A thoughtful week.....

This last week has been a bit strange, I learned from my dear friend James, that he has inoperable cancers to his throat, neck and lungs and even with aggressive chemo his life now is measured in months. But I know he will be putting up a fight to prove the specialists wrong.  I have known James for 20+ years and he has a most special place in my heart.  So this news left me feeling more than a tad reflective, especially being far away, but I hope that the written word still has a much power to comfort as it always did, I so need to support both James and his civil partner Andy.

I am wading my way through the joys of the “Spanish subjunctive”  this is a set of tenses that simply do not exist in English and are used when expressing things that are less than certain or literal about another person. So for instance the sentence "I do not think that he will ever finish reading that book". The second clause is in the subjunctive, which means that the verb endings are changed to signify and emphasise the doubtfulness of the sentence.  There are four subjunctive tenses which mean that now for every verb, I have about 15 possible tenses I can choose to use ~and  therefore 14 chances of picking the wrong one!  So I am still on that mountain! But the view is getting to be more and more spectacular!

My, as yet, virtual friend, Eny, (the photographer), had a piece of his work subject to the censorship of the few, for the benefit of the many, as the owners of the shop next to one of his public art displays (part of a series and part of a big public Biennial photographic exhibition) has been de-sensitised!  So again another opportunity to ponder.  He and I agreed that at least his art was doing what art should do and that is to “provoke a reaction”, I am sure no artist wants to be condemned to the wilderness of the “luke warm” and sterile.  The censorship hit the papers so I can only assume that he has no got a great deal more exposure for his pictures which were thought to be a little over exposed!

So interesting, in this country, street violence goes mainly unreported, assassinations take place. They passed law recently prohibiting two people to ride on a scooter/motor bike in the city, as this is the preferred method for assassins.   The shooter being on the back and already getting away when people realize what has happened; of course, nobody follows the law and people still ride two, three or even a whole family on a single bike.  Family violence, sexual violence, drug trafficking and crime in general goes unremarked and yet a photo on a wall and people get really indignant. Interesting comment on Guatemalan society.

As, I am now into my last weekend in my little house, before moving back to the Volunteers House, as part of my cost saving, in order to maximise the opportunity for year two, I am having a last BBQ tomorrow with my friend Erick. 

I am ready to move out of the house, with the change of weather has come increased, invasions of ants and sundry other “wee beasties” and I simply can’t keep dealing with the 101 different routes they have to enter the house via the corrugated roof!  The plants and orchids have a new home with Maritza (a Director of CasaSito and friend) and I am going to jettison a great deal more of my things before I return to the UK.  My plan is to return with my computer bag and 1 suitcase. Less really is more!  In this case less luggage = more freedom. 

And even in 7 months I seem to have acquired so much stuff simply because I was living in the rented house: liquidiser, electric kettle, containers, garden tools, pottery, glasses, blah, blah, blah……

And I reckon that 95% of the time I am wearing the same small favourite selection of clothes, so the rest will also go to a good home.

I have devised my final three projects for the children at Santiago Zamora, this week we start on the construction of mathematical geometrical solids, gradually letting them get more and more complex, watch this space.  This will be followed by the making of Mayan Puppets (yet to work this out) and finally by the creation of a labyrinth/maze constructed out of foam squares and featuring a picture of every child at El Plan Infinito.

 Finally,  I really like the rangeof Guatemalan/Mayan drinks called "atols" and have blogged aboutthem in the past, this weekI discovered thatone my favourites "alol de haba"  is actually made from dried and powdered (turned into flour) broad beans!  You learn something new everyday.

Although I make my own, the women who sell this alongwith so muchother street food, keep these drinks warm for several hours not by using a thermos but by simply covering the drinks in layer upon layer of material .... simple and effective and very clourful!

Hasta luego amigos!