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(Above; building around Lake Atitlan)

It struck me tonight when I was trying to update my Netflix choices with some modern Guatemalan flicks. There are SO few! Then I remembered when I was initially researching Guate the main categories of informations were:

1. Mayan culture

2. tourist areas; Tikal, nature areas, Antigua

3. Crime, political corruption and THE WAR

Well folks, although these areas cover part of what exists in Guate, it is certainly NOT the whole picture. What is the whole picture? That is something I am still trying to find. There are so many layers of Guate society, and I wasnt there nearly enough time to peel the onion back enough. But I am determined to find other artistic sources that may do this even while I am thousands of miles away. 

The reason for my search. Simply this; with a population this well mannered, friendly and optimistic…how can there be only negative info, stories, artwork that is coming out of this country. Nope, I dont believe it.

I know that this information on the war and how the indiginous population is treated (even still) is a reality of Guate’s, but there HAS to be a bright side too. I will find it or at least hit a trillion more walls while looking.

 If you know ANY modern films, books, art, etc from Guatemalans, PLEASE pass on the info.

I have come across some, and will be updating the website with this info soon enough (I am almost done unpacking). But what I have versus what my gut tells me exists is vastly different.

 

(^^^ Above; Mask I bought at market in Chichicastenango^^^)

This mask is the perfect symbol of the geographic ….(confusion is too negative a word to use) search I have been on the last few years. When I lived in my last long term residence, I collected masks. I adored them. (And I would like to think that they adored me too, lol). And I thought that buying masks now would bring the same peaceful feeling it did 5 years ago. But as much as I like my new monkey face mask, it doesnt feel the same. I get more ahhhhh-time from my new paintings or from the pics I took. Ugh. Its hard to know you’ve changed until you have changed, right?

Early in this blog I mentioned that I was at the end of a “homebase experiment.” The plan was to see if having a place to come home to, as opposed to temporary housing in the US as well as overseas, was a more comfortable way to live my life. AND, a week after being home from my first trip overseas since I got this homebase…and I cant answer my own question! Ugh.

If there werent 5 years of back and forth and strain on the brain for trying to figure my travel crazy life out, I might be going crazy right now. But to be honest, I dont mind that I dont have an answer to this experiment yet.

What I do know is …

1. I like sharing more about the place and less about me during a trip (despite this selfish post all about mememe)

2. I just signed a one year contract with the airline I was working for before I left for Guate. But since its an airline, I hardly think this is the end of my travels, folks, just the end of paying a lot for plane tickets. haha.

3. I liked hanging my new Guate paintings on the walls

BUT

4. I didnt like all the stuff that I had to unpack, sort through, clean when I came home. It is NOT less work to have a homebase, just different benefits to each situation.

5. Due to the almost consistent health issues I faced in Guate, I am rethinking trips to India, African countries, and other Central American countries. I am NOT saying I wont go, but my bare bones budget way of travel that didnt work for me in Guate will prob not work for me in these places either. Must take this into account and plan accordingly finance and otherwise.

6. Although I am taking one more writing class starting next month, I may never find my niche. I may never get published again. And this is A-ok. I never started all this for publishing credits. I wanted to share info to help others travel. Help alleviate fears, barriers, preconceived obstacles, etc. And I think in a really small way I have done that for some folks. I have never considered myself a storyteller as much as an information distrubutor, which is probably why I have never been comfortable with the phrase “I am a writer.” Yes, I can write and have my own writing voice. But I dont like molding a story. Its not my thang.

7. I hate long blog posts, so this list stops now

 

 

 

 

(^^^ Above; Sign on bathroom door a cafe in Chichicastenango) For those of you about to head off to Guatemala, por favor, dont throw a darn thing in the toilet. You dont want to know the consequences!!!! This is the ... [Continue reading this entry]

"But please dont make us idols. Because we are not myths of the past or present. We are active communities." -Rigoberta Menchu, in an epilogue on the DVD for his film I thought it fitting that I watch this film again upon ... [Continue reading this entry]