Speaking of immigration...

Here's an NPR story on the perilous journey up from Central America through Mexico with the hope of eventually making it to the U.S. Please note that this journey will just become more dangerous as Guatemala continues to face increasing violence related to drug trafficking. It's a reality that many of the kids I work with may face one day/are facing now.

Just an FYI. And because I love NPR.

On a more light-hearted note

This has nothing at all to do with Guatemala. I am sitting at home in bed, not feeling so hot (but on the mend) and because I am still in my first week of having internet at my fingertips, I have been surfing the web. I can't even begin to explain how I've been jumping from one topic to another. One of my recent pursuits has been organizing my online bookshelf and going through the books I've read lately. I came across Anne of Green Gables, which I reread for maybe the fifth time last year, and learned that it's hundredth anniversary has come and gone (in 2008). Then I came across an article by Margaret Atwood, written for this anniversary. Here is the article: 'Nobody ever did want me'. The article is a few years old, but, as she mentions, Anne really has stayed the same.

Atwood briefly mentions various commemorative items that came out to celebrate the anniversary. I would especially love to have a talking doll that says, "'You mean, hateful boy! How dare you!' followed by the sharp crack of a slate being broken over a thick skull, or else, 'I hate you - I hate you - I hate you! You are a rude, unfeeling woman!'"

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!

There and Back Again

Well, I have been on the road a lot the past two weeks. Traveling to the States is kind of a long trek for me. I mean, it was only a four-hour bus ride to Antigua, an early morning (4 a.m.) 45-minute shuttle to the airport, a three-hour flight to Houston, going through customs, an hour left of my layover, another 3-hour flight to Cleveland, and then an hour in the car home. It was pretty exhausting. And, I managed to pick up bed bugs in my hostel in Antigua--I was even staying at one of the few places left that supposedly didn't have bed bugs--which sucked once I got home and had to store everything, including the pile of souvenirs I had bought for my family, in plastic bags in the garage.

I was only home for about a day and a half before we headed to Columbus for my sister's graduation ceremony. It was a bit unreal because there were 9,700 graduates and everyone (minus the PhD grads) graduated en masse. At least we got to sit in the fancy seats in the stadium. I did get pretty badly sunburned though. Stupid sunscreen I applied multiple times failed.

A few hours after my sister graduated, we were on the road to West Virginia, where we spent the night before heading to the Outer Banks in North Carolina. After a total of 15 hours from Columbus, we met up there with my aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends and had a nice, relaxing family reunion. I ate lots of good food (tuna, fried fish, hush puppies, ice cream, fudge, chips, etc.) and got to wade around in the sound and the ocean.

Then fifteen hours to Columbus, two more hours to home, and three days before heading back to Guatemala. My flight from Houston to Guate was delayed four hours so I didn't make it back to site until yesterday afternoon after a lovely three-hour bus ride sitting across the aisle from a boy throwing up every fifteen minutes or so. After getting back, I had enough time to throw my stuff down in my house before I had to head into the city to meet with another volunteer. Then back to visit with my host family and meet with my partner and finally home. Now I plan to stick around here and relax, hopefully getting rid of this feeling of exhaustion that has settled in over the past two weeks. A vacation like the one I just took is a little too much time in cars and traveling and not enough time sitting around doing nothing. Good thing feria is going on here so I don't have any classes.

Now I've caught everyone up in a fairly boring post.

In the process of...

...killing off bed bugs and itching all of the bedbug bites on my feet, legs, arms and back. So much for wearing a nice dress to my sister's graduation. Will get back to writing a new blog post soon (hopefully).