We were in San Marcos, Northern Guatemala, on a "week of service" trip with youth from all around Guatemala and El Salvador. I was sharing a room with a very boyish looking 13 to 15 year old (I forget).
We both yawned a little bit as we got up. I said something about how nice the bed was.
He said to me "oooh, I was having a wonderful dream"
"yes" I said "It is good to dream"
"Yeah" he responded, "but I was dreaming about my dad"
"Oh, That{s nice"
I thought, oh wow, we have been gone a few days and this poor little kid is already missing his family. I rolled my eyes behind closed eyes and the thought "that{s sweet" had an easily descernable condescending tone.
"my dad is living in the United States, I have not seen him in years" he told me.
oh.
He is the oldest at around 14 years old.
I felt like sh**. And that is exactly what I deserved.
Jordan
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Historical Tidbits
I found and stole a Newsweek from 1988. Bush senior is on the cover, a tough cowboy on a horse with snocapped mountains in the backround and "the spirit of Marlboro in a low tar cigarette" and picture of said product is in supreimpsed on the picture which covers the back of the magazine.
Highlighting the sad stories (when looking back) in this issue is an article on Chiles Pinochet and its "glow of prosperity." Pinochet has only avoided prison and the death penalty because of some laws which prohibit prosecuting former heads of state there... or something like that. He did lots of terrible things and was placed in power by a United States supported coup that ousted Allende (I forget his first name, father of famous author Isabelle Allende) for his socialist stance. The article speaks glowingly of Pinochets work. Newsweek redeems itself a little bit by later talking about the "two chiles" (rich and poor) noting htat "to a large extent teh economic recovery of the past three years has been made possible by a shar reduction in salaries" and acknowledges that while the Chilean economy is doing well "there is truth to the fact that.... the average chilean is not.
There is a hopeful article on the ousting of a military dictatorship in Burma... sad to realize that 20 years later there is another military dictatorshiop there.
who knew? apparently in TS Elliot{s early writings there were some very anti-semetic statements.
Some people are abusing the new nicarette gum
"Irans Crusade Falls Far Short" but fundamentalism is still rising. A cease fire had just been agreed upon between Iraq and Iran. Hussein is referred to as "President Hussein." Iran "accused Iraq of using poison gas one more time." Oh yeah, and do you guys remember how the United States sold arms to Iran, who was fighting against our ally, Iraq?
After an article on how Bushs strategy will center around slinging mudballs at Dukakis, a following intervew article has the headline "Bush blames Dukakis for the negative camaign" Bush said, "I will never apologize for the United States of America,-- I don{t care what the facts are" Newsweek writes "Fortunately for Bush, his own slips of tongue have become so common thast, like Reagan{s, they have ceased to be big news." Bush was struggling to break away from his elitist image, eating pork rinds was apparently a flop. A pollster in another secion advizes that bush "Go heavy on family values."
There are also letters to the editor praising what Pinochet has accomplished in Chile
ok, some of my plans to travel have, sadly, been swamped, but I will still have a good Christmas here in Lindo Charcha.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Jordan
throw a snowball if you have one
Highlighting the sad stories (when looking back) in this issue is an article on Chiles Pinochet and its "glow of prosperity." Pinochet has only avoided prison and the death penalty because of some laws which prohibit prosecuting former heads of state there... or something like that. He did lots of terrible things and was placed in power by a United States supported coup that ousted Allende (I forget his first name, father of famous author Isabelle Allende) for his socialist stance. The article speaks glowingly of Pinochets work. Newsweek redeems itself a little bit by later talking about the "two chiles" (rich and poor) noting htat "to a large extent teh economic recovery of the past three years has been made possible by a shar reduction in salaries" and acknowledges that while the Chilean economy is doing well "there is truth to the fact that.... the average chilean is not.
There is a hopeful article on the ousting of a military dictatorship in Burma... sad to realize that 20 years later there is another military dictatorshiop there.
who knew? apparently in TS Elliot{s early writings there were some very anti-semetic statements.
Some people are abusing the new nicarette gum
"Irans Crusade Falls Far Short" but fundamentalism is still rising. A cease fire had just been agreed upon between Iraq and Iran. Hussein is referred to as "President Hussein." Iran "accused Iraq of using poison gas one more time." Oh yeah, and do you guys remember how the United States sold arms to Iran, who was fighting against our ally, Iraq?
After an article on how Bushs strategy will center around slinging mudballs at Dukakis, a following intervew article has the headline "Bush blames Dukakis for the negative camaign" Bush said, "I will never apologize for the United States of America,-- I don{t care what the facts are" Newsweek writes "Fortunately for Bush, his own slips of tongue have become so common thast, like Reagan{s, they have ceased to be big news." Bush was struggling to break away from his elitist image, eating pork rinds was apparently a flop. A pollster in another secion advizes that bush "Go heavy on family values."
There are also letters to the editor praising what Pinochet has accomplished in Chile
ok, some of my plans to travel have, sadly, been swamped, but I will still have a good Christmas here in Lindo Charcha.
MERRY CHRISTMAS
Jordan
throw a snowball if you have one
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Listening cont.
I had to, because this has been on my mind.
SaaabER (like bear) and VerDA: Thats Saber (verb for "to know") in english and verdad (truth or maybe truly). I love these two expressions andthe way people say them here. Saber means literally "to know" and Verdad means "truth or truly". Here in Guatemala people will just say "saber" instead of "Quien Sabe" (who knows) ans who knows would generally be the best way to translate it. But it is not like they never say "Quien Saber" either.. SSSSOOO, to take things a little to far.... the way people say saber (saaaaBER (again, like bear))sometiems soudsn to me like tehy are saying much muchmore than simply "who knows." Or they could have choosen NO sé, "I don´t know."The fact is that they are not saying quien sabe (whoknows) but ahve chosen saber (to know) instead. Sorry for the repetitive ness Penny Moon, but I just want to make sure everybody gets it. Anyways, it soudns to me liek Guatemalans are making a very modern (postmodern really) commentary on what it measn to know anything anyway. Like I said, they could have made other linguistic choices, I think that not only does "saber" have more elegance, it also carries more meaning. It´s as if guatemalasn are questioning anyones ability ot know for sure anything about this "reality" (those quotes the Guatemalans put there). "where did the dog go" "to know..." maybe they are saying , "to know, to really know something, si something outsdide of our capacity as humans, you don´t know where the dog is, I don´t know where the dog is, maybe the dog does not really exist if neither of us can see it." or "I don´t know, and what does it really maen to know something anyways.... 20 years ago I knew me and my brother were going to ahve a good harvest, and then my brother was killed by the army and they burned our land and I lived the next 7 years in exile, so I try not to KNOW anything anymore." On the other hand, when Guatemalans I know really do feel they know something, they really do know it. verdad is like "truth". My host mom asys "VerDA" I might say ¨boy, it´s cold¨and she´ll say ¨VerDA", Truly... now that´s something on which we can all agree. This feels to me (or at least thisis how I Like to think abou it) like a frustrated or, actually, maybe elated response to the constant Guatemalan postmodernist-esque whining Guatemalans do throughtheir "saber" and it´s implied belief that it is impossible toarrive at any truth anyways. "puchica, mas ké" "VerDAD" "boy it´s cold¨"now that´s the truth"... I don´t care what you asy about ti being impossible to find truths, it´s flipping cold!
I might go deeper into thehistorical reasions why these sort of far out ramblings on Guatemalan spanish might actually hold some water, but for now let´s sum up the possible reasons with: exploiration of humans, war, ineffective and extremely corrupt governance for a long time (ie unfinished roads, promises not kept), war, lot´s of mountains which slow communication and still, even today, seperate people thus creating distinct languages and isolated communites that are ignorant of the world around them, but know enough to know that there is a ton out there that theyjust will never know, and competition between mayan spirituality and Christian belief.
more
CRAP: the soudn I make when I realize I´ve changed into my boxers before brushing my teeth. I then have to go outside to the pila (cenment thing with water) to do it.
Big SPLAT: the soudn of soup spilling all overmy pants at a recent wedding my host sister invited me too.
little SPLAT: the soudn or peaple spitting under the table at the weddign reception.
Jordan
ps. more on spit. In grade schook I was indignant abuot the fact that we weren´t even allowed to spit at recess. I still did all thetime (at recess) and was never caught.... untill my very last day of grade school when I was reprimanded by some lady with a whistle. I was SO mad, I had gone all that time without getting caught. I remember telling my dad when I got home. I wonder what he thought.
SaaabER (like bear) and VerDA: Thats Saber (verb for "to know") in english and verdad (truth or maybe truly). I love these two expressions andthe way people say them here. Saber means literally "to know" and Verdad means "truth or truly". Here in Guatemala people will just say "saber" instead of "Quien Sabe" (who knows) ans who knows would generally be the best way to translate it. But it is not like they never say "Quien Saber" either.. SSSSOOO, to take things a little to far.... the way people say saber (saaaaBER (again, like bear))sometiems soudsn to me like tehy are saying much muchmore than simply "who knows." Or they could have choosen NO sé, "I don´t know."The fact is that they are not saying quien sabe (whoknows) but ahve chosen saber (to know) instead. Sorry for the repetitive ness Penny Moon, but I just want to make sure everybody gets it. Anyways, it soudns to me liek Guatemalans are making a very modern (postmodern really) commentary on what it measn to know anything anyway. Like I said, they could have made other linguistic choices, I think that not only does "saber" have more elegance, it also carries more meaning. It´s as if guatemalasn are questioning anyones ability ot know for sure anything about this "reality" (those quotes the Guatemalans put there). "where did the dog go" "to know..." maybe they are saying , "to know, to really know something, si something outsdide of our capacity as humans, you don´t know where the dog is, I don´t know where the dog is, maybe the dog does not really exist if neither of us can see it." or "I don´t know, and what does it really maen to know something anyways.... 20 years ago I knew me and my brother were going to ahve a good harvest, and then my brother was killed by the army and they burned our land and I lived the next 7 years in exile, so I try not to KNOW anything anymore." On the other hand, when Guatemalans I know really do feel they know something, they really do know it. verdad is like "truth". My host mom asys "VerDA" I might say ¨boy, it´s cold¨and she´ll say ¨VerDA", Truly... now that´s something on which we can all agree. This feels to me (or at least thisis how I Like to think abou it) like a frustrated or, actually, maybe elated response to the constant Guatemalan postmodernist-esque whining Guatemalans do throughtheir "saber" and it´s implied belief that it is impossible toarrive at any truth anyways. "puchica, mas ké" "VerDAD" "boy it´s cold¨"now that´s the truth"... I don´t care what you asy about ti being impossible to find truths, it´s flipping cold!
I might go deeper into thehistorical reasions why these sort of far out ramblings on Guatemalan spanish might actually hold some water, but for now let´s sum up the possible reasons with: exploiration of humans, war, ineffective and extremely corrupt governance for a long time (ie unfinished roads, promises not kept), war, lot´s of mountains which slow communication and still, even today, seperate people thus creating distinct languages and isolated communites that are ignorant of the world around them, but know enough to know that there is a ton out there that theyjust will never know, and competition between mayan spirituality and Christian belief.
more
CRAP: the soudn I make when I realize I´ve changed into my boxers before brushing my teeth. I then have to go outside to the pila (cenment thing with water) to do it.
Big SPLAT: the soudn of soup spilling all overmy pants at a recent wedding my host sister invited me too.
little SPLAT: the soudn or peaple spitting under the table at the weddign reception.
Jordan
ps. more on spit. In grade schook I was indignant abuot the fact that we weren´t even allowed to spit at recess. I still did all thetime (at recess) and was never caught.... untill my very last day of grade school when I was reprimanded by some lady with a whistle. I was SO mad, I had gone all that time without getting caught. I remember telling my dad when I got home. I wonder what he thought.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Listening to Carcha
In order to finally describhe my life a little bit better hre in San Pedro Carcha, I{ve decided to make a series of entries on the subject. Obviously, it will always be impossible for em to describe perfectly what life is like here, buyt I am giong to do my best. My idea is that inorder to make things easier for me, I am going to divide entries buy the sensory inputs so to speak through which I perceive Carcha. Ive already put together some ideas for all of my senses, today is giong to be, as the title announces, sounds.
GALLOS, oh the gallos (that{s roosters): Theyare not as lovable as everybody{s favorite [Little Jerry[ from Seinfled and most times they are just annoying. I wake up to their crow often times. Everybody has them and at any point in the day you can hear them, but particualarly at around 5 30 am, 10 pm, and I think at around 3 am Ive been woken up a number of times. It{s much prettyer in the distance. Close up the cry sounds painfull, like everyday the roosters is reaching down to the depths of it{s being, summing up all of it{s strength and then violently ripping apart it{s vocal cords in order to make this piercing sound.
TORTEANDO: That is, makign tortillas. I probably eat at least five tortillas a meal and you can{t eat without them, The old stories tell that man was made from corn, and hre, they are at least sustained by it. We buy our tortialls froma local who makes them everday. Walking down the street you will ehre the plat plat plat plat of women tossing the dow from one hand in the other in order to make their amazingly perfectly round tortillas. The sound is delicuous, pleasant in it{s repetitiveness and, being a soudn that has been here since the beginning of time as we know it, is maybe something you have to listen to yourself
THE MOLINO: That would be the loud mufflerless motors which people use to grind their corn into the dough from which htey form tortillas. At the office where I worked, the molino across teh street drowns out your voice in the parts closest to the road.
DOGS: THe first house i stayed at their was a pcak of dogs ten strong. Oftne times at night I woke up to dogs fighting. THe yelping is terrible and I am in favor of extermination.
RAIN FALLING ON A TIN ROOF: Sometimes it is kind of romantic like that Norah JOnes song. Mostly it si just really really loudn and makes it sound like it{s raingin way more than it is. THe tin roof reverberates with the sound and sometimes the level of noise kind of scares me. Then again, it also sometimes gives me a great feeling of peace because I know I am safe inside instead of outside in the rain.
