Workaholic

I´m my own boss and I just gave myself my longest vacations in eight years. During the first week of my six week vacation I continued the usual routine of going straight to my desk to plan first thing in the morning. Workshops, schedules, events... there´s a lot of planning in my work. After years of running a full time Mon-Fri art center for kids, I know that good planning is the key to a productive year.

But it was time to take a break. I´m a workaholic and I wasn´t going to stop working just for my vacation, something had to happen. And it did. One week into it and my mac broke down. The screen went green and stripey. There was nothing we could do about. It´s six years old. Death is imminent.

So I took it as a sign. I told my son to plan our entire month in his notebook. We took daytrips, went swimming, visited friends and had a great time. I drank beer with lunch and slept past seven! The weeks went by and I made sure to enjoy every day so that this vacation wouldn´t slide by without my even noticing.

Today is Sunday and we start classes tomorrow. I opened up my mac, turned it on, and voilá - it´s working again! No more green stripes, magically. I thanked my wise friend (mac) for making me take a break, disconnecting and slowing everything down. I´m rested and ready.

day in the life of a low-budget project director

5:55 stumble out of bed, give my boy a kiss, head over to the coffee machine. He follows me and asks me some profound existential question inspired by a dream he had last night, I remind him that my speech is impaired until I´ve had my coffee
6:20 turn on the computer, light my smoke, drink my coffee, check my messages while husband and son have their healthy breakfasts
7:50 dress, make sure son has washed his dishes and brushed his teeth, try to answer his question now that I´ve had my coffee, remind myself how lucky I am to not have to drive to work
8:00 22 teen-aged students arrive, make sure volunteers are up and ready to go, check the schedules, answer questions, run around getting things for volunteers who didn´t read the part in the "rules for volunteers" sheet that says "please ask for teaching materials a day in advance"
8:44 students finish chores, I yell "one more minute" and tell somebody off about gum chewing, feet dragging or offensive T-shirt wearing, take a deep breath and remind myself that I too was once a dreadful teenager
8:45 get students settled in their classes
8:48 watch son walk (about 30 steps) to school, bless the school for having set itself up right next door
8:50 back on the computer to correspond with someone in Spain who wants to come volunteer
8:55 have to go back downstairs because one of the students wants to give me excuses for why he came late yesterday
8:58 back on the computer to upload recent photos onto the project´s facebook page, more emails and maybe read the newspaper online
10:00 first class over, recess supervision, tell the lunch cook how many people are eating today
10:15 teach second period dance class
12:00 morning students go home, first half of the day accomplished
12:05 ask the volunteers how their classes went
12:10 back on the computer to finish a report that I have to turn in tomorrow
13:00 called down for lunch but ignore it and hurry with the report, stressed and hungry
13:05 called down for lunch again
13:10 sit down to lunch with the volunteers
13:40 back to the coffee machine, do some lower-ab crunches while it pours
13:45 back to the computer to print something for a workshop
14:00 afternoon kids start arriving
14:15 supervise supervisers, run to get a copy of the key that a volunteer accidently left in the locked arts&crafts cupboard
14:30 afternoon classes start
14:35 back to the computer with a half a cup of cold coffee to do accounting
15:10 go back downstairs to supervise transition to second period, run to get a band-aid for a scratched knee
15:15 back on the computer to edit a video for a funder
16:15 second period over, teach third period dance class
17:00 get lots of hugs and smiles from the kids as they leave, second half of the day accomplished
17:05 ask the volunteers how their classes went
17:10 cook dinner, think about everything I have to do tomorrow, wonder how we´re going to get more funding to keep the project running next year and remind myself that everything happens as it must
18:30 call son and husband to the dinner table atleast three times, eat, talk about how the day went for each of us
19:00 tell son to brush his teeth and get PJs on
19:05 more coffee, back to the computer to check any last minute messages, plan tomorrow´s classes
19:30 put boy to bed with dragons, fairies, elves, and friendly lions
20:00 turn off my brain and watch a couple of episodes of whatever comical series we have on the go with my husband
20:30 pause to go get some ice-cream out of the freezer for us and some clean sheets for a volunteer who didn´t think to ask for them earlier
21:45 check any last, last messages, write one last quick email to someone in London who wants to come volunteer, shut off computer
22:00 sleep!

Public Education in Guatemala

We took this photo of an open notebook in one of the public schools we work with. The teacher wasn´t having a bad day, these are the kind of exercises the children do every day. How is this possible in 2010?

Tomamos esta foto de un cuaderno abierto en una de las escuelas públicas con las que trabajamos. El maestro no estaba teniendo un mal día, este es el tipo de ejercicios que los niños hacen todos los días. ¿Cómo es posible esto en el 2010?

Syncretism / Sincretismo

Syncretism:

An attempt to conciliate different doctrines that do not have any substantial coherence. It occurs as part of a process of acculturation, when a dominated people try to adapt to the colonial culture.
Sincretismo:
Un intento de conciliar doctrinas distintas que no guardan una coherencia sustancial. Ocurre como parte de un proceso de aculturación, cuando un pueblo dominado trata de adaptarse a la cultura colonial.

Dustpan - Movement Interpretation of excerpts from Alan Watts

The Anunnaki are Here

People can believe some pretty strange things.

In the town I live in, there are only about fifteen last names. It is not uncommon to see children with six toes on one foot. It is almost inevitable for cousins to marry and reproduce, because everyone is related.

Last year we had a very strange episode of "possessions". About 40 people between the ages of 2-35 were posessed by "evil spirits".

Hurricane Season in Guatemala

Tropical storm Agatha brought up memories of Hurricane Stan - five years ago this October. I´ve told the story hundreds of times, but never written it down. My son was two years old - almost three. A bunch of friends were staying with us, sleeping in the studio. The studio is about 25 feet away from the house.

My friend Javi woke up first, from the sound of tree trunks hitting the wall of the studio. He woke the others. When they opened the door, they couldn´t beleive what they saw.

Between the two buildings ran a huge river. Both buidings are raised off the ground by about four steps. The water was up to the top steps. Javi and another friend found some rope and set out to cross the river to get my husband, son and myself (we were very asleep at 3am). I hadn´t locked the door, so Javi just came in. I woke up to him screaming that we had to get up and go. I had no idea what was going on. No idea at all.

Bird Suits and Development

When my son was one month old, I packed up my whole dance studio – floor, bars and mirrors – along with the rest of my belongings, and drove it all to my new rural home in a big truck that I had spent the last of my pennies on. I didn’t bother trying to sell my dance school - I just closed it down. A few months earlier, after I had received the letter of approval for my grant, I decided to go ahead and build a studio next to my country house. It was a small piece of land, in the middle of nowhere and with no electricity.

Project activities started two months after we moved, and consisted in getting the local children to come in for dance, theater, painting and music classes.