The Art of Photography

Amber, Blaise and I are applying for Guatemalan residency. This is a lengthy process that I will enter into once I actually understand it. Yesterday, I received an email from our lawyer in Guatemala City that we had an appointment on Feb 1 at 8:30 AM at immigration. For this meeting we needed our passports (check), a letter from our landlord stating our address and how long we lived there and her personal ID numbers (check after a bit of running around), a photocopy of my new passport which was just issued this month and is different from the one I started this process with (check, all 13 pages), and black and white-matte-front facing passport photos. We had them done yesterday here in Tactic.







This is Blaise's second shot. After he dove off the bench. And landed on his head. He didn't sit still the entire time, that's why it's a little blurry.

The machine our photographer employed is a relic of about 8 decades ago I am sure. The shutter was hand operated (meaning he opened it with his hand and closed it with his hand) and was open for about 1/2 - 3/4 of a second. While we were waiting for our turn, the photographer's assistant dumped some of the old chemical solution into the street.

Anyway, 4 photos of each of us for Q105 ($16.27). Done the authentic way. No automatic machines at all.

I have a hunch

I can still remember Miss Fitch in grade 4 telling my class to sit up straight and not to slouch. If only I had obeyed!

Now I have a distinct cromagnon angle for my neck and I've lost perhaps 2 inches of visible height (which isn't all that necessary in Guatemala, but still...). I just don't want to end up like Mr. Burns. I've tried remembering to sit up straight and even as I'm writing this I have shifted 5 times.

So readers! What can I do to fix this affliction? What about a neck/back/shoulder exercise?

Journey Home Part 6: Strength and Honour Showing

On Sunday, January 7, I garnered permission to use the conference room at Red Willow for a public presentation of my film. I had invited everyone I knew in the area and so I was expecting based on responses from people about 30-40 people. In the end 50 people showed up.

I was just short of pacing the entire 82 minutes I was so nervous. It was one thing showing it to mostly strangers in Montreal. It is something entirely different when they are people you know well. The overwhelming response was very positive and there was laughter throughout the screening. I sold 8 copies of the DVD too.

What made this showing so special was that seven of us cyclists were together to see it together. Only Jessica and Eric were missing (both in Australia). It was the first time the seven of us were together since the end of the trip in August, 2003 and because we are all leading very different lives, it might be the last time we are together for a very long time.

Melayne tells me that there may be a showing of Strength and Honour: Cycling Coast to Coast in June with the Edmonton Bicycle and Touring Club. Apparently, they rent a theatre and everything for their showings. I'll keep you posted.

Also on my trip, I learned where the phrase "Strength and Honour" comes from. Kurt said "Stength and honour, my dear friend" to Bernd while cycling. But I didn't know that Kurt got it from a film - Gladiator. I should have known!

Thank you all for coming!

Development: A Witness

Last April, while a group from Calgary were helping us construct a new school in Mocohan, accross the field a group of seniors from a Vancouver public high school were inaugurating a project they had spent 5 days working on. Their project was a communal chicken coop for women of the community to raise chickens in and to produce eggs. They had fundraised $4000 or $5000 (I don't remember exactly, might have been more) for this project. The two social studies teachers who led the trip had made similar trips to Central America for the past 15 years of so.

We asked Erick what he thought of the communal chicken coop. He said it was a really nice chicken coop. When he asked how much they raised, he was shocked saying it shouldn't have cost more than 2000. Then we told him it was dollars and he was really shocked.*

Nearly everyone in Mocohan has chickens. They run loose in the yard and lay eggs which are collected. Chicks are bought in the market for Q1* and raised and then sold for Q20. There really is no need for a chicken coop.



Since that time, I have not seen one chicken in that coop - and I go to Mocohan often. This is what it looks like on the inside. So, I wonder where the money went...



Last Saturday, I drove Pastor Alfonso and Brother Ovidio to Parrachoch. Mariah and her father, Richard, tagged along for the bumpy ride. There is no electricity in Parrachoch and so when a woman from Stony Plain who was here last summer asked if we could use solar panels from Light up the World, we said "sure!"



