We're back! Seven weeks in Guatemala and I find it hard to explain what kind of trip this has been. At times very challenging and at others incredibly rewarding, but a trip full of amazing experiences and great friends. What follows is an attempt to break it down with out getting bogged down in details. Please visit my Flickr page to see more photos from the trip and I've posted a quick video above (click here for the full screen version on You Tube) containing photos and footage from the trip set to No Basta Rezar (It's Not Enough To Pray), a great song about the regions disturbing past and persistent troubles. Of course there's way too much to tell here, but I'll do what I can. 

Tuesday May 19th. 

We arrive in Guatemala City and spend two nights at

Dos Lunas, a comfortable and friendly hostel in a heavily gu

arded secure neighborhood. We would get used to seeing guys with

giant shotguns everywhere we went. Private security guards outnumber

national police by a ridiculous margin. While in 

La Capital we visited El Museo Del Ferrocarril (Museum of the train) where we saw a great

exhibit about the country's racial, political 

and social history,

something most Guatemalans are still afraid to talk about publicly. 

 

Thursday May 21st

Sister Dani of the Adorers of the Blood of Christ 

(the same order that founded Newman U) picked us up at Dos Lunas and off we went to La Labor, a small village in a rural area about 45 minutes outside of La Capital, where their health and outreach projects are based. As soon as we arrived we were handed over to our host families where we would live for the coming week. Sue stayed in the convent's guest house with Sonja (our fearless leader) but I was taken in by Hector and Lucina who lived around the corner

from the church and convent. This was just a 

coincidence, but they turned out to be a very talented musical family. Hector builds his own musical instruments: guitar, mandolin, double-bass, and marimba, and though he was modest, he sings and plays beautifully. We spent the week doing volunteer work every morning and afternoon, going back to our families for meals three times a day. The work 

included building a latrine for an elderly pair of indigenous Quiche Mayan women, who were very poor (one of them didn't speak Spanish, only Mayan). Other tasks involved visiting schools in the area to teach English, education 

about dental and nutritional health and generally having a ball with the kids. Most memorable moment for me was being swarmed by the children in one of the school yards and being drafted into a riotous (and sweaty) game of futbol. Another great moment was being serenaded by my host dad and 

entire family the night of my birthday, a total 

surprise!     

Thursday, May 28th

After a week bonding with the incredible community in La Labor, Oscar, the driver for PLQ which is the language school where we would be studying in Xela, and who is one of 

many incredibly cool friends we made while in-country, picked us up and drove us to Santiago Atitlan, a beautiful city up in the mountains on the shores of a gorgeous lake. Our bus had a few problems getting up those steep inclines and a three or four hour drive took us over eight hours, which meant we were still on the 

road after night fall, not an ideal situation. But we made it, and unfortunately for me, I was one of many who'd contracted stomach critters (to use the scientific name) in La Labor and by the

time we reached the comfortable resort overlooking the lake, I was having a hard time of things. The group took a launch across the lake

to the somewhat more touristy Panajachel and, later that day visited the church of Stanley Rother, the Oklahoman priest who was assassinated by a right-wing death squad for trying to help poor people. A 

common story in that country. I missed out on of the trips, but I got to visit the small hospital (hospitalito) that Father Rother founded years before and even had the privilege of being treated there! Don't worry, everything turned out fine.  

Monday, May 31st

We spent four days in Santiago Atitlan, a beautiful place for me to 

recuperate,, afterwhich Oscar returned, with his bus fixed up a bit since our last adventure and took us further up into the mountains to Quetzaltenago, better known by locals as Xela. The second largest city in Guatemala, Xela is also home to many language school. PLQ (Proyecto Linguistico Quetzalteco) is one of the oldest and most respected of the schools and their program offers

many opportunities to learn about the countries history, the social and political situation, not just the Spanish language. Again, we were handed over to host families, this time for five weeks, and Sue and I 

were able to stay with the same family this time. Mariza, used to run a Comedor (eatery) and really knew how to cook. We ate well. The children, 11 year old son Elton, and 9 year old daughter Zuye were a lot of fun and we enjoyed talking, playing and joking around with them. Father Gorge worked a lot and wasn't home too often but he was also fun to be around. He'd lived in the us and was thrilled to have an English Profesora living under his roof. Watching him struggle, I had a deeper appreciation 

for how difficult English pronunciation and spelling is. As in La Labor, our families provided us with three meals a day. Each morning we walked to PLQ and studied for five hours. We rotated teachers each week so we could get used to different accents and teaching styles.  

 Every afternoon there were activities sponsored by the school. We visited nearby Mayan communities and even got to witness religions ceremonies. We attended conferences where we met and heard the stories of former guerilla fighters and survivors of the government's repression. We watched documentaries and films as well. It was an intense experience that was at times hard to take, but we

learned more than we ever could have otherwise about the country and its people and why they have the problems that they do. Every Friday night the school had a  

graduation celebration for all the students who were leaving that week

 and we sang songs and eat good food and danced. I have to say that the teachers at PLQ are some of the funnest

bunch of people I've gotten to hang out with. We were sad to leave. 

