Guatemala, here I am!

Antigua, city of beauty, peace, fun, learning and creativity. This has been my home almost since I arrived in Guatemala on the 16th January. The first 3 days were spent in Guatemala City, where I was priviledged to get to know the other 3 talented Artcorps artists, who are all now working with differing NGOs in various parts of Guatemala and El Salvador; Brooke, a visual artist is working high up in the mountains near the Mexican border, Alexis, a muralist, will be my closest chum in the region of Quiché, where I am going too, and Aryeh, a theatre artist is in El Salvador. We are all going to be working with local communities using art as a means to express whatever objective our affiliated NGO is working towards.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been placed with the Riecken Foundation (www.riecken.org), who are setting up libraries in Guatemala and Honduras. So far there are 7 libraries in Guatemala and about 26 in Honduras. I am going to work in Quiché beacuse there are two libraries in the region; one in Chiché and the other in Zacualpa, and the intention is that I will work in both. I am going to live in Chiché, which is a village not far from the capital of the region Santa Cruz de Quiché (although the word ´capital´does seem rather grand for the size of the place!). I have been there twice so far to meet the wonderful, effervescent and muy amable Alba, librarian of the year so I´m told, and I am really looking forward to working with her. I will be living with Carmen, a señora full of beans, with grown-up children and various grandchildren, although sadly for her, most of whom live in the US. She showed me into her home and the first thing I saw was the best nativity I have ever seen (one thing you are sure not to know about me is my interest in latin American nativities. The last time I was in S America, it was around Christmas time, and I commenced my collection of nativities, photographing them wherever I found them - in shops, banks, houses, in squares, on balconies and rooftops.) Doña Carmen´s was huge, full of hundreds of figurines; shepherds, wise men, followers, children, animals and of course the holy trio. Alas the next time I went to visit, it had disappeared, turning the sala from a secret haven full of wonder and marvel to a normal living room. But at least they don´t follow the tradition of ridding their homes of Christmas decorations by the 6th of January or I would never have seen it! Carmen clasped my hands and declared that not only will we have fun living together but when I come we will go dancing. Where the dancing may take place remains to be seen, considering the size of the village, but I am game! I found out that in the past there have been two foreigners (not simultaneously) doing voluntary projects in the village, but I will be the only one at this time.

So I leave for Chiché on Thursday. Up until now I have been in Antigua, topping up my Spanish and organising myself at the delightful Riecken offices. Imagine a courtyard full of lush vegetation with the sun beaming down and every office opening on to the courtyard. This is far removed from office life at home (not that I know much about office life, I must admit!). Antigua is great. It´s small, so it doesn´t take long to know everybody in town, it´s full of artists (and loads of foreign students studying Spanish) and it is surrounded by the most impressive circle of volcanoes and mountains, all verdant and strikingly green in contrast with the azure sky. Bougainvillea is in bloom everywhere; hot pinks, reds and oranges set off fabulously against the warm earth tones of the colonial architecture. As Antigua is a Unesco heritage site, the architecture has to be preserved so there are strict rules about paint colours and the like. The cobblestone streets look beautiful but once bumping along in a car or worse a little 3-wheeler tuk-tuk, one realises that cobbles were not designed for 21st century transportation! Today is Valentines Day, or as they charmingly call it here, El Día de la Amistad, so it is not just a day of celebration for lovers but also friends, and I have been invited to lunch with all my work colleagues, which should be lovely and soon!