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!

Bread Pudding . . . . . .

Saturday 05:30

How I remember it!

My Mum used to be famous for her bread pudding, she had a special tin for baking it in, and very two weeks or so the “gloopy” mixture of stale bread and cake, sultanas, sugar, eggs, cinnamon, all  spice etc would go into the over and come out again after an hour or so as this amazing rib-sticking pudding.  It was always cooked at the weekend and a slice was always cut and wrapped for Gordon Phillips, my organ professor at music college.  Well imagine my surprise to see what looked like bread pudding in the local bakery here, after enquiry it was indeed bread pudding but made with stale bread and bananas and only Q.2 (18p) per portion.  It was at this point that the alarm bells should have started ringing as a)I didn’t know what their definition of stale bread would be, and b) this tray full was sitting on the counter (a feast for flies). Well I am intrepid and so bought two portions!  Who knew when such a delight would be available again!

More tea vicar?

mmmm  Nutri-leche

My prize having been got home I decided to go the whole hog, got out my teapot, and decided to brew a pot of Guatemala’s finest tea  (yeah right) actually Lipton’s Yellow Lable Tea, it never quite tastes right with the Long Life UHT “Nutri-Leche” but beggars can’t be choosers.

So pot of tea milk and sugar and my trophy Bread Pudding, I sat down on the terrace and enjoyed the tea cake and the view of the garden.  Again I should have been alerted to the fact that is was still a bit “gloopy” and didn’t have the lovely thick crust I remember from my mothers efforts. Never mind.  Tea and pudding consumed I was about to get on with some studying when BLAM!  My system responded with a big, Never, nunca, ni, ningun y NO! Suffice it to say that for 12 of the last 15 hours I have been to the “littlest room in the house” every 15 minutes, the cramps have stopped, I feel like death warmed up but am OK.  Note to self: recreate the original when in UK in August! Second note to self:  Don’t let your stomach rule your head! Third note: Live and learn!

Bet you are all pleased I shared that with you!  Just imagine the tales I will have to tell next year when I spend time in the Amazon jungle in a village!  Leg or breast?  And we will not be talking chicken here!  

Actually, I have been thinking about my up coming trip to Calcutta, when in India I absolutely  preferred the street food to anything a 5* hotel might concoct. The only times I got sick in India was courtesy of the Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton, etc. or when selecting from a “buffet.” And this time with a restricted budget I mean to find out the “best” and cheapest food in Calcutta (fortunately I will have the 22 members of the Orchestra – all VERY streetwise young guys to be my guides, protectors and family for 5 weeks.  I recall one restaurant in Mumbai that only had 1 item on the menu Lamb Biryani, the restaurant seated about 400 people and the queue would be going right round the block.  You were ordered to a seat, (no reservations here), a plate of Biryani and salad was put in front of you, along with a mug of water, you ate and left, 20 minutes tops!  You mixed with the glitterati of Mumbai as well as the almost down and out. The best Biryani in Mumbai, so good in fact hundreds of kilograms of the stuff were sent daily by air to far flung corners of the globe, to appease the appetites of homesick Bombay-ites. 

Ricardo

Abdia

Today and tomorrow I am entertaining.  I have my oldest (and oldest) friend in Guatemala coming over for dinner.  Ricardo is a dentist in a big practice in the city we met way back in 2006/7 and have remained firm friends since. I always enjoy his company and of course more opportunity to practice the Spanish. And tomorrow I host Abdias, who has a great love of classical music so we talk and listen and eat, perfect.  

Eny Roland - Self Portrait

I am also hoping to meet with one of Guatemala’s really up coming young photographers, Eny Roland, he is really pushing the envelope here, and he needs to practice his English!  Facebook, really does have a positive side inasmuch as through “friends” of “friends” (I use the term lightly) you can start to talk with a vast range of people.

Public Art Project- Eny Roland see http://artegaleriaurbana.blogspot.com/

Eny on frontcover of Cine Magazine

Talking about Spanish, I am still on that mountain. I was feeling very chuffed with myself yesterday (pre bread pudding) as I reckoned that I had learned about 400 verbs and 300 adjectives, thanks to my system of flash cards.  I have an accuracy of around 95%. See the Spanish immediately say the English translation.  But, then I tried it in the opposite direction, look at the English remember and say the Spanish, not so easy. Need to think about why.   I am undaunted, but perplexed.

