Guate trip I

Da Guate

It’s always good to be here, and renewing, even at a time like this when my heart is pulled strongly toward the US. With my dad in the hospital and my baby boy getting ready to make his grand appearance, there’s a lot to feel and think about these days. Hugs and songs from Guatemalan children, though, go a long way toward reminding me why I’m here.

Thanks, by the way, for the good wishes regarding Dad. He’s scheduled for bypass surgery on Tuesday, so this is a time of waiting, mostly.

The main purpose of this trip to Guatemala is to introduce my friend John Smith to the work we’re doing here. John’s one of the few people I know who actually does more shows in a given year than I do, and I think he’ll do a great job spreading the word about PEG while I head off on my fellowship.

Da Guate

John and some children in Chacaya

John spends a lot of time in Ireland but hasn’t really need anywhere like Guatemala before. We’ve spent the first couple of days checking in on two projects where PEG has made some contributions, and buying some school supplies for a third project where PEG has been integral.

We touched down a half-hour late in Guatemala and were greeted by a Mayan man named Nicolas in a Chinese-built mini-mini-van with a spider web crack in the windshield. Nicolas navigated the darkness, the potholes, the perros and late night middle-of-the-street soccer games for four hours, talking US politics for most of the way (he’s excited about the idea of a US president who knows something first-hand about poverty and how most of the world lives, and seems to really care about it).

A little after 11 (1AM on the east coast) Nicolas and his micro-van delivered us to the Posada de Santiago at Lago Atítlan, where we’ll base for the next four nights. The folks at the Posada had left some food to be heated up when we arrived, so we ate ravenously and gratefully fell into our beds, listening to the rain and an occasional avocado landing on the roof.

Da Guate

We headed down to the dock on Friday morning and caught a boat across the inlet to Chacaya, where PEG recently helped build a new school. Our original intent last summer was to build the building, but as it turned out a larger organization with deeper pockets showed up and built a gorgeous facility while we were still chewing on plans and gathering funds.

Da Guate

The folks from Chacaya got in touch with some concern to let us know they had this opportunity, and I was happy to reassure them that we weren’t the least bit worried about turf and were thrilled that the kids were going to have a good school building.

The land they had bought with assistance from Sharing the Dream is very steep, though, and as it turned out they needed to build a strong retaining wall to make sure their beautiful new school didn’t wash down into the lake. We agreed to take on the retaining wall, and after gathering a few bids and talking through the details, it was built this summer with money from PEG.

More specifically, that money was raised for PEG by Jason Haney and Eric Keen, who cycled all the way across Canada last summer as a fundraiser. They covered 4000 miles in 37 days and raised $12,000 in the process. The retaining wall required about two-thirds of that, so along with celebrating the new wall and the new building, John and I met with two men from the parents’ committee that runs the school to talk about what their current needs are and how best to spend the rest of the money that the cyclists raised.

The parents’ committee is going to talk it over and gather some information, then be in touch with us to present ideas. It looks like one likely scenario is to buy some desks, of which they are certainly in need (kids are sitting on the floor in some classes because there aren’t enough seats). Another possibility is to work on erosion problems on the side of the school where the road comes up (using the term ‘road’ rather loosely).

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I shot this picture of a girl in the village. It centers me to think that with an education she may be able to expand her options beyond this kind of work.

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This was John’s first glimpse of a project we’re working on, and he found it deeply moving and encouraging. The parents’ committee has worked with three different organizations to make this school a reality, and it is powerful to see the result.

That was day one, and a solid start. More adventures tomorrow.

Da Guate

Fathers and Sons and Guatemala

US Airways Flight 1831, Charlotte to Miami

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Touching down in Miami

It’s extraordinary to realize that I woke up in Missouri yesterday, in Black Mountain, North Carolina today, and will wake up in Santiago, Atitlan, Guatemala tomorrow, after spending brief moments in Asheville, Charlotte, Miami and Guatemala City. Even for me, that’s a pretty dense forty-eight hours, especially given that there were twelve hours of driving included.

I’m just glad I don’t have to fly the plane.

I feel like I’m covering about that much emotional ground, too. I’ll be in Guatemala for just six days, but this is my last trip away for more than a weekend before I hang up my mic cables. Deanna is due in five weeks, and though there’s no reason to imagine that Thumper will join us before he’s expected (Nov. 20), it’s a little scary to be away.

Still, I love being in Guatemala— the children, the avocados, the schools and the sense that we really are making a difference— and this will be my last trip there for some time since we’re moving to Australia in January.

Then there’s the fun of introducing my friend John Smith to Guatemala. John’s a good buddy and someone I really admire, both as a songwriter and as a human being. His songs go right to my heart, and the hearts of many other people, for that matter. He’s kind of like a human multi-vitamin; I find that spending time with him makes me feel better in all sorts of ways, and makes me generally healthier.

