Happy New Year

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Pacaya

We made a calendar for anyone to download and print; just a little Christmas Gift. There are three forms of it so one or the other should work for everyone. There's is word doc., a PDF version, and a zipped folder of photos that maybe you could take to Fred Meyer, Costco, etc. and they will just put the photos in their calendar template to print. Otherwise you can come up with your own ways to print. Merry Christmas. Here is a link to our website and the calendar links are at the bottom of the menu on the left.

Guatemala Calendar to Download at Natimilie

Hi All,

Lately it’s been much harder for me to write anything because I spend all day answering emails for work. It is high season for tourism here, and seeing as my new job is tourist based, that means we’ve been working like dogs. I can’t believe how hard some of these guys work. The owner works a lot but you expect that from an owner. However, the employees seem to work just as hard. Sometimes I’m hesitant to put another trip on the board because I’m not sure if so and so will be up for it because they’ve been out for days but they don’t bat an eye at heading out on another trip. It’s a whole new world to me. Enough about work! Is what Natalie says to me when I come home and start babbling about work. I’ll stop now.

I’m going to jump back a while and start a discussion of the many holidays we’ve experienced in the past couple months. The first was election-day, not necessarily a holiday, but it felt like one in the small town of Flores where we were staying at the time. We were aware that elections were coming and had learned a little about the upcoming election but not much. Our first clue was the protest on the highway our first day in Guatemala. We probably wrote about this already, but, we were on a bus and had to stop for the protest and walk to the other side of the protest and catch a bus. So, we had to pay a little extra to get to our final destination, not a big deal really, it was an interesting event. Frankly, I feel like the spirit of protest is largely lost in the U.S. because the press controls peoples’ perceptions so much that when protests don’t get air time they might as well not exist. This is particularly amplified, and easy to accomplish, in a country as large as the U.S. Enough about that, the spirit of protest is alive and well in Latin America and what I was getting at is maybe it’s time for protests back home to stop traffic and make people pay twice a little more often. Or maybe I don’t know that that is happening because it’s not in the paper.

A few days after the highway protest, election-day came along. We realized it was coming because no stores were allowed to sell any type of alcohol for something like 36 hours before the election and until the morning following the election. You can believe we noticed that! Anyway, the Sunday of election-day was breezy and there was a family-day feel in the air. Everyone was in their Sunday best and I think they were doing mass and casting their vote. In Flores the two polling places I knew about were on the hill by the one big church. We went for a walk that day and across the bridge from Flores heading into the next town there was a big open field covered with litter and weeds and many, many families had come out to fly kites on this windy day in the park. There were also parades for the two different political parties passing by making a hubbub all the time. This computer just automatically corrected my spelling of hubbub, I’m a little aghast. Anyway, the families flying kites definitely added to the holiday feel in the air that day. It also reminded me of a poem my Grandfather wrote. The notion of voting being a basic freedom and the nature of kites in this poem really struck me as a strong relationship so I wanted to share it. The formatting was challenging in this context though so bear with me.

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BENGY AND JODY


Dialogues at bedtime between two Negro brothers. Bengy is eight. Jody is twenty. They live in a tenement.



Spring


J Whew. Whew. You gettin to be such a big boy

I gotta stop this piggy-back to bed.

You break my old back, then where we be?

Aunt Josie gonna tuck you in

and she pinch you and pop out her teeth

and scare you steada tell you stories.

Now let me see -



B You don’t have to tell me story tonight, Jody.

I think maybe you shouldn’t anyway.

I did a bad thing, Jody.



J It must be bad if you think it’s bad.

Worse than you did to Millie’s cat?



B Worse an at.



J Worse than you did with that bag of nails?—

It couldn’t be worse than that!



B You know that kite you made me?



J You lose the kite?



B Uh huh!



J Well now. What’s so bad about that? I can make

and Mama can paint you another.

We don’t have to call a plumber for that.

Not like those nails. So what’s so bad?



B It didn’t just get away. I set it free.



J You mean you just cut the string? Like that?

Just cut it loose? Didn’t you like the kite?

Don’t cry, Bengy. I know you liked the kite.



B That’s what I mean is so bad, Jody.

You made me that biggest kite

and Mama, she painted that biggest kite

and I thought that kite was the best

and the biggest kite

in the whole wide world. I did, Jody. Honest.



J I know you did, Bengy. And it’s all right -

what you did. You set it free you said.

You don’t have to, but maybe you want to

tell me why you did it. Here.

Blow your nose. You want to tell me, Bengy?



