Chanukah!

Well, is looks like htis is going to be another holiday post.  Not that that´s a bad thing.  Time continues to  pass in Xela, with things going along quite well. The major events of the past week or so have been a great Chanukah celebration, continuing to work with Partners in Solidarity (see previous post), DJing and further exploring my Spanish and getting to know this city.

Starting with Chanuklah, another Jewish girl and myself sought out to present Chanukah to about 30 people, none of whom were Jews. We found a Chanukiah & candles, made latkes, explained the story in Spanish and sang songs. It was really great to be able to share my own culture with others, as I am in another country learning and exploring their culture. I left the experiecne feeling really happy to have my Jewish culture, and happy to be among good people here in Xela in the abscence of my friends and family at home. At the end of the night, the 14 year old son of the family who hosted the party song some songs in Spanish and danced, which was incredible.

I have also continued my work with Partners in Solidarity, the organization I work for now which donates computers to rural schools and teaches how to repair and maintain them. Last week, we went to an inaguration party for a school that was opening up its computer labs. That was a neat experience to see how much respect they gave to the organization and how much it meant to them to the computers. We ate a communal meal of tamales made with Rice instead of corn - delicious.

Its great work, and on Thrursday I went out to the municipality of Cantel to view the family’s home where the organization stores their computers and recieves a lot of community support. A great family, we ate brocoli and rice with Tamalitos and played with the kids. Also took a drive around to some of the schools. They are truly isolated, and it feels great to bring them the computers and share what has always been so readily accesible to them. We’re also discussing a plan of bringing internet to some or all of these schools, which is exciting. Today, I hepled teach a three hour class on troubleshooting and maintaining computers. I gave a 30 minute presentation on the internal parts of the computer, and afterwards helped to explain troubleshooting processes and the BIOS. Quite great again to share this knowledge. One of the people presesnt invited us to a wedding next weeked, which should be a nice cultural exchange. We will also share Christmas with the family in Cantel.

Here in Xela, I’ve befriended some folks, both a DJ from DC and a local DJ, and have had the opportunity to DJ twice already, at a party and at a lounge, even getting paid. Its great to have music and software with me that facilitates these friendships and allows me to work even here in Xela. Its a great way to get involved, and meet local people who truly share my interests.

So, that is the current update. I hope to travel to Lago Atitlan for a few days tomorrow, then come home to Xela to teach another class on Chanukah to English students, and see some traveling saint statues at the family’s home in Cantel. I really enjoy being able to leave behind the normal tourist paths and get to know some of the local culture, which is the main reason I am still in Xela and not traveling about.

I’m sitting now in my hostel bed, listening to the pretty, if stale, sounds of a Marimba concert outside my window and nursing a bit of a stomach bug. I hope that all are well and look forward to hearing any stories from back home.

All my love.

Thanksgiving!

My time here in Xela since Thanksgiving has truly been a time to give thanks, through some ups and some downs.  Starting with Last Thursday, Thanksgiving, when I had a wonderful potluck dinner with some other American folks away from home and a few locals as well.  Eating chicken (not turkey but almost), potatoes, gravy, FRESH salads, and baked mac’n'cheese was really incredibly after subsisting off of a cheap Guatemalan diet for a while.  The dinner was with some nice folks affiliated with a volunteer organization here in Xela called Entremundos and I really did feel quite at home.  The next day, I moved out of the local family’s house and into a rental room in search of a little more privacy and my own (relative) choice of food.  This was just in time to get my things ready to go on an overnight backpacking trip to the volcano Tajamulco, which is the highest point in Central America.

I Went with  a local group called Quetzaltrekkers, made up of volunteers who donate money to a local school for street children.  The trip was with two friends from school and  about 20 other people.  We woke up at 4:30 am on Saturday morning to take a pickup-truck ride to the bus station, where we took a chicken bus to a halfway point.  There we ate breakfast and continued on another bus.  We started hiking around 10am and arrived near the top of the volcano around 3:30.  It was really an ideal situation; there was an Israeli guy with us who brought a whole coffee kit onto the mountain & I had a little scotch.  We did some yoga on the mountain while a rainbow was visible below.  Afterwards, we hiked up to slightly below the peak and watched what was truly the most magnificent sunset of my life.  Being so high above the clouds was spectacular; the shapes and the colors mind blowing.  Afterwards was a nice night of card playing and we went to bed at 7:15 in anticipation of waking the next morning at 3:30 for the sunrise.  Another spectacular experience, though incredible cold on top Central America at 4:30 in the morning.  I really enjoyed the opportunity to hike up there and Quetzaltrekkers did a great job of leading the trip.

