Guatemala city

Biblioteca Nacional

Not an open stack to be found.
Cool building, though.

Windstorm '06!!

It seems like every year I've lived in Seattle, there is a moment on the news where we hear caution of "Windstorm [fill in the appropriate year]!" In fact, I believe that there was a moment late Thursday night/early Friday morning where GB and I had the following conversation after being woken up from the insanely loud wind (which, by the way, is a lot scarier when you have essentially an entire wall made of window):
GB: Windstorm 'O6!
me: (nervously) heh heh.

But looky. It really was a freaking windstorm! These pictures are within a two block radius of our place. The tree in the second pic took out six cars, people - six!

He came to eat the rooster

Just outside of Antigua sits the quiet little town of San Felipe. You can easily walk up the hill to get there or take a tuk-tuk for about 50Q. And I recommend doing it because San Felipe looks like a good eatin' town - we saw cute little taco joints, small cafes, but had specifically been told to check out this place: El Prado. Specializing in local fare, el Prado is a family restaurant that looks like it's seen a few generations come through its doors. The large picnic benches look out onto a quiet green courtyard. GB & I tried their gallo de chicha - rooster cooked in another mole-ish sauce - and platanos en mole.

Cuervita de los Urquizu

I found this place wandering the streets of Antigua. If you find yourself in this city, seek it out - its tucked away in the 2nd Calle. Cuervita means little cave and indeed it is - a little cave of deliciousness! The place was a madhouse the day we GB & I went - packed with locals, trying to get infront of us as we tried to work out the drill. The drill, as far as we could understand, was to pick one main dish and two sides. Clearly others with more communication abilities and know-how were able to deviate from this protocol, but despite not being one of those chosen few, we were not disappointed. I had an amazing chorizo tomato dish with rice and guacamole; GB got a typical chicken dish cooked in sauce similar to mole (but less chocolate-y) with black beans and guac. We were served fresh tortillas and cervecas. Pretty much perfection.

Bibliobus

Lo siento mucho - there were some technical diffficulties in which an entire roll of film was lost and I wasn't able to upload pics; and then illness difficulties in which the coughing and overall feelings of exhaustion and grossness prevented me from uploading the pics that I do have.
The one salvaged photo from the lost roll was of the inside of the bibliobus. Although this does allow us to revisit all the fun that is had saying BIBLIOBUS, it is bittersweet because there was a much better picture of us working inside the bus. sigh.
The work I was helping with on the bus was part of a cataloging project. All I was really doing at this point was simply cutting and taping call numbers onto the spines of books - but it is tedious work that needed to be done and I was happy to lend an extra pair of hands to the project.
I also helped build a book list for a school library hit by Hurricane Stan and collaborated on a project proposal to create a community information system at the PROBIGUA libraries.
Three weeks was no where near long enough; but I believe it gave me a necessary and new perspective on development work. Guatemala provided an important contrast to the work I did in South Africa. Where South African librarians approached our work with openness and excitement, I sensed a guarded reserve from Guatemalan librarians. I was reminded that historic and political events have very real sociological outcomes within a community and dictate the best way to collaborate to create change. A sentiment that appears obvious enough but has taken on some deeper significance after having had small opportunities in both environments.
If you are interested in reading about Guatemala's history, I stongly recommend Daniel Wilkinson's Silence on the mountain: Stories of terror, betrayal and forgetting in Guatemala.

El Tejar

El Tejar's library seems to be quite well established in the community. The Aventuras de Lectura program is in its second year and there was a large turnout for the end of the program. Students sang, performed a play and played games to celebrate completing this six week reading program that occurs during the student's winter break. The student are very young; and that is something that has been discussed. These programs - while essential for beginning a culture of literacy - need to be estabished for the older students.

Santa Cruz Balanya

The Mayor of Santa Cruz Balanya, pictured speaking here, created this library with the help of Child Aid and PROBIGUA. As you can see, the library is huge. This is the first year they´ve had the reading program and attendance was small but very enthusiastic. The children were very, very young. My hope is that, over time, these programs will develop for the older kids. Creating programs for young adults (ages 12 to 18) can have so many benefits for both the students and the community... Young kids see that reading is something that you grow up doing, creating a reading culture. It also allows the older kids an opportunity to help the younger kids - reinforcing what they´ve learned, giving them confidence and communication skills. And let´s face it - kids don´t look up to ¨old people¨ (and once you´ve hit 25 - to a six year old - you are pretty much over the hill and will likely die soon)they look up to teens! Envolving young adults creates a sustainable cycle of reading.

Antigua

Antigua is lovely. There are many foreigners here studying Spanish (there are about 75 language schools here!) but the architecture, food, and pace of life gives one a small taste of life in Guatemala. I had the opportunity the other night to participate in hacer una alfombra - making a rug. The rug is made by laying out large pine needles and flowers on the cobblestone streets - and as the church procession comes by carrying the statue of Jesus, they walk over the rug!

Los Libros!

Thanks to my fabulous coworkers at the Washington State Library and some very generous folks from Labor & Industries, I will be taking 28 Spanish language children's books plus some cash donations to PROBIGUA's libraries.
Muchas gracias a todos!

PROBIGUA

Academia de Español PROBIGUA (Proyecto Bibliotecas Guatemala) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to two goals:

1) Teaching Spanish through their language school.
2) Helping the children of Guatemala by donating the school's profits to establish and maintain libraries in the many rural villages in which there is no access to books.

I'll be spending my mornings at the language academy and in the afternoons I'll be volunteering with the library project. At this point, I know I'll be helping out with their reading programs and doing some cataloging on the Bibliobus. Cataloging gets a lot more appealing when one gets to do it on a bus delivering books to children in rural Guatemalan villages.

Getting ready

I leave for Guatemala this Saturday.
I will be taking Spanish classes, volunteering with PROBIGUA and doing some travelling.
Viva las bibliotecas!

This picture is both: subliminal encouragement to drink yummy Chilean wine whilst trip planning and a display of my new magical photo taking & uploading abilities (thanks for the camera Becky)! It is quite magical, non?