Holiday From Real: April 2011

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Bullet Points and Innocent!

So I'm not quite in the mood to completely write a whole blog. Or to think about a full fledged, witty and interesting write up. I just want to give a quick update on a few things that have happened in the last week or so, just to keep everyone up to date. So tonight, we shall go to bullets!

I almost got in a bar fight last week. We were drinking a beer, enjoying the evening, and some random El Salvadoreno (someone from El Salvador) came up, called my friend a 'clown', burned his arm with a cigarette, grabbed our beer bottle, and wound up to swing with it. Luckily, people intervened, the guy was removed and no one got hurt. Bar fight story: check.

Today is officially my 90th day in Guatemala. Tomorrow, I'm officially living illegally in Guatemala . So tomorrow I'm going to Mexico to renue my visa. Excited? No, not for about 10 hours of chicken buses, but maybe some Oaxacan food will brighten my spirits.

I salsa danced with 3 Guatemalan girls until 3:30a this morning. Speaking spanish, salsa dancing... Guatemala and I are slowly starting to rebuild our struggling relationship.

Starting in June, my photography will be displayed in a local cafe called El Cuartito. Hopefully I'll sell a few pieces and make a couple of bucks. We shall see.

While I was in Haiti, I met a kid named Innocent. This 'kid' really was 29, but he had some disabilities that made it impossible to understand his speech. This is beside the point. Innocent could at times be overwhelming but he had a huge heart and just wanted to be your friend. Earlier this month, he turned 30. Here's a link to an article about him and his birthday. Check out the picture of him and Molly in the article. Pretty awesome. Below is me and him in Kenscoff.

That's all I got for now. I promise promise promise that I will get up some new photos on the blog and a well thought out and written post early this coming week.

Monday, April 25, 2011

A Self Serving Post

Alright, I know I haven't posted anything in almost a week - it's been Semana Santa (Holy Week) and 95% of Guatemala shuts down and goes to the beach or the Lake. This includes me. I will go into further details about Semana Santa tonight or tomorrow but until then, I have a large request for anyone who wants to throw some information my way.

For you followers in the Seattle (including Tacoma and Port Orchard) and Portland areas, I was curious if anyone knew of any places that do rotating art/photography, like coffee shops or restaurants? I'm hoping to get some of my photos hung and displayed for sale when I return and I need to start inquiring soon. Email (dcfranz22@gmail.com) or Facebook any suggestions/ideas. Thanks everyone!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

El Clásico

At least twice a year in the soccer world, FC Barcelona plays Real Madrid FC in what is called "El Clásico". The two storied teams have one of the longest running and intense rivalries in all of sports, dating back to 1902 and being contested 240 times (with three more matches against eachother in the next month alone).

One thing you learn about living in a soccer crazy country like Guatemala is that you are either a Barca fan or a Real fan. Example: Here's an interaction I had recently:

Guatemalan friend - "Who's your favorite Spanish team?"

Me - "Oh, I like Valencia."

Guatemalan friend - "No, no who's your favorite Spanish team."

Me - "Uh...Valencia...?"

Guatemalan friend - "What? No. I mean, Spanish team. Barca or Real?"

Truth be told, I'm not a huge fan of either club but gun to my head, I'd go Barcelona any day. So with my brain not always thinking about soccer, I was unaware that El Clásico was on Saturday and I decided to take a walk with a few friends up to the local market and mall for lunch and to run a few errands. On the hike up there, nearly every other person I passed was wearing either a Barca or Real jersey (I'm not exaggerating. Literally, every other person). It dawns on me what is happening and I realize that I should try to find a TV to check the score when I could. This was not an issue...

The mall was in shut-down mode. Shoppers, workers, cooks, animals in the pet store... all watching Ronaldo vs. Messi. The scene was unreal. The food court was completely full of people taking breaks from work (I mean, some of these workers had closed their stores to watch the game).

We snagged a standing spot and checked out the action just in time to see a foul in the box and Ronaldo drive home a penalty kick to tie the game 1-1.

As the game ended, wild applause from both sides of fans (it was pretty evenly split, maybe a few more Barca fans) and within 3 minutes the food court was desserted. The whole scene was insane and I learned a valuable lesson: never forget what day El Clásico is when living in Central America. Today, they play again in La Copa del Rey. This time I'll be ready, rooting for Barca and arriving early enough to get a seat.

