It's been a long time since I've updated this here blog but that's what student life will do to you. Too many frat-parties and all night wii golf marathons to keep up with. When you go back to school, you simply have to spend a little more time upside-down with a spigot of stale Bud going up yer nose. Themz the rules, I didn't write 'em.

Anyhow, we hope you all are doing well, keepin on keepin on and whatnot. We've been pretty busy now that school has started up again. I have my share of work to do now that I have a full time schedule and I'm still trying to work as many hours as I can on top of it. Personally, I'm

having a blast, though. Friends U canceled my Mandarin class (the bastards) but I slipped into a computer graphics class instead, which does advance my major, so it's all good. But it feels great to be working out the ol' noggin, dusting off the cobwebs, learning how to text without Teach seeing, even though he/she isn't an idiot and it's obvious anyway. As for Sue, judging by the weight of the bag 'o crap (student's papers, same thing, ooooooh) that we lug back and forth from school everyday, has her hands full as usual. She reads, she mutters obscenities, she gives up and bakes something, gives them all a B - , the usual. But we're good and thinking about y'all.

Oh! Before I go on: new tune, new video, check them out please please please. Watch the new vid for my track My Thang here or above. This blog doesn't allow for wide screen format though, so if you want to see it in all its pirated glory, you gotta go to YouTube. Also! Go to any of the following pages (Myspace, Garageband, Soundcloud)to hear a brand spanking new tune, Around Again, and if you don't feel like dancing, then nod your head politely for a few seconds before you go back to check out

whether your Farmville corn crop is ready for harvest.

We were happy to have a visitor late this summer when our good buddy Erika (one of the super-duper photography team at our wedding, to some of you), came to stay a weekend with us. We got to take her around to Final Friday and a Maxfield Parish exhibit that happened to be at the WAM (Wichita Art Museum) during her

stay. We showed her the sights and, by the time she flew home, she was exhausted from the sheer crushing weight of all the fun she'd had.

A million years ago, before classes started, Sue and I got to enjoy one of the local camp sites when we drove a half hour east to El Dorado lake and

park. The lake, (like pretty much all lakes in Kansas) is man-made, created by the Army Corp of Engineers and the half submerged dead trees that dot the water make for an interesting view. We had fun but learned how difficult tent camping can be on the plains.

It took some searching before we found a spot where our tent wouldn't be flattened by the

relentless winds and even then, the sound of the wind through the trees was roughly equivalent to sleeping on the shoulder of the Brooklyn

Queens Expressway, just

without the honking and bad words. I'm sure the sound must be pleasant to a Kansan, but to me, lying in our little flimsy tent, it sounded something like eight hours of the world coming to an end with just a thin

sheet of nylon between us and the apocalypse. For Sue it was slightly worse, since she picked the windward side of our abode and was attacked by the tent wall pretty much all night. We didn't sleep a whole lot but it was a fun experience and the park and nearby town are very nice.

A couple weekends ago, Sue and I made it back to the Kansas State Fair! Yes, it's that time again and we were there bright and early. Sue had volunteered to work the Newman booth for a morning shift but we both received free entry and some (deep fried) eats on Newman, sweet! However, we were horrified to realize that, after a year of thinking about it, regretting not having it when we were there last year, and impatiently waiting for the fair to come around again so we could finally try it, the Hot Beef Sunday had been discontinued! Noooooo! Sue was especially broken up about it, drowning her sorrows in a couple helpings of deep fried bacon but we assume it wasn't the same.

Last weekend Sue and volunteered to work a big Newman fundraising event called the Party on the Ponderosa. One of the wealthy local families, the Stecklines (whom the art gallery at Newman is named after) held the big western-themed hootnanny (spelling? anyone?) at their ranch outside of town. On display were a collection of genuine frontier era covered wagons, an auction, live

music and fireworks. Sister Charlotte (real-life Newman nun) even got into the act during a western themed shoot out skit and blew up a

building with a tommy gun. No joke. You had to be there.