THE BIRDS: In contrast to the rather annoying roosters, in the morning one also hears lots of pleasant bird calls that I{ve never heard before. My favorite ones have a sound sort of like a very full and quality whistle that ascend to a very high, but not screeching pitch. There are lots of different bird calls and they all have a happy musical quality that is just great to wake up to.
GOATS: Above us is a pastor form which oftne times we ar graced by the bleating of goats.
WASHING: On warm days one often hears the inconsitent splattering of water and the rouch scrunch of women tirelessly washing clothes by hand.
MUSIC: People ply music loud. Praise music, Latin Rock, and some Mariachi music are favorites one often hears playing in the distance. Sometiems we make the mucis and at these times hte whoel place feels like the music is consuming it, it inflitrates every corner of the house and makes it alive.
CHURCHES: When there is a service downt eh street you know. Where i used to live I would just be able to hear the bass bum bum bum bum the same tow notes for hours. IT wasnt{ bad for sleeping. One might also walk past a more carismatic chruch... your blood will be chilled by the screams and wailing that sound as if the y came from jalf-dead devil creatures with a hing of the screams of a seriously injured cat. Then you{ll feel the uncontrolable desire to run from the booming sound of a man yelling abouthe love of Jesus and the Power of God. My own church signs songs which are drowned out by the overwhelmign sound of the keyboard. YOu can hear the worship leading singing into the mic upfrong. Songs will last a long tiem or will blend into anohter song and then it will sound the same, The peopel will clap an sing when the can, but you won{t hear them well. Some songs will repeat the same phrase over and over an d over utill you find it impressive.
PRAYER: When peopel pray, everyone prays.A carcophon of the harsh Kekchi language lifting p their preayers to the lord might just be something you have to experience yhourself. I hardly pray myself because I just love listenign to everyone else. Accented by hte glottalized k sounds and lotsof sh{s, it for some reason makes me think of a lot of wet pebbles falling into a running stream. One vocie ove the top directs the group in the dynamics of thsi strange song.
ONE SONG: I{ve heard the song "Eres Todo Poderoso" a millin tiems in a millin different forms includign the majestic sound of a lone, soulful voice crying it out to the darkness.
Wood Chopping: Sometimes I wake up toe the soudn of my mom doing hardlabor chopping small piecees of wood into smaller piecesof wood so that she can prepare our breakfast.
Ok that{s all for now.
Jordan
GALLOS, oh the gallos (that{s roosters): Theyare not as lovable as everybody{s favorite [Little Jerry[ from Seinfled and most times they are just annoying. I wake up to their crow often times. Everybody has them and at any point in the day you can hear them, but particualarly at around 5 30 am, 10 pm, and I think at around 3 am Ive been woken up a number of times. It{s much prettyer in the distance. Close up the cry sounds painfull, like everyday the roosters is reaching down to the depths of it{s being, summing up all of it{s strength and then violently ripping apart it{s vocal cords in order to make this piercing sound.
TORTEANDO: That is, makign tortillas. I probably eat at least five tortillas a meal and you can{t eat without them, The old stories tell that man was made from corn, and hre, they are at least sustained by it. We buy our tortialls froma local who makes them everday. Walking down the street you will ehre the plat plat plat plat of women tossing the dow from one hand in the other in order to make their amazingly perfectly round tortillas. The sound is delicuous, pleasant in it{s repetitiveness and, being a soudn that has been here since the beginning of time as we know it, is maybe something you have to listen to yourself
THE MOLINO: That would be the loud mufflerless motors which people use to grind their corn into the dough from which htey form tortillas. At the office where I worked, the molino across teh street drowns out your voice in the parts closest to the road.
DOGS: THe first house i stayed at their was a pcak of dogs ten strong. Oftne times at night I woke up to dogs fighting. THe yelping is terrible and I am in favor of extermination.
RAIN FALLING ON A TIN ROOF: Sometimes it is kind of romantic like that Norah JOnes song. Mostly it si just really really loudn and makes it sound like it{s raingin way more than it is. THe tin roof reverberates with the sound and sometimes the level of noise kind of scares me. Then again, it also sometimes gives me a great feeling of peace because I know I am safe inside instead of outside in the rain.
THE BIRDS: In contrast to the rather annoying roosters, in the morning one also hears lots of pleasant bird calls that I{ve never heard before. My favorite ones have a sound sort of like a very full and quality whistle that ascend to a very high, but not screeching pitch. There are lots of different bird calls and they all have a happy musical quality that is just great to wake up to.
GOATS: Above us is a pastor form which oftne times we ar graced by the bleating of goats.
WASHING: On warm days one often hears the inconsitent splattering of water and the rouch scrunch of women tirelessly washing clothes by hand.
MUSIC: People ply music loud. Praise music, Latin Rock, and some Mariachi music are favorites one often hears playing in the distance. Sometiems we make the mucis and at these times hte whoel place feels like the music is consuming it, it inflitrates every corner of the house and makes it alive.
CHURCHES: When there is a service downt eh street you know. Where i used to live I would just be able to hear the bass bum bum bum bum the same tow notes for hours. IT wasnt{ bad for sleeping. One might also walk past a more carismatic chruch... your blood will be chilled by the screams and wailing that sound as if the y came from jalf-dead devil creatures with a hing of the screams of a seriously injured cat. Then you{ll feel the uncontrolable desire to run from the booming sound of a man yelling abouthe love of Jesus and the Power of God. My own church signs songs which are drowned out by the overwhelmign sound of the keyboard. YOu can hear the worship leading singing into the mic upfrong. Songs will last a long tiem or will blend into anohter song and then it will sound the same, The peopel will clap an sing when the can, but you won{t hear them well. Some songs will repeat the same phrase over and over an d over utill you find it impressive.
PRAYER: When peopel pray, everyone prays.A carcophon of the harsh Kekchi language lifting p their preayers to the lord might just be something you have to experience yhourself. I hardly pray myself because I just love listenign to everyone else. Accented by hte glottalized k sounds and lotsof sh{s, it for some reason makes me think of a lot of wet pebbles falling into a running stream. One vocie ove the top directs the group in the dynamics of thsi strange song.
ONE SONG: I{ve heard the song "Eres Todo Poderoso" a millin tiems in a millin different forms includign the majestic sound of a lone, soulful voice crying it out to the darkness.
Wood Chopping: Sometimes I wake up toe the soudn of my mom doing hardlabor chopping small piecees of wood into smaller piecesof wood so that she can prepare our breakfast.
Ok that{s all for now.
Jordan
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
sorry
that last post about Greg Maddux was not supposed to be so sappy....
Jordan
ps. I promise I´ll make a post about Guatemala soon.
Jordan
ps. I promise I´ll make a post about Guatemala soon.
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
A sad day in Atlanta
yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
baseball was just another game to play
Yesterday, Greg Maddux (aka. pest pitcher of the modern era not on steroids) retired officially from Baseball. From 1992-1995 Greg Maddux won 4 Cy Young awards and amassed a 1.98 ERA. A brief look at his career statistics showed 20 walks total in 1997, in 232 innings. He won lots of gold gloves. He won lots of games with bad run support and crappy bullpens. I think 355 wins in all. Pretty amazing. You can marvel at his statistics yourself at the official braves website. I am not going to take the time rightnow on this slow computer to do it myself.
Anyways, I have been braves fan ever since watching Otis Nixon bring back a would be Pirate home run in the 1992 NLCS (I think that´s right, those details were´t so importatn to me at the time) and then watching Sid Bream charge into home, beating a Barry Bond´s (he had smaller arms at the time) throw to home, to win the series, I have been a Braves fan. Actually I think I might have just felt bad for the Braves because everyone else in my family was rooting for the Pirates. I felt bad later when my brothers were crying and I was happy.
Since then, I spent hours with a tennis ball and glove in front of our brick fireplace (the outside part) pitching balls, pretending to be alternatly, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery (remember him? he was supposed to be great and was my favorite for a while). When my pitches weren´t great, Otis Nixon, Marquis Grissom, David Justice, Mark Lemke (my favorite playoff time second baseman, Jeff Blouser, and others would make diving catches to save me. SOmehow the imaginary Braves always won, and for the better part of my life that was actually true in real life too. Now the Braves are struggling a little bit and I have to live like every other baseball fan not knowing for sure that my team would make it to the playoffs. The Braves used to have three potential aces, now, with Tim Hudson´s injury, they are struggling to find one (and yes, I blame the Yankees and their greedy ways for that).
Now we´ve got some good guys like McCann and Escobar, and good ole Chipper Jones is stillwithus, but the days will never be the same as those fantasy days with (young) Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz dominating the NL.
Today, the Braves are lost without a single ace and the retirement of Maddux has brought to the forfront of my mind how far gone that "yesterday" really is.
Jordan
I hope like probably every other Brave´s fan that one day he will return as a pitching coach.
baseball was just another game to play
Yesterday, Greg Maddux (aka. pest pitcher of the modern era not on steroids) retired officially from Baseball. From 1992-1995 Greg Maddux won 4 Cy Young awards and amassed a 1.98 ERA. A brief look at his career statistics showed 20 walks total in 1997, in 232 innings. He won lots of gold gloves. He won lots of games with bad run support and crappy bullpens. I think 355 wins in all. Pretty amazing. You can marvel at his statistics yourself at the official braves website. I am not going to take the time rightnow on this slow computer to do it myself.
Anyways, I have been braves fan ever since watching Otis Nixon bring back a would be Pirate home run in the 1992 NLCS (I think that´s right, those details were´t so importatn to me at the time) and then watching Sid Bream charge into home, beating a Barry Bond´s (he had smaller arms at the time) throw to home, to win the series, I have been a Braves fan. Actually I think I might have just felt bad for the Braves because everyone else in my family was rooting for the Pirates. I felt bad later when my brothers were crying and I was happy.
Since then, I spent hours with a tennis ball and glove in front of our brick fireplace (the outside part) pitching balls, pretending to be alternatly, Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, and Steve Avery (remember him? he was supposed to be great and was my favorite for a while). When my pitches weren´t great, Otis Nixon, Marquis Grissom, David Justice, Mark Lemke (my favorite playoff time second baseman, Jeff Blouser, and others would make diving catches to save me. SOmehow the imaginary Braves always won, and for the better part of my life that was actually true in real life too. Now the Braves are struggling a little bit and I have to live like every other baseball fan not knowing for sure that my team would make it to the playoffs. The Braves used to have three potential aces, now, with Tim Hudson´s injury, they are struggling to find one (and yes, I blame the Yankees and their greedy ways for that).
Now we´ve got some good guys like McCann and Escobar, and good ole Chipper Jones is stillwithus, but the days will never be the same as those fantasy days with (young) Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz dominating the NL.
Today, the Braves are lost without a single ace and the retirement of Maddux has brought to the forfront of my mind how far gone that "yesterday" really is.
Jordan
I hope like probably every other Brave´s fan that one day he will return as a pitching coach.
Monday, December 8, 2008
It´s been a while
You guys remember that song that was huge for a little while while we were in High School. Sort of a grundgish (sp) sort of song "it´s been a while since I could say.... that I wasn´t addicted" stuff like that, well my innocently written title suddenly brought back the shameful recollection that I liked the song. oh well. Anyways, for a long time now I have held fast to the rule that I need to respect my former self. That is, I need to respect the ideas, views, or ideas of what fun is, that I used to have, even if now I think it is stupid. I realized a long time ago that if couldn´t promis myself to respect (in the future) what I think today, then today will end up being pretty crappy and useless because I´ll always be worried about what a future, more intelligent (supposedly) perhaps more dignified me will think. If I don´t have respect for my formerself, my futre self might logically not have respect for my current self, and if I realize that, then why should me current self have respect for itself? So I promise to respect all of my selves... anyways.... This strategy has already benefited me. For example, when I was a little kid I thought that it was just downright disrespectful and stupid that my older brother sometimes went to peoples houses and TP´d them.... for fun. When I was in HS I learned that it was "cool" to do this very thing. I refused many an invitation to join in on this activity (which as a HS and with pure pressure and with the distorted but intelligent enough reasoning of my friends didn´t at the time seem so bad) largely on the basis of wanted to respect the strong opinions of my former self.
ok, enough of that, let´s get back to Guatemala, it´s been a while.
I just got back from MCC meetings in the city. It was a lot of fun to hang out wth the MCC team here. They are all a lot of fun and they are all very good people. I am constantly amazed at how different everyone on the team is, and yet how well we all get a long.
The highlight of our time was geting ready for our performance in a talent show which will be held at the regional MCC meeting in Nicaragua in January. I won´t reveal what it will be for fear of spy´s from SALTers in other countriçys in Central America who might read thsi and reveal the secret of what we are going to do. Suffice it tosay that it was a lot of fun.
It reminded me of the annual "talent" show which happens at my Penner sides Christmas gathering. I will miss that.
Anyays, we spent a lot of time talking about thefuture of MCC in Guatmala, values, and methods,. It was good. We also had a lot of fun, and for me it was just nice to be in a new place, get different food, and have a hot shower and room where the sunlight woke you up in the morning. My room in Carcha has a window, but it has no screen and it is not made of glass, but wood. So there is only light when it is open.
We also had a Christmas dinner which, being prepared by my former hostmom inthe city, was amazing. I also helped in hte making and earing of sugar cookies. We followed up dinner witha rousing game of pictionary. David Janzten, Beth peachy, and I won. I did bad drawing but twice I the first guess to come out of my mouth was correct, giving our team aneasy victory. One was Christopher Columbus ( guess as soon as I saw two little boats and what appeared to be a land mass) andtheother was Rocky Mountains. I have never played such an intense, hotly contested game of pictionary. THen we played the dictionary game which was also a lot of fun. Though I think we had a bad dictionary. I think in the first seven words no one guessed the correct definition, and it was because the definitions usually just sounded badly writen. I reminded myself of my dad with this entry for one word with the successful definition, "A man of unusual proportions" . My dad is not a man of unusual proportions, that just seemed to me like a very typical way that my dad might word the less politically correct, ¨that man is fat." Earlier that day we had also eaten pizza (it had been a while for me) and played soccer. Saturday we relaxed in theMCC apartment, went out to get coffee (I had gelato), I visited my former host family, made an excelent dinner, and hung outlate into the night talking, listening to David play his new guitar, and singing along. Very fun.