Sunday, July 6th.     

Five weeks was long enough to get used to a city, and more than that, long enough to become attached to a place and its people. It was an emotion experience saying good by as we loaded up Oscar's microbus to begin our next and final adventure in Guatemala. We returned to Guatemala City that day and checked back into Dos Lunas. At stupid'o'clock the following morning, we

boarded a small aircraft for the flight up to Peten, the hot and humid jungle region of northern Guatemala to visit the Mayan ruins at Tikal. The weather had been rather cold in Xela, with it's high altitude. but at Tikal we were fixin' to sweat our asses off. We took a bus to the Tikal Inn, a nice hotel just outside of the park and that 

morning, took our tour. The ruins at Tikal are amazing. The site is huge and though it is totally overrun by jungle now (many of the yet-to-be-excavated ruins just look like hills), it was once a teeming city, covering sixteen square kilometers. As you walk through the park, the landscape appears to be undulating and hilly but it's in fact mostly the handy work of 

the Mayans, who built massive platforms on which to construct their pyramids and temples and deep reservoirs for gathering rainwater

(since there were no springs or rivers in the area). We climbed several of the pyramids who's tops peer out over the canopy, perfectly laid out according to their calender and the movements of the sun and moon. The entire site is planned down to the most fine details. It was truly awe-inspiring. And did I mention it was sweaty? The following

morning we strapped ourselves into harnesses, climbed up into the

trees and flew through the canopy on precarious cables strung between distant platforms. Yes, it was crazy, maybe we'd had too much to drink at the hotel. But dang was it fun, and I'd do it again. Then it was back onto the plane for our flight back to the Capital. 

Wednesday July 8th

This should have been the end of our journey, a day of connecting flights back to Wichita. But then Northwestern canceled our flight from Memphis and put us up in a Marriott and paid for room service. So, we made the most of things, heading downtown and visiting the Civil Rights Museum in the hotel where Martin Luther King Jr was shot, and having lunch on Beale Street, where there seemed to be a live band in every establishment, even on a boring Thursday afternoon. Memphis is a cool city and our brief visit was just a teaser, I'm sure we'll be back someday to experience it all. 

Guatemala is a very poor country with a lot of social and political problems. And yet, as little as the people have, I was amazed time and again by the generosity and warmness of the people. A perfect example is the two old Quiche women for whom we had built the latrine. They lived in a corrugated little shack of a house perched on a hillside where the water runs through when it rains. They have almost nothing and are both old and their health is failing. And yet, when we'd completed the latrine, they gave us a gift of two dozen eggs, a small fortune. Guatemala is overflowing with selfless generosity like that. It's hard to put into words how that makes you feel. 

  

It's the final countdown! da da daa daaaaa, da da daa daa daaaa! Less than 24 hours left before Sue and I head to the airport with a number of my fellow students to begin our Guatemalan adventure! Muy muy nervioso! It's actually going to be an amazing experience and I can't wait to get started, but I was holding my breath as I typed that and I probably won't exhale until the rollercoaster has gone over the top. As long as I don't scream like a tiny little girly-girl, everything will be a'ight. 

We'll be there for seven weeks learning Spanish, doing volunteer work and seeing the sites. Seen here is the city of Quetzaltenango, also known as Xela, where we will spend 

most of our time. 

We have much packing to do to prepare for our seven week adventure, so

let's get on with this dang blog already! 

Sue and I had fun visiting the farm of our friend and Sue's co-worker John McCormick. John invited a bunch of the Newman peeps to his beautiful farm and made lots of great food and let us play with the chickens and goats, our first Kansas farm experience.

This past week we got to experience our first Wichita Riverfest, by far the biggest event that our adopted city throws each year. The fest takes over the downtown with live music, lots of food, arts and crafts shows and lots of other fun stuff for people to do. It went on for just over a full

week with stuff going on every day and night. The river itself cramped the festival's style slightly early in the week when it flooded it's banks just a little. No major damage but the river walk was under water as you can see here. Thursday night was Cajun Night, with good gumbo, red beans and rice and a rocking Zydeco set by Chubby Carrier and the Bayou Swamp Band straight from Louisiana. See brief video clip above. Personally, one of my favorite things about the festival was that it made the downtown actually feel like a downtown. 

I guess you could call me a published writer if you really wanted to. And personally I demand that you all call me that instead of using my real name from now on. Ok, it's just in Newman's weekly paper, The Vantage, but since this is the first time I've ever published anything anywhere, you might as well humor me and treat me

and treat me like I just won the Pulitzer. My pieces have appeared in the last three editions of the paper this semester. They're mostly music reviews with one political oped piece to spice things up and 

make myself a few enemies. If you have fifteen minutes left at work you really want to kill, then you can go to my

new alt-blog , http://www.donutofdoom.blogspot.com/ where I've decided to post the stuff I'm writing (and there are videos!). Just please don't send me any hate mail. 

