James Stuckey Weber » Guatemala 2007

Letting their voices be heard

James — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 19:40:27 +0000

I’m currently working on editing the Guatemala piece, and realized that the script is currently twice as long as it should be- not a fun thing to do. So last night I was working on cutting things out, and got it down a lot closer to what it should be.

Here’s the problem: In my attempts to shorten it, I realized that I was losing a lot of the voices of the people, and leaving in the well spoken workers.

This is definitely a sad reality- the higher your class, the more well spoken you are. This means that the nun will speak of lofty things, and in really clear ways, while the farmer will be more likely to mutter and stumble around.

So it’s easy to take out the more bumbling quotes. And that’s what I did. And now I’m off to put them back in, and make sure that their voices are heard, just as much as their advocates.

Guatemala Trip The last days

James — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:52:27 +0000

Friday and Saturday were also spent in Yalu. We interviewed an old man who spoke Maum, the local language. We taped the construction of a flower greenhouse. We went on a long walk where I almost died (don’t worry, I didn’t). It was beautiful, but constantly swinging back and forth between foggy and cloudy (check the two pictures below to see a god example of that). We also interviewed Juan Pablo, who was an excellent interview.

Sunday, we loaded our goods up on a mule and walked to our car, then made the trek back to Guatemala City. We made a stop back in Santiago de Atitlan for one last interview.

Guatemala Trip Thursday

James — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:56:19 +0000

Thursday, October 18- La Vega del Vulcan to Yalu via Mexico.
Yalu is a 3 hour walk from La Vega, or a 5 hour drive with a 30 minute walk. We opted for the shorter walk because of all our equipment. We left Yalu early after a quick interview with the owner of the fish tank that had been harvested the day before. We stopped in Sibinal to get some breakfast and shots of market day. A landslide from the heavy rain had blocked off a section of road, so we had to wait 45 minutes while they cleared the road. Had lunch at the chile relleno place in San Marcos (they were out, sadly). Then we headed to the Mexico border, and then to a small town on the Mexico border. It was night, and raining pretty hard, but we had to walk about 45 minutes with all our stuff to Yalu, on the Guatemalan side of the border. It was awful We were soaking and exhausted by the time we arrived at Juan Pablo’s (Juanpa) house.
We had a great supper and I had my first experience with Juanpa playing guitar. He sings wonderful songs with their basis in liberation theology, from a tattered song book put out by the Catholic church in Guatemala City.

Guatemala Trip Wednesday

James — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:43:30 +0000

Wednesday, October 17- San Marcos to La Vega del Vulcan
The
fog was terrible. We were pretty high up in the mountains, (even drove
through the highest inhabitated place in the Americas) so we were
basically in the clouds. We got some good landscapes on the way to
Sibinal, where we had breakfast and discussed what to do. I knew I
couldn’t get great stuff because of the fog. We decided to go for it,
so we drove to the other side of the mountain, a good hour long drive
where our 4×4 rented SUV came in very handy. We went back and forth
between beautiful landscapes and seeing 10 feet. In La Vega del Vulcan
(located in a valley next to a volcano), we taped the first harvest of
fish from fish tanks that were part of the food security project. We
also interviewed a lady whose husband migrates to Mexico looking for
work very often. We ate wonderful homemade tortillas and macaroni soup.
Jordan and I slept in a very short and hard bed. I slept wonderfully-
he barely slept.

Guatemala Trip Tuesday

James — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 22:38:11 +0000

Tuesday, October 16- Santiago, Atitlan to San Marcos
Woke up to try to get the sunrise shot at 5:30 a.m. The sky looked
clear, but sunrise was a bit off. I went back to sleep, and at 6 a.m.,
the sun was looking more promising, but the sky had grown very cloudy.
We drove to a beautiful spot on the other side of Lago Atitlan, and got
some beautiful shots, despite the clouds. (I just watched some just
wonderful shots, and all credit goes to the landscape, not our camera
skills).
We then headed west to San Marcos, stopping for a parade that was
blocking our way. The local high school was playing that rap song that
basically goes- “Yeah, Yeah” on the xylophone. That beats YMCA, which I
heard in Honduras.
In San Marcos, we interviewed a nun who worked with some of the
projects. She spoke wonderfully about the preferential option for the
poor, liberation theology and more.
We accidently left Fredy in the hotel and went to this cafe with
AMAZING chile relleno. I’m willing to return just for another one of
those. Fredy found us, luckily, but not before some guy (likely bugging
out on something) yelled some very critical but true observations about
gringos at us.

Guatemala Update is coming

James — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:46:35 +0000

Sorry about the lack of updating while I was in Guatemala. I spent a significant amount of time very far away from even electricity, let alone internet. I’ll do a few shorter updates instead of one big old one, so it’s more readable.
I’ll wait to get pictures, which hopefully will be tonight or tomorrow. Until then, have a good day?

Back home

James — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 05:20:29 +0000

Well hey. I have officially survived the trip! I am happily sitting in my room, checking my 46 unread emails and hoping to get to bed soon. I promise, I’ll get more on the trip up soon! It was a great time!

Guatemala Update 1

James — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 02:19:51 +0000

Hi from Guatemala. My keyboard is terrible, but I will try to make this good English. We?ll see.

Saturday we got a little bit of a look at the city, and spent part of the evening in the Cultural Zone of the city with some Goshen grads, and had a blast.

Sunday morning we drove around the city, getting variety of shots showing the wealth and poverty of Guatemala City. We then went out?to the north side of Lago Atitlan, to a town whose name I can?t really pronounce, but it is really touristy.? So that was a fun evening.

Today was incredibly long. We took a boat across the lake, and got some shots of the surronding mountains? and volcanos. Beautiful.Got to Santiago, Atitlan, and rode on the back of a pickup to a small town outside. Most people speak Mayan language, so?interviewing was fun. I asked a question in English, which someone translated to? Spanish, which someone else?translated to the?Mayan language, and then back again.

I also got footage of a woman weaving and the? results of a landslide.Tomorrow morning comes the sunrise shot- 5:30 it should rise, between two volcanos.

A bit on? who I am traveling with:

Jordan S.- my assistant,?also from Goshen.
Nate H.- our ?Supreme Commander?. He works in Guatemala with MCC and knows the communities and people where we are filming.
Rebecca B.- MCC Latin America Advocacy person. She has?a?great? knowledge of?a lot of things that I?ve been thinking about.
Juan Carlos- for last year?s spanish students at Goshen, he is now working in Atitlan in the community? where we were today.
Fredy- our?assigned assistant from Zoom? Technologies.?A stipulation of renting their gear was that he come along. It actually is working out well. Theories that he would be constantly running to the bar?or carrying a gun seem to be unfounded. He?s pretty fun, and seeming to be?getting the hang of??our crazy group.

Until the next Ciber- seeya!

A Guate Me Voy!

James — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 08:27:23 +0000

In 4 minutes, I will be off to the wonderful world of Guatemala, land of volcanos, Mayan ruins, and let’s see what else. Next post from a place that hopefully is warmer!

The Wanderer

James — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 05:25:02 +0000

When I came back from Honduras, I was so psyched to stay in
the same place for more than 3 months at a time. Evidently, I can’t do
it.

Next Saturday, I’m heading to Guatemala. I’ll be there from October 13-22.

I’ll be making a promotional video for a donor to Mennonite Central Committee, on a food security program. I’ll get to see a couple
different sites around the country, some of which I’ve heard are really
beautiful. (I’ll take pictures, I promise.) I’ll be going with a friend
of mine from the college, so at least I won’t be traveling alone.

Maybe I’ll even see a Quetzal. (Doubtful)