Photos of Mayan women

Here's an article with some great photos from the Associated Press: Vintage box camera portrays Mayan women. One of the girls pictured is from my town. Though the black and white photographs are really quite beautiful, it doesn't show the beautiful colors of Mayan women's dress. But I think that sometimes the vibrant colors distract from the face, which is the centerpiece of each photo here.

Just wanted to share it with you all. Have a great afternoon/evening!

Photography and Immigration

Here are some beautifully stark photos from Mexico: People of Clouds

(Read the article first and then scroll down to the see the photos).

Although my town here in Guatemala hasn't seen nearly as much migration as the Mexican town of San Miguel Cuevas, some of the images are similar-mainly the ones dealing with planting and harvesting corn. I thought these images especially highlighted the fact that the elderly and children are the ones left behind, with the elderly grandparents caring for their grandchildren as the generation in between struggles to find work in the States.

Immigration is something I think about quite often. People occasionally ask me my thoughts on immigration, mainly wondering whether or not I agree with the strict measures put in place in Arizona and now Alabama. I'm going to hold off giving opinions and instead remember a young girl I got to know a bit last year. She goes to one of my schools up the mountain and I remember her firstly because I saw her shopping with her mom and sister in the supermarket in the city and she stopped and said hi. The next time I saw her, she was at school and we talked about her friends and family. She said she didn't have many friends, which made me sad. I had my camera that day so we took lots of pictures, and she is in some of them, kind of standing apart from the rest of us. I saw her a few more times before the end of the year. This year when I went back, I looked for her-I could still remember her face-expecting her to find me in the crowd at recess and say hi. But, I didn't see her. Towards the end of my visit, her sister came up to say hi and I asked where her older sister was. She told me she had gone to the States with their mother to be with their father. I was somewhat horror-stricken, images from the movie "Sin Nombre (excellent movie) running through my head. I can't imagine how horrible the trip can be for adults, let alone ten-year-old children, especially with escalating violence here in Guatemala and in Mexico. Her sister told me that they made it safely to the States, but I wonder how much emotional toll the trip took on her. I hope and pray that she is living as normal a life as possible in the States and that the whole family will eventually be reunited.

With her story in mind, I could never say that I hate immigrants. I would have never said that before anyway. I simply respect the fact that people are willing to take risks to find a better life for themselves and for their families. I know that jobs are scarce and the economy is still struggling in the U.S., but even on our worst days, our lives are still much more comfortable and stable than many south of the border.

That's all. Have a good weekend and happy (almost) Independence Day!

A little cambio

So I decided to change things up a bit. My blog's been kind of boring for a while and in need of a makeover. Since Yuna kindly left me her Tigo stick (modem), I've been using the internet in lieu of my daily reading (and other activities) and the design tab on my blog just seemed like the right thing to click on today. I spent a while searching through all of these attractive backgrounds and settings to get things to be just right. Or at least they're just right for now. I'll probably get bored with it in a week or so. Also look for more frequent updates-once I have internet for good (hopefully soon), I hope to update as kind of a catharsis. Things are always happening here in Guatemala and I need somewhere to store thoughts to reflect on once I'm out of Guate/Peace Corps.

Anyway, the picture is one I took last week while visiting a school. One of my favorite parts of the day is spending recess time with the kids, which sometimes I can't do if I'm meeting with teachers. Lucky for me the teachers at this school were meeting about feria stuff and I wasn't included in this, so I went with some of the girls to watch the school's small marching band prepare a musical number to play over and over again when marching in the parade in June. We soon got bored of watching the band essentially march a few steps and then argue over who was doing what wrong, so we just headed down the road and talked. I had my camera so the girls asked me to take pictures, so I took some posed shots and then candid shots and the picture above is one of the results. Trying to put bunny ears on someone in photos is not foreign here, so the girls were attempting it with both hands until choking the victim became necessary and morphed from bunny ears into one moose antler (or something like that). I love how much joy there is in the girls' faces-we really were having lots of fun.

I'm also finding blogs to read just to stay informed of the important stuff going on in the world, as well as some not so important stuff, like this blog article on Facebook courtship and how it mirrors courtship rituals from years ago: Jezebel: Facebook's Antique Courtship Rituals. Just something interesting to ponder for a second or two, and then move on with your life. Also, getting ready to fly again (16 days!) made me appreciate this: The Oatmeal: Airplane. And, from Information is Beautiful, OECD Better Life Initiative Index, a really pretty way of finding out where in the world life is better in different areas like safety, health and education. And talking about blogs, anyone have anything good to recommend? I'm interested in pretty much everything (minus technical stuff I wouldn't understand).

Also hoping to upload more pictures, will start with any new photos I take. That's all for now. I need to make some posters for my school visit tomorrow. I guess I will leave you with one photo of a poster I made for a school visit from last week:

Not the best picture, but just illustrating a really great teacher comment from last week. The question was: What does one do with trash? The answer: Gift it to your neighbor. I really love making posters, especially when it provokes good discussion.