A Taste of Home

Grocery store visit last night to get some water, milk (unrefrigerated, from the shelf... that's a whole different story), crackers, and cookies. As I'm walking around, I notice this apple.

Delish looking right? Any guesses of where it was grown?

I'm oddly proud of the fact that Washington produces the best apples in the world, and also very sad to think about the craziness that is a Washington apple in a country that has an economy based so much on agriculture. But either way... WASHINGTON!!! I definitely smelled the apple, hoping to get a wiff of the Cascades, salmon, and Safeco Field. Alas, no luck. Still, nice to see a bit of home so far away.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Sun City Picture House - Documenting Haiti

During our time in Port-au-Prince, Rachel and I met Raphael, a Haitian who was in charge of the cholera tents we worked at. He was soft spoken but you could tell he was a highly respected leader. As I posted earlier in this blog, a fellow volunteer, Bryn Mooser, has spent a lot of time in Haiti filming a documentary, 'Sun City Picture House'. What I didn't know until recently was that the main focus of the film would be Raphael. I hope that eventually the movie gets screened somewhere in Seattle or Portland but until then, here is the trailer.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Saturday Morning Linkage

A few things to get to this fine Xelan morning...For those of you who have a profile on Facebook, check out some pics I posted on Semilla Nueva's profile. There is a 'Best of Field Work' and a 'Urban Garden.'

For those of you who are Facebook-less, there are some pictures of mine up on Semilla Nueva's blog right now, joining a great story about the urban garden my friend Sam wrote while he was here.

I'm off to take pictures of Xela, as I realized that I have hardly any and I need to take a few. There is some exciting news that I will announce in the coming weeks while details are worked out but let's just say that if you live in the Seattle area during the winter months, there is a good possiblity that you'll see some of my photos floating around in a gallery or two. I'll keep you updated. Until then, here's a couple of photos to hold you over...

Friday, April 15, 2011

Megapaca: Goodwill on 'Roids

So I confess - I'm not usually a big shopper. I tend to wear the same clothes for years and keep them completely clean and awesome because I'm anal about my stuff like that.

However when I arrived in Guatemala, one of the first things that was pointed out to me was this store that 'is like Goodwill but AMAZING!' I've always found Goodwill to be hit or miss - you can find some cool tee shirts in there, but its so few and far between, its hardly worth it. So I was hesitant to believe such hype. I was so so wrong.

MEGAPACA! The world's most awesome shopping place ever. My first venture into Megapaca had me so overwhelmed - 'how can this be 24 cents?' and 'why are there H&M jackets here?' - I left with only one shirt that didn't really fit and I only wear it when I'm working on the coast. Yet, I returned a week or so later and with a clearer head, I dug through all the racks and racks of clothes, finding deal after deal.

Basically what happens is that Megapaca buys clothing from retailers and Goodwill by the pound, then resells everything for super cheap. I mean, think about it: they spend $2 on a pound of clothing that inclues 2 jeans and 5 t shirts. They can then sell one pair of jeans for $5 and already be up profits-wise. This is a fantastic deal for Megapaca and for the consumer (aka Gringos from the States!).

Here is a little taste of what I've bought down here in Megapaca -

The baseball shirts are both from the late 80s, which I guess if you went into Buffalo Exchange you'd pay atleast $5 for. The button up shirt would be around $30 in Urban Outfitters or H&M. And the jeans... best deal ever. They had the tags still on from Zumiez - normally around $40. The socks I don't know how much they would be normally but let's say about $10 for soccer socks and $2 for 'themed' regular socks. So a total of around $80 worth of clothes for only $13.50. Blows my mind.

Here are some other things to look at to compare Guate prices to States prices -

Public Transportation - Seattle = $2.50 vs. Guate = $.15
Big Mac Meal - Seattle = $4.59 vs. Guate = $4.12
Movie Tickets - Seattle = $12.00 vs. Guate = $3.12
Movie Popcorn - Seattle = $6.00 vs. Guate = $3.12
Soccer Tickets - Seattle = $18 vs. Guate = $5
Rent - Seattle - Seattle = $350 (not including internet/utl.) vs. Guate = $105 (including internet/utl.)
Bottle Return (Beer Bottles) - Portland = $0.05 vs. Guate = $0.50
Obnoxious Rave Green Sunglasses - San Francisco = $10.00 vs. Guate = $4.50

This list can go on for days. Things are cheaper here. I'm not saying that it makes Guatemala better than the USA but I'm saying its cheaper to live here. Especially with Megapaca in my life.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Random: Southerners - Lazy or Too Hot?