Now I am back in the office finishing up my project and wrking on getting ready for a Work and Learn team to come my way to Bezaleel in January.
oh yes, while visiting my host dad in the city he told me, ¨Ya casi no tenés accento gringo" or "you almost don´t have a gringo accent anymore" so that made me feel pretty darn good. Though I think in that moment I had been talking particularly well. I still stumble around sotimes when I am not sure what to say or how to say it. I am still, probably pretty much everyday, reminded that my vocabulary is limited, I need to get back to the books (maybe even with a dictionary) and continue learning vocab. I really want to learn higher level vocab. It wil be dificult here though because spansih is the second langauge of most people here too, andmost don´t read, so it will really need to be a conscious effort form me. Also my listening skills need to improve. They talk slow here and I am afraid that if I went to a faster speaking place I would ahve problems.
Anyways it is about time I go on and get home.
I think with Christmas season coming, thinking about all the traditons of my family and with people at Bethel College, I am entering a little bit of another period of missing home(s). I even kind of miss the whole commercial aspect of Christmas which has hardly hit Carcha. The cheesy Christmas songs that have nothing to do with Jesus and everything. It is all part of a season which I miss.
I did however, receive andelectronic Christmas card from Barry and Brenda Bartel and THE WHOLE BETHEL COLLEGE CAMPUS COMMUNITY. I thoght that was funny... thanks guys!! ok enough, fun, I actually did kind of appreciate it. I do feel apart of an extended Bethel community that is still worth something despite being so seperated. Thanks Bethel, you will always give me warm fuzzy feelings.
ok, I need to go
Jordan
ok, enough of that, let´s get back to Guatemala, it´s been a while.
I just got back from MCC meetings in the city. It was a lot of fun to hang out wth the MCC team here. They are all a lot of fun and they are all very good people. I am constantly amazed at how different everyone on the team is, and yet how well we all get a long.
The highlight of our time was geting ready for our performance in a talent show which will be held at the regional MCC meeting in Nicaragua in January. I won´t reveal what it will be for fear of spy´s from SALTers in other countriçys in Central America who might read thsi and reveal the secret of what we are going to do. Suffice it tosay that it was a lot of fun.
It reminded me of the annual "talent" show which happens at my Penner sides Christmas gathering. I will miss that.
Anyays, we spent a lot of time talking about thefuture of MCC in Guatmala, values, and methods,. It was good. We also had a lot of fun, and for me it was just nice to be in a new place, get different food, and have a hot shower and room where the sunlight woke you up in the morning. My room in Carcha has a window, but it has no screen and it is not made of glass, but wood. So there is only light when it is open.
We also had a Christmas dinner which, being prepared by my former hostmom inthe city, was amazing. I also helped in hte making and earing of sugar cookies. We followed up dinner witha rousing game of pictionary. David Janzten, Beth peachy, and I won. I did bad drawing but twice I the first guess to come out of my mouth was correct, giving our team aneasy victory. One was Christopher Columbus ( guess as soon as I saw two little boats and what appeared to be a land mass) andtheother was Rocky Mountains. I have never played such an intense, hotly contested game of pictionary. THen we played the dictionary game which was also a lot of fun. Though I think we had a bad dictionary. I think in the first seven words no one guessed the correct definition, and it was because the definitions usually just sounded badly writen. I reminded myself of my dad with this entry for one word with the successful definition, "A man of unusual proportions" . My dad is not a man of unusual proportions, that just seemed to me like a very typical way that my dad might word the less politically correct, ¨that man is fat." Earlier that day we had also eaten pizza (it had been a while for me) and played soccer. Saturday we relaxed in theMCC apartment, went out to get coffee (I had gelato), I visited my former host family, made an excelent dinner, and hung outlate into the night talking, listening to David play his new guitar, and singing along. Very fun.
Now I am back in the office finishing up my project and wrking on getting ready for a Work and Learn team to come my way to Bezaleel in January.
oh yes, while visiting my host dad in the city he told me, ¨Ya casi no tenés accento gringo" or "you almost don´t have a gringo accent anymore" so that made me feel pretty darn good. Though I think in that moment I had been talking particularly well. I still stumble around sotimes when I am not sure what to say or how to say it. I am still, probably pretty much everyday, reminded that my vocabulary is limited, I need to get back to the books (maybe even with a dictionary) and continue learning vocab. I really want to learn higher level vocab. It wil be dificult here though because spansih is the second langauge of most people here too, andmost don´t read, so it will really need to be a conscious effort form me. Also my listening skills need to improve. They talk slow here and I am afraid that if I went to a faster speaking place I would ahve problems.
Anyways it is about time I go on and get home.
I think with Christmas season coming, thinking about all the traditons of my family and with people at Bethel College, I am entering a little bit of another period of missing home(s). I even kind of miss the whole commercial aspect of Christmas which has hardly hit Carcha. The cheesy Christmas songs that have nothing to do with Jesus and everything. It is all part of a season which I miss.
I did however, receive andelectronic Christmas card from Barry and Brenda Bartel and THE WHOLE BETHEL COLLEGE CAMPUS COMMUNITY. I thoght that was funny... thanks guys!! ok enough, fun, I actually did kind of appreciate it. I do feel apart of an extended Bethel community that is still worth something despite being so seperated. Thanks Bethel, you will always give me warm fuzzy feelings.
ok, I need to go
Jordan
Monday, November 24, 2008
An Awesome Dream
There is a lot to write about, including a 5 day trip to San Marcos Guatemala with young people from around guatemala and El Salvador to learn about environmental preservation. I have also been planning for a while a post on daily life here, but I´ve already written this, so I am going to share it.
I think I´ve always been a fairlyvivid dreamer and better than most at remembering them. I got particularlygood in collge with my roomate Alex, where we always told each other immediatly about dreams. Here is a very funny and interesting dream I had recently.
My family and I and... Barack Obama... ar eating dinner out in the Kansas countryside at a verynice, down-home style restaurant. Before gioin in I talked toa scruffy 30ish man standing by his blue ford pickup about what was good, he highlyrecomended the ¨corbet¨... whatever that is. Sounds like a Sorbet, but with a C. The place turns outto eb a buffet but withtheadded touchthat handsome male waiters in nice white suites asked youwhat you want and then they get it for youfrom the buffet line (a new revolution in American dining? I dreamt it first!) I ordered teh corbet, only afterwards remembering that I don´t know what that is... good thing it´s a buffet.
Anyways teh drea jumps to after themeal standing outsidetherestaurant whichlooks like a larege white house (old). Italk to Barck Obama and feel like an idiot/jerk even as I ask him aboutthos white supremecists who watned to killhim. NOw, my dream shifts for a little bit to us now being actors in a television show that looks and feelsl like smallvile (the young supermanshow that has been on TV at myhouse recently). I am sitting inthe back of on old pickup truck enjoyingth fresh air and win in my face and marveling at how exactly like Barack Obama our actor Barack Obama looks. Along with me and barck is a ccomplementary blond and good looking (hey, it´s TV) actress. The scene is on. Now in my dream I am not acting any more, but watching the television show, of which I am a part, but that I somehow don´t know what´s going to happen, as if I was not a part of producing it.
Scene of television show I watch on TV in my dream: The three of us sitting in theback of the truck. Obama starts to become concerned withis hand, but he doesn´t say aything about it. The trhree of us continue to enjoy the sceneryand i think some random things happen to distract us as the camaras continue to show Obama uietly growing more and more concerend withhis hand. Fuinally he tells me andthe prettyblond girl something goin on and his ahnd feels funny. He rolls uphis sleave andwe look at it. It is mostly invisible, but it is just opaque enough (the frafics, by the way, are B movie quality) but it looks like this invisible thing in the shape of his hand is being painfully extracted from obama´s physical body through his hand.
Obama suddely realizaes what is going on, he looks up dramitacally, a stron ghing of worry invades his usual cool that everybody likes to talk about, his voice states dramatically,
¨I´m losing my Martin Luther King¨ that his, in this show, his superpower.
commercial.
Then, still dreaming, I laugh about the show and how stupid/rediculous that was and yet find the idea really hilarious. who thought of that!
That´s the end of the dream, I gues we´ll never know what happens.
First of all, I want to state, that while I think it is extremely cool that we have a black president, I in know way consider his blackness to be his singular quality, or that he gets superpowers from it.
Ilove all tehlayers of reality. Dreaming that I am in a TV show. Thenwatching tthe TV show thenmaking fun of the TV show that my asleep mind made up.A prettyblond girl who only exists in a fake television show in my dream. My dreamself has the audacity to make fun of a television show, never realizing that I myself will later make fun of my dreamself for not realizing that what he was making fun of was actually a fake TV show which I made up, or that he doesn´t really exist outside of MY DREAM.
Thisof course makes me wonder....
the old, what if I am dreaming, or what if I am only being dreamt (like the blond girl). In which case, who is doing the dreaing?
well, anyways, that is a very fun dream that gets me to thinking... hope you enjoyed it and I would appreciate any far out interpretations of my dream. not that theyhave to be far out.
Jordan
I think I´ve always been a fairlyvivid dreamer and better than most at remembering them. I got particularlygood in collge with my roomate Alex, where we always told each other immediatly about dreams. Here is a very funny and interesting dream I had recently.
My family and I and... Barack Obama... ar eating dinner out in the Kansas countryside at a verynice, down-home style restaurant. Before gioin in I talked toa scruffy 30ish man standing by his blue ford pickup about what was good, he highlyrecomended the ¨corbet¨... whatever that is. Sounds like a Sorbet, but with a C. The place turns outto eb a buffet but withtheadded touchthat handsome male waiters in nice white suites asked youwhat you want and then they get it for youfrom the buffet line (a new revolution in American dining? I dreamt it first!) I ordered teh corbet, only afterwards remembering that I don´t know what that is... good thing it´s a buffet.
Anyways teh drea jumps to after themeal standing outsidetherestaurant whichlooks like a larege white house (old). Italk to Barck Obama and feel like an idiot/jerk even as I ask him aboutthos white supremecists who watned to killhim. NOw, my dream shifts for a little bit to us now being actors in a television show that looks and feelsl like smallvile (the young supermanshow that has been on TV at myhouse recently). I am sitting inthe back of on old pickup truck enjoyingth fresh air and win in my face and marveling at how exactly like Barack Obama our actor Barack Obama looks. Along with me and barck is a ccomplementary blond and good looking (hey, it´s TV) actress. The scene is on. Now in my dream I am not acting any more, but watching the television show, of which I am a part, but that I somehow don´t know what´s going to happen, as if I was not a part of producing it.
Scene of television show I watch on TV in my dream: The three of us sitting in theback of the truck. Obama starts to become concerned withis hand, but he doesn´t say aything about it. The trhree of us continue to enjoy the sceneryand i think some random things happen to distract us as the camaras continue to show Obama uietly growing more and more concerend withhis hand. Fuinally he tells me andthe prettyblond girl something goin on and his ahnd feels funny. He rolls uphis sleave andwe look at it. It is mostly invisible, but it is just opaque enough (the frafics, by the way, are B movie quality) but it looks like this invisible thing in the shape of his hand is being painfully extracted from obama´s physical body through his hand.
Obama suddely realizaes what is going on, he looks up dramitacally, a stron ghing of worry invades his usual cool that everybody likes to talk about, his voice states dramatically,
¨I´m losing my Martin Luther King¨ that his, in this show, his superpower.
commercial.
Then, still dreaming, I laugh about the show and how stupid/rediculous that was and yet find the idea really hilarious. who thought of that!
That´s the end of the dream, I gues we´ll never know what happens.
First of all, I want to state, that while I think it is extremely cool that we have a black president, I in know way consider his blackness to be his singular quality, or that he gets superpowers from it.
Ilove all tehlayers of reality. Dreaming that I am in a TV show. Thenwatching tthe TV show thenmaking fun of the TV show that my asleep mind made up.A prettyblond girl who only exists in a fake television show in my dream. My dreamself has the audacity to make fun of a television show, never realizing that I myself will later make fun of my dreamself for not realizing that what he was making fun of was actually a fake TV show which I made up, or that he doesn´t really exist outside of MY DREAM.
Thisof course makes me wonder....
the old, what if I am dreaming, or what if I am only being dreamt (like the blond girl). In which case, who is doing the dreaing?
well, anyways, that is a very fun dream that gets me to thinking... hope you enjoyed it and I would appreciate any far out interpretations of my dream. not that theyhave to be far out.
Jordan
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Thought of the Day: Change is Hard
This does not have to do with Obama.
There are lots of people trying to change things here in Guatemala. The other day, driving through lowlands of Guatemala my friend Galan pointed out to me villages where they had placed hundreds of dry latrines. These latrines with a steady supply of human waste and ash from their cooking fires would eventually make great fertalizer for land which now really needs it (the land used to be rainforest, so it doesn´t stay good very long) . The latrines have the added advantage that when it floods (which it fairly often does) the waste doesn´t come floating tothe surface. Hardly any of these dry latrines are being used today. There happend to be a lot of flies around when they were placing them and many believed the latrines caused the flies. Rabbits, which make great fertilizer are becoming more popular here in Guatemala, but, if it´s sucha good thing, why isn´t everyone realeasing themself from taking on debt everytime they fertilize and having to work another job to pay it off? Well, I guess it´s just because change is hard. Besides who knows why your crops seem not to be doing as well year after year. Some ancient elder sayd its because the people don´t ask permission from the mountian gods anymore to plant, they aren´t doing the ancient rituals anymore. Or maybe it´s because you don´t have enough faith in God... you only go to church twice a week, or because you still hold onto some ancient traditions along with your Christian faith. Saber (who knows in Guatemalan spanish).
