I was hiking up a beautiful mountainside burrough of Tactic yesterday afternoon with Walter. Every fifth house was raising its roof with Mexican “yip-yip” cowboy music thus sharing their advanced sound system with the neighbours (vecinos). Walter explained that it was more important to many Guatemalans to have big speakers (vozinos) than to have pretty … [Read more…]
I saw my first murdered person the day before we flew to Canada. We are applying for residency in Guatemala and so I was obliged to go to the official’s office to sign some papers. I took a taxi. The driver had to redirect himself several times because of impromptu traffic barriers put up by … [Read more…]
Yowsers! There’s a fair bit to catch up on, so I’m not going to bother. GUATEMALA: I finished the sponsorship promotional video, subtitling and all. We left on a Tuesday morning for Guatemala City and spent a day there getting some of our residency papers done. While on my way to sign some paper downtown … [Read more…]
We were invited to see Santa Claus when he briefly swung into Tactic on the weekend at our neighbours’ store. As you can see, the weather was ideal and Santa was seen by a host of people. Blaise was one of the lucky ones to be held by Santa. Not sure why there’s bad blood … [Read more…]
I’ve been spending a lot of time at the bank. We have a cash float which we use to buy gifts that are sent from Canada for sponsor children and then submit our receipts to balance our float. Lately, the gifts have been huge – building a house for example. So our float is always … [Read more…]
A woman knocked on our door this late afternoon. She was selling bean tamales with a nice hot salsa. How could I resist at a mere $0.16 each! Her husband was at the end of our driveway waiting with the vehicle (a bicycle) in the rain with the food goods. Since we’ve lived here, the … [Read more…]
Amber pointed out the horse outside our house early one morning. This is how cold it is inside of our house. I’m not trying to have a cold competition with my Canadian friends who are always quick to point out the -84°C weather they are experiencing. Perfectly clear. Understood. But how many of you have … [Read more…]
There is a dog, split in two, stretched across one lane. I answer the door in my pajamas at 7 A.M. to a man wanting to know why I needed to see his son. The bank teller still asks me how my film is coming. I eat 4 meals. My 2 o’clock appointment with Oscar … [Read more…]
It is not uncommon to see some startling sights from my car. Here are a few recollections from the past week. As I wait for cattle to cross the road returning from San Antonio, I watch from from my car as a bull attempts repeatedly to mount a cow in the middle of the street, … [Read more…]
Today, I was able to see with God’s eyes things that only He could see a hundred years ago. This is my child who will be born in April of next year. We drove into Cobán and had an ultrasound done. I filmed almost the entire appointment where we saw the baby wave his/her arms, … [Read more…]