Another month of lessons would be good, but at £5 per hour, they will have to wait.  Anyways I reckon by 2020 I will be fluent!  It’s just that I currently need about 15 minutes to tune into a persons accent before I can confidently understand everything they say. And I need to turn the translation unit off in my brain, but can’t find the switch!

The trick is to know make sure I used all the rules regulations, colloquialisms, “perifrases” and all the other junk to make it all come to life.  I have to be nearly oin top of the mountain by October 22nd when I land in Trujillo, Peru.  The project is very specific that my Spanish must be at an intermediate level in order to teach the classes.   Well I have another 60 days here and I am sticking to a regime of 4 hours a day, and then when I am in India I will take with me my trusty flash cards!

As, having viewed on the internet some Spanish academies in Calcutta, I rather feel I would be teaching them. Spanish with a heavy Indian accent is a sound to behold.

About 500 vegetable stalls!

Having said all that, I can actually make myself perfectly well understood! A daily dose of cable TV helps,  American series in English with Spanish subtitles,  and also Spanish soaps  ~ the tears, the looks, the raw emotions and the hammy acting!

So now, I need to plan some menus, traditional Guatemalan of course! And will be off to the market around 7:00 to snap up the food whilst it is still fresh.

Bread pudding anyone?

Weights are pretty approximate &  fridge what fridge

The meat market

Hasta Luego Amigos!

Reflections.

Normal service from "Blogger"  seems to have been resumed and notification of my last 7 or 8 postings has now been sent!    So, dear readers,  (been reading Jane Eyre), don't forget thatthe blog i sbest read from with the blog itself!   Simply click on the title of this post to go there! It is underlined in blue!  

For those of you NOT up-to-date a lot of water has passed under the bridge!

...............splosh!  (the sound of abandoned plans) ..........

and

 ............   mmmmmmmmm, (contentment getting back on track)

............................................>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>............................


Reflections.

When I first saw this picture I thought, oh, here we go again another devout man fulfilling his ambition/destiny in playing the part of Christ Crucified on Good Friday.  Well, no.   Although he has come pretty close to being crucified.  The guy was one of three thieves to break into a shop, his misfortune was to be caught, not by the police but by the locals who administered their own form of swift and terrible justice.  This is one of the things that reminds me that I am definitely in a different culture and definitely in a developing economy.  The rule of law is administered by the police, who are under-educated, underpaid and in many cases completely corrupted by a corrupt system.  Had the police caught the thieves they would have either arrested them or done a deal with them and shared the spoils or made arrangements for the misdemeanour never to get to court. However, the people were there first and meted out instant justice.  They also refused to allow the police to take the guy away until his offences and situation made the papers (and thus something had to be done), the other two guys were pursued and caught and probably had a similar fate.

Police officer

It is hard to judge this behaviour, because on the one hand, it is all very liberal to want communities to maintain their identity, heritage and culture and on the other hand there is an expectation that certain morals and values will be upheld.  What was meted out was justice in the eyes of the community, and nobody saw anything wrong in the action they took. But, at the same time, there was the expectation that the people would allow the rule of law to operate, which is in many ways foreign to their (the peoples) own moral code.

Armed and ready

Here people have the right to “bear arms” and many situations could very easily be sorted out very directly and finally!  Here you don’t pick a fight with fellow road users, and don’t express opinions too openly, especially in more rural areas.  The hits and mistrusts caused by the civil war still echo through the society in general, especially as the Maya remain largely uneducated, marginalised and desperately poor, even if they are 6 million of the 14 million population!  It is like a kind of wild west in places, they guys wear boots, jeans, checked shirts and big ten gallon hats, have amazing belt buckles, carry a gun and now instead of jumping on their horse (though many still do) jump instead into their 4x4 pick-up.  Disagreements are sorted without recourse to the law or the police. And life goes on.

21st century horse!

Of course it also means that in these communities, the women are still second class citizens, the girls still seem to get pregnant at 14 and less than 10% of children will finish an education at 16.  Most (52%) will have left school well before they are 11.

