TGIM

Thank God it's Monday. I really do enjoy the development work I'm doing for Transitions. They perform a unique and needed service for Guatemalans with disabilities, so they have a great story to tell. Today was so beautiful that I decided to walk the ten or so blocks from our casita to Ochenta. In most places that would be unusual. Here, it's as natural as an afternoon rain during the rainy season.

My current project, which is due in Houston, via email, tomorrow, is for a significant donation from a Houston church. Today, I managed to get the financial information I needed to complete the grant's financial report for 2010. I'm still needing four more photos to accompany the application. Except meeting the deadline, there's not really any stress on this application, as it's a done deal. This church has provided significant support to Transitions for over ten years. I guess it helps that one of our U.S. board members is a member of the church.

Once that was done, I began researching other potential funders, although most won't be providing funding until 2012. Fund development is a long range activity. You just don't get funding by sending in a proposal,,,usually. I'm also researching on-line donation sources. We already use PayPal, but there are others that are project oriented that I'd like to use.

Today, Linda walked over to join me for lunch. After lunch, she went with Santo to do the weekly shopping in the mercado. I thought she would enjoy doing it and might even find some regular and dependable vendors for us to use. They left about 2:00 p.m. and didn't return until about 4:00 p.m. I won't say anything more about her mercado trip, since Linda will be blogging about it tomorrow.

After she returned, we lost Internet service at Ochenta, so I packed up and we headed home. On the way we saw this section of street where the cobblestones are being replaced. This happens every year in Antigua. All the streets get repaired in anticipation of Cuaresma (Lent) and Semana Santa (Holy Week). Both are big tourism draws here in Antigua. I can't wait to share them with you, now that we actually live in Antigua.

Soon afterwards, while crossing the street, I saw this street light pole base. I wonder if Coca Cola had to pay a fee to have their logo there. As much Coke as is drank here, they may have paid for the entire pole.

Heading on towards home, it began to sprinkle lightly, but we made it before anything substantial fell, which it did around 6:00 p.m. As in the morning, light sprinkles don't keep people here off the streets. For that matter, heavy rain doesn't either, except maybe some gringos.

More New Friends?

In reviewing the photos on my camera, I discovered that I had neglected to share a photo of some more of my new friends here at Transitions.

I´ve already introduced Julio (on the left) who manages the print shop. With him are Hugo (actually Hugo #2, since Hugo #1 manages the Wheelchair Workshop) and Anna, both of whom work at the print shop.

Believe it or not, I´m still not done, as I still need to introduce the staff at the Prosthetics and Orthotics Clinic in San Felipe de Jesus, a village just outside of Antigua.

Sunday Afternoon in Antigua

Today, after lunch, we walked over to the mercado to pick up some fruit. We bought some citrus (similar to a tangerine), some bananas and some mangos.  As we left the outdoor fruit and vegetable area, we decided to walk through the chicken bus terminal. I bet your bus station doesn't have a volcano on the horizon. That magnificant sight is Volcán Agua, our closest and fortunately extinct volcano.

Heading back to the Alameda de Santa Lucia (remember, that's the main drag), we saw this father and son playing music. What he's playing is a homemade harp and the son beats a rhythm on the front of it.

 We picked up some meat at Dispensa Familiar and would have gotten some more items, but the caja (ATM) was out of cash. We walked around the corner to the Bodegona (the big grocery in Antigua and the most disorganized) to find that their caja was also out of order. In fact, it was being serviced.

Walking on towards Parque Central, we came to Calle del Arco (Street of the Arch) and found a clown performing.

After watching the clown for a while, we proceeded to the next caja and were successful in extracting cash from one of our accounts in the states. We proceeded to walk across Parque Central. In the center of the park is the Fountain of Sirens, which was built in 1737. There are four mermaids spaced around the center

and they are very busy, as you can see. (click on the photo to enlarge it)

On the walk back to our casita, we stopped at Tanque Union, which is a large public laundry facility, not used much any more, except by the poor and some backpackers. Looking across the water in the tank, you can once again see Volcán Agua in the distance.

Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española

One of the many church ruins in Antigua is this one, which was built by the Jesuits.

Adjacent to the church, was their convent, which as been rebuilt by Spain as the site for the Centro de Formación de la Cooperación Española. They have a library, exhibits, have movies, host meetings and cultural events. This week, for instance, they are hosting three free concerts: a blues band from the U.S., and two jazz bands - one from Mexico and another from Italy.

The interior is very quiet and restful. We often stop here to study, read or just enjoy the solitude, especiall when Antigua is full of tourists, which is usually every weekend.

The interior is divided into two courtyards.

One special feature are all the blooming plants that grace the interior.

It's truly a beautiful place. Why don't you come to Antigua and we'll take you to see it for yourself?

A Beautiful Day in Paradise

On Saturday, we walked to the mercado. as you can see many Antiguans walk in town, even the very young.

 At the end of the street, you can see one of the two favorite names of streets in Antigua. "Una Via," i.e. one way. The other favorite street name is "Doble Via," i.e. two way. All the streets in Antigua have names and the names appear, for the most part, on city maps. Unfortunately, when houses are renovated or even painted, street signs often are taken down and never put back up again. It does make it interesting when you need to find a particular location. Fortunately, there are enough churches, both active and in ruins, to help with navigating.

Just walking downtown.

Here's one of those churches no longer being used...as a church. It's called San José El Viejo or St. Joseph the Old. I don´t think they're referring to an old St. Joseph, just to the fact that there's a newer church in town called San José, which just happens to be the cathedral that faces Parque Central.

As we walked down the street, a gate was open and I managed to take this picture of a bucaro or wall-mounted fountain. I guess they were created for folks who couldn´t afford a free-standing fountain.

As we walked towards the Alameda de Santa Lucia (the main drag), we passed this entry way to a fairly expensive hotel. They've managed to stretch their fountain out along a rather long wall.

Since it was about lunch time, we stopped at the Picadilly Restaurant and purchased two personal pan pizzas. The man kneeling behind Linda is one of Antigua's professional beggers. He is actually blind and almost starving to death, as you can plainly see. Actually, many people buy him pizza, which is why he's selected that location for his business. And it is a business, as he keeps regular hours. Around 5:00 p.m., he heads for home. I'm told that he's quite successful at his business.

Finally, we arrived at the mercado.

 You can almost fine anything you want at the mercado, especially if it grows. Here's a vegetable vendor.

That strange thing that looks like an oversized green bean is actually a (Guess what? I don't know). I'll have to research this and report back.

We still have problems with the way meat is handled in the mercado. The smell is rather strong too.

 
Guess how these guys got to the mercado...right, they came on a Chicken Bus!

After we finished our shopping in the mercado, we stopped by Dispensa Familiar (one of the two larger groceries in Antigua) to pick up a few other staples we needed and then headed home. We really should have hired a tuk tuk, but walked back to the casita with three heavy shopping bags of groceries. Dumb, dumb, dumb!

A Beautiful Hymn

Today, we went to 10:00 a.m. Mass at San Francisco El Grande,

which is just down the street from our casita. It was a beautiful day. One of the Franciscan monks was sitting outside the church talking to some ladies as we arrived.

The Mass was once again well attended and we felt welcomed by those sitting around us. After communion, the choir, accompanied by an organ, marimba, and string bass, sang a hymn I'd heard before, both in the United States and Guatemala. It's a beautiful hymn and I decided to track it down. It's titled "Pescador de Hombres," which translates as "Fisher of Men." It was written by a Spanish priest, Cesáreo Gabaráin, who was one of the best know composers of Spanish liturgical music (http://www.ocp.org/artists/296). By the way, I read that it was the favorite hymn of Pope John Paul II.