Reading is not a strong tradition with Qe´echi´, it will be part of my job to try to get students to think critically and independently and reading can only help with this. But why would you read if your dad hardly does... or anybody else in your family for that matter. And simply working seems alot more profitable. What can I show a student to make him believe that learning to read well could really be advantagous for him or her? I don´t think trying to explain why I enjoyed Unamuno´s Niebla will work and reading el senior presidente would beway to hard. Even in the states, to try toget us to read, we resort to tricks like a pizza party for students who read so many pages.
I was thinking discouragingly about Guatemala.
But I then realized how hard it is for usto change to. My old soccer coach used to always try to get us players to understand that stretching actually isn´t a good warm up. Studies show no drop in injuries and a loss in power with stretching. Dynamic stetching is theway to go. The players never believed him and stubbornly kept stretching. I just read iin the NY times just how right Sieber was. I still strethc a litte bit though too. How long have we known about global warming? And how long have we hardly done a thing? How long have alternative energies been around? Read Moneyball to learnabout how stubborn baseball execs are to changing how they evaluate players. Cigarettes will cause cancer. We will have shortages of water. Race is not a scientific reality. Women are equal to men. We´ve known these things for a while.
So that´s the thought. Change is hard for human beings. Even when the writing is on the wall.
Jordan
There are lots of people trying to change things here in Guatemala. The other day, driving through lowlands of Guatemala my friend Galan pointed out to me villages where they had placed hundreds of dry latrines. These latrines with a steady supply of human waste and ash from their cooking fires would eventually make great fertalizer for land which now really needs it (the land used to be rainforest, so it doesn´t stay good very long) . The latrines have the added advantage that when it floods (which it fairly often does) the waste doesn´t come floating tothe surface. Hardly any of these dry latrines are being used today. There happend to be a lot of flies around when they were placing them and many believed the latrines caused the flies. Rabbits, which make great fertilizer are becoming more popular here in Guatemala, but, if it´s sucha good thing, why isn´t everyone realeasing themself from taking on debt everytime they fertilize and having to work another job to pay it off? Well, I guess it´s just because change is hard. Besides who knows why your crops seem not to be doing as well year after year. Some ancient elder sayd its because the people don´t ask permission from the mountian gods anymore to plant, they aren´t doing the ancient rituals anymore. Or maybe it´s because you don´t have enough faith in God... you only go to church twice a week, or because you still hold onto some ancient traditions along with your Christian faith. Saber (who knows in Guatemalan spanish).
Reading is not a strong tradition with Qe´echi´, it will be part of my job to try to get students to think critically and independently and reading can only help with this. But why would you read if your dad hardly does... or anybody else in your family for that matter. And simply working seems alot more profitable. What can I show a student to make him believe that learning to read well could really be advantagous for him or her? I don´t think trying to explain why I enjoyed Unamuno´s Niebla will work and reading el senior presidente would beway to hard. Even in the states, to try toget us to read, we resort to tricks like a pizza party for students who read so many pages.
I was thinking discouragingly about Guatemala.
But I then realized how hard it is for usto change to. My old soccer coach used to always try to get us players to understand that stretching actually isn´t a good warm up. Studies show no drop in injuries and a loss in power with stretching. Dynamic stetching is theway to go. The players never believed him and stubbornly kept stretching. I just read iin the NY times just how right Sieber was. I still strethc a litte bit though too. How long have we known about global warming? And how long have we hardly done a thing? How long have alternative energies been around? Read Moneyball to learnabout how stubborn baseball execs are to changing how they evaluate players. Cigarettes will cause cancer. We will have shortages of water. Race is not a scientific reality. Women are equal to men. We´ve known these things for a while.
So that´s the thought. Change is hard for human beings. Even when the writing is on the wall.
Jordan
Sunday, November 9, 2008
This summer
p
Elijah and I riding bike in Cambodia. It was a lot of fun. Joseph took this picture from his bike. We also rode our bikes on the big roads withcrazy trafic. That was fun.
ok, this is actually not from this summer, but I just realized that thanks to Jennifer Gingrich who studied at CASAS the last two months, I actually CAN post a picture or two from Guatemala. The front three girls are Audry, Carrie, and Jennifer (all CASAS students) in the back from theleft is Lucy oneof the CASAS directors, Rachel fellow SALTer, David fellow SALTER, me yes I am wearing a sheet of plasitc (I ripped a head hole and tied the edges to make it like a poncho) and next to me is Tina. We are standing next to some awesome Mayan ruins. On this trip we saw two sites, and both were pretty awesome despite the rain.
Kyle Unruh came back with me to California and we had a grand time doing things like this. That´s a dead giant sequioa (forget how that´s spelled). We also went to the beach, visited Jenny in Berkeley, and, of course, enjoyed sites of Reedley.
Elijah and I riding bike in Cambodia. It was a lot of fun. Joseph took this picture from his bike. We also rode our bikes on the big roads withcrazy trafic. That was fun.
ok, this is actually not from this summer, but I just realized that thanks to Jennifer Gingrich who studied at CASAS the last two months, I actually CAN post a picture or two from Guatemala. The front three girls are Audry, Carrie, and Jennifer (all CASAS students) in the back from theleft is Lucy oneof the CASAS directors, Rachel fellow SALTer, David fellow SALTER, me yes I am wearing a sheet of plasitc (I ripped a head hole and tied the edges to make it like a poncho) and next to me is Tina. We are standing next to some awesome Mayan ruins. On this trip we saw two sites, and both were pretty awesome despite the rain.
Kyle Unruh came back with me to California and we had a grand time doing things like this. That´s a dead giant sequioa (forget how that´s spelled). We also went to the beach, visited Jenny in Berkeley, and, of course, enjoyed sites of Reedley.Wednesday, November 5, 2008
My ¨We are the World¨ post
The other night I wrote a rara ¨we are the world¨type of entry meant for my blog. I´ve decided now not to post all of it. Only a summary. Why maybe I felt it to radical. Maybe I was afraid it could be mushy (thus the sarcasm of my title). Maybe because I am too scared to talk about ¨love and compassion¨ as real things that can make a difference if we actually tried and really (really) did what those driven by the ¨love the neighbor as thyself¨philosphy ought to do.... I don´t know... I am just scared of being scoffed at I guess.
Anyways, the title of my post was goign to be
¨the constricted Mr. President/ my ¨we are the world¨ speech.
note: I think I have to very powerful sides, a very idealistic side and a very sarcastic, cynical and scared to death to be clichéd side.
Anyways - a quick summary- I am very excited about Obama
BUT, I think as president, he has to buy into a lot of things (American ideas or cultural myths or whatever you want to call them) that will force him to act a certain way.
Mr. President has to respond violence with violence. Mr. President always act in favor of us. That´s basically his job I know, but sometimes acting that way will probably hurt others. Mr. President has to be tough. I wrote that he has to push free trade, but I just realized that Obama will be taking a closer look at the NAFTA and the CAFTA. Mr. President can never say socialism even as a republican president does a very socialist thing and bails out banks. Mr. President maintain military superiority (though hopefully he will be reducing out amount of nukes). Has to try to maintain our position as a superpower, as if that´s somehow more important that things like our well being. Maybe that´s not a convincing enough list, but work with me here...
I wrote: I am not saying that he is taking the one ring for his own, I´m just aying that I think the job defines the man more significantly than we realize... possibly even more than the man defines the job.¨
I jump into bashing American society (that´s supposed to be sarcastic because I do believe that in some ways American society is pretty great, how can I not. That´s why there´s this hope thing Obama is talking about. It´s not him, it´s us (¨It´s not your, it´s me¨ says Georges girlfriend, George, ¨Your using the the it´s not you it´s me routine on me! I invented the it´s not you it´s me routine! If it´s anybody, it´s me!!¨ girlfriend, ¨Älright Alright, it´s you¨ snort of agreement from George) And that, the part before the seinfeld quote, is basically the point of what I wrote.
bad things: materialism sort of heads the list (bad for personal happiness, bad for environmet, global warming etc etc). Racism. Sexism. Violence is normal. We live in a society where people commit crimes for which we deem it worthy to kill the perpetrator and in which abortion seems like a necessary evil. militancy. Family problems. Nationalism instead of genuine care for our neighbor (actually Americans have always viewed ourselves as doing our best to help the world, it´s just the actual foreign policy, in my opinion, has not really done that too much). education is not important enough.etc. etc.
I wrote: ¨There are some diseases for which a good president is really just a bandaid. Those of us without th constricting title of Mr. President can go beyond anything politicians can do and attack the reasons why we have certain problems instead of trying to simply treat the symptoms. Only we can actually build a society more strongly based on love and compassion. Politicians have to deal with the problems that arise because we are not so much built on these ideals.¨ Changing our culture would change the presidency far more than any presidency ever could.
I listed stuff we might do especially to do with conservation of energy and investment in our communities were the main things.
I said it, ¨love¨... gasp. ¨does anyone remember the let your light shine song. It´s definately old, and possibly clichéd idea, but the amazing things that may come probably aren´t.¨
As I write I am realizing how classically American what I wrote is.
I end with a disclaimer. Of course Obama could do a lot. But not without us. And I emphasize that I think the L word translates into action and it´s just hard to live up to it most... I mean all the time. And the presidency and governance in general can also have a great effect on our culture, but still, us as individuals and as parts of so many smaller communities are the ones who really make it what it is.
Jordan
ps. watch the Flight of the Conchords song, ¨Issues, Think About it¨the live version. Pure comedic genious. on youtube.
pps. right now I am finishing up The Upside Down Kingdom and am feeling kind of convicted by it. I feel like we all need to read the gospels a little harder and ultimately try towalkas hewaled and do some of the things hewants usto do which we generally do not. And it can take part of the blame for this post.
Anyways, the title of my post was goign to be
¨the constricted Mr. President/ my ¨we are the world¨ speech.
note: I think I have to very powerful sides, a very idealistic side and a very sarcastic, cynical and scared to death to be clichéd side.
Anyways - a quick summary- I am very excited about Obama
BUT, I think as president, he has to buy into a lot of things (American ideas or cultural myths or whatever you want to call them) that will force him to act a certain way.
Mr. President has to respond violence with violence. Mr. President always act in favor of us. That´s basically his job I know, but sometimes acting that way will probably hurt others. Mr. President has to be tough. I wrote that he has to push free trade, but I just realized that Obama will be taking a closer look at the NAFTA and the CAFTA. Mr. President can never say socialism even as a republican president does a very socialist thing and bails out banks. Mr. President maintain military superiority (though hopefully he will be reducing out amount of nukes). Has to try to maintain our position as a superpower, as if that´s somehow more important that things like our well being. Maybe that´s not a convincing enough list, but work with me here...
I wrote: I am not saying that he is taking the one ring for his own, I´m just aying that I think the job defines the man more significantly than we realize... possibly even more than the man defines the job.¨
I jump into bashing American society (that´s supposed to be sarcastic because I do believe that in some ways American society is pretty great, how can I not. That´s why there´s this hope thing Obama is talking about. It´s not him, it´s us (¨It´s not your, it´s me¨ says Georges girlfriend, George, ¨Your using the the it´s not you it´s me routine on me! I invented the it´s not you it´s me routine! If it´s anybody, it´s me!!¨ girlfriend, ¨Älright Alright, it´s you¨ snort of agreement from George) And that, the part before the seinfeld quote, is basically the point of what I wrote.
bad things: materialism sort of heads the list (bad for personal happiness, bad for environmet, global warming etc etc). Racism. Sexism. Violence is normal. We live in a society where people commit crimes for which we deem it worthy to kill the perpetrator and in which abortion seems like a necessary evil. militancy. Family problems. Nationalism instead of genuine care for our neighbor (actually Americans have always viewed ourselves as doing our best to help the world, it´s just the actual foreign policy, in my opinion, has not really done that too much). education is not important enough.etc. etc.
I wrote: ¨There are some diseases for which a good president is really just a bandaid. Those of us without th constricting title of Mr. President can go beyond anything politicians can do and attack the reasons why we have certain problems instead of trying to simply treat the symptoms. Only we can actually build a society more strongly based on love and compassion. Politicians have to deal with the problems that arise because we are not so much built on these ideals.¨ Changing our culture would change the presidency far more than any presidency ever could.
I listed stuff we might do especially to do with conservation of energy and investment in our communities were the main things.
I said it, ¨love¨... gasp. ¨does anyone remember the let your light shine song. It´s definately old, and possibly clichéd idea, but the amazing things that may come probably aren´t.¨
As I write I am realizing how classically American what I wrote is.
I end with a disclaimer. Of course Obama could do a lot. But not without us. And I emphasize that I think the L word translates into action and it´s just hard to live up to it most... I mean all the time. And the presidency and governance in general can also have a great effect on our culture, but still, us as individuals and as parts of so many smaller communities are the ones who really make it what it is.
Jordan
ps. watch the Flight of the Conchords song, ¨Issues, Think About it¨the live version. Pure comedic genious. on youtube.
pps. right now I am finishing up The Upside Down Kingdom and am feeling kind of convicted by it. I feel like we all need to read the gospels a little harder and ultimately try towalkas hewaled and do some of the things hewants usto do which we generally do not. And it can take part of the blame for this post.
Monday, October 27, 2008
An Interesting Weekend-- finally a real and less scattered post
Today I divided my time between studying Q´ekchi´ and reading about the presidential race. I still hope I can vote, but right now the chances look bleak. I am just starting to learn bits of Q´ekchi´in a more structured manner as I am actually devoting a little bit of time to it now. It is a lot of fun trying out my limited Q´eqchi´in the office and teaching the equivalent in english.