Interesting randomness of the day... according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, there is a strong correlation between how hot a state is and how much its residents work out. Alaska, Washington, Oregon: cold and active. Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama: hot and lazy.*

*To all the Southerners I've offended, my apologies.

Journey to the Top of the Earth

...well not quite to the top of the earth but still. A week ago it was decided by Brenda, Geralda, Agnethe, and I that climbing Santa Maria, one of the bigger volcanoes (inactive) in the area, would be a fun idea. Sure, it can't be that hard.

I wake up at 4:30am, already feeling like this was going to be a rough day. After a short micro bus ride, we make it to the base of Santa Maria. As we walk to the first path, we see a giant Coca-Cola stage and banners. Apparently there is a gaint hike/race up the mountain planned that day and we would have to wait for another hour and a half and pay Q200 ($24). The gaurd refuses to make an exception for us and insists on the Q200. This sounds like a terrible idea but what else are we going to do? I didn't get up at 4:30am to not get up the mountain.

Luckily our bus driver found a random Guatemalan woman who knew a back way that would take us further up the trail. Under the cover of fog, we follow our sherpa into the fields and mist. We find ourselves back on the main trail only 50 yards away from the security gaurd with a shotgun. After a nervous 5 more minutes, we are safely further up the mountain away from armed Guatemalans.

The hike takes us nearly 5 hours to get near the top. While Brenda and Agnethe are full of spirit and energy, Geralda and I are taking it easy, creeping up the mountains at a nice, slower pace. It was rough and 3 days later, I'm still hurting, but once we reached the top, it made all the pain and sweating completely worth it.

The view was fantastic. The clouds hindered our ability to see some of the other mountains but sitting on the rocks, feeling above everything... purely amazing. We ate lunch and took pictures and treked back down the mountain. The trip back down took another 4 hours or so. This part was WAY more difficult due to the dusty trails and it was almost like skiing down the mountain. I might have fallen a few times...

A hard day of hiking, my first mountain climbed, sherpas, shotguns - only in Guatemala.

Friday, April 8, 2011

A Non-Travel Post in Honor of Dave Niehaus

Ok, so I won't make a habit of posting things that have nothing to do with my traveling, my studies, or photography. However, this I couldn't not post.

As a kid growing up near Seattle and a Mariners fan, I was raised with the voice of Dave Niehaus; he was the comforting sound that always accompanied summer. It hurt everyone back at home in November when he passed away and left the Mariners voiceless and I would almost say, spiritless. He was the Mariners.

As tonight is the home opener for the M's, I thought I should post a video that has been around a bit but I think it only fitting that I throw it up here in honor of Dave.

My New Project

Feeling completely uninspired today, I decided that I needed to try something new to excite myself. And because I'm always looking for new projects to undertake with my photography, I've settled on a creative new undertaking. Starting tomorrow, I'm going to take a photo everyday for a whole year. April 9th 2011 until April 8th 2012. This isn't a new concept and I mean I've even tried it in the past but got busy and ininspired. That's why I'm posting about it - if I tell people I'm going to do it, I have to do it. I can't back out. My original attept at this became tasking cause I was printing out every photo and pasting them in a book. That's what killed my motivation. This time, round two, I have a new plan. This time I'm just going to be lazy and create a digital photo book and have someone else (aka MyPublisher or Costco) create the book for me. It will give me more time to concentrate on my photo taking. I wish I had started this earlier this year, when I was in Haiti. But April 9th is a nice day to start. Tons of important things have happened on April 9th. On April 9, 1865 General Lee surrendered to General Grant ending the U.S. Civil War. In 1912, the first baseball game was played in Fenway Park. It was announced that Patrick Duffy's character on the TV show Dallas would be returning after being killed off in 1986. Amazing things have happened on April 9th, so I figure its a good day to start. I think this project will be a nice way to see how this year plays out. It'll give me perspective on what's important to me and also a reason to take pictures. Day one - pictures on a volcano in Xela (aka I'm going hiking tomorrow).