Here's a link to a beautiful version with lyrics in Spanish: http://www.lafecatolica.com/pescador-de-hombres/723/

Here's another version that includes English lyrics: http://www.spiritandsong.com/compositions/15607

I also found a rock version. Believe it or not, it's sung by a Spanish priest, Joan Enric Reverté, who performs as Padre Jony : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hjhSmUiPTE It's different, but I can see how it would appeal to the young.

Susan's A+

Our daughter Susan, who lives in Missouri City, is an unpaid staff member (almost full-time volunteer) at Austin Parkway Elementary, where our grandson, Max, is in first grade. This year, she and her friend Kim took on the school directory project because they thought they could do a better job than had been done in the past. Evidently, they succeeded, as shown by the following photo.

Way to go, Sue! And to think that there are those who think she stays home eating bon-bons while watching soap operas all day. No way!

Good News

Yesterday, we were scheduled to participate in a 4:00 p.m. teleconference with Susan, Robyn, my mother, my stepfather, their physician, their case worker, their nurse and other nursing home staff. Just after we returned home after lunch, Susan called and told us that we wouldn´t be needed as my mother and stepfather were moving into assisted living. In the short time my stepfather has been at the nursing home, he has improved tremendously. My mother is fine, despite the fact that she is paralyzed on one side. In fact, her penmanship, taught her by a relentless nun, continues to be better than mine. In truth, neither of them liked being in the nursing home, except for the fact that Susan, Robyn and our two Texas grandsons could visit them on a regular basis. When they decided that they could move to assisted living, they were delighted. It seems that Bill´s federal pension, their Social Security and mother´s teachers retirement (she was a school nurse for a short time) will be more than enough to cover the cost of assisted living, especially since they will also qualify for almost $2,000 in veteran´s assistance.

TGIF

Friday has finally come. While I'm enjoying, for the most part, what I've doing here in La Antigua with Transitions, I am looking forward to the weekend. It's been a busy week and a lot has been accomplished, but it's time to play, but only after we do our weekly shopping. Linda is not yet comfortable with the idea of going shopping by herself, so we end up doing most of our shopping on Saturday.

During the week, I can either hitch a ride back to the Ochenta in the van the wheelchair workshop guys arrive in Monday-Friday. Some days, however, the weather is so beautiful, that I feel the need to walk the ten blocks across La Antigua just to enjoy the ambience. Here are some photos of the route I take.

Farther on, the streets get busier. Notice the tourist bus and the Spanish students on the right. Tourism is a year-round activity in La Antigua. It becomes even more active during the weekends of Cuaresma (Lent), when the religious processions begin. It becomes an actual obsession, however, during Semana Santa (Holy Week), when the town explodes (in number of people, not like with a volcano). 

Hereś another shot of my morning route to work. In the background of this  one you can see Volcán Agua. Itś actually looking back over the route I had just taken.

 I´m sure that many local residents, while both enjoying the ceremonies of Lent and Holy Week, resent the huge influx of visitors, most from Guatemala City, who descend upon La Antigua. There is one benefit, however. Every year, at this time, the Municiplidad fixes the cobble stone streets of La Antigua.

 As my daughter, Susan, would say. You have your workers and your watchers.

 Here´s one of the beautiful side streets I pass on the way to work.

 Last Friday we didn´t get lunch (part of my contract). Today, I discovered why. On Friday, the guys in the wheelchair workshop only work until noon and they return to Ochenta for lunch. After lunch, they play their weekly wheelchair basketball that I showed last week. Knowing how things work now (no one ever tells you), I had Linda walk over to Ochenta for lunch. On the way back, across from Escuela de Christo Church, we found this pick-up loaded with fruit. Since it was so close to our casita, we decided to load up on fruit ourselves. We purchased a small watermelon, two cantalopes, a papaya, and a  pineapple. All this fresh, ripe, delicious goodness only cost us Q55 ($7.08). The watermelon, alone, would cost almost that much back in Burlington.

 I can wait until next Friday afternoon, when I can get my next fruit fix.