Anyways, the weekend:
After a short bout with a little bit more of stomach problems I went on a trip with missionary friends to a gathering of jovenes (a loosely defined Spanish word that means young people, you will be happy to know that many of you, who might not be called young in the US, would be jovenes here). Well, this gathering really was for the very young, so, despite the looseness of the word, there were no fifty year olds participating in it. I got there right at the end of the lessons that had lasted all day on religious themes. One of which, my missionary friend and maybe my most valuable cultural informant told me was the respect of elders. Apparently many young people don´t respect many of those older than them because they already are better educated than they were (as a result of the civil war that lasted untill 1996). Many older folks, actually tend to feel the same way, that is, that they cannot command respect from their kids, because they don´t have the education. At least they are placing value on education I guess. I also was cued into a little bit of Q´ekchi´ youthful awkwardness concerning boy/girl relations which was interesting. Last generation a boy would ask his father to talk to the father of a girl that he likes, Saturday we saw a boy purposfully sit next to a girl... in the past this would not have happened. NOw youth here just aren´t sure what to do. Cultural practices are always in flux everywhere, but here it is more pronounced because there are some changes happening of the large differences between the old culture and the incoming Latino culture. The issue of cultural change pops up everywhere here (at least to me, as an outsider looking in) and it is hard to know where to stand. Is a little more autonomy for youth good, or do we lament a the destruction of culture? By wanting ot preserve Q´eqchi´culture does one simply make them into dolls which we dress up for our pleasure (to use an analogy one of my fellow students at CASAS, and before at BC, used)? But what about girls being married and pregnant at 15 years old, is not not ok to encourage that to change?
Sunday, I rode about an hour on bumpy roads and then hiked about an hour to reach a wedding in a beautiful aldea of two 19 year olds. It was, for once, a clear day (gracias a dios), and so we could see all around the church and hill after hill of countryside, milpa (corn and bean fields all in one) and coffee. It was beautifl. In the church the service alternated between extremely loud music (my missionary friend tells me sarcastically that loud music is proof that the holy spirit is there) preaching and at one point me, being a gringo connected with the honored missionary friends, apalogizing in Spanish for the fact that I don´t know how to speak there language and that God bless them and the marriage. I also sat in front and received a coke to drink throughout the maraton service (though not as marathon as a Cambodian wedding, that´s for sure. This was really an easy 10k. TO say the least, sitting up front was very embarrassing, and yet still nice.
The couple sat deathly serious the entire time.
After the service and after a select group of people prayed for the health of a sick baby we walked down to the houseof on of the families. We had arrived there before getting to the church. Where, after our substantial hike we received hot coffee (not what I was hoping for) and a delicious Guatemalan treat which I forgot the name of. Anyways we returned here, where we were greeted with more coffee (this time I refused). Soon we were sat down and slowly everyone was served hot chocloate, which is particularly delicious here, and that everyone drank out of the same gords. I should also note that we were very much crammed into a small space. After a while we were served food, a soup of with three huge pieces of meat. Since I was among the slightly honored my bowl was loaded with grease... and can´t believe I was able to finish it. To achieve this feet I tried to remind myself of all the extremely greasy pizza I have eaten and asked myself, what, really is the difference. The idea is that we are served mroe than we can eat and that everyone take some food home in order to bless our families. Pretty neat. Finally things ended and we started on the 40 minute or so walk though muddy paths which zigzagged through coffee, milpa, and cardamon (the other cash crop), and the occassional bannana tree. In the end I can say that the whole thing was beautiful and extremely fun.
It is raining quite hard again today, but I think I might get going. I´ve already written quite a bit, but I certainly could write more about all that is going on here in Guatemala.
tin cua´ak (I will eat (corn tortillas))
hope all is well with all of you as always
Jordan
Anyways, the weekend:
After a short bout with a little bit more of stomach problems I went on a trip with missionary friends to a gathering of jovenes (a loosely defined Spanish word that means young people, you will be happy to know that many of you, who might not be called young in the US, would be jovenes here). Well, this gathering really was for the very young, so, despite the looseness of the word, there were no fifty year olds participating in it. I got there right at the end of the lessons that had lasted all day on religious themes. One of which, my missionary friend and maybe my most valuable cultural informant told me was the respect of elders. Apparently many young people don´t respect many of those older than them because they already are better educated than they were (as a result of the civil war that lasted untill 1996). Many older folks, actually tend to feel the same way, that is, that they cannot command respect from their kids, because they don´t have the education. At least they are placing value on education I guess. I also was cued into a little bit of Q´ekchi´ youthful awkwardness concerning boy/girl relations which was interesting. Last generation a boy would ask his father to talk to the father of a girl that he likes, Saturday we saw a boy purposfully sit next to a girl... in the past this would not have happened. NOw youth here just aren´t sure what to do. Cultural practices are always in flux everywhere, but here it is more pronounced because there are some changes happening of the large differences between the old culture and the incoming Latino culture. The issue of cultural change pops up everywhere here (at least to me, as an outsider looking in) and it is hard to know where to stand. Is a little more autonomy for youth good, or do we lament a the destruction of culture? By wanting ot preserve Q´eqchi´culture does one simply make them into dolls which we dress up for our pleasure (to use an analogy one of my fellow students at CASAS, and before at BC, used)? But what about girls being married and pregnant at 15 years old, is not not ok to encourage that to change?
Sunday, I rode about an hour on bumpy roads and then hiked about an hour to reach a wedding in a beautiful aldea of two 19 year olds. It was, for once, a clear day (gracias a dios), and so we could see all around the church and hill after hill of countryside, milpa (corn and bean fields all in one) and coffee. It was beautifl. In the church the service alternated between extremely loud music (my missionary friend tells me sarcastically that loud music is proof that the holy spirit is there) preaching and at one point me, being a gringo connected with the honored missionary friends, apalogizing in Spanish for the fact that I don´t know how to speak there language and that God bless them and the marriage. I also sat in front and received a coke to drink throughout the maraton service (though not as marathon as a Cambodian wedding, that´s for sure. This was really an easy 10k. TO say the least, sitting up front was very embarrassing, and yet still nice.
The couple sat deathly serious the entire time.
After the service and after a select group of people prayed for the health of a sick baby we walked down to the houseof on of the families. We had arrived there before getting to the church. Where, after our substantial hike we received hot coffee (not what I was hoping for) and a delicious Guatemalan treat which I forgot the name of. Anyways we returned here, where we were greeted with more coffee (this time I refused). Soon we were sat down and slowly everyone was served hot chocloate, which is particularly delicious here, and that everyone drank out of the same gords. I should also note that we were very much crammed into a small space. After a while we were served food, a soup of with three huge pieces of meat. Since I was among the slightly honored my bowl was loaded with grease... and can´t believe I was able to finish it. To achieve this feet I tried to remind myself of all the extremely greasy pizza I have eaten and asked myself, what, really is the difference. The idea is that we are served mroe than we can eat and that everyone take some food home in order to bless our families. Pretty neat. Finally things ended and we started on the 40 minute or so walk though muddy paths which zigzagged through coffee, milpa, and cardamon (the other cash crop), and the occassional bannana tree. In the end I can say that the whole thing was beautiful and extremely fun.
It is raining quite hard again today, but I think I might get going. I´ve already written quite a bit, but I certainly could write more about all that is going on here in Guatemala.
tin cua´ak (I will eat (corn tortillas))
hope all is well with all of you as always
Jordan
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
I feel like blogging
Why do I feel like blogging. Is it because I really, deeply, feel the need to keep however few of you actually read this thing informed. Is it because I like this keyboard in which I can{t find the question mark (no). Is it because I just need to journal. Is it because I had a very boring job today at work and need to do something moderately creative. Is it because there are so many new and excting things to talk about. Probably some of all of these, but its anyones guess.
sorry family Dodger fans.
A couple more things I really like about where I live
two pieces of sweet bread- about 14 american cents
6 small bannanas- about 14 american cents}
Ermelindo- the cute little boy who lives with me, gives me high fives and sometimes falls asleep on my lap.
Toullos-like corn tortillas with beans cooked right inside- about 20 cents, though I think I was given a little gringo tax on that one. delicious though.
also, fried bannanas which I need to eat more.
actually, food might be one of the mroe difficult things for me here. There are lots of great snacks, but I need to get mroe accostomed to the main meals, which still arent{ qutie doing it for me. But as my sicknesses get further behind me, I think likeing the food more is coming too.
RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD
and I mean that only in the literal sense. It is raining a lot here and some places are flooded. I went to teh one tourist spot in Carcha yesterday and was amazed at all the flooding. I could see the top two steps of a slide... it was sitting in the middle of a raging river. I guess the attraction is ually calm, pristine pools where one can lounge and hace picnics, not right now. All the rain can be kind of depressing, but right now, I am used to it. I would like to see the sun though.
Man, there was so much more I thought about writing as I sat at a desk codifiying all the furniture in the office and everynow and then laughing out loud when I thought of an episode of The Office or George in one of his office work situations.
but I need to get home, because dinner is probably already ready, and it is probably dark outside already too.
Jordan
sorry family Dodger fans.
A couple more things I really like about where I live
two pieces of sweet bread- about 14 american cents
6 small bannanas- about 14 american cents}
Ermelindo- the cute little boy who lives with me, gives me high fives and sometimes falls asleep on my lap.
Toullos-like corn tortillas with beans cooked right inside- about 20 cents, though I think I was given a little gringo tax on that one. delicious though.
also, fried bannanas which I need to eat more.
actually, food might be one of the mroe difficult things for me here. There are lots of great snacks, but I need to get mroe accostomed to the main meals, which still arent{ qutie doing it for me. But as my sicknesses get further behind me, I think likeing the food more is coming too.
RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD
and I mean that only in the literal sense. It is raining a lot here and some places are flooded. I went to teh one tourist spot in Carcha yesterday and was amazed at all the flooding. I could see the top two steps of a slide... it was sitting in the middle of a raging river. I guess the attraction is ually calm, pristine pools where one can lounge and hace picnics, not right now. All the rain can be kind of depressing, but right now, I am used to it. I would like to see the sun though.
Man, there was so much more I thought about writing as I sat at a desk codifiying all the furniture in the office and everynow and then laughing out loud when I thought of an episode of The Office or George in one of his office work situations.
but I need to get home, because dinner is probably already ready, and it is probably dark outside already too.
Jordan
Saturday, October 18, 2008
First Week in Carchá
finally there!
I am not going to take a lot of time to write right now, hopefully, but here are a few thoughts after my first week in the town where I will spend the next 10 months or so.
It´s beautiful! It rains all the time, and it shows in the deep green which covers the mountains which surround the town.
Thank goodness for Eastern Mennonite Missions missionaries who took care of me after I foolishly drank some fresco made from unclean water. Yes, I apparently have a wednesday night curse, especially if Thursday I am planning on traveling.
The house is high up on a hill and I have a beautiful view of the town. Pretty amazing.
walking down the mainstreet one is likely to meet someone they know, even if they have only lived in Carchá a week.
The Dave Mattews version of ¨burning down the house¨pretty much rocks.
It is necessary not to have preconceived ideas of what a bathroom is supposed to be.
The tortillas here are huge, and I have no idea how my host father eats soup, yes soup, without a spoon, but with tortillas.
I should learn some Kechi.
My work has been ok. I feel like I have helped some, and I think I may be on the cusp of really beraking into some more friendships here, so that is exciting. I think I will look forward, however, to starting my real job at the school in January too.
ok all for now,
Jordan
I am not going to take a lot of time to write right now, hopefully, but here are a few thoughts after my first week in the town where I will spend the next 10 months or so.
It´s beautiful! It rains all the time, and it shows in the deep green which covers the mountains which surround the town.
Thank goodness for Eastern Mennonite Missions missionaries who took care of me after I foolishly drank some fresco made from unclean water. Yes, I apparently have a wednesday night curse, especially if Thursday I am planning on traveling.
The house is high up on a hill and I have a beautiful view of the town. Pretty amazing.
walking down the mainstreet one is likely to meet someone they know, even if they have only lived in Carchá a week.
The Dave Mattews version of ¨burning down the house¨pretty much rocks.
It is necessary not to have preconceived ideas of what a bathroom is supposed to be.
The tortillas here are huge, and I have no idea how my host father eats soup, yes soup, without a spoon, but with tortillas.
I should learn some Kechi.
My work has been ok. I feel like I have helped some, and I think I may be on the cusp of really beraking into some more friendships here, so that is exciting. I think I will look forward, however, to starting my real job at the school in January too.
ok all for now,
Jordan
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Of Seepless Nights and Diarrhea
This was a letter home
Thanks for the inspiring words Jos, indeed, it turns out that I have found yet another adversary in the outside-of-the-US world, and that´s white beans and Chorizos. Turns out they have to be made very carfully and often make people sick. And they really did a number on me. For the very first time I am on antibiotics for a stomach infection. Wednesday, after a meeting with my CR, we went to lunch and I partook of said meal. I spent the rest of the day happily at home getting ready to leave the following morning. I ate a good dinner with a special addition of tres leches. The first warning sign was the the tres leches wasn´t as good as I usually find it. I felt like I was too full and had eaten too much even though I knew I hadn´t eaten that much. Anyways after a while I was in bed reading and feeling strangely cold. It had rained a fair amount in the day so I figured it was just colder than usual. First I closed my windows. Next I closed the blinds. Next I put socks on. Finally I put on my favorite REI cold weather long sleeve shirt (Christmas gift of Dick and Mar I think). I even tucked the blankets underneathe my body to stay even warmer. Pretty soon, I was shivering in bed and my heart periodically would beat extremely fast to try to warm me up. Eventually I got up and put on my smart-wool socks. I had some random ideas about what was going on, none of which was the thought that I had food poisoning. I had just read a passage from Niebla where the protaganist talks about how umbrellas are beautiful and elegant closed, and ugly opened. Much better to simply comprehend thatn to use. Then he says how currently we only think of God as being like an open umbrella and that one day we will all widen our vision to God and simply comprehend Him. I thought, well God, I´m sorry, but tonight I´d appreciate you being an open umbrella for me. haha. I ended up going to the bathroom two or three times in the night I think, but none were diarria untill the morning after I had gotten up. I finally got to sleep and ant points in the night I woke up way to hot, but most of the time I shivered profusely. In the morning I told my host mom I had a fever, my head hurt me, and that my stomach felt very weak... and so I definately could not eat the oatmeal she so nicely made for me. I did have a banana though and I was grateful I had brought along the extra strenght Tylenol stuff that the doctor gave me in Cambodia for Dengue fever that dissolved in Water and made me throw up the first time I took it... .my head really did hurt.