Since then I have been studying and enjoying my time here in Xela.  Its very easy to feel at home here and I definitely feel the pull to stay here for some time, though am not at all sure how long that is yet.  I will be doing some volunteering, which started today with a trip to a computer lab in a rural community just outside of Xela.  The school was inaugurating the lab which had been setup by Partners in Solidarity  which is the organization that I’ll be working with.  Its amazing to see the technological junk of the US relished by communities here which would otherwise not have computers to learn on or about.  The community the school is located in is only 1.5 km outside of Xela but lacks paved roads and potable water.  Quite a contrast to the city I’m living in now so close by.

 I am going to take a week off of school next week to relax and hopefully do some traveling.  After three weeks of 25 hrs studying I’m ready for a little break from learning and would like to continue building my Spanish through practice with local speakers.  I will probably continue with private lessons (which are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper) when I get back to Xela and before I set off again.  I’ve been on-again/off-again sick and have spent a lot of time looking for good places to live - but otherwise things really are nice here.

 You are all in my thoughts and I look forward to being in touch and hearing about how things are back home.

Xela

I have now been here in Xela since Thursday night, and am actually becoming busy and developing somewhat of a routine.  Last week I chose a language school named the Proyecto Linguistico, or PLQ (link), and signed up to start Monday.  Choosing a school was hard as there are probably 50 to choose from, all which offer essentially the same thing.  Howver, the PLQ is a non-profit cooperative that focuses on the social issues in the past and current lives of Guatemalan people, of which there are many.  It seemed to me the best way to gain an understanding of what the lives of locals are and have been like.  So far, I think its been the right choice.  Sunday night I moved in with a local family, where I have my own bedroom with a double bed , TV and small table.  The family is Mom, Dad, a 7 year old son, a 17 yeard old son and a 19 year old daughter, plus many other people rotating in and out.  Meals are eaten with some or all of them depending on the time and the day.  None of them speak English so its a great time to practice my Spanish.  Sometimes they don´t say much and watch TV, but I have been able to speak a fair amount with them and feel quite at home at the house.  If only the water were hotter…

 I am about to start my third day of school, which consists of five hours of one on one instruction with a teacher.  We converse a lot, and also do exercises practicing verbs and vocabulary.  I.m remembering a lot, but the practice is very important.  I´m really pleased at how fast my Spanish is coming back and how much I am able to speak with people.  There are also conferencias at the school where locals come in and discuss topics from the present and the past.  Yesterday we learned about the situtation in Guate´s liberal colleges during the 80´s, which was marred by violence and repression.  Quite a sad situation and one that made me think a lot about how different attending college is these days, espescially back in the states.  Everybody here has a story, so many of which are heartbreaking. The amazing thing is that when they tell the stories, they come out as quite normal and my reactions almost seem out of place.  So bascially, being here in the school and with the family is allowing me a chance to see the culture here from a more involved place than traveling form place to place usually allow for.

 Xela itself is pretty large and located in the Guatemalan highlands.  The sorroundings are beautiful, though the town is rather decrepit and full of diesel fumes.  I do like it here a lot.  The central park of the the town is a bizarre remnant of German occupation, feeling like a European square that somebody forgot about with many faux Romanesque details.  There´s some good food here, though mostly now I am eating meals with my “family”.  Today I went to a town called Almolonga, which is the wholesale vegetable market for the area and walked through fields.  Afterwards we took a hot spring bath in a small room from natural hot springs.

One more interesting thing was that last Friday night, in the Casa Argentina where I was staying, I had a Shabbat dinner that was cooked up by 18 Israeli people.  It was very homey and great to be invited.

Volcan Santa Maria

Just a quick post today to tell about my hike to the top of a 3700 meter volcano yesterday.   It was one of the hardest hikes of my life but well worth it.  The terrain was nice, passing through forests and farms, and the view from the top was stunning.  The first photo above shows the volcano from where we started hiking.  The second shows a friendly group we met at the top who made us coffee, and the the third a view from the top. Many more photos are on flickr.

November 5th

If any of you are still wondering, I’ve bought a ticket for Guatemala and depart LAX the morning of November 5th. That will mark the end of 3 great and full months in Los Angeles. Burning Man, a beautiful trip to Kings Canyon (I haven’t posted any pics to the blog yet - they’re here), a photo published in Citizen L.A. (see below) and now a gallery show at the Dale Youngman Gallery in Downtown L.A. (featured photos are here).

Leaving Burning Man this year, I said I wanted to take my photography more seriously. I didn’t imagine it would be the photos I took there that would lead to this being a reality. Ever since being offered the gallery show, I’ve thought a lot about what it means to be an ‘artist’. With so many possible meanings, I’ve come to the conclusion that anybody who believes in their own creative potential can be an ‘artist’; a photographer, a DJ.