Monday, April 4, 2011

Explaining Cero Labranza

For those of you who are interested in the more technical/agricultural side of what Semilla Nueva does in Guatemala, here's a post I wrote for their blog along with some of my pictures.

Things I Miss At Home - Good Beer

So I still plan on writing a more complete postings about all the amazing things back in the States that Guatemala is missing out on but here's a start: good beer. Yes, I live in the greatest beer area of America, the Pacific Northwest. This gave me a new beer to try every time I went out out with friends to a new brewery, bar, or restaurant. One could literally drink a beer a night and never repeat the same beer for an entire year. There is that many choices. Here in Guatemala... not so much.

The main brewery is Cerveceria Centro Americana, or better known as Gallo. They are the Budweiser of Guatemalan beer. Their makes Gallo, Victoria, and Moza. Gallo is mostly sold in liters for about $2, depending on where you buy it. Advertised as a pale lager (think Coors Light, PBR, Bud Light, etc.) it's cheap, gross, and full of chemicals. The chemicals is only a guess because no matter how little one drinks, it gives you a pretty funky hangover the next day, even after on ly one beer. Moza, made by the same brewery, is a 'dark bock' (it's even spelled 'bier' on the label - it must be German!) but it tastes just like a Gallo with food coloring to make it look different. There is Moza Gold, which tends to have some flavor and after you sip it, you can tell that there is something to it, just barely. Its a little pricier but worth it if you wanna drink something resembling beer.

Xela also is home to Cabro. Locals are proud to call it "Xela's Beer" because its made in Xela and shares it's name with the local town mascot (and soccer team nickname - "Superchivos"), a goat. However, it is brewed in the Gallo Brewery in town and tastes virtually the same. I'm not even sold on the fact that it isn't Gallo bottled with a different label. At least in the States you can tell the difference between most cheap beers, like PBR and Coors Light. Here, it's all the same. There is also a generic pale lager called Brava, but I've never actually seen anyone drink it and I suspect its even lower on the beer food chain, as far as taste and prestige, than Gallo and Cabro. The country also imports a fair amount of Mexican beer, mainly Sol, Corona, and Negro Modela. They are pricier but overall tastier than anything Guatemala has to offer.

At home, I have a mini fridge of about 10 beers that are my 'classy stash' - beers that are harder to find, better tasting, and best drank on special occasions. My stash includes: multiple years of Deschutes 'The Abyss', Silver City 'Old Scrooge', Russian River 'Pliney the Elder', and a few Oskar Blues Brews, just to name a few. Here in my fridge in Xela, my 'classy stash' is a half gone 6 pack of Negro Modela. That is just sad. As a home brewer and connoisseur of beers (that sounds very self inflated but I think I can claim to know a fair amount about beer tasting and brewering), I don't drink beer to get drunk; I drink beer to enjoy the finer tastes and craftmanship that goes into making a great pint. It is just one of the things I love to do at home. And I never realized until I got here how my quality of life significantly drops off without good brews. It's an adjustment I've made and one that I will live with until August. But you will never find a happier moment than when the first pint hits my lips August 5th. I count the days.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Revisiting Haiti

No, I'm not going back. Not yet at least. But I still want to continue to follow the progress of those who I met down in that amazing country and keep others posted on a few things that are still happening. First I recently started sponsoring a kid that I met down in Kenscoff. His name is Jeffery Pierre. In my opinion, he was hands down the friendliest kid we met at the NPH orphanage, taking time to talk to Rachel and I and seemed generally interested in being our friend. He also LOVED my hair, as you can see in the picture below (he's the one petting me). I hope to return to Haiti, if/when Rachel goes back, and visit him.

While spending time in Port-au-Prince, I had the chance to meet and talk with a guy named Bryn Mooser. I've mentioned him before on the blog, so my long time readers probably recognize the name. He and a friend have spent a large amount of time working in Haiti, shooting footage for their website and documentary that they were putting together. I recently was forwarded this video put together by Bryn and his friend, showing their attempt at the first Little League team in Haiti. The idea is a bit whacky in comparison to what Haitians really need, but its a good idea to give kids an outlet for fun, away from the horrors that fill their daily lives. Plus, its a beautifully crafted clip.

Bryn is a bit of a hipster from LA but he is doing good work in a place that needs it and that's all that anyone can ask: that people take initiative, go out, and try to make the world a better place.

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