Anyways I ended up staying at home. That day I spent a lot of time sleepign and I didn´t even have the desire or maybe ability to focus to read more than five pages. I rested and went to the bathroom. . . Amidts 10s of people hanging out in our house eating lunch. Awkward, but at the time I was looking out for number one, so to speak. Yes, a vague pun intended, but I am not srue where diarrhea falls on the number scale. The same time as a
-Jake Harder walked into the room and now it is a little while later after we have talked, isn´t that cool!-
The same time as a woman who has some sort of medical training noticed that I had gone to the bathroom four times sicne she had been there and began talking to my host mom and telling here that I must have an ifection and needed antibiotics, the MCC country representative, Irma, called for medical advice... turned out the preson she called was the same as was dining at my house. So that evening I got antiboiotics and a rehydration salt sort of thing to dring. Yesterday I read a lot of my new favorite book, Niebla, by Miguel de Unamuno, and slept and watched baseball in peace and quite. Since then I have gotten steadily better and am now haning out with the Harders (Add another mark the long list of random people I know that I´ve seen here in Guatemala) and my favorite CASAS employee, Rigoberto.
Anyways, now it looks like I´ll finally be leaving for my assignment Sunday afternoon. I felt good enough to leave today, but since the place I will be working for doesn´t work on the weekends id doesn´t make sense for me to go.
So that´s the sad story of how I suddenly fell sick the night before I was finally supposed to leave for my assignment. I do believe I have to be the last SALTer to actually start there job. My fellow SALTers here in Guatemala left on Monday, I didn´t go because my placement still wasn´t quite ready for me. So you can imagine that I was already itching to go before I got delayed another 3 days... oh well.
Jordan
Thanks for the inspiring words Jos, indeed, it turns out that I have found yet another adversary in the outside-of-the-US world, and that´s white beans and Chorizos. Turns out they have to be made very carfully and often make people sick. And they really did a number on me. For the very first time I am on antibiotics for a stomach infection. Wednesday, after a meeting with my CR, we went to lunch and I partook of said meal. I spent the rest of the day happily at home getting ready to leave the following morning. I ate a good dinner with a special addition of tres leches. The first warning sign was the the tres leches wasn´t as good as I usually find it. I felt like I was too full and had eaten too much even though I knew I hadn´t eaten that much. Anyways after a while I was in bed reading and feeling strangely cold. It had rained a fair amount in the day so I figured it was just colder than usual. First I closed my windows. Next I closed the blinds. Next I put socks on. Finally I put on my favorite REI cold weather long sleeve shirt (Christmas gift of Dick and Mar I think). I even tucked the blankets underneathe my body to stay even warmer. Pretty soon, I was shivering in bed and my heart periodically would beat extremely fast to try to warm me up. Eventually I got up and put on my smart-wool socks. I had some random ideas about what was going on, none of which was the thought that I had food poisoning. I had just read a passage from Niebla where the protaganist talks about how umbrellas are beautiful and elegant closed, and ugly opened. Much better to simply comprehend thatn to use. Then he says how currently we only think of God as being like an open umbrella and that one day we will all widen our vision to God and simply comprehend Him. I thought, well God, I´m sorry, but tonight I´d appreciate you being an open umbrella for me. haha. I ended up going to the bathroom two or three times in the night I think, but none were diarria untill the morning after I had gotten up. I finally got to sleep and ant points in the night I woke up way to hot, but most of the time I shivered profusely. In the morning I told my host mom I had a fever, my head hurt me, and that my stomach felt very weak... and so I definately could not eat the oatmeal she so nicely made for me. I did have a banana though and I was grateful I had brought along the extra strenght Tylenol stuff that the doctor gave me in Cambodia for Dengue fever that dissolved in Water and made me throw up the first time I took it... .my head really did hurt.
Anyways I ended up staying at home. That day I spent a lot of time sleepign and I didn´t even have the desire or maybe ability to focus to read more than five pages. I rested and went to the bathroom. . . Amidts 10s of people hanging out in our house eating lunch. Awkward, but at the time I was looking out for number one, so to speak. Yes, a vague pun intended, but I am not srue where diarrhea falls on the number scale. The same time as a
-Jake Harder walked into the room and now it is a little while later after we have talked, isn´t that cool!-
The same time as a woman who has some sort of medical training noticed that I had gone to the bathroom four times sicne she had been there and began talking to my host mom and telling here that I must have an ifection and needed antibiotics, the MCC country representative, Irma, called for medical advice... turned out the preson she called was the same as was dining at my house. So that evening I got antiboiotics and a rehydration salt sort of thing to dring. Yesterday I read a lot of my new favorite book, Niebla, by Miguel de Unamuno, and slept and watched baseball in peace and quite. Since then I have gotten steadily better and am now haning out with the Harders (Add another mark the long list of random people I know that I´ve seen here in Guatemala) and my favorite CASAS employee, Rigoberto.
Anyways, now it looks like I´ll finally be leaving for my assignment Sunday afternoon. I felt good enough to leave today, but since the place I will be working for doesn´t work on the weekends id doesn´t make sense for me to go.
So that´s the sad story of how I suddenly fell sick the night before I was finally supposed to leave for my assignment. I do believe I have to be the last SALTer to actually start there job. My fellow SALTers here in Guatemala left on Monday, I didn´t go because my placement still wasn´t quite ready for me. So you can imagine that I was already itching to go before I got delayed another 3 days... oh well.
Jordan
Friday, October 3, 2008
Language School is Over
I know I haven't really written anything about language school, but now that it's over I figure I should write something really fast. I received one on one classes with an extraordinary teacher, Marta Calderon. A lot of the time we just talked, and hung out, so often times it didn't even feel like class! We studied the subjunctive tense a lot, however, and I now feel a lot more confident with it. Funny though, how sometimes you still make a lot of elementary mistakes. I've been really bad recently mixing up the gender of words, or not agreeing them. THis is maybe the hardest thing for me when I'm speaking, hopefully just by continuing to read, talk, and listen my mistakes will decrease. For some reason recently I've caught myself saying Yo me gusta a time or to... really stupid. And the other day I said tenes hombre. I am also kind of getting the hang of vos too, which is nice because that's what young men here use with young men. If they use tu, apparently it sounds like you are homosexual... definately not a good thing here in Guatemala if you want male friends. Luckily as a foreigner people are forgiving!
My family has been wonderful. I get good food and I've really enjoyed hanging out with my host dad, Noel, talking about all sorts of things, from sports to politics to religion. We are both into the playoffs this year. Congratulations to all the blue blooded Dodger fans in my family. You guys are looking pretty good. A lot of people visit the family, so I meet lots of random people too, which is great. And a lot of them are nice and want to take the time to include a gringo in the conversation too.
I just finished the book El Senor Presidente by Miguel Angel Asturias. It's a very difficult book and I am prett proud I finished it and understood it. Though I am positive I do not have a level of understanding that allows me to fully appreciate it. I am just happy I was able to appreciate it at all. Let's just say it had a fair amount of words that weren't in my dictionary, and that can be frustrating. I did about a 15, 20 minute presentation on it today, and at times I felt pretty terrible, but other times were alright.
I've also had a lot of fun witht he other students here. Besides the two other MCC'ers, David and Raquel, who are always a lot of fun, there are four others, Tina and Cari: former Bethel students like me, Jennifer one of my brothers best friends, and Audrey, who, despite the fact that I didn't already know her has also been fun to get to know. The despite the fact part was a joke. We have had fun hanging out at CASAS, going to a soccer game, getting lost, shopping at a great market, worshiping at a Catholic church built on Mayan ruins in which people still mix in ancient religious traditions, visiting Mayan ruins, and playing some intense games of spoons... to name a few.
So I will be going out to my placemeant between Monday and Thursday. Finally. I hope I am prepared for it. I am definately ready to start though. THe family I was going to live with there is not quite ready though, so I am going to live with a different family for about a month and then move in with yet another family. That my not sound like the best situation, but the way I see it, it will just give me more close friends in Guatemala.
On a more somber note, recently we have been inundated by sombering news having to do with violence here in Guatemala city. It is quite bad, our CR from Colombia says it is much more dangerous to live here than there... so keep Guatemala in your thoughts and prayers. Guatemala's biggest problem is gangs. There are lots of single parent househoulds, and here doing that is even harder than it is in the states. The reasons for all the single parents here are complex, I think, having to do with culture, government policies, a violent recent history, and poor economic conditions, that I really don't know enough about to write anything worth your while. Anyways, kids end up growing up on the streets and joining gangs for support. Not a lot of public systems are set up to prevent kids from going the gang route. They end up doing things like killing a 26 and 24 year ould bus driver and aydante for not paying the taxes the gang had imposed on them. Or giving death threats to a community organizer. Meanwhile, families outside of the city are forced to move off of their land becaues of rising prices. They then have to try to squat on unused land of large landowners. The get evicted from there and have nowhere to go... all the while knowing that the land they were evicted from was gained by the large land holders because of unjust land policies enforced by liberal- not in the sense of politics today in the USA- dictators... all in the name of 'progress.' Yes it can be a sad story, and I haven't even mentioned the still recent cival war here.
But anyways, things are still good for me personally here.
My little while or strong feelings of nostalgia for the past have moved on and write now I am very happy to be here doing what I am doing. I can be a pretty nostalgic person sometimes, but I think I generally do a good job of staying present in the moment. That is not to say I don't want any of you, if you ever feel the disire, to write me a note and pull me back to Kansas, California, or wherever, please do!
Anyways, hopefully, I can put some pictures here sometime of Guatemala, I don't have my camara cord though, oh well.
Hope all of you are doing well!
Jordan
My family has been wonderful. I get good food and I've really enjoyed hanging out with my host dad, Noel, talking about all sorts of things, from sports to politics to religion. We are both into the playoffs this year. Congratulations to all the blue blooded Dodger fans in my family. You guys are looking pretty good. A lot of people visit the family, so I meet lots of random people too, which is great. And a lot of them are nice and want to take the time to include a gringo in the conversation too.
I just finished the book El Senor Presidente by Miguel Angel Asturias. It's a very difficult book and I am prett proud I finished it and understood it. Though I am positive I do not have a level of understanding that allows me to fully appreciate it. I am just happy I was able to appreciate it at all. Let's just say it had a fair amount of words that weren't in my dictionary, and that can be frustrating. I did about a 15, 20 minute presentation on it today, and at times I felt pretty terrible, but other times were alright.
I've also had a lot of fun witht he other students here. Besides the two other MCC'ers, David and Raquel, who are always a lot of fun, there are four others, Tina and Cari: former Bethel students like me, Jennifer one of my brothers best friends, and Audrey, who, despite the fact that I didn't already know her has also been fun to get to know. The despite the fact part was a joke. We have had fun hanging out at CASAS, going to a soccer game, getting lost, shopping at a great market, worshiping at a Catholic church built on Mayan ruins in which people still mix in ancient religious traditions, visiting Mayan ruins, and playing some intense games of spoons... to name a few.
So I will be going out to my placemeant between Monday and Thursday. Finally. I hope I am prepared for it. I am definately ready to start though. THe family I was going to live with there is not quite ready though, so I am going to live with a different family for about a month and then move in with yet another family. That my not sound like the best situation, but the way I see it, it will just give me more close friends in Guatemala.
On a more somber note, recently we have been inundated by sombering news having to do with violence here in Guatemala city. It is quite bad, our CR from Colombia says it is much more dangerous to live here than there... so keep Guatemala in your thoughts and prayers. Guatemala's biggest problem is gangs. There are lots of single parent househoulds, and here doing that is even harder than it is in the states. The reasons for all the single parents here are complex, I think, having to do with culture, government policies, a violent recent history, and poor economic conditions, that I really don't know enough about to write anything worth your while. Anyways, kids end up growing up on the streets and joining gangs for support. Not a lot of public systems are set up to prevent kids from going the gang route. They end up doing things like killing a 26 and 24 year ould bus driver and aydante for not paying the taxes the gang had imposed on them. Or giving death threats to a community organizer. Meanwhile, families outside of the city are forced to move off of their land becaues of rising prices. They then have to try to squat on unused land of large landowners. The get evicted from there and have nowhere to go... all the while knowing that the land they were evicted from was gained by the large land holders because of unjust land policies enforced by liberal- not in the sense of politics today in the USA- dictators... all in the name of 'progress.' Yes it can be a sad story, and I haven't even mentioned the still recent cival war here.
But anyways, things are still good for me personally here.
My little while or strong feelings of nostalgia for the past have moved on and write now I am very happy to be here doing what I am doing. I can be a pretty nostalgic person sometimes, but I think I generally do a good job of staying present in the moment. That is not to say I don't want any of you, if you ever feel the disire, to write me a note and pull me back to Kansas, California, or wherever, please do!
Anyways, hopefully, I can put some pictures here sometime of Guatemala, I don't have my camara cord though, oh well.
Hope all of you are doing well!
