Category Archives: Guatemala

Travelin’ Shoes

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Time flies when you’re not doing anything worth writing about. But that is about to change. Faye and I are on our way back to Guatemala for a couple of months. As I have noted before, Guatemala is familiar territory for us. But things change, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. The rainy season this year was particularly bad. Mountainsides collapsed, wiping out roads, covering homes and killing people. The little village Faye and I met in was hit pretty hard, and the main road has been closed for repairs the past couple of months. So it is with some … Continue reading →

Alien Invasion

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Illegal immigration has been a contentious issue in the US for the past several years, especially around election time. We constantly hear about how aliens come illegally to our country, either sneaking in the back door to the American dream, seeking a better life and citizenship. Or, and this is what we hear mostly, that they are taking American jobs, using American health care, and bringing crime and disease into the country. Neither is true for most immigrants. In past years the money immigrants from Guatemala send home has accounted for about 10% of the money in the country. Most … Continue reading →

Party Like It’s 2012

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OK, that’s a joke. As far as I can tell here in Guatemala present-day Mayas either don’t know about the dire predictions of the end of the world in 2012 based on the old Mayan calendar, or they don’t believe it. Either way, it is life as usual, which means celebrating important events, some traditional, some not so much. This past weekend my oldest goddaughter, Angelina, graduated from college with a degree in medical science. It is sort of a pre-med degree and she plans to continue and become a doctor. Such an achievement is not at all traditional amongst … Continue reading →

Changes

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I am already nearly a week into phase two of this year’s trip: Last Monday I flew from Canada to Guatemala, where I’ll be spending the month of November. I’ve been to Guatemala many times over the years, and it is a familiar place for me. Coming here seems not so much a trip or vacation as it does a parallel reality. It is like the difference between a dream world and a waking world. Which is which—which seems more real—depends on where I am. For the first few days here I feel fuzzy headed. At night sometimes I am … Continue reading →

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

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Today is my last day in Guatemala; tomorrow I fly back to the States, and expect to be home a few days later. I can tell it is time for me to leave because there are things annoying me that probably shouldn’t. The latest example is the color of the room I am staying in tonight. The bottom half of the walls is a particularly unpleasant shade of green, with some blue in it but not enough to be teal. The top half of three walls is baby blue, and the top half of the fourth is sunshine yellow. The … Continue reading →