 Here´s what a papaya looks like when cut open. The taste is very mild and not overly sweet. You often find papaya in fruit salad here.

Here´s a picture of the church. The complete name of this church is Nuestra Señora de los Remedios Escuela de Christo (Our Lady of the Remedies School of Christ). There´s a ruin of another church farther down the street that is also called Nuestra Señora de los Remedios. I suspect that the two churches merged, much like Ss. John and Paul did, or perhaps the name was reused as a sign of respect.

We didn´t get to go the the wheelchair basketball game this afternoon. Instead, I attended an online giving workshop presented by a group called GlobalGiving.org. I´m proud to say that I arrived on time, even though I took a wrong turn on my way there. The workshop was OK. The presenter´s presentation, however, violated every rule of digital presentation (too much information on the slides, fonts too small, etc.). I did pick up a few ideas, however, and validated others that I had. We may or may not make use of their system. The fulfillment (fancy term for the system that makes it work) cost is 15% of any donations received, which is quite a bit more than most on-line donation sites. They do offer a number of unique services, but I´m not convinced that they´re worth the cost.

This evening, since we´ve still not been able to get to the market, we decided to go downtown to eat. We first tried to eat at the fancy restaurant that had the hamburger plates for less than Q20, but they´ve changed their policy. They have now added a sticker to their door-sized sign that says para llevar solo (take-out only). Evidently, it was an oversight when they printed the banner. We followed their advice and took ourselves out and walked down the street to McDonalds for one of their hamburgers, for not much more. By the way, McDonalds here is considered expensive, gringo food. It also tastes better than the food you get back in the states at the same chain. Also, I have yet to get my tray to the trash can without an employee rushing up to take it out of my hands. When you order, if your food is still being prepared, they invite you to find a place to sit and they bring it to you. Sure doesn´t sound like the McDonalds I know in the states.

When we left the casita to head downtown this evening, we had the foresight to bring umbrellas, since there were dark clouds in the sky. It´s a good thing we did, as we hadn´t walked more than two blocks before it began raining. We continued on our journey and saw just as many people out walking in the rain as we would have seen had it not been raining. Some even carried umbrellas, like us.

Just doing the job

Things have been busy here lately. I'm working on a $30,000 funding request to a church in Houston that is due in next Tuesday. It's just about done, if I can get two short client stories (being written by our communciations director) and 2010 end of year financial data. That last item, the financial data, will be interesting, as I will have to translate it from a Guatemalan-styled financial report to a U.S.-styled financial report. Unlike U.S. accounting, that places the sums at the bottom of the data set, in Guatemala the total sum appears first and then is broken down into its constituent parts. Of course, I'll also have to translate from Guatemalan quetzales to U.S. dollars. Today, the exchange rate is Q7.76 to the dollar.

Usually, I ride to the Ochenta (what we call the office, because its street number is 80) in the van that brings the guys to the Wheelchair Workshop in the morning. Today, Linda and I attended the weekly expat breakfast at the Café Condesa. It´s an opportunity to meet other expats and learn from their experiences and mistakes. Today we met a couple from near Ames, who spend the winter here in Antigua. He´s a retired lawyer, who volunteers with a local nonprofit twice a week helping build houses for the poor. Linda got into a conversation with an expat we met last year and may be helping her teach sewing to some local women.

The work day here at Transitions generally starts around 9:00 a.m. and ends about 5:00 p.m., with a two-hour break for lunch. Naturally, I don´t take two hours eating lunch, so I've been going back to work early, especially since I have this funding deadline staring me in the face. Many days, I'll hitch a ride back to the casita to have lunch with Linda and walk back to Ochenta.

Last night, I met an interesting group of medical volunteers with a group called Faith in Practice. Although Faith in Practice is based in Houston, this group was from the southeast U.S. in and around Georgia. They had invited Alex and some of his staff to have dinner with them, which they cooked themselves. It was quite tasty. There was quite a bit of interest in how Linda and I got to Guatemala and our plans for living here. Some were amazed, but a few seemed quite jealous. After dinner, I circulated and collected email addresses to add to our newsletter list.