Jordan
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Pictures for nostalgia´s sake
This is the day before graduation I think. from left to right- Evan Fast, Greg Shelley, Aaron Voth, Kyle Unruh, Jordan Penner, and Jenny Regier. These are all people I lived with this last year (except Jenny). We missed the presence of other modmates Jordan Bartel and Isaac Olsen (aka number 2). This post is kind of the result of some recent nostalgia for Bethel College. Sorry to the old 6C that a picture of you guys is not on here, at the moment it is not on here. I miss how easy it was to be with lots of friends, all the time. I miss eating three meals a day with a different selection of friends every meal, late nights doing work and or avoiding it, convocations to round out the week and all kinds of other stuff revolving around having a great community of good people handed to you on a silver platter. I could go on, but I am focing myself to stop.
SPRING BREAK- well this was my last spring break group anyways. Cari Holliday (who once studied here in guatemala) Peter Miller (fellow History major) Kim Schmidt (who also studied in Guatemala) and Miriam Friesen (who also was a fellow History major). I showed this picture to my family and my host mom said that I looked much thinner in it. uh oh.
And finally here is a good picture of my family in Cambodia with new inductee Sina Yang. In front of a temple in Anchor Wat. I think I like long hair better...Monday, September 8, 2008
Antigua and Pacaya
note-I am multitasking as I write this, so sorry in advance for all the errors.
a note from my good friends, Cari Holliday, Kim Schmidt, and Tim Parker in my personalized edition of ¨the Lonely plantet¨quotes Henry Dyck as saying ¨I poop on Antigua¨... and I definately understand and agree with the sentiment. But it´s still fun. On our epic 36 drive hour drive home from Kansas to California ((we went the long way) which if you know me I often mention for many different reasons) Joseph and I both named Henry as one of our favorite people at school. I think we both mentioned that we felt Henry liked us because we laughed at his jokes. Anyways enough about Henry Dyck.
Antigua is pretty touristy, but it was a fun, quick trip out of the city. It was also us three SALTers first trip away without anybody else to help us out... which felt good. We hiked the volcano Pacaya which also attracts a lot of tourists, but with good reason. WE got to see real lava... I mean come on!
It was wet and windy (despite teh fact that we left at six in the morning) and I bought a big piece of plastic to protect myself... works pretty well actually. Not a terrible hard hike but still fun. It´s interesting how it is so ugly and beutiful at the same time. I was very much reminded of mount Doom.¨NO Sam. I cannot remember the taste of strawberr pie (or something like that) or the sound of water fally on a summers morning.... I am lying naked in the dark with nothing.... I can see him now with my waking eyes¨that´s no where near correct, but that´s the jist of it. Nate Boldt and I had some fun with that one. Yes I know I am a nerd.
Anyways I returned home saturday evening and enjoyed some time with my host family.
On Sunday I went to church with my family and got in on an engagement celebration. David and I (and many others) ended up getting dressed up in rediculous apparel of the opposite sex. thenwe got to dress up teh bride and groom in newspaper. Afterwards I played soccer (well) for a while and now have pain in my lower back. oh well. Everybody else seemed to have brought soccer clothers to play in after church, but I didn´t, so I had to sweat through my nice shirt and pants. oh well, I still scored a bunch of goals (someting I never really got much of a chance to do at Bethel...). Though I hear that right now would be my time to shine and the good old Thresher squad.
After soccer, the engagment party just so happend to continue at my house and yada yada yada I´m really tired today.
Who would have th0ught it´s raining in Guate right now. Should I stay or go...
I think I´ll go, why are we so scared of water falling from the sky anyway. We bathe in it, we drink it, we do recreational activities in it, but when it´s falling from the sky we´re scared of it. Ok enough of the Seinfeld imitation.
I hope all of you are doing well and thanks to all of those who are supporting me and all those who have written me or left messges. Kim I will get to your questions, I´ve forgotten what they were for the moment.
Jordan
a note from my good friends, Cari Holliday, Kim Schmidt, and Tim Parker in my personalized edition of ¨the Lonely plantet¨quotes Henry Dyck as saying ¨I poop on Antigua¨... and I definately understand and agree with the sentiment. But it´s still fun. On our epic 36 drive hour drive home from Kansas to California ((we went the long way) which if you know me I often mention for many different reasons) Joseph and I both named Henry as one of our favorite people at school. I think we both mentioned that we felt Henry liked us because we laughed at his jokes. Anyways enough about Henry Dyck.
Antigua is pretty touristy, but it was a fun, quick trip out of the city. It was also us three SALTers first trip away without anybody else to help us out... which felt good. We hiked the volcano Pacaya which also attracts a lot of tourists, but with good reason. WE got to see real lava... I mean come on!
It was wet and windy (despite teh fact that we left at six in the morning) and I bought a big piece of plastic to protect myself... works pretty well actually. Not a terrible hard hike but still fun. It´s interesting how it is so ugly and beutiful at the same time. I was very much reminded of mount Doom.¨NO Sam. I cannot remember the taste of strawberr pie (or something like that) or the sound of water fally on a summers morning.... I am lying naked in the dark with nothing.... I can see him now with my waking eyes¨that´s no where near correct, but that´s the jist of it. Nate Boldt and I had some fun with that one. Yes I know I am a nerd.
Anyways I returned home saturday evening and enjoyed some time with my host family.
On Sunday I went to church with my family and got in on an engagement celebration. David and I (and many others) ended up getting dressed up in rediculous apparel of the opposite sex. thenwe got to dress up teh bride and groom in newspaper. Afterwards I played soccer (well) for a while and now have pain in my lower back. oh well. Everybody else seemed to have brought soccer clothers to play in after church, but I didn´t, so I had to sweat through my nice shirt and pants. oh well, I still scored a bunch of goals (someting I never really got much of a chance to do at Bethel...). Though I hear that right now would be my time to shine and the good old Thresher squad.
After soccer, the engagment party just so happend to continue at my house and yada yada yada I´m really tired today.
Who would have th0ught it´s raining in Guate right now. Should I stay or go...
I think I´ll go, why are we so scared of water falling from the sky anyway. We bathe in it, we drink it, we do recreational activities in it, but when it´s falling from the sky we´re scared of it. Ok enough of the Seinfeld imitation.
I hope all of you are doing well and thanks to all of those who are supporting me and all those who have written me or left messges. Kim I will get to your questions, I´ve forgotten what they were for the moment.
Jordan
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
A short update
Today was my third day of language study and it has been going pretty well. It's four hours, but with a thirty minute break which can turn into a 40 minute break. My maestra is fun and a lot of times we just talk about a variety of things- immigration, Obama vs Mccain, spanish literature, racism in Guatemala and the United States, school systems... many times the time se fue volando (went by really fast). Today we listened to music. It was a fun exercise. Sometimes I talk pretty well, other times not.
The other with my host family night we watched the new version of poseidon on television. Kind of fun.
I am now starting to read the book El Senior Presidente which won a nobel prize and is by Asturias, a Guatemalan auther. So for it is pretty difficult though.
Today was also my first day in which I went to school on my own. Yesterday my host brother showed me the way. I decided to be safe and walk today, although it took a long time and isn't too fun with the traffic and pollution.
Jordan
The other with my host family night we watched the new version of poseidon on television. Kind of fun.
I am now starting to read the book El Senior Presidente which won a nobel prize and is by Asturias, a Guatemalan auther. So for it is pretty difficult though.
Today was also my first day in which I went to school on my own. Yesterday my host brother showed me the way. I decided to be safe and walk today, although it took a long time and isn't too fun with the traffic and pollution.
Jordan
Thursday, August 21, 2008
changes and other random things
first Q´eqchi´sentence- lub´lu li ishk sa ha´ which means She is tired from swimming (we were watching the olympics). Not everything in this sentence is spelled right and it might actually literally mean someting more like she is tired from water, not sure. In Kechi (easier way to spell it) to eat means to eat corn (like in Khmer but with corn instead of rice).
changes-¨teaching english¨the lame pat answer I generally had for asnwering what I was going ot do in Guatemala has rapidly given way to ¨Idon´t know.¨ I will be helping in many ways. Hopefully I can attack one of the core Guatemalan problems and give self confidence and empower many of the younger generation here in Guatemala through my work at the Bezeleel school.
changes-I have actually been enjoying strong Guatemalan coffee regularly. I´m kind of scared, but I still drink at least one cup of water in the morning before having any coffee whatsoever. And I am only drinking a little bit.
random information- In the late nineteenth century, with the encouragment of a liberal Guatemalan government many Germans invested in Coffee in Guatemala. The government declared lands where indigenous persons lived vacant and let foreign investors take the land. For many years the government forced, through various strong-arm tactics, these same indigenous persons to provide cheap labor for coffee growing and harvesting. Bringing the market economy into central Guatemala not only forced many formerly self-sufficient farmers into wage labor through the introduction of cash crops, it also changed the nature of Mayan religion. No one is really sure how it all happend, but the tzuultaq´as (mountian god´s that mayans believed they relied upon for good crops) began to appear in dreams to the Mayan people, looking like Germans. Apparently the Germans ownership of the land was just that much like the tzuultaq´as ownership (to whom Mayans had to pray and sacrifice to in order to receive permission ot plant corn) of land to cause this crazy conflation of ancient religion and current social-political circumstances.
The availability of cheap labor that the Guatemalan government provided also contributed toward kindney stones in the United States.
also- David Janzen can play a mean Canadian folk tune
Jordan
changes-¨teaching english¨the lame pat answer I generally had for asnwering what I was going ot do in Guatemala has rapidly given way to ¨Idon´t know.¨ I will be helping in many ways. Hopefully I can attack one of the core Guatemalan problems and give self confidence and empower many of the younger generation here in Guatemala through my work at the Bezeleel school.
changes-I have actually been enjoying strong Guatemalan coffee regularly. I´m kind of scared, but I still drink at least one cup of water in the morning before having any coffee whatsoever. And I am only drinking a little bit.
random information- In the late nineteenth century, with the encouragment of a liberal Guatemalan government many Germans invested in Coffee in Guatemala. The government declared lands where indigenous persons lived vacant and let foreign investors take the land. For many years the government forced, through various strong-arm tactics, these same indigenous persons to provide cheap labor for coffee growing and harvesting. Bringing the market economy into central Guatemala not only forced many formerly self-sufficient farmers into wage labor through the introduction of cash crops, it also changed the nature of Mayan religion. No one is really sure how it all happend, but the tzuultaq´as (mountian god´s that mayans believed they relied upon for good crops) began to appear in dreams to the Mayan people, looking like Germans. Apparently the Germans ownership of the land was just that much like the tzuultaq´as ownership (to whom Mayans had to pray and sacrifice to in order to receive permission ot plant corn) of land to cause this crazy conflation of ancient religion and current social-political circumstances.
The availability of cheap labor that the Guatemalan government provided also contributed toward kindney stones in the United States.
also- David Janzen can play a mean Canadian folk tune
Jordan
Monday, August 18, 2008
In Guatemala
and loving it! We are still in an orientations stage, and have not had the chance to really stretch our legs exploring Guatemala, but I have a very good first impression of Guatemala. The city reminds me of Quito, which is good. Though I am also glad I will not spend the year in the city, but will be going out into more rural areas. September first we will begin a month of language school and then we (myself, David Janzen, and Rachelle Smitz) will go out to our respective posts. We are all in fairly rural areas where seperate indigenous languages are dominant. I´ve already begun an informal study of the Kechi language. Speaking of that, I need to get to reading a book on said cultural group with which I will be living.
The Volcano smokes ominously above the city.
ok that´s all for now,
Jordan
The Volcano smokes ominously above the city.
ok that´s all for now,
Jordan
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
FAN MAIL
Well, I guess it's time we start a fan mail question and answer section.
Kyle from Kansas writes:
Hey, I was just wondering when you’re heading out for whatever the first step is in your MCC journey*
Well, Kyle, first of all, I really want to thank you for your generous support and enthusiasm for my blog. It's fans like you from which I draw my inspiration. I'll try and send you that autographed huipile soon. To answer your question though, I am leaving at 10 pm Friday evening for a week long orientation in Akron Pennsylvania. There I will meet up with former BC studs Peter Miller, Joel Krehbiel, and Caley Ortman. I also expect to see Andrea from Cambodia that some from my family may remember.
Jake from South Dakota writes:
Hey man, UR blog is AWESOME! I'm already super psyched about Guatemala and you are not even there yet! U R flipping amazing dude. I hope you are having an awesome time packing all your stuff in order to get ready for Central America.
Wow, Jake, your enthusiasm is a little bit scary. I am almost done with a pre-pack test. I think I can get all that I want into one large hiking bag, another medium size hiking bag, and my miniature green backpack.I could probably leave in 30 minutes and have everything I needed. SO I'm pretty happy about that. I'm bringing more nice clothes than I ever had in Kansas because, as a teacher, I will need to look semi-sharp. Right now I think I only have four T-shirts packed (3 being Run for Relief shirts), which is probably a record low for me. I literally have a dresser drawer and another medium sized duffel bag full of T-shirts here at home... and that's after giving away many T-Shirts back at school. I will usually pack 4 T-Shirts for a weekend trip. However, they say that there are lots of cheap clothes shops in Guatemala, so I figure I'll buy some shirts there and save space in my bags here. The main concern is really that I have enough underwear that I have 100% confidence in.
Peter the Great (1682-1725) from Russia writes:
Jordan, I see you are going on some travels of your own there, from the so called "United States" to a region of Spanish America which you call "Guatemala." Now as I recall, the captaincy of Guatemala (1609) was (in the Spanish administrative ladder) at the southernmost point of the vast territory designated a part of the viceroyalty New Spain. Beneath that began the viceroyalty of Peru, where I hear you have also spent a fair amount of time in the capital of Quito. Now I can understand Quito, being a center for Spanish administration, but I mean, you've gotta be kidding about Guatemala! That place is a backwater, I hear the Spanish have hardly conquered this area and even just to the North, in the Yucatan, the descendants of the ancient Mayan civilization is resisting religious and political domination (see Ambivalent Conquest)... no matter how many heathen ancient Mayan texts the Spanish burn.