98% of crime goes unsolved!

For me, I am always trying to understand how to maintain the delicate balance between, improvement and opportunity, versus the further erosion of heritage and culture. There must be a way whereby indigenous communities can develop but not at the cost of self destruction.   Many of the missionary groups here are “evangelical” in their need to convert or apostatize, but the price for the church, the school, the food, the new house, the love of God(?), is to completely disown their heritage, their Gods, their traditions and culture.  The Mayan culture was one of the most advanced when we Europeans were still running around in bear skins! Despite the efforts of the Spanish conquistadors, that culture still exists ( and not only for the amusement of coach loads of tourists)  but more and more it exists in the few remaining remote areas of this beautiful and amazing country.

We wouldn’t bat an eye-lid if Sir David Attenborough was telling us how these “tribes” decide the fate of a thief by tying him to a tree in a jungle. Well, here, the jungle has been replaced by a town and the tree by the irons rods of cement construction …… and the justice ……….   and then there are the drug cartels ....who are yet another law unto themselves and lay claim to vast swathes of northern Guatemala along the border with Mexico ...........

How to rescue justice back from narcotraffikers?

Or does the one have to totally submit to the other?  

Footnote:

Fair trials

Maya had a very strict law. Punishments varied, but the laws were fair. If you stole something and you got caught you would be held captive by the victim. If you committed a lesser crime, your hair would be cut short. Short hair was a disgrace. A punishment could me that they would sell all your possessions at an auction.  But, everybody was entitled and got a trial.



Hasta luego amigos

Doors opening, closing and revolving! Mind the doors!

One door closes,  another door ......... opens

Phewy!

One of the joys of this blog is the fact that occasionally as I push the "publish" button, the answers come into my mind, or at least the process of writing the blog unblocks my thinking.  As Martin said to me today, I probably ought to withdraw some entries as things change so quickly, he is right of course, but wrong as well. Reading the blog is you sharing in my thinking and entering into my confusion, doubt and general getting stuck in revolving doors!

"If it ain't broke don't fix it"

Well that is true, but what if you don't realise that it "ain't broke"?

Onam Festival Food of Kerala

Calcutta Chamber Orchestra

Having (I hope) sensitively let Jossefet go, and encouraged him to make the most of the fantastic opportunity he has in Brussels, I turned back to my original plan for this 10 year adventure!  I had decided to not go to India and wrote to my dear Indian "brothers" Simon and Sunny and apologised for the change of heart. Sunny wrote back fully understanding my situation but mentioned that his brother-in-law was getting married on August 27th and that the date was partially chosen because I would be in Kerala ...... I also realised just how much I enjoyed being in India and that it was 6 years since I was there. I looked at the finances and realised that I was pretty much on track and that I had no real excuse for not going (well not a financial one anyway!)

Panos Karan - Carnegie Hall

Also, I wrote to the Calcutta  School of Music to casually ask about my proposed residency with the Calcutta Chamber Orchestra ~ I am supposed to be there from September 3 to October 7 working with the orchestra and teaching in the Music School ~ most unusually (for India) I got a reply within 20 minutes telling me that my visit was awaited with eager anticipation and that a grand fundraising concert had been planned for October 6th and I would be conducting a Mozart Piano Concerto with an international soloist. The soloist is Panos Karan, of Greece but living in London ~ International Prize winner, Carnegie Hall Recitalist, St.John'sSmith Square, Academy of St Martins~ top flight!  Phewy!   Just the type of challenge I will relish, the challenge being getting the players up to scratch and to give a really stylistic performance.

Panos, soon to be following my baton!

So a quick rethink note to Simon and Sunny and I am on course for trip to India, including a wedding, the festival of Onam in Kerala, 2 x 3 day train journeys (Kerala to Calcutta), 5 weeks in the hustle bustle of Calcutta and some concerts!   Sunny has already found out my trains for me and is also looking a cheap air tickets .....

Th train starts bottom left Cochin and ends top right Kolkata (Calcutta) 3 days, 3000kms!

If you don't like crowds Calcutta is not for you!

Now I am on a roll ......

Then serendipitously I find a website that lists about 200 projects in Latin America requiring volunteers abouyt half of which that offer very low cost accommodation in return for volunteering!  I wrote about this in my last blog!  (It's old age, I repeat ,myself!)