A few (maybe ten?) years back, John, Chris Rosser and I did a run of shows together up through New England. We called it the Bad Boy Tour, given that all three of have reputations for being kind of mean, nasty, rude people.

OK, not really. But we couldn’t call it the Nice Guy Tour. The eleventh and twelfth shots here are of John, me and Chris on the Bad Boy Tour. Chris is the tall one, and we eventually figured out that the shot would work best if he was on the bottom step.

As we trekked north toward Boston in Dan the Tan Van, we started giving each other points for anything ‘bad’ we did— yelling at other cars in traffic, salty vocabulary, etc. I was firmly in the lead by the end of the trip. Or maybe I lost. I’m not sure we ever decided whether it was like golf or like basketball — were we trying to get more points or fewer?

At any rate, all that to say he’s a good guy. And he’s the one PEG has invited to come to Guatemala and have some first-hand experience there in order to tell stories at shows and raise a little money for the schools we work with.

John tours pretty constantly, like me, so we had some trouble finding a time we could both go down, and these six days were the most we could carve out. The timing’s not ideal, given that some schools are getting out around now in Guatemala, and not all the ones we work with will be in session, but it should be a good introduction to the work we’ve been doing, and a good first trip down.

Of course, the proximity to Thumper’s arrival makes it tough for me, but I had no way of knowing that it wouldn’t be the toughest part of leaving this time.

A couple of days ago my Dad, John LaMotte, was taken to the hospital with some tightness in his chest. He had sextuple bypass surgery (yep, six) twenty-one years ago. He has been off all the charts in his recovery (in the good direction), walks three miles a day, and is certainly the healthiest seventy-seven-year-old I’ve ever met. He built a rock wall in the back yard recently. You get the idea.

Still, it’s scary stuff, given the history.

The first word we got from the docs after they checked him out yesterday morning was that they might just put him on some beta blockers and such and try to treat the new blockages with drugs. The down side of that would be that he would have to live a life of less activity.

There are people in the world who could live that way and be OK. My Aunt Evelyn was one. She lived pretty quietly for many years and was pretty happy. I might be OK that way myself. Dad, not so much.

This morning my dad called while I was literally sitting on the plane in Asheville waiting to take off and let me know they’ve decided to do bypass surgery instead, and they expect to need three of them. I can’t help but remember when he went in twenty-one years ago and they told us there was a chance they might need to do as many as four.

They did six.

Dad sounds good, and clear on the decision. I’m on board too. It’s scary. There’s real danger here. But Dad wouldn’t be happy, and wouldn’t be Dad, if he weren’t vigorous and vital.

I want very much for my father to know my son. And I want my son to know my father even more. He’s quite a role model and a wise counselor. One whose shoes I’ll never fill (it’s good, I guess, that I have my own shoes).

So if you’re the kind that says prayers, we welcome them. If you’re more about sending love and Light, please do that. To me, that’s pretty much the same thing.

And in the meantime, I’m heading to Guatemala, with a big part of my own heart heading in the other direction. I’d really like to be there with the family, and if John Smith weren’t flying south on his first trip there, I’d be on a plane home instead. Dad felt strongly that I should go, though, so off I go.

Mom and Dad came to Guatemala with me last year, which was an extraordinary trip. They bounced down washed out dirt roads with me to visit schools and explored on their own in Antigua, making their own friends. There’s a shop owner there who still asks about them by name each time I visit. They get why I’m there.

I’ll post more updates as the trip goes on. Thanks for reading, for the time and for the support I know you’ll send because you always have.

paz, justicia y salud,
David

Guatemala II: El Tejar Music Program

And now the updates about the actual work…

On Tuesday we met up with John Van Keppel in Antigua and headed to the pueblo of El Tejar, where the CEDIN school has a music program that PEG funded in cooperation with LEAF International. John works for an organization called Child Aid, which supports this school. I know that’s lots of organizations to keep track of, but hang with me. It’s good to recognize everybody who is doing this work.

What we’re doing there: PEG bought a bunch of instruments last year about this time and pays the salaries for a teacher and an assistant teacher to teach music to middle school aged kids. We also bought some instruments for the elementary aged kids who are in a Montessori-style program, and this year, we’re paying for a couple of field trips to Guatemala City so that the students in the band program can visit the conservatory there and be mentored by professional musicians. LEAF and PEG have split all of these costs right down the middle.

All of the children at CEDIN are poor and are able to attend school only because of scholarships.

Update: Folks at the CEDIN school are feeling particularly proud right now because a graduate of the music program recently won first place in a regional music contest in Chimaltenango, where she’s now going to school.

On our visit Tuesday we were entertained with a wonderful concert in which children from each grade level performed, even the littlest ones.

I played a song, too, showing the kids how guitars can also be used as drums (yes, I explained the rule: you’re only allowed to play drums on a guitar if it’s YOUR guitar).