In my own secretive journey through Europe I hit all the major centers learning and technology in order to help my backward Russia westernize. Now from your use of English, I gather your "United States" must be some part of the ever growing English empire. As a side note, in my day, I helped along Russia's dreams for empire by finally gaining a warm water port from which our great ships could begin to take part in the long distance trade that was driving the advance of capitalism throughout Europe. Long distance trade was very important, being a major factor in the advancement of banks, credit, bills of exchange, industry, investment, joint-stock companies, stock-exchanges etc etc. see The Wheels of Commerce v. 2 by Braudel. Anyways, in my journey through Europe I learned many great ways to improve my home country of Russia. I instituted a Table or Ranks to gain absolute control of the stupid aristocracy (kind of like Louis XIV in France) and instituted a tax on beards... all to push us towards Westernization. I may have had to, shall we say, crack a few heads to do it, but seriously, before I took over, you couldn't swing a dead cat in Russia without hitting someone with a beard.
So my question to you is, why go to a backwater of the Spanish empire? I mean Spain is already in decline, we all know about the English defeat of the "Armada Invencible" in 1598... I mean, read the writing on the wall, Spain is out! How are you going to learn to make your "United States" a great and powerful nation from an uncivilized speck within the failing Spanish Empire? I mean coooooome on!
Well Peter, first of all I have to say that I was supremely shocked and excited to get your email. That was really great. The United States is actually already a pretty powerful place, so, unlike you, I'm actually not going on a quest to learn from Guatemala in order to make the United States more powerful. Still, I think that there is a lot that we Westerners can learn from "backwater" and "uncivilized" places like Guatemala. Just because western society has come to dominate the world with a combination of military might and economic control doesn't mean that our ideas and cultural assumptions are somehow right, or truthful. I believe I can learn a lot from these people, descended (at least in part) from the Maya. You might not believe it, but in the year 2008, your enlightenment ideal of progress has been sort of debunked. Most don't believe that all civilizations must advance on one straight and arrow path in order to reach an elusive goal of perfection. Those ideas were built upon a racist ideology (like the one that you obviously hold) that placed western civilization as the pinnacle of development. Today, we'd call you a "racist" and a "ruthless dictator" and nations like the United States might invade you in order to save your people (and take control of your vast oil reserves). "Cracking heads" is not acceptable anymore... wait a second...wellll that's what they say anyways...
well, we can continue this conversation later... I got kind of carried away there. Thank you for your fan mail Peter the Great.
thanks to all the fans,
Jordan
*names, places, and questions in "FAN MAIL" posts may be changed or simply made up for the safety of the fans or to keep up the exciting nature of this blog.
Kyle from Kansas writes:
Hey, I was just wondering when you’re heading out for whatever the first step is in your MCC journey*
Well, Kyle, first of all, I really want to thank you for your generous support and enthusiasm for my blog. It's fans like you from which I draw my inspiration. I'll try and send you that autographed huipile soon. To answer your question though, I am leaving at 10 pm Friday evening for a week long orientation in Akron Pennsylvania. There I will meet up with former BC studs Peter Miller, Joel Krehbiel, and Caley Ortman. I also expect to see Andrea from Cambodia that some from my family may remember.
Jake from South Dakota writes:
Hey man, UR blog is AWESOME! I'm already super psyched about Guatemala and you are not even there yet! U R flipping amazing dude. I hope you are having an awesome time packing all your stuff in order to get ready for Central America.
Wow, Jake, your enthusiasm is a little bit scary. I am almost done with a pre-pack test. I think I can get all that I want into one large hiking bag, another medium size hiking bag, and my miniature green backpack.I could probably leave in 30 minutes and have everything I needed. SO I'm pretty happy about that. I'm bringing more nice clothes than I ever had in Kansas because, as a teacher, I will need to look semi-sharp. Right now I think I only have four T-shirts packed (3 being Run for Relief shirts), which is probably a record low for me. I literally have a dresser drawer and another medium sized duffel bag full of T-shirts here at home... and that's after giving away many T-Shirts back at school. I will usually pack 4 T-Shirts for a weekend trip. However, they say that there are lots of cheap clothes shops in Guatemala, so I figure I'll buy some shirts there and save space in my bags here. The main concern is really that I have enough underwear that I have 100% confidence in.
Peter the Great (1682-1725) from Russia writes:
Jordan, I see you are going on some travels of your own there, from the so called "United States" to a region of Spanish America which you call "Guatemala." Now as I recall, the captaincy of Guatemala (1609) was (in the Spanish administrative ladder) at the southernmost point of the vast territory designated a part of the viceroyalty New Spain. Beneath that began the viceroyalty of Peru, where I hear you have also spent a fair amount of time in the capital of Quito. Now I can understand Quito, being a center for Spanish administration, but I mean, you've gotta be kidding about Guatemala! That place is a backwater, I hear the Spanish have hardly conquered this area and even just to the North, in the Yucatan, the descendants of the ancient Mayan civilization is resisting religious and political domination (see Ambivalent Conquest)... no matter how many heathen ancient Mayan texts the Spanish burn.
In my own secretive journey through Europe I hit all the major centers learning and technology in order to help my backward Russia westernize. Now from your use of English, I gather your "United States" must be some part of the ever growing English empire. As a side note, in my day, I helped along Russia's dreams for empire by finally gaining a warm water port from which our great ships could begin to take part in the long distance trade that was driving the advance of capitalism throughout Europe. Long distance trade was very important, being a major factor in the advancement of banks, credit, bills of exchange, industry, investment, joint-stock companies, stock-exchanges etc etc. see The Wheels of Commerce v. 2 by Braudel. Anyways, in my journey through Europe I learned many great ways to improve my home country of Russia. I instituted a Table or Ranks to gain absolute control of the stupid aristocracy (kind of like Louis XIV in France) and instituted a tax on beards... all to push us towards Westernization. I may have had to, shall we say, crack a few heads to do it, but seriously, before I took over, you couldn't swing a dead cat in Russia without hitting someone with a beard.
So my question to you is, why go to a backwater of the Spanish empire? I mean Spain is already in decline, we all know about the English defeat of the "Armada Invencible" in 1598... I mean, read the writing on the wall, Spain is out! How are you going to learn to make your "United States" a great and powerful nation from an uncivilized speck within the failing Spanish Empire? I mean coooooome on!
Well Peter, first of all I have to say that I was supremely shocked and excited to get your email. That was really great. The United States is actually already a pretty powerful place, so, unlike you, I'm actually not going on a quest to learn from Guatemala in order to make the United States more powerful. Still, I think that there is a lot that we Westerners can learn from "backwater" and "uncivilized" places like Guatemala. Just because western society has come to dominate the world with a combination of military might and economic control doesn't mean that our ideas and cultural assumptions are somehow right, or truthful. I believe I can learn a lot from these people, descended (at least in part) from the Maya. You might not believe it, but in the year 2008, your enlightenment ideal of progress has been sort of debunked. Most don't believe that all civilizations must advance on one straight and arrow path in order to reach an elusive goal of perfection. Those ideas were built upon a racist ideology (like the one that you obviously hold) that placed western civilization as the pinnacle of development. Today, we'd call you a "racist" and a "ruthless dictator" and nations like the United States might invade you in order to save your people (and take control of your vast oil reserves). "Cracking heads" is not acceptable anymore... wait a second...wellll that's what they say anyways...
well, we can continue this conversation later... I got kind of carried away there. Thank you for your fan mail Peter the Great.
thanks to all the fans,
Jordan
*names, places, and questions in "FAN MAIL" posts may be changed or simply made up for the safety of the fans or to keep up the exciting nature of this blog.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Anatomy of a blog
To be quite honest, I have rather mixed feelings about starting a blog. My brother Elijah says it is "out of character," Kevin Neufeld wrote back pseudo-derisively to me, "What's next Jordan, a cell phone?" Well, perhaps. I do not think however, that somehow beginning a blog is some sort of turn around for me in regards to the negative feelings I sometimes hold towards things like cell phones and facebook. First of all I have never claimed to be totally against these things (though it seems like sometimes it comes off that way). What I do think, is that we should all be more aware of some negative effects I think these new forms of communication can potentially have:
1. the replacement of face to face communication/relationships with digital ones. What Shane Hipps equivocated with cotton candy.
2. The fostering of insecurity in our relationships
3. wasting my time
4. Making it far to easy to look towards the "then and there" rather than take advantage of the "here and now" (ie. always wanting to know what's going on somewhere else (in case a friend is doing something more fun than you) instead of focusing on what you're doing at the present.
etc.
ok enough of that soap box.
I am beginning this blog for both selfish and unselfish reasons. This blog work kind of like a journal for me (I hope) and will later in life serve as something to help spark my memories of my time in Guatemala. I hope that it will foster real connections and communications with friends of mine. I really like email communication with people. I hope that this blog will sometimes inspire people to write me emails about what and how they are doing. I don't want people to think that somehow comments on this blog can replace personal communication via email. I can be the kind of person who needs positive feedback, so if one enjoys reading what I have to say, I hope they tell me so every now and then, and respond with something about themself. Also I hope everyone understands that I will try to make sure that, no matter how much I miss home, I will always try to make sure that I keep my heart and mind in Guatemala. I do not want to be physically in Guatemala and mentally in the states. Ok, so maybe my reasons are mostly selfish. WEll, I mean, I suppose the enlightening of the ignorant masses is pretty much the height of self-sacrifice... but you know, I guess that's just part of being a servant-leader and "champion of character."
I have really enjoyed reading other peoples blogs and I think it can be a good way to keep up with people who are close to you.
The weird thing about blogging is that, like mass emails, they are generally 100% about the writer. It can start to feel really egocentric (my experience with mass-emails). ANd I guess basically is. The reason is that the only thing that all the people this blog puts me in conversation with have 100% in common... is me. Which means, basically, that me is all I can write about. So, again if you want more personal contact, I suggest emails.
The blog is good because nobody is forced to read it, and so only people who are genuinely interested will read it.
ok, I'm gonna go buy a watermelon with my dad.
Jordan
ps. I am not in Guatemala yet
pps. WHen I was a kid I was really good at picking out watermelons. Right now, I have self-doubt.
1. the replacement of face to face communication/relationships with digital ones. What Shane Hipps equivocated with cotton candy.
2. The fostering of insecurity in our relationships
3. wasting my time
4. Making it far to easy to look towards the "then and there" rather than take advantage of the "here and now" (ie. always wanting to know what's going on somewhere else (in case a friend is doing something more fun than you) instead of focusing on what you're doing at the present.
etc.
ok enough of that soap box.
I am beginning this blog for both selfish and unselfish reasons. This blog work kind of like a journal for me (I hope) and will later in life serve as something to help spark my memories of my time in Guatemala. I hope that it will foster real connections and communications with friends of mine. I really like email communication with people. I hope that this blog will sometimes inspire people to write me emails about what and how they are doing. I don't want people to think that somehow comments on this blog can replace personal communication via email. I can be the kind of person who needs positive feedback, so if one enjoys reading what I have to say, I hope they tell me so every now and then, and respond with something about themself. Also I hope everyone understands that I will try to make sure that, no matter how much I miss home, I will always try to make sure that I keep my heart and mind in Guatemala. I do not want to be physically in Guatemala and mentally in the states. Ok, so maybe my reasons are mostly selfish. WEll, I mean, I suppose the enlightening of the ignorant masses is pretty much the height of self-sacrifice... but you know, I guess that's just part of being a servant-leader and "champion of character."
I have really enjoyed reading other peoples blogs and I think it can be a good way to keep up with people who are close to you.
The weird thing about blogging is that, like mass emails, they are generally 100% about the writer. It can start to feel really egocentric (my experience with mass-emails). ANd I guess basically is. The reason is that the only thing that all the people this blog puts me in conversation with have 100% in common... is me. Which means, basically, that me is all I can write about. So, again if you want more personal contact, I suggest emails.
The blog is good because nobody is forced to read it, and so only people who are genuinely interested will read it.
ok, I'm gonna go buy a watermelon with my dad.
Jordan
ps. I am not in Guatemala yet
pps. WHen I was a kid I was really good at picking out watermelons. Right now, I have self-doubt.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Alternative title
I was just listening to the song "Bold as Love" by Jimi Hendrix... a song that has slowly become one of my favorites. Maybe even top ten. It's only big detraction is that I still don't really know what it means, but I think that's ok. Anyways, inspired by the song, I actually made a blog entitled Bold as Love, but then I thought, "wait a second... what if that means something that I don't want it to mean, and I don't even really know what I would want it to mean, and I am just being seduced by a song right now. I should not name a blog I am already embarrassed about making by a name that might be further embarrassing." So I used the handy back button on my computer and created this blog using a boring yet safe title. I think the other blog actually still exists though. oh well.
YOu know, I've noticed that I use the phrase "oh well" a lot and that also happens to be a title of a good Fiona Apple song... hmmmm, do I smell another blog coming on... just kidding. But seriously, might be a good title.
Anyways, three separate people have told me to make a blog (without my asking them if I should) and since then I have brought it up with a few people and they all seem encouraging. I think this is good because now I don't have to write mass emails, which are kind of an interesting genre of letter-writing, but rather difficult. Adam Gaeddert tells me that he simply can't right mass emails. So anyways, this is a good solution that isn't offensive to anybody, and will probably be kind of fun for me. so here goes.
YOu know, I've noticed that I use the phrase "oh well" a lot and that also happens to be a title of a good Fiona Apple song... hmmmm, do I smell another blog coming on... just kidding. But seriously, might be a good title.
Anyways, three separate people have told me to make a blog (without my asking them if I should) and since then I have brought it up with a few people and they all seem encouraging. I think this is good because now I don't have to write mass emails, which are kind of an interesting genre of letter-writing, but rather difficult. Adam Gaeddert tells me that he simply can't right mass emails. So anyways, this is a good solution that isn't offensive to anybody, and will probably be kind of fun for me. so here goes.
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