Alfonso is a pastor after having taken 8 courses in a nearby town. He earns an income by walking 2 1/2 hours each way to Mocohan to work on the same school I mentioned earlier. He does this to feed his 12 member family. By the time he arrives home in the evening, it's dark. Right dark as they would say in Nova Scotia.

Ovidio hooked everything up in about 90 minutes. The panel now sits atop a pole at an angle of 15° pointed due south charging a battery that is connected to two small bulbs in two different rooms of Alfonso's pad.



*$1=Q6.5

Journey Home Part 5: Friends

One of the things I really miss in Guatemala is being able to communicate on a deeper level, in my most comfortable language, with people whom I have a shared history and culture. So being back in Canada allowed me to visit with some very good friends. I wish I had more time to share with them, but alas!



I want to publicly thank the Waldrons for their generosity in lending us their car for our entire stay in Canada and letting us put 4000 kms on it (you will be rewarded). For all who welcomed us into your homes for the night and for meals, I thank you too. For those who opened up your hearts, I thank you.

Our last evening in the Edmonton area, I invited everyone to a quiet and intimate communion service with Amber and I. It was very special to pray for and be prayed for with people that we care so much for. It was one of the many highlights of the trip.

I'm a list person and so it's very difficult for me to resist making a list of all the good folks who made time for us, but that's just ridiculous. No list.



Cheers! to all of you who read this and made my visit to Canada so enjoyable.

Journey Home Part 4: Food

Eating. The Joy.

While we were in Canada, people fed us as though we hadn't eaten since we left 15 months earlier. It was great! (We only ate out twice from what I can recall) Being the guest, I was prodded over and over to have seconds and thirds. I didn't mind so much. I won't be able to write down what I ate for all 84 meals, but here are some that stick out.

• Duck Confi, Chevre Salad, Jumbo Shrimp, Berry Pie
• Moose Steaks
• BBQ Salmon
• Turkey Dinner X3
• Cheese, Meat, Chocolate Fondue
• Pizza and Wings
• Lamb Chops
• Indian Curries and Samosas
• Kabobs, Lasagna, Sushi, Salad, Trifle
• Pasta and Truffles

To the chefs, I give you my everlasting thanks. You are all artists.

Not MySpace

Somehow I ended up signing up for a MySpace account so that I could visit some friends' spaces. I already have a website and this blog, so why would I need to invest any time in a MySpace, so I just state that people should go to my website or blog.

Something really bothers me about MySpace, so I bring it up here. Everytime I login to see someone else's myspace, I end up in MySpace "home" and there are ads, always from True - I think it's a callgirl or callguy service where you can pay to have sex. I don't really see it as my space if there are these chicks taking up 1/4 of the page. It's more their space, and I feel like I've walked in on them getting dress/undressed.

Blogger: NO ADS (if you don't want them). I like that.

Una Tortilladora Tortillando Tortillas

These tortillas are made from black corn. The house is full of smoke.

Spanish has a verb for making tortillas: tortillar

Spanish has a noun for the person who makes tortillas: tortillador

Tortillas don't have much flavour - think Doritos without the seasoning.

Process for making a corn tortilla in Guatemala:

• plant the corn
• weed and care for the corn
• pick the corn
• carry the corn
• shuck the corn
• hang the corn
• remove the kernals
• boil the kernals for 2 hours
• grind or pound the kernals with water
• slap the corn paste into tortillas
• cook on stovetop or ceramic dish over an open fire

Little Nut

Several months ago, Amber returned home from the market with a bag of macademia nuts. Without a nutcracker, we would smash them on the back step with a hammer. Inevitably, some would scuttle off the step and we couldn't find them.



Yesterday, Blaise was adventuring behind the house and discovered one of the lost treasures. He climbed the back step, found his Bob the Builder book, removed the plastic hammer and returned to the back step to try and crack the nut.

Journey Home Part 3: Winter

This is one of the mountains you see from Lake Louise. I really enjoyed being out in the fresh cool air, wearing layers and hearing the snow beneath the skis.