B Well. You made the kite last night

and Mama painted on the polka dots an all

and today at school all day I couldn’t wait

and I thought about that kite all day.

And everything today at school was kites.

I drew a picture of a kite.

I told about the kite in show and tell.

And en Miss Lee said she had a poem about

a kite.

And she read us the poem and we learned to

say it.

And maybe that’s the trouble.



J What’s the trouble? The poem?

You know it still?



B I member how it starts. It says:

Something thee wind

Said to my kite

Shook it with laughter

Anger or fright.

That’s how it started. That’s all I could keep.

So then after school I run all the way home.

And I get the kite and I run to the empty lot.

And I think how all the kids, they’ll say

what a kite! And want to help me fly it.

But there wasn’t any kids.

I guess I really run and the wind was good

and that old kite went up and up and up.

And there was clouds and the blue sky

but what I saw was that biggest kite.

I let out the whole ball of string

and it danced and it tugged and the string

would bend and go straight.



And then I thought of that poem.

And I thought how the wind, maybe it could -

was talking to the kite.

And I wondered was it laughing or mad or what?

And then I thought that it wanted to get set loose

and I thought it wasn’t fair to keep it tied -

I guess that’s what I thought. Anyway

when I let it go, I guess I thought it’d fly

and fly and go up flying -

you know higher -

clean to the clouds

clean up to the blue sky and be happy

forevern ever.

But it didn’t. It just went like a balloon

you let the air out of. And its tail got caught.

You can see it up in the wires flapping away.

It’s all tore up by now. I set it free

cause I thought it was good to be free.

I’m sorry, Jody.



J That’s all right, Bengy. You meant to do a good.

And you did, Bengy. You just didn’t use your

head.

When you set something free

you gotta study to see

what it is you set it free to do -

or to have done to it. You gotta be sure

it’s got it in it to be free.

Freedom’s tricky.

There’s always a string attached.



B You make me another kite, Jody?

I promise I won’t never -



J Bengy, I’m gonna make you the kite of kites.

And we’re gonna get three balls of string

and then I’m gonna take you out to the fields -

come Sunday, we’ll go to the park and picnic

and we’ll fly the biggest kite.

Only this time

the kite’s gonna have a name!



B What we gonna call it Jody? Hy-Flyer?

The store bought kites -



J Nupe. We gonna call it after you.



B You mean, Bengy?



J No sir! The Great Emancipator.



B Huh? What’s that?



J You’ll know some day.

Now say your prayers.



© By: Paul Coughlin

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I think this is one of my favorite lines ever, “When you set something free/ you gotta study to see/ what it is you set it free to do,” Along with, “Freedom’s tricky./ There’s always a string attached.” Because these lines get at the point that freedom is a state of mind and our political status doesn’t necessarily dictate the degree of freedom we have. Our political status actually dictates the freedoms we agree not to have (that’s the string). Demonstration is simply a way to demonstrate the power of politics in a form that is not necessarily agreed upon by “the majority.” Anyway, after the election results starting around 10 or 11 at night there were tons of fireworks, and parades of cars driving around honking horns and playing loud music. There was also a rally at a nearby hotel where they were lighting off fireworks and people were giving speeches about feeling much contentment after the day’s results. We found it quite moving.

On to the next holiday… I’m going to skip some because I dragged on a bit there. We already wrote about the company Christmas trip so I’ll just write a tidbit about Christmas. The day after Christmas I was discussing the holiday with the coffee guy down the street from my work. He asked about Christmas in the U.S. and I told him that it was the most tranquil night of the year. And that there was usually snow and everyone would be in bed early so they could get up on Christmas day and open presents. His response was “What is Christmas without Fireworks.” Fireworks are the best part about Christmas. He also pointed out that he thought fireworks and snow would go together nicely.

The day of Christmas Eve we climbed the Volcano Pacaya. It is relatively close to here and the company I work for has been taking groups there almost every day for the last couple weeks. It’s a short easy hike and it’s an active Volcano so you get a pretty good look at some Lava, cooled and running. I’ve been telling people it’s a short hike with a big pay-off. I’ve also been telling people I need to read up about fauna and geology so I have something other than politics and literature to talk about on the hikes I’m guiding.