But, but, BUT,

The Music Project - Trujillo!

On re-looking I find a lovely project, almost tailor made for me.

Teaching music in a music conservatoire in Trujillo, Peru.  This is a pukka conservatoire, with orchestrasm choirs, instrumental teaching and awards degrees etc.  No messing!  They also run a project to enable poor kids, to learn music and develop their talents and hopefully have a career, making a living in music.

Well, considering the Calcutta Chamber Orchestra is made up of 22 orphan boy/youths/young men who were all origianlly taught at the Oxford Mission Orphanage in Calcutta, I know what this type of training can do for good!

So immediately I have written two emails one directly to the Director of the Conservatoire, and the other to the organisation who arrange the placements. "Otra Cosa Network" is actually based in Warwick! and the directors have alovely house in the costal suburb of Huanchaco 20 minutes bus ride from central Trujillo, which is both a volunteer house and their office ~ just like CasaSito here in Antigua. 

Click here to read a story about these fantastic people   HERE

Now Trujillo is the colonial jewel in the crown of Peru, and Huanchaco was a fishing village and still maintains the most anceint forms of fishing, today it is a summer resort and surfers paradise (never mind)....

Trujillo

The beach at Huanchaco

So I am hoping  that the conservatoire like the idea of me teaching there and Otra Cosa approve my application, I will be accommodated in the VolunteerHouse with a twin bedded room with private bathroom (single occupancy for £4.30 per day!) ........ 

So if all goes to plan I will be back from India mid October and after a week in Uk would leave for Peru around October 22 for a six month stint .................... but what about the Andes Mountain Villages School?

Well, one of the tricks of all this, as I am finding out, is working your way around visa regulations. Whereas I can get a 183 day visa on entry to Peru (easy) it turns out that Ecuador is particualrly tricky you get a 90 day tourist visa free on entry but can only enter once in a year and the stay is a maximum pof 90 days. However,  the 90 day visa can be extended but it is a nightmare and applying for a special visa prior to entry for alonger period is a bigger nightmare and very expensive. 

Peru 183 days visa

So, my cunning plan is  183 days in Peru and then a jaunt up through Peru  along the Andes into Ecuador and along to Salasaca for about 3 months then a connecting flight from Quito to Trujillo and then back to the UK!   (But this is next July and subject to change!)

Huanchaco

I have crossed everything in the hope of getting to work in the Conservatoire!

Oh yes, and for the 2013/14 season ........  the Amazonian Jungles of Bolivia, the Amazonian Baroque Music Festival, and who knows maybe some more music and volunteering rolled into one.  I also wantto see if I can participate in the "Systema" Music system in Venuzuela! ....... So much to do, so little time!

But, but, BUT,

for now,  I am giving up my house and moving back to the Volunteer House on June 29th, saving a truck load of money and plan to use the time left to really, really push my Spanish as I will need to be pretty advanced for the work in Peru!  The volunteer house is actually very conducive to study and of course I get to practice my Spanish everyday with the staff!

Hasta Luego Amigos!

I think I lost my compass

I think I lost my compass and have been sleepwalking into heaven knows what!

Sorry but this is one of those navel gazing posts ~  yes, you get the good, the bad and the ugly!  Today I might need your advice!

 It’s insidious, the way you can slowly, develop “drift”, it is almost unnoticeable until one day you wake up and say “hey, how come I got here” especially if that is accompanied by a strong feeling that “here” is not where you feel you should be!  I never wanted a direct route from A to preferring to tack like a yacht  and believing that it is better to travel than to arrive.  I feel thatI have come to a stop here in Antigua.

When I set out last October on my great adventure, I had picked Guatemala as a safe place to start. 

Maybe too safe and maybe too secure.

What happened to knowmadicmike? Especially the nomad bit!

 Six-and-a-bit months later, I live in a nice house, I have a burgeoning relationship, I am comfortable and l feel lost! Well not exactly lost, but I left the UK to have an adventure, involving travel, giving something back”, pushing myself, enjoying myself and new experiences ….. and I feel that what I have got is the same old, same old except I am in a different country.  I listen to radio 4, Antigua is toitally geared to western tourists- Macdonalds, Burger King, Subway, DominoesPizza, Pops IceCream, delis full of expensive western products ................... all TOO comfortable!