Driving on the other hand, I hate it. Much of Amber's extended family lives in Hazelton, BC on the highway between Prince George and Prince Rupert. From Red Deer, it's about a 14 hour trip, so we stopped for the night in Prince George. There is a stretch though that nearly sucks the life force out of you when you drive in the winter. This strech of highway is between McBride and Prince George - 200 kms. It took me 3 hours to do it when we went at Christmas. Visibility wasn't that bad, but the roads had a nice slick layer of ice that kept everyone (all 15 vehicles that passed us) going about 80 km/hr.



Once we arrived in Hazelton though, it was great - probably the most relaxing part of the entire trip. We spent all of our nights at Amber's uncle Terry and Aunt Liz's house. We got to know them a lot better along with their 2 children - Matt and Tiffany. Blaise got along well with everyone. We visited with Amber's grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and really for the first real time some of her cousins once removed (or Blaise's second cousins).



Terry owns sled dogs and has passed the skill on to his children. Another skill he's passing on is trapping. Matt and Terry invited me along to check their trapline on dog sleds. This was definitely a highlight of experiencing winter. The dogs were great. Two were named Takla and Skeena.



These are the furs Matt and Tiffany trapped this winter: 4 martens (up to $185 each), 1 white weasel, and 8 squirrels ($1 each). Terry spoke of how these skills aren't really useful anymore. In many ways he's right - technology is where the jobs are - but the work ethick, respect for nature, knowledge of self and the time spent with their father is of enormous value - even in the job market.

Mr. Fish

Came accross these highly charged political cartoons featured on the Harper's* website. Some amazing cartoons.

* Harper's Magazine, not Stephen Harper

Journey Home Part 2: Family Christmas

'Twas a marvellous Christmas. We spent it at my mother's home in Red Deer, AB. Also technically our home while we are in Guatemala as all of our stuff is there too. Present with me on Christmas Day were my wife, my son, my mother, my sister, my other sister, my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law, my half-sister-in-law, and my ex-step-father-in-law.



Blaise got the best haul of gifts. Of course. With all his aunties and a grandma around, it's not surprising. I got some sweet gifts too - expansion to Settlers of Catan, a bunch of DVDs, books, candy, winter clothing accessories, and stuff to make me smell not bad.

In a future post, I will discuss at length the joy of food. So, I'll skip Christmas dinner for now.



It had been 2 years since I was together with both my sisters. I love them - we have some pretty good laughs. On Boxing Day, the three of us with my super amazing brother-in-law, world renown DJ Dean Jones went skiing at Lake Louise for a day. The conditions were awesome: about -10°C, deep snow, low snowboarder population, no line-ups, sunshine for most of the day. Even met up with Chad, an old friend from college.

Dean and I timed our second to last run to make it up the lift just before it closed at 4 o'clock. We wanted to take it easy and just hit green runs and enjoy the scenery. We were both exhausted by the day and didn't have any energy left. We followed a blue square sign to a run we hadn't tried that day and found ourselves stuck on moguls which stretched more than half the length of the mountain - neither of us ski moguls. It took us 30 minutes to make it down - a process that involved going side to side, falling, trying to turn around, and resting. Worst run ever.

In the car during the 4-hour trip each way, we watched episodes of The Office on my iPod.



This was the first time Blaise has seen snow. He was intrigued for a little while and actually learned to say it: "no" (though it's suspiciously similar to "no" and "nose").

Vecinos con Vozinos

I was hiking up a beautiful mountainside burrough of Tactic yesterday afternoon with Walter. Every fifth house was raising its roof with Mexican "yip-yip" cowboy music thus sharing their advanced sound system with the neighbours (vecinos). Walter explained that it was more important to many Guatemalans to have big speakers (vozinos) than to have pretty much any house accessory, such as chairs, fixed roof, food...

This morning I was reminded of yesterday's adventure in sound. Engine brakes. Over and over again. As usual.

Add to this the 6-10 dogs who nightly have a barking match. The early morning firecrackers. The pre-morning roosters. The rain on a tin roof. The marimba polka music blaring from the bars.

