 500 million years old. He ends his article with this phrase: "Our earliest animal ancestor probably had no head, tail, or sexual organs, and lay immobile on the sea floor like a door mat."

Doesn't it seem to describe somebody you know? It definitely describes some people I know! I am sure we all know somebody like that.

Anyhow, this is it for today. Thanks for stopping by and hope some of the information may be of use, in case you're thinking of coming here at some point. I wish you health and peace!

www.QualityGuate.com

Bed & Breakfast - Lofts - Parking

In the Historic Center of Guatemala City

AFTER THE VUVUZELAS

View of historic house 5a Avenida

Weather: Mostly rainy and gray. Makes you want to curl up with a good book and just hibernate away. That kind of weather.

When Ugly is Lovely

Although recovery and renewal works are ongoing throughout the Historic Center, there are still spots which have fallen into serious decay and are mostly abandoned. Nevertheless, the architecture is beautiful--sometimes bizarre--and I think that it is precisely that decay which lends it a special, ghostly and mysterious aura.

In other words, I find beauty in decay. I find beauty, as well, in ruins and old cemeteries. That is as close to romantic or sentimental as I will ever get.

So today's pictures, taken around 7 am on a rainy day, are from that point of view.

View of bell tower and dome of Calvario Church
(Built late 17th Century)

When Ugly is Just Plain Ugly

The other morning, I went brunch with a friend. As we were having breakfast by a window, there was a huge commotion in the restaurant. Turns out that right outside our window, a guy had been walking by when a van stopped abruptly in front of him, several men jumped out and grabbing the pedestrian, brutally pummeled him as if he were a piñata.

Historic house with Moorish façade

Then they dragged him into the van, where they continued to beat him and the van, screeching, sped away with them not even bothering to slam the door shut.

While all of this was going on, there was a chorus of anguished ¡Ay Dios Mio! going on inside and outside the restaurant, and people frantically dialing the police on their cellphones.

Truth be told, the police did arrive sort of fast and some police pick-up trucks fanned out to search for the mysterious white van. Other officers started to take statements from people on the streets, but since most witnesses on the street had scrammed, I don't think they got much information.

They didn't bother to come inside the restaurant to interview the patrons! Which seemed to me the most common sense thing to do; but what do I know about investigative police strategy?

Art Noveau door (Late 1800s, Early 1900s)

I had tried to write down the van's license plates but wasn't able to. We were upset, we were no longer really hungry.

Today I found out that the guy is an alleged extortionist, who had been blackmailing surrounding businesses for money. You know, the typical exchange of "protection" for money, or rather, they won't cause harm if one pays them not to cause harm. The man had been "arrested" by plain clothes police officers, which was the cause for the brutal scene we all witnessed.

Or so a flyer issued by the National Police, mailed around the Internet today, explained. No mention of the beating, the van, etc.

Close-up of elegant Art Noveau door

That merchants feel confident to call the police to protect them against extortionists is good, and the police did seem to arrive quickly when called to the restaurant, which is also good. Nevertheless, I still feel kind of sick at the scene we had to witness. I have seen people killed and am no wuss when it comes to gory, but witnessing unnecessary brutality is always upsetting.

Well, we have our police brutality problems in the US, so can't really expect not to have them here, where there is less rule of law. But I don't believe I will ever get used to this.

Decaying elegant entrance and façade

Latest developments in our non-profit organization (Or learning to deal with local government)

Our non-profit partnership with the government has grown and we shall be sworn in on Wednesday at Casa Ibargüen, which is where the Office of the Historic District of the City of Guatemala holds its ceremonies.

We got a grant to subsidize our legit incorporation as a non-profit--a legal expense which isn't cheap here--and we will be a formal, viable, working organization as of Wednesday. This we have published heavily on Facebook, as well as sent print and digital invitations all over.

Our board of directors is constituted by business owners and cultural organizations from the Historic Center. We haven't gotten formally incorporated yet, and yet we already received more RSVPs than we thought we would actually get. Facebook has a lot to do with it!