I’ll leave with a link to The Dynamics‘ sublime cover of Curtis Mayfield’s immortal ‘Move on Up’; I think it is apropos for this evening. The Dynamics are a contemporary Reggae group out of Lyon, France currently playing mostly cover songs. Their album drops soon - watch out for it!

Move On Up

Junctions

There was something about this image that struck me. I was about to go into the Santa Monica DMV to take care of some business and saw this girl taking a bite into a donut. So there it is.

Two weeks into my Los Angeles adventure here, and having scattered thoughts. Society has provided me with so much conditioning to NOT be OK with doing anything but focusing on work in the traditional sense. Today I woke up and did some shopping for Burning man in downtown L.A. Explored the fashion district and wholesale toy district. I enjoy being able to enjoy a city that I’ve lived in on and off my whole life but now have a different type of freedom to explore. In any case, the trick for me at the moment is to internalize a feeling of being ‘ok’ with what I’m doing. I want to set off to Latin America knowing that a) it is the right thing to be doing and b) I will be involved with passion in new and exciting things when I return.

This time now is for preparing for preparing for the trips I am setting out on guilt free, and then for enjoying them, and THEN for being present in my life when I return. I think part of the problem is that extended time in L.A. provides me with a certain stagnation, even though there is so much going on. I went to the Sunset Junction last weekend, sort of a hipster-fest in Silverlake. Fun, saw the Buzzocks for a second, met up with D from Santa Cruz. I’ll post a few pics form that day below:

And also this picture, which to me speaks volumes about being back in my hometown, around familiar architecture, culture and religion. And I loved the shot:

Playground

In some ways Los Angeles is a giant playground. Especially coming from a place as small as Santa Cruz. I’m feeling overwhelmed by the sheer amount of culture and activity taking place at the moment. Since I’ve been back I’ve seen an incredible free show consisting of a performance by the Universal Consciousness Orchestra with their tribute to the incredible Alice Coltrane, and followed by a set by Coltrane’s nephew Flying Lotus. I’ve been to Funky Sole, seen Daedalus perform for free at an art opening, found a great yoga studio, and on an on. Beyond all of that I’ve been truly on vacation, with only the greater questions to ask of life and not much of the day-to-day anxieties that are often typical my life. And yet, beyond all of this, beyond the fact that I’m basically quite happy and relaxed at the moment, I feel that Los Angeles is not for me. Owing to the prevalent aesthetic concern and modes of socialization, the traffic, the cost of living. I’m amazed at the ways that I am both attracted to and repelled by aspects of life that make up this great metropolis. I think now that I will spend two months here, peppered by Burning Man and some backpacking, and then start to travel. And then, who knows, maybe I will choose to return here but that decision remains to be made.

Below is a picture from the Universal Consciousness Orchestra show:

City of Angels

Today was the move day. I drove a 15ft. Budget truck down to Los Angeles and have officially moved back home. Its quite a strange feeling really, to move home after 5 years away. Time spent in such a different type of city, in such a more committed way. I all of a sudden find myself without so many of the routines and spaces that I’ve been used to. The room, the house, the walk downtown, room mates my age. Its like I need to psyche myself out and absorb the fact that things are actually different, and will continue to grow more so. This move was really quite easy, very smooth. Some might suggest that this indicates a move that as meant to be. I buy it.

I was in San Francisco last weekend for D’s 30th birthday. Great weekend, lots of people to visit. I went to a photography show at Camerworks SF gallery, a great Non-profit gallery in Mission in SOMA. I was particularly struck by the work of Greg Halpern, who was showing his ‘I’m Afraid I Love You’ series of photographs of Buffalo, NY. The pictures have a strong Egglestonian quality, suggesting a wealth of humanity through their mundane subjects and muted colors. None of the work from the show was on his site, but I included the picture above. Seems fitting for the move I made today.

Think on These Things

In a way this is the first day of a new life situation. I spent the last night last night in the room that has been mine for the last two years. I’m sitting now in my backyard, listening to Roots Manuva waiting to go to the greater Bay Area for the weekend. There are many ways to look at the time coming in my life. In one sense, it is just a city move & a decision to travel. In another though, this is the first time in my life I’ve allowed myself space to be without plans and see what develops. Shall I be cheesy and call it a right of passage? Sure, why not. I can’t say it feels easy to be on the verge of 26 and not have a ‘life plan’ but its the only sensible option, for today anyways. The change feels important. I’ve seen those around me gain varying amounts from traveling. Its certainly an experience that will give from what it is given. It’s funny to read people’s experiences at places like realtravel.com and travelblog.org and see people interacting so little with the cultures around them; people often seem oblivious. But I guess I will have more to say on these things when I leave, which I hope to be in October after a few months in L.A. and a week at Burning Man.