Oh and I've also created another blog as part of my official Student Assistant duties, http://www.newmanstudyabroad.blogspot.com/. It's for Newman's Study Abroad trip to England next year, full of lots of fun and cool things to do wile in the UK. The fact that I've never been to England shouldn't impact my credibility as a blogger, should it? You'd still trust me and go where ever I told you should go in a county I've never set foot in myself, wouldn't you?  Anyway, you can check that out too if you want, I donno, whateva.  

Lots of fun and exciting stuff has happened since we last chatted,

but I can't remember any of it, so I'll just let everyone know that Sue and I will return from Guatemala on July 9th. Less than a week after that we'll be coming to the New Yawk area for a week. We already have our tickets to see VNV Nation on July 18th and I was super-duper-psyched to find out that I'll even get to catch a good deal of the Coney Island Siren Fest going on that same day. 

Anyhoo, wish us luck on our journey, I know it will be amazing, and I'm all twittery and giddy with excitement. We look forward to seeing as many of you as possible when we're in town. 

Love, Sonny & Sue

Kansas is the land of beautiful sunsets, so here are a few, enjoy! 

Happy Easter and Passover to all! Here's hoping you had a lovely, relaxing weekend. We're having a rainy, cool day here but still got to enjoy the holiday with our friends Sonja and Michael at a nearby restaurant with some of their family. 

 The food was good and so was the company. And we've had a long weekend since we work for a Catholic University. Too bad Sue's had to get

 over another cold. A lot of people have been sick around here lately. Could have something to do with the fact that it's around freezing every morning and over 60 by the afternoon. 

I just completed a new tune. It's called Primordial and it's posted to my MySpace page if you'd like to go check it out. Let me know what you think! Some of you may remember the strange habit our cat developed after Sue left a real live (ok, dead) small animal pelt out one day.

Sara has claimed it for her own and hunts it repeatedly. Above, I have posted actual videographic proof of this nightly occurrence to silence the doubters. You can't really hear it on the video but there's a a meowling, growling sound that goes along with it. 

Even though I haven't taken an actual studio art class yet, Mary, the director of the Art Dept has seen to it that I get my hands dirty

learning all the various processes. Today Sue and I were carving designs on a pair of clay rattles, made by forming a pair of equal sized clay bowls, filling one half with several small pieces of clay wrapped in tissue paper and then joining the two halfs together. Once they're fired, we'll paint 'em up all snazzy like. Seen here is the result of my first print-making experience. Incase you were wondering, 住 zhù means "life" and 树 shū means "tree". 

Last weekend Newman held it's annual Literary Festival, the brain child of Bryan, one of Sue's coworkers

in the English Dept. Events went on  

from 9 in the morning to midnight Saturday and Sunday and all involved, including Sue, were exhausted. I divided my time between the Fest and fundraising for Project Vitamina with Sonja and other students at a local Sam's Club, which also went on all weekend. Sue did a presentation on Medieval Riddles, which I unfortunately couldn't attend (thankfully the couch is very comfortable). Cheryl, a former student of Sue's from Stony Brook also flew out just to present and stayed with us. But I think my favorite part of the fest was actually Bryan's reading which included poems from several of his published books on topics ranging from superheros, SciFi, horror movies and pop culture. Cool stuff (available now!).   

So, I promised myself I'd find space here at some point to give props to some of Wichita's cooler local establishments. Here are just a few. 

The Donut Whole - this new local joint is a cool addition to the scene. They offer a myriad of cake donuts (!) made in all sorts of

wacky and playful flavors such as Bacon & Maple (!!) and Fruity Pebbles (!!!). While some of these may sound a little scary, trust me, theyz gooood. The place has

 a cool kitschy look decorated with odd salvaged bits from the area's industrial past. It's a comfortable

place to savor a root-beer donut with a bottle of all-natural root-beer, or various coffees or teas or other sodas, enjoy the free wifi, listen to cool music and occasionally check out a live band on their modest stage.

     

Eighth Day Books - yes it sounds like a Christian bookstore (not that there's anything wrong with

that!), and I guess it technically is one, but this 

locally owned

establishment has an eclectic and

inspiring collection of books from all disciplines stuffed inside a cool old house (even the upstairs bathroom accommodates several bookshelves). The seating, mostly old church pews, isn't the most comfortable, but the staff are knowledgeable and passionate about books in a way you can only find at a small mom and pop store. In addition to loosing yourself in the deep stacks, you can attend the free Latin or Greek classes held there every other weekend. We hope they continue to hold the big chains at bay for a long time! 

The Spice Merchant - The spice must flow!!! Oh yes, another of Sue's favorites, this sprawling warehouse space with the cool turkish looking exterior, is home to a crazy assortment of raw spices and teas, coffee beans, and a great selection of hot sauces among other things. Sue has been known to get lost for hours (ok, it just seemed that long) walking the no-frills racks filled with odd and interesting cooking sauces. It's a hands on kind of place where they make or prepare a lot of the products themselves - you won't find the usual brands there - and like The Donut Whole, they're a big supporter of local producers. 

Perhaps we'll get the chance to take some of you on a tour of the local favs personally! Anyway, I hope you're all having a pleasant holiday and hope to speak to you all soon. 

Love, Sonny & Sue.