Q:      Is this what I signed up for?

A:      I don’t think so!

If I were back in the UK I would have had long walks with Martin, or long discussions over dinner with you, talking through my doubts and fears.  Here, I have just myself to talk to and sometimes I end up going round in circles. And thatis not the same as a circular walk round the reservoir back in Brum!

How have I ended up renting a house that takes best part of 70% of my pension and consequently having to watch every quetzal I spend, and ifI am honest I think I fell into a relationship in order to …….. fill a void? ? fill time?  Have an interest?   None of which seems or feels like the right answer! (even though I had genuine feelings for him, and he for me)  But, too many pipe-dreams ...... better to call a halt before I do yet more damage to both him and me!

And why would I really want to set up and run an NGO involving stress, frustration and a whole heap of administration. I know that my entrepreneurial spirit runs away with me, but I also have to project forward and think about the fellow on my other shoulder who hates admin, hates routine and gets bored!  But getting the idea and working on it certainly got my entrepreneurial and creative juices flowing ……. And I like that!

The “knowmadic”  life was supposed to be just that, if I get bored, I move on, I stay for as long as I feel useful and then on to the next opportunity.  I have however learned that working with poor children has enormous rewards and I love it!

I return to the UK for a vacation in 3 months time and will have completed 10 months in Guatemala.  I hope that by August, I know what I shall be doing in September.

I am pretty much taken with Latin America and want to return to that, so I also have to reluctantly say no I to India. (I have a small 6 week project lined up in Kolkatta with the Chamber Orchestra and would be in India for about 2 months in total) the  trip is in the wrong direction and maybe it is a distraction?  Also it will cost about £1.5K.  Which is my airfare back to Latin America and 1 years health insurance!

The Andes in Ecuador

I think it is time to find that compass and set it in a new direction. I am currently looking at some very different options:

Andean School

1. Working in an experimental school in the high Andean mountains of Ecuador, teaching English, Music Arts and Crafts.  The town is 120 miles south west of Quito the capital.  This for a year.   I fancy the high Andean mountains, the roof of the world (southern hemisphere) …….
   
   
2. Possibly doing a similar things in the Ecuadorian Rain Forest with a “tribe”, this for 3 months.   This really is a non starter now ~ but later?
   
   
3. Working in a project for displaced children in Santa Cruz, Bolivia.  3 – 6 months.  But it is in a city …..

Or anyone of many similar of projects with similar aims and objectives stretching from Mexico to Chile!

The Amazonian Tribe is for real!

And that isn't tea!

Part of my selection criteria is/well be ( in no particular order):

1. Projects are on the basis of accommodation in return for voluntary work.  No more paying rent.
2. Offering an opportunity to work with children for more than just a couple of hours a day.
3. Being part of a very different community ~ more grass roots, more earth centred, more traditional
4. Being somewhere where the opportunity to use English is limited. (Except when teaching)
5. Limited communications ~ less reliance on the internet?
6. A brave new world (for me).
7. An established project, but not necessarily financially comfortable!
   
   

My thinking in part is that if I can work in return for accommodation, then I have a little more money to use either for “treats” or to use for the benefit of the host organisation. Buying the materials for classes etc. 

The Salasaca Indians of the Ecuadorean Andes

Salasacan EasterProcession!

Oh yes, I also plan to use my network in Latin America from my Chamber days and from my Eurochambres Academies to see if I might also do a little “informal” consultancy helping small rural businesses improve or find some project that may be a little more off the beaten track.

Now of course, a change of “tack” will involve some endings, but I am wondering whether new beginnings will outweigh the sweet sorrows of parting? (to completely misunderstand the Bard!)

I have to say I am pretty taken with the idea of living on the roof of the world! The Andean school is at 2709 m / 8891 ft and the "local" mountains rise to over 20,000 feet!

And it would simply be a matter of swapping Inca for Maya!

Important bit coming up >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 

What is your opinion?   

Please use the comment box below to send me back any thoughts 

or ideas or email me.

Thanks.

 Hasta Luego Amigos