I guess it's time to readjust.

Journey Home Part 1: Leaving Guatemala

I saw my first murdered person the day before we flew to Canada.

We are applying for residency in Guatemala and so I was obliged to go to the official's office to sign some papers. I took a taxi. The driver had to redirect himself several times because of impromptu traffic barriers put up by the traffic police. When we got to within a block from my destination on one of the largest and busiest one-way streets in Guatemala City, three of the six lanes were closed because a man was laying dead on the street on his back. Someone put a newspaper over a bloodied head. My estimation is that he was shot in the face.

The taxi driver said that about 15 murders are reported in the paper each day for Guatemala City. Many of these are theft related.

The image of the corpse is etched permanently now in my mind.

The trip to Canada the next day went fine. Blaise did tremendously well. The most trying part was our 70 minutes in Houston where we stood in line at U.S. Immigration, picked up our 4 large pieces of luggage (along with our 2 carry-ons, car seat, 2 "purses" and 18-month-old boy), stood in line at U.S. Customs, checked our baggage again, passed very slowly through a Homeland Security checkpoint then checked in at our gate which was 2 wings away. The entire time, Blaise's diaper was leaking peepee onto Amber and me (note to self: remember to carry a spare shirt when traveling). Blaise was changed at the gate, just in time to board with the other travelers with small children.

A note on Homeland Security: It's not a pleasant experience standing in stocking feet with my pants falling down demonstrating that a video camera works, removing a laptop and a desktop computer from my carryon luggage, and at the same time asked to show my boarding pass and passport. Punks.

Mom was there to pick us up after 7 hours of flying (plus the hour in George Bush International) with our winter jackets.

Under the Snow

Yowsers! There's a fair bit to catch up on, so I'm not going to bother.

GUATEMALA: I finished the sponsorship promotional video, subtitling and all. We left on a Tuesday morning for Guatemala City and spent a day there getting some of our residency papers done. While on my way to sign some paper downtown I saw a murdered person laying on his back in the middle of the street with a newspaper over his face (he'd been shot in the face). My appointment was one block up the street.

THE FLIGHT: I was grateful that the two landings weren't the regular kamikaze landings that one expects from Continental. The Department of Homeland Security did a fine job in Houston - they checked my shoes, belt, computer, laptop, video camera, and everything in between. An old guy helped us with our luggage just before customs and told me horror stories about people who were taken to the side rooms. I thought maybe he was an agent trying to milk me for info or see if I would make a break for it - but it turns out he just wanted a tip. Blaise slept for 30 minutes on the first flight (3 hrs), twitching the entire time. He was sopping wet when we landed in Houston and our connection was only an hour long so we had to make it to the gate before we changed him (immigration, luggage, customs, luggage check, security, long walk to the gate). Needless to say both Amber and I smelled like urine once we boarded plane #2.

RED DEER: Not as cold as we had anticipated. My mom really enjoyed Blaise and serving us - which we enjoyed too. I went to two movies the day after we flew in, then another when I returned (The Prestige, Borat, The Departed).

EDMONTON: Spent a night with my sister and Dean, her manslave. Then a two nights at our friends' mansions. Every place has hot water!! Had some great visits with friends and we're still on the schedule. I spoke at church - probably too long, but I was relaxed and had lots of eye contact. Saw a couple movies here too (Apocalypto, The Pursuit of Happyness).

Dispatches!

I was listening to a podcast of Dispatches, from CBC Radio 1 and heard my name! Check it out (the Dec 5 show) ... I'm at 18:21. You can get the episode free from the iTunes Music Store aswell - search for Dispatches in the podcasting section.

Santa

We were invited to see Santa Claus when he briefly swung into Tactic on the weekend at our neighbours' store. As you can see, the weather was ideal and Santa was seen by a host of people.



Blaise was one of the lucky ones to be held by Santa. Not sure why there's bad blood here...

Banking in Guatemala

I've been spending a lot of time at the bank. We have a cash float which we use to buy gifts that are sent from Canada for sponsor children and then submit our receipts to balance our float. Lately, the gifts have been huge - building a house for example. So our float is always empty and I'm always going to the bank to cash cheques.

