Back to normal - whatever that is!

Here we go!   Good Friday Morning

Good Friday Morning

Good Friday Morning

Good Friday Morning

Good Friday Morning

Good Friday Morning

In the Church of England today used to be known as ”Low Sunday” – reflecting the coming back down to earth of from the “heights” of Easter????  Well here, I is quiet Sunday  the streets are no longer thronged with tourists waiting for yet another procession. Antigua  (pronounced An –tea –gwa) has returned to its relatively sleepy existence and its old routines, central park is now a relaxed place to sit under the trees and watch the fountain, and prices have come back down to normal!

Sadly though at Easter there was not a chocolate egg in sight!

The processions reached their climax on Good Friday, we had 4 processions some of which had actually started on Thursday night and many would go from 3pm on Friday to 6am Saturday!  I ma told that there are many, many people in the street during the night, I am afraid the comfort of my bed was no match for standing in a street at 3am!

So here is a selection of photos before we move on to other matters!  Several churches in Antigua hold the same processions!  Competition, and below is the procession from tthe Catherdral followed bythe most spectacular procession from a rival church (the richest in Antigua), pictures of procession by day and night!

Post Crucifixion Funeral Procession

You couldn't move in Antigua for Romans!

Spot the Angel?

Spot the devil?

Where did you get that that?

This amazing baroque creation is made out of "styrofoam"

Just after the procession left the church the heavens opened! Is somebody sending a message?

All so medeaval by night!

Lest we forget!

Couldn't get a foto of the generator in procession - but the float was spectacular!

Huge crowds for this procession- really huge ~ the whoel central square was jam packed!

 Ok, enough of Easter for one year!

Posing for pictures in the 5* Hotel Santo Doming

This week Jossefet (pronounced ho-see-fet) and I have been very much taken up with all things Santiago Zamora, developing new projects and ideas. On Tuesday the mothers (and two brave fathers) had a seminar on violence in the family given by the national police force. I attended and it was very good, I felt a little sorry for the two guys, who looked very awkward during the sessions on the rights of a woman to say no to sex and how the cycle of family violence often starts with food not being prepared on time!  Whilst the parents had their seminar, Jossefet and I had previously prepared activities for the children on the “rights of the child”.  At the end of the afternoon both Jossefet and I along with another CAsaSito worker explained the stricter rules that we were applying to ensure that the children got full benefit from their “scholarships” ~ the mothers are very supportive.

Artistic shot!

On Thursday we re-instigated the inscriptions for the courses offered to the scholarship students and  there was also another seminar for the mums on cooking.  Alice, CasaSito Founder, who is originally from Hong Kong taught the 15 mums attending how to make sweet and sour noodles!  Sadly I missed out on trying the end product but it smelt good.

Jossefet is at his family house near to the city for the weekend, the poor guy has had an ear infection all week, as in seeing a doctor in Guatemala City, he is staying on to attend the birthday lunch for his father today along with his sister and his 11 half-brothers and sisters!  It is quite common for men in Guatemala to have more than one wife/family formal registration of marriages is not the norm, amongst older Guatemalans and especially in rural areas, where Mayan ceremonies are more common (but not officially recognised) and in rural areas the need for a civil ceremony is not seen as an absolute necessity.

So I am taking the day to write this blog, prepare for a visit of 15 Australian students to Santiago Zamora tomorrow – planning some activities around communication without words! No idea how it will go but I am sure we will all have fun.

I am actually quite proud of this effort of mine.

I have mentioned earlier that the house is an “ideas factory”  this week I have learned how to make a mobile for the garden/patio and also started to learn beadwork!  I am very keen for the children to learn some new skills and the girls particularly want to learn how to make jewellery.  So I am starting with simple beadwork and will work up to working with wire and glass beads for earrings and jewellery!  This alongside various art based projects.

However, the big news is that my creative brain has spotted a real opportunity to make a difference ……..  I love the work at Santiago Zamora mainly because for me it is all “arts”  based, to be frank (as many of you know) administration is not my forte so probably the coordination of the project in SZ could be a bit dull!  But, having now done 2 or three projects with the children around art, the change in the children is noticeable, and the therapeutic nature of art (as well as the sheer enjoyment) means that like the “Pied Piper of Hamelin” new children come every week to have some art- fun. 

The “arts” singularly do not form any part of the public education system especially for 5 – 11 year old and for many NGO working with children the expertise and money for arts resources is simply too much.  So my idea is to launch a “Mobile Art” project – basically an MPV stuffed full of materials for Art, Music and Drama activities for 5 – 11 year old and to visit beneficiary organisation once a week for 8 weeks delivering activities for their children.

The founder of CasaSito love the idea and has already identified 10 organisation that would benefit immediately! I want the ”Artmobile”  to go out into the truly rural areas and to reach about 3000 children a year, I am writing the project plan now.  The stumbling block of course is the money,  the project will cost around £25K per year to run and I have to try to find three years worth of funding before we feel secure enough to get started.  You will hear a lot more about this in my future blogs!

But, as I am a “Brit” and will be project manager, the idea is to approach the 8 or so big multinational UK companies operating Guatemala, (Lloyds Bank, Shell, LandRover/Jaguar, Deageo (drinks), BT, etc) and say hey guys how about it!!!!

I am also trying to enlist the support of HM Ambassador to Guatemala (if see will deign to see me!) Actually I am using another diplomatic connection to give her a prod!

I will also use the remains of my old networks to see if I can get some sponsorship from the UK.   All ideas welcome!

Fortunately I hope to base this project within the “umbrella” of CasaSito, so charity formation, due diligance and all those things are already in place. So its all very exciting, and my entrepreneurial spirit is in full flow!

Australia/Guatemala  and Aborigine/Maya

Still, looking to move to San Antonio Aquas Calientes, just need to find the time to go look for a property.

I got over my stomach bug – which in truth was probably self-inflicted to a degree, I really must cut down on the catastrophically hot chillies!

Summer (March April) never really happened and now we are moving towards the rainy season (May – Sep), have had some very spectacular lightening storms and torrential rains!  But with the change of season come the flying ants, except that here the ants are about ¾ of an inch long with huge wings. No problem except they find there way into the bedroom at night and climb up and over the bed, and me …… swatted about 20 of the blighters last night.  Jossefet informs me that there will be one night when the sky will be just full of millions and millions of the things and they do get everywhere!  Have also discovered rats are eating all my lemons and mandarins, so have instigated some “pest control” last night special of rat poison and banana seems to have gone down a treat so more to follow tonight! 

Ok that’s it for now, don’t forget to write to me post a comment and sned my you fundraising suggestion!

Oh yes, 100% of to Florianopolis (don’t you just love the name) in Brazil on the 26 – 30 April for the Eurochambres conference. Will be a nice diversion!

And finally!!!!!

Amazing what you can buy in tins these days!

As seen in the local supermarket!

Hasta Luego Amigos.