I had been to Pacaya one time previous and Natalie asked me not to take pictures because she didn’t want me to ruin the surprise. This trip we took pictures though. Frankly, the pictures are a funny story. I needed a good, high-pixel, lava photo for the company brochure. So, for this trip Natalie was on task as the company photographer. She took many good photos as you can see here. The comedic, and sad, part of the story is that after we returned I discovered that a day or two before I had changed the setting on the camera to the lowest pixel-quality for an email photo and had forgotten to change it back. Nonetheless, all the wonderful photos were nowhere near the pixel quality we needed for the brochure. However, we still have them for memories and they are plenty good for that. Also, Natalie shot some good video which you can watch here. All in all, we had a wonderful day on the mountain. I think there will be many more to come also.
On Christmas Eve, we had a wonderful visit with our landlords and their family. They live next door. We brought them some gifts and had a nice visit. Like I did with the coffee guy we compared notes on Christmas. Tradition here is a little different. Covering the floor or an area of floor outside the front door, essentially the front porch, with Pine needles was a particularly nice touch. On Christmas Eve the families commune and prepare food all evening and then at Midnight everyone in town, maybe the country, goes crazy with fireworks all at once. It’s pretty wild! Then, according to our neighbors, they have a Christmas feast at 1a.m. and following that, presents. We joked about the difference between young kids in the U.S. trying to go to bed early so they can get up wicked early Christmas day for presents, while kids here struggle to stay awake until 2a.m. so they can open their presents. Maybe that’s what the fireworks are for, to keep the kids awake.

Christmas Day we were mellow. Natalie had a dream and we pursued it by taking a walk in the neighborhood. At first it didn’t seem to be working out because we didn’t encounter many people. Natalie, I think, fancied herself Santa de Dulce and was packing around a bag of sweets to pass out to any kids we encountered. She also packed the game Twister into her purse and was looking to encounter some kids somewhere and strike up a game. I have to say, the whole idea sounded a little odd to me but I went for the walk cause I figured if it doesn’t kill ya’ it’ll only make ya’ stronger. I’m a person who has never liked physical contact with other people and for most of my life hugs have felt invasive. I’ve warmed up to them but still I’m not exactly touchy feely. So, just thinking about twister with strangers kind of weirded me out. Natalie made it happen though, but, it was random. We were almost back home and I actually ran to the house to get some money to buy us lunch. Natalie decided to stroll into the nearby churchyard while she waited. It turns out that’s where everybody was. When I came back with the money Natalie already had a half dozen kids tangled up in a knot. It made her day. And I don’t know if it made me stronger but it didn’t kill me to take a couple photos.

Anyway, Christmas was good, and we do hope it’s been good to y’all, likewise for the New Year. New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day will be two days off in a row for me, woohoo. Natalie has been enjoying having the house to her self, maybe a little too much lately, but that’s okay. She will be starting work on the second. She’s been working very diligently to prepare. More so than I would that’s for sure. She is nothing if not dedicated to whatever she does. It’s an impressive quality that I’ve always admired in her. I can’t wait for her to start this job and really shine, which I’m sure she will do! Natalie has also been taking care of the little puppy that we have been fostering, or should I say she has been fostering. I just pet it sometimes and tell her how I think we should keep it, easy for me to say. Eh!!!

One last thought, as I am writing this I am thinking about how two close friends of mine got married today Dec. 29th. That said, I’ve been appreciating the number of people from all over the world I meet at my job. All in all, take a minute to appreciate how life and the fact of communication continually brings new people together in many ways and how that makes the world evolve. Without change, without evolution, without love and without each other, what would we have to look forward to? Peace be with all y’all!

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Photos

Election Day
There's always a string attached.

Abandoned Church
This is right near our house. We stumbled on it Christmas Day.

Wowsers
Those aren't my customers! We try to stay a little further from the Lava than some.

Lava Parade
It reminds me of a torchlight parade on a ski mountain for Christmas.

Feelin hot hot hot
We had to zoom in a bunch but we could still feel the heat from this chunk or river.

La Fuego
Nice natural mushroom cloud, eh!

Marshmellows
Roasting over rock, hmmm!

Molten Rock
You could get a good game of hot potato going with a bit a that stuff, eh.

We live opposite them Volcanoes
From left to righ Fuego, Acatenango, Agua.

Wild Ones!
Thrilled to see these blooming in the wild.

Maestra!
"Here we can see Pacaya. It has Hawaiian type volcanic eruptions."

Teacher Says
In other words, it erupts Hawaiianly.

Let's get Twisted!
Say no more, Say no more!

Twisted Sister
Yoga for youths.

Comments

[ryan]

Woohoo!
Happy New Year, glad to see you guys are having fun. Something I thought you might like to check out is a band called Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers. They are from the Arizona, so they have a lot of Hispanic ties and sounds. Anyway continue on in contemplation and exploration. Buenas Dias rjp

[Erika]

New Year
Whoa all that hot magma looks muy peligroso! Happy New Year, nice to see that all is well!!!