I Return!

So I'm back after a bit of a sabatical. I will be posting pics later today but let's just say that I went traveling this last week or so and, to put it mildly, some crazy things were seen and done. Look for updates tonight!

Doug Franz - Compiler of Stats, Writer of Blogs

Over at Semilla Nueva's blog, I put together some numbers and reflextions of Guatemala's Economy. It's an interesting read if you have any interest in seeing what kind of situation we deal with down here on a regular basis.

Things I Miss At Home - My Things

I am generally not a materialistic person. I don't buy lots of things or toys or electronics. That was part of what made leaving for Guatemala possible - I wasn't tied down by a whole lot. Occasionally, I've found myself thinking 'Man, things would be so much easier if I had this' or 'Wow, I never thought that would have come in handy.' But for the most part, Xela has everything that someone would need and I don't seem to be missing 'things' much. People, places, and experiences - yes, I miss them. But things, not so much.

Recently I've started feeling the creative bug that sweeps through me every once and a while. The need to express myself in some form, be it photography or guitar playing. While photography has helped fill this void, it can never take the place of music and guitar playing. With this being said, I present the 'thing' - aka materialistic item - that I miss the most:

This is my guitar. I am quite sad without her. I can't wait until the day that we are reunited. There is a decent acoustic down here that I get to use but it is really nothing compared to my baby at home.

Seriously though, I miss live music at home and real guitar playing - not this terrible salsa stuff, where every song sounds the same over and over again for 2 hours straight. Silly salsa.

Rave Green with Envy - The Hardest Day Away

In my entire 6 months of being away from my family, friends, and city, I can easily say that tomorrow will be the hardest day for me to miss. I've dreaded it like a college final that I didn't study for - you know it's coming but it'll happen no matter what you do and you just have to get through the day the best you can.

For most of my friends and family, what I'm talking about is pretty obvious. For the rest who are confused, let me clear it up for you - tomorrow is the first meeting first league meeting for the Seattle Sounders FC and Portland Timbers. It is the biggest rivalry in all of North American soccer, the biggest rivalry either of the cities of Seattle and Portland have, and one of the top 20 soccer rivalries in the world.

As a Sounders season ticket holder, one of the hardest decisions about leaving the States for 6 months was whether I wanted to miss this game. You would think 'Oh Doug, 6 months in Guatemala has got to be a greater experience than one soccer game.' And that's a valid point. However, it's not just a game - it's a full day of excitment, of true community unity over a love for one thing and a hate for another. It's an experience that I almost was willing to pay $800 to fly back and see. But now it's a day I will have to wait another year for. The hype and build up for this game has been unbelievable - every single pre-game converstation my friends and I had last season invloved some form of 'Man, I CANNOT wait 'til we play Portland next season. That's going to be amazing.' But ever since they released the schedule three months ago, I've dreaded tomorrow. Normally I read ever single blog and newspaper piece written about the Sounders - not this week. This week I've avoided the blogs and papers. I just can't handle reading about the hype. It just makes me too sad.

I'm not upset about coming to Guatemala. I'm really glad I came and in the long run, I will get to more Seattle-P*rtland games. In the long run, I will realize that this trip was important in my growth both personally and professionally. Until this realization somewhere down the line, tomorrow will suck. So to everyone at home - enjoy tomorrow. Somewhere far away from the madness, I will be sitting in my apartment - fully decked out in Rave Green, yelling obscenities at the ref, making fun of Portland for playing like a minor league tam still, and being the biggest Sounders fan Guatemala has ever seen.

Coming To America - Why People Do It

So let’s play a game – the following pictures show houses in the same community. Both are owed by amazing families. I personally have spent significant time in both. Both have at least 5 family members living in the residence. And the heads of the households are related to each other. But there is one major difference: one house has a family member who worked in the USA and the other didn’t. Any guesses which house is the house funded by working in America?

It’s pretty easy to see the difference. The first house (top picture) is owned by a family that has 9 children and at least 10 people living in the house at a time. It’s sufficient to cover heads during rain and provide space for eating, sleeping, and storage. The second house has 3 children and a total 5 people living there, including Don Cirilo, the house owner.

At 36, Don Cirilo already has an amazing family with his wife. But when he needed a bigger and better place, he somehow ended up in Massachusetts, just outside of Boston. I’m not aware of what means he took to get to the States, but he ended up busing tables for 2 years in a Mexican restaurant. One would assume that at best he made minimum wage although it likely was less. Cirilo returned to his family two years later, and was able to afford to build a nice house, mostly funded by his trip to the States.

What’s interesting about this case is just how far a poor paying job in America will go south of its’ borders. Cirilo likely could not have been able to pay rent in Boston suburb with his wages in Massachusetts, but back in Guatemala, he owns one of the nicer houses in his town. This is why people still risk their lives and come to America by any means possible; they dream of owning a better house, providing a better education for their children, or buying more land to farm on. Instead of sleeping on wooden plank beds that are built above a dirt floor, one can build a cement house, with real mattresses, a TV, and a refrigerator.

I’m not advocating illegal entry to the States. My point is that one must try to understand why people do what they do and these housing differences are a simple illustration to see why people come to America at all costs.

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.

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!