Tomorrow afternoon, we will participate in a family conference with the nursing home my mother and stepfather are in in Missouri City. Susan, Robyn, their new physician in Houston and the nursing home staff will also participate. It ought to be interesting. Both my mother and stepfather are fighting this every step of the way, despite the fact that my stepfather is no longer able to care for my mother, who is paralyzed on one side. They keep telling us that they are going to go back home, which won't work anymore. We are told by the nursing home staff that this is not unusual. Hopefully, they will settle in and enjoy the fact that they can see Susan, Robyn and the two grandsons on a regular basis. Right now, however, they are almost doing everything they can to convince themselves that it's not going to work. We'll see.

Special Education Class

Today Linda and I visited the Special Education Class that Transitions conducts. It's located in a small classroom on the grounds of a private school in San Antonio Agua Calientes. Although the school is operated by an evangelical church, the class is only located on the grounds, not actually part of the main school.

Special education is not very common in Guatemala, where most non-developmentally disabled children fail to even complete the sixth grade. For a program like this to exist in a Guatemalan village is both unique and a definite blessing to the children it serves.

After being introduced to the nine children in the class, ranging in age from 8 to 22 years of age, I sat down to help Lourdes with her math. She was doing a series of addition and subtraction problems using pop bottle caps to count with.

Marty, a graduate of the University of North Texas, worked with Osiel, who is 22 years old.

All the children seemed to enjoy being in school. In most cases in Guatemala, that would not be the case.

Occasionally, Edson, the head teacher, has to take time to provide Rodney with some basic physical therapy.

Before long it was time for refacción, i.e. snack time. The other school children were playing outside, with some playing futbol (soccer).

Osiel, our goalie, worked real hard to prevent any scoring,

but Rodney and I were able to sneak two goals past the goalie.

Soon it's time to go back to class, but first the students brush their teeth.

Leaving the school to return to Antigua, we looked up to see the twin peaks of Volcán Acatenango (dormant) on the right and the solitary peak of Volcán Fuego (active) on the left.


After lunch at the Ochenta, I returned to the funding proposal I had started the day before. In less than two hours, I had finished what I could without information I needed to get from others. Not wanting to start something new so late in the day, I took off early and Linda and I returned to our casita. Chris, the communications director who shares our casita, walked home with us and we learned about some of his experiences in Latin America.


Once home, we unloaded my computer and we walked towards downtown Antigua. We wanted to pick up a pot to use as a popcorn popper at the Bodegona, along with some other items, and also attend a lecture at the Rainbow Cafe on current conditions in Guatemala that was presented by a former U.S. Foreign Service Officer, who now heads a Guatemalan nonprofit.


On the way to the Bodegona, we decided that we were hungry and took a chance on a restaurant we had heard about, but never eaten at. What drew us in was a banner on the front door advertising a hamburger special, with papas fritas (french fries) and a Coke for less than Q20 (less than $2.50). Now, this was a fancy sit-down type of restaurant with cloth napkins, a lilly in a vase on each table and a menu full of expensive steak dinners. We ordered the special, but were quickly informed that they didn´t have any papas fritas ready and would we accept a salad as a substitute. We did and were surprised at how good the food and the service was. Of course, since we had a lecture scheduled at 5:30 p.m., we were eating rather early. After looking over the menu, we´ve decided to return for a more upscale mean, just as soon as I get my first paycheck, actually my first living stipend check.


Heading over to the Bodegona, we found our pot, four hand towels we'd forgotten to pack and some other items. We arrived at the Rainbow Cafe to discover that the place was packed, but a helpful waiter found chairs for us and a place to put them.


On the way back to the casita following the lecture, I took these photos of the church next to the Hermano Pedro Hospital.

I couldn't decide which I like better, so I used both of them.