Yesterday, I waited in line outside for 30 minutes and then another 10 minutes inside. The guy ahead of me had a gym bag that he hoisted up onto the counter when it was his turn. He proceeded to hand bags of change (mostly 1 quetzal coins - equivalent to CAN$0.16) which was then counted and deposited. This took a while. Fortunately there were two tellers.

Last Friday at the BANCO AGROMERCANTIL there was an old farmer ahead of me with a deposit slip. I glanced at it and it had Q14 or $2.16.

This morning I waited in line for 30 minutes in a larger bank, BANRURAL, to make a deposit into our notary public/lawyer's account. The tellers, receptionists and loans officer seemed to have their own little activities while the rest of us waited. And there were a lot of us.

When the ATM in Tactic is empty, it's empty for days at a time.

If you have a cheque from say the Banco Industrial, you are only permitted to cash that cheque at a BANCO INDUSTRIAL. You can not just deposit the cheque into your Banco Agromercantil account. You have to cash it at the BI, then go to your own bank. You can see long lines of people on Friday afternoons waiting to cash their weekly or monthly cheques. This is also how we pay our electric bills.

As an aside, I just spent $4.63 to courier a package 4 hours away overnight to Guatemala City. To do an overnight courier in Canada it cost me $27.13 from Kamloops to Calgary.

What Is Important?

Blaise's Current Vocabulary:
(he's 16.5 months old)

mama	mama	no	no
papa	papa	hm-hm	yes
moah	more	wuhzis	what's this?
caca	cracker	whoo whoo	dog
tcheez	cheese	puppy	puppy
papa	papaya	cah	car
wawa	water	baboo	balloon
buckbuck	chicken	ha-ee	hi
dehdoo	thank you	no-o	nose
bye bye	bye bye	ee-ee	ear
tahtahtah	hot hot hot	ah-ee	eye
tee	teeth	ha-a	hand
ezhus	shoes	waweh	flower
coco	Poco (his favorite TV show) or TV	que	que (what in Spanish)
Bzh	Blaise

Door-to-Door Salespeople

A woman knocked on our door this late afternoon. She was selling bean tamales with a nice hot salsa. How could I resist at a mere $0.16 each! Her husband was at the end of our driveway waiting with the vehicle (a bicycle) in the rain with the food goods.

Since we've lived here, the door-to-door salesfolk have been frequent. Oranges. Handwoven Large Baskets. Warm Pizza. Cashews. Tortillas. Yogurt. Goat's Milk. Pressure Cooker Repairs. Prepared food of the Guatemala Variety. A Shoe Shine.

For me, pity kicks in easily. I yield more to the desire to pick up the determined and downtrodden salesman than to the appeal of the product or service. Though I must say these bean tamales are delish.

It is difficult to see so many people spinning their wheels in unproductive ventures. There is a man who probably walks 20 kms each sunny day selling homemade ice cream from a styrofoam box to which is attached a jingling bell. I tried a cone of his iced cream once and it wasn't very good. What could I expect for $0.16? So what can be done to help the uneducated? Educate them! But how? There are many obstacles to their financial success: First the education (this is huge as it often involves common sense). Then the capital. Then the purchasing base (who do you sell to when everyone around you is poor?). Then the money management (making sure they don't spend their money on useless things).

Art

Over the past year, I've run into or been referred to some remarkable pieces of interesting art. 6 are here linked for your pleasure.

-The Helsinki Complaints Choir with a song by Esko Grundström, Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen. (thanks Carl for sending this to me)

-Billboard Top Song Timelapse by R. Luke DuBois. Dubois fed 857 songs between 1958 and 2000 into his laptop and gave every week 1 second where he crunched the top song of that week.