Anyway, I will only briefly imply that Sue and I may be looking for a house, and we may have made some progress on a particular

house that we want, but that's all I'm saying! You don't want to jinx it do ya? You'll just have to wait for the next update to find out if anything amazing and wonderful has happened in our lives. Wish us luck!

So, after 10 flights in 9 weeks Sue and I are home and recovering for the near future. Not that we didn't greatly enjoy our Guatemalan adventure and our visit to the northeast, but no human should fly that much. I think we're both enjoying some relative downtime for the remainder of this summer. Sara was happy to see that we'd returned from Guate and did her best to keep me from leaving for New York. But in the end, I'm 190 lbs and she's 7 lbs, I can take her. Even the vacant field next to our complex celebrated our return by rolling itself up into a bunch of marshmallows. I don't know what these things are called officially, so I'm going with marshmallows. 

Before I progress any further I must wish a very Happy Anniversary

to mi amor. One year has flown by and the dust has barely settled but we're still enjoying ourselves. Here's to many more. 

Last week, Sue flew to NY and drove down to Pennsylvania to visit Nan and Pop for a few days.

Covering more ground by splitting up, I stayed in Manhattan for 

a few days and hung out with some of my friends.

Thursday I went with a couple buddies to a free show as part of the all-summer River to River Fest. This show was at East River Park, featuring Man Man. These were the same lovable

nutjobs we'd first discovered at the Austin City Limits fest last year: crazy, spastic, carnival sideshow wackiness! Finished the evening with dinner at the famous Katz's Deli for some pastrami on rye, mmmm. 

Saturday was an especially full and crazy day. I 

spent the day in Coney Island at the annual Siren 

Music Fest, a cool, free music festival known for breaking 

new, up and coming bands as well as offering stage time for older more popular underground acts. I missed the headliners this year, Built to Spill and Spankrock, because I had to leave early, but it was a fun day and some of the bands I did catch 

were pretty cool. I did get to see a little tiny

bit of the Raveonettes who play 

reverb drenched 60's B-movie style rock. Usually it is ass-hot there among the concrete and metal and complete lack of greenery or shade, but this year it was pleasantly a little-tiny-bit-slightly-slightly-slightly cooler. Good times. It was a little sad to see CI for the first time without Astroland. The developers

brought in carnies to fill the space with rides and games but it wasn't the same. Who knows what 

the place will look like next year. At least the Cyclone, Wonderwheel and some of the other big landmarks are still there. 

That night, I met up with Sue in Manhattan fresh from Pennsylvania and we found a number of her

gang at the VNV Nation show at Nokia Theatre in Times Square. 

 We arrived late but the show

 went long, VNV giving the 

enthusiastic crowd four encores. 

My white sneakers were the only non-black garments I spotted in the house that night, serving conveniently as a 

homing beacon in the event Sue and I got separated. VNV had their afterparty at Crash Mansion downtown on Bowery and we all made our way to it, despite the challenge of hailing a friggin' cab in Times Square (usually they are called Yellow Cabs, but 

under this circumstance, it's appropriate to call them by their local name Friggin' Cabs.) Sue and I got back my hotel at four in the morning, just like the good ol' days. We felt bad for the others though, who had to depend on the Long Island Railroad to get home. 

As usual, we failed to find time to see all the people we wanted to, but we did get to see some people we didn't see last time and for those we missed, we'll try again next time. We hung out with my mom 

and got to enjoy the sand a little near her place in Long Beach. Finally, no visit to NY would be complete with out downing a plate of pasta about twice the size of my head. Oh that and the bag of

bagels we smuggled back on the plane. 

Hope everyone is having a pleasant summer, especially those in NY who have had one of the wettest seasons in recent memory. We at least brought you one week of nice weather from Kansas, hope you get some more before the seasons over.  

 

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.