Beautiful old entrance

Even some City councilmembers are coming. So it has been a few crazy busy days and it promises to become even more frantic as we get there, but we are exited and happy. And nervous.

It has been very stressful (yet a learning experience), to deal with several government entities at the same time and all the ensuing protocol which here, oh surprise, can be quite arcane and rigid. For a country this small, they do have a very complex protocol in place.

However... I guess the time is right for this, because as we speak, I just got a call from one of the local newspapers, elPeriódico, to interview me about the non-profit organization and the upcoming event. Cool.

Façade of an old business which used to be named Ackermann (as in the US, there was a great German immigration wave here, way back when)

New Job

Out of the blue, as I was not expecting it, I got a job offer from the Jesuit university where I just taught a course in their master programs. They want to keep me on their grad level teaching roster and offered me, as well, a job as a master thesis advisor. Here that is actually a formal paid position, a job on the roster. Quite different than in the US.

Colonial façade overgrown with greenery

I have never been a thesis advisor before, but I have written quite a few and have produced a fair share of research and nerdy publications, so I guess I shall be fine. I already have been assigned my first advisee who, as luck will have it, happened to be one of the best students I had in the course I taught recently. A young woman from Spain. Her topic happens to be of interest to me and something I know about, so at this point in time, it seems like it will be a pleasant endeavor. Veremos. We shall see!

Original Art Deco façade
(reminds me of South Beach, Florida)

Another newspaper article in the works

I am starting to like this and it seems that they like me back. I got commissioned, again, to write another piece for the Sunday magazine of Siglo XXI newspaper.

There are no quality regular magazines to be found here--NONE--and that void seems to be filled by the Sunday magazines of the varied newspapers published here. The best newspaper here is elPeriódico (funded by the Soros Foundation) with Siglo XXI running a close second.

But the best Sunday magazines belong to Siglo XXI and Diario de Centro América, which is the government newspaper.

Cool graffiti face besides an abandoned Colonial building

Strange, but somehow the state newspaper has managed to have a pretty darn good Sunday magazine, which has even published articles by Noam Chomsky. I was like, a government organ publishing Chomsky??? But there you have it. I feel ambiguous about Chomsky's writings--some I really like, some I dislike. But still.

However, the state newspaper's magazine is a literary and current events publication more than anything else. So I have become a faithful reader of local Sunday magazines.

Thank goodness I have found a place where I can also buy Rolling Stone, ArtNews, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair and Vogue. At about US$10 a pop! And not quite current, and not to be found always, but! It works. They even call you when new magazines arrive. Smart move. It's like a siren call.

Fading sign colonial house wall

A New Strategies Workshop

Last week, I took a 3-day intensive workshop with Beatriz Briggs, from the University of Chicago, who is an expert in Outcome Mapping. This is a strategy developed by Canadian organizations, adopted by US institutions and now being disseminated worldwide as the new thing in organizational communication.

The workshop, sponsored by the Jesuit University and some research organization in Costa Rica whose name I forget, turned out to be pretty good, despite my not-so-high expectations. I tend to be quite the pessimist when it comes to this type of didactic stuff. But this time, I was wrong. Moreover, Beatrice spoke completely in strongly-accented but perfectly fluent Spanish!

Late 17th Century Century colonial house, boarded up

I liked the people there, starting with Beatrice. I met a couple of participants from Belgium and several from Costa Rica, among them some graduates from US universities. There were some local community leaders and overall, most were non-profit managers and/or academics there to learn the latest in mapping strategies.

It was a pretty diverse group. Many of us made friends, networked a great deal, had meals together, exchanged emails, etc. I made some new friends with whom I suspect I am going to end up pub-hopping in the near future ...

Hey, that is a measure of success when it comes to networking! Did I make business connections? Land a contract? Did I make new drinking buddies?

Colonial façade

I sent a group of Costa Ricans bar hopping through the Historic District and they absolutely fell in love with it. Costa Ricans tend to be cultivated and well-read. They are doing similar things in San Jose, their capital, and its historic district. I'd love to go check it out.