-Single-Paper Art by Peter Callesen. Magnificent and often meaningful paper sculptures cut from one piece of paper and completely connected. (thanks Kevin)

-Animatus by Hyungkoo Lee. Look at classic cartoon characters' skeletons. Brilliant! (thanks again to Kevin)

-The Honda Choir. A vocal rendition of automobile sounds. (thanks to Kevin again for this one)

-Rick Mercer's Photoshop Challenges: Harper vs. Martin, Gilles Duceppe and Jack Layton, Peter MacKay and Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff and George W. Bush, Paul Martin, Ralph Klein, Jean Chretien, and most recently Jason Kenney. (thanks April for telling me about Mercer's blog)

Post 200

Average posts per week since I started* blogging: 1.5
Average posts per week over the last 100 posts: 2.35
Average number of comments per post: 2.34

Thank you everyone for reading and commenting. You are all superstars.

*(not counting the first year with only 1 post)

28-Year-Old Honey

My honey is TWENTY-EIGHT years old today. 28 on the 28th. She calls it her golden birthday.

I have to go make her some breakfast now while she is still sleeping... shhh.

Weekend in Honduras

We took off Friday afternoon dragging our buddy Mariah from St. Albert with us so we could get to Ruinas Copán, Honduras in time for supper. Stopped and had licuados (smoothies) in El Rancho. We got another stamp in our passports (the last possibly for mine as I'll be getting a new one in December).

We stayed in our usual hotel, Hotel Calle Real and ate at our usual restaurant, Via Via. Mariah got her Christmas shopping done and we watched a couple movies on HBO in our hotel.

Blaise did not sleep well. Last night, he woke up 4 times screaming. The first time at 11 pm. After 30 minutes of soothing and exploring all possible solutions he went to sleep only to be woken up 10 minutes later by a rooster (I'd like to clean that rooster's clock!). So, I've been pretty tranced out.



I visited the ruins again with Mariah. They were still there and still old. This is the famous estela head from the ruins (on all the postcards). Notice the whiskers. Notice the angry nose. Entrance to the park is relatively expensive - US$15 - compared to Tikal - US$6.50 - and you have to pay another US$15 to get into the tunnels which we didn't pay. As we approached the tunnels, one of the guards approached us and offered us an under the table deal as long as we didn't talk about it. So we got to see the tunnels for US$4 each. I must say that they are not worth US$15. Maybe not even US$4. But it was cool. The coolest part being the deal. The ruins are layered because subsequent rulers would build a whole other set of new ruins (ha ha) on top of the old ruler's ruins. It's hard to appreciate everything your seeing because it's mostly worn down carvings and all the really interesting stuff is gone (the people, animals, furniture, paint, roofs, and wooden substructures).



This is a Guacamaya. There are lots of them at the ruins park.

Last night we enjoyed some ritzy food at place called Twisted Tanya's. I had filet mignon with a light jalapeño sauce, a lovely salad, and cheesecake. The cheesecake had to come home with us because Blaise was really tired. I slept through most of Batman Forever after I ate my dessert. I also enjoyed some cheese pupusas, carrot soup, waffles, bread pudding, a great big burrito and some nice beverages over the weekend.

It was good to get away and feel our extremities again.

Steaming Horse

Amber pointed out the horse outside our house early one morning. This is how cold it is inside of our house. I'm not trying to have a cold competition with my Canadian friends who are always quick to point out the -84°C weather they are experiencing. Perfectly clear. Understood. But how many of you have 3°C inside your house? My joints were stiff due to the consistent rain and cold we've had in town the past few weeks.

Consequences of the cold:

-Amber and I get up in the night and scurry in our heavy layered PJs to Blaise's bed to ensure that he is covered up. He routinely kicks off his blankets... for kicks.

-Our house has a distinct campfire smell because when it's windy the smoke from our meager fires can not escape to the outside and stays inside. With us. Cough cough.

-Amber managed to convince me that going to Copan, Honduras for the weekend was a good idea since it's hot there. It's her birthday on Tuesday, so I went along (or rather drove the 250 km through mountain passes, desserts and border crossings).

-Showers are taken when they are needed. Well, that's not true. They are taken when we agree that they are needed. Low pressure and volume doesn't make it a pleasant experience. Besides, not many people can smell you when you have so many layers on.