Anyhow. I can envision a lot of uses for mapping in the business world as well. In truth, Beatrice, a native of the Midwest, strikes me as more business-oriented than anything else, despite her vast experience in development. Her workshop was professional and effective. Money and time well-invested, methinks.

The Inn

The inn had a crazy busy month, particularly when we had the hotel bursting at the seems with a group of adolescents brought by a health organization for some educational workshops. Despite the chaperons, that is always a fun-headache kind of experience.

They won't stop talking loudly and giggling, endlessly, till all hours. Add that noise to the vuvuzelas!

Teenagers are nuts and no matter how well-behaved, they end up doing some sort of mischief, usually to one another. In the end, however, they are always funny in the eye-rolling, head-shaking funny way.

Ah yes, I remember those days. I kept getting kicked out of school myself, so far be it for me to criticize the youthful shenanigans of others.

But... all that is neither here nor there.

Okay.

For some strange reason, bug love is in the air, and during the last half hour several couples of mating bugs have been flying around me and landing all over the laptop, so I think that is a sign that I need to let it go. Thanks for coming by!

www.QualityGuate.com

Hotel - Lofts - Parking

In the heart of the Historic District of Guatemala City

DONE! DONE! DONE!

Ice cream vendor cart, Plaza Central, Guatemala City

Weather: Absolutely chaotic. Some cool rainy days, some sunny and warm. Occasional earth tremors.

Dissertation status: Has been sent to the rest of the committee, and am set to go back home and defend in Fall. Yay!

So. Done with the final draft of the dissertation and done with the summer course I was teaching. Done, as well, with the consulting job for the City Government of Guatemala.

I really believed I would be able to write throughout the month of June about my teaching experience in Guatemala, documenting it as a journal of sorts. Despite my best intentions, however, it was not to be.

The summer course involved a 3.5 hours class twice a week, and grading papers or preparing for class took up most of my time.

View of forest and hills from my classroom window

Many of my students were professionals (journalists, a university dean, the chief of communications of a large government dependency, non-profit officials, and so on). They were very engaged, interested in the topic and then always wanted to stay till the very end of class.

Now that I am not used to, even in the US!

As a student I loved going to class, yet I cannot recall ever wanting to stay beyond the allotted time! Well, only when it was art class ... but those were the fun electives that didn't really "count."

The balcony for professors, which faces the gardens and the sala de docentes (professors' room)

Only about half my students here seemed trained, however, in analytical writing. And this was a master program, yet I got quite a few papers which basically amounted to summaries and high school-style reports of class material and readings. I guess they still do a lot of rote memorization.

This is not their fault. They don't have here the kind of resources we have in the US for research, such as access to Lexis-Nexis, JSTOR or any sort of academic database. Those are way too expensive and I doubt that most universities here can afford it.

Overall, it is clear that most locally-educated professors have not been trained in that sort of research nor do they encourage debate the way which most classes do that I ever took back home. This is what students told me and it did seem difficult for most to engage in class interaction that did not involve repeating what the class readings said.

It reminded me of my Japanese and Korean students in the US. Not big on class debate! (Until they got used to it, and after that, often they would get into the fray, albeit somewhat tentatively).

View from the balcony for professors

That with all these challenges, I still got some truly excellent papers and good class commentary, just goes to show how enthused many of the students were, how well-prepared and eager to learn. In many ways, they were more inquisitive than my US students, and often, more sophisticated.

It helps that the university is engaging in efforts to attract foreign-trained professors, as well. I met academics there from the US, for example, and others trained abroad in countries such as Spain, Mexico, France, etc.

Despite the lack of research resources and databases, there is a lot of academic cross-pollination and hands-on experience with primary research. That is, students get involved in actual research involving surveys, interviews, field observation, etc., all of which is good.

But still. Theoretical underpinnings and access to similar studies worldwide are limited.

View of university gardens and garden cafeteria (white spiky roofs)

One of my favorite things there is the balcony for professors. We get a huge computer lab, with sofas and tables, a balcony that opens onto the gardens and forest, free coffee and water. So I would go sit outside with a cup of coffee, enjoy the lovely weather, grade papers, read a book, chat with other professors ...

The cafeteria is also lovely. All classrooms are fully equipped with the latest technology. So overall, no complaints. It was a great experience.

Print from my latest series

It was enjoyable, interesting and utterly exhausting!

Nevertheless, it had its down side. I had to fail two of the students for not presenting work up to par, and another one for plagiarism. I have zero tolerance for late work, and even less for plagiarism. Students not happy, of course, and boy do they give drama.

I did get full administrative support on these issues, to my surprise. Many had warned me that in Guatemala they are soft on plagiarism, but that did not turn out to be the situation in the case I encountered.

Drawing of glasses

Many Guatemalan students I talked to do want to have some academic experience abroad. A young student of architecture, for example, told me he took a course in Argentina and wants to transfer there because they encourage the students to debate in class, and also offer much more research access.

Many Guatemalan professors, too, seem to constantly be searching for research or training opportunities abroad. Moreover, universities keep inviting and hiring academics from abroad, be it for full time teaching or short courses.

So other Latin American countries may be ahead. While I believe Guatemala is behind in those issues, however, it is clear that some universities are making serious efforts towards achieving higher academic standards and more up-to-date research skills.

Drawing of glass

Lately I have been really into drawing glass and fabric.

Some of these drawings have translated into my printmaking classes, where I have been printing a series of drawings of Victorian female fashion--which presents complex treatment of fabric and lovely shapes which are very akin to instruments of torture: the corsets, the high-necked enclosure, etc.

The printmaking workshop where I take classes is bringing some very well-known printmakers and serigraphists to teach a workshop. They do this every year, but are limited of space and people have to apply for a spot. This year I was accepted, for the first time, into two of the 4 workshops, which was lucky.

Drawing inspired by a 1980s fashion magazine

Most applicants were accepted into only one of four, and others didn't get in. So as soon as the class I teach at the university ended, I got my plate full of art classes for the month of July.

I also finished my consulting work with the City of Guatemala and cashing my check at the City Cashiers window, thought I, would be a bureaucratic nightmare (after all, it took 3 months for the paycheck to be issued), but turned out not to be too bad at all.

I have been quite lucky in that sense. I hear horror stories from friends dealing with government bureaucracy, but have yet to find a truly nightmarish government line. I am sure, however, that my day will come.

Colonial (?) Era water drainage

Talking of The City Government, works to recover and remodel the main downtown street, La Sexta (6th Avenue) have begun in earnest. It spans 10 blocks, and will make it a pedestrian space with open cafes, trees, and so on. The throngs walking the avenue despite heavy work, bulldozers, and dangerous ditches and holes, are amazing to behold.

It reminds me of children playing with water. You know, when children are allowed to get all wet when usually that is verbotem! Now they get to walk the street free of its usual congested traffic.

Historic water pipes

The Colonial Era water pipes are AWESOME. Any student of history, archaeology, architecture or anybody just plain curious would love to see them. Like mini-Roman aqueducts, made of clay and brick and of course, by now fully dysfunctional yet .... that is what The City has been using! (no wonder there are such water shortages!) The old pipes are already being covered up again. I saw they are installing new metal piping now.

COOL STUFF: By the way, if you want so see some really interesting pictures of Arquitectura de Remesas (the architecture born of the monies sent by Guatemalan immigrants in the USA) click here. I will go check the photo exhibit this weekend. Can't miss out on that one!

The inn has been busy. Lots of US academics and European journalists coming in and we had the hotel full for over a week by a group of indigenous Aymara--I think!--from Bolivia, coming in for a big American Indigenous Convention. The admixture of people who come and go never fails to fascinate me!

Thunderstorm rolling in and with this I shall bid you adieu, so that I can turn the computer off.

www.QualityGuate.com

Bed & Breakfast - Lofts - Parking
In the Heart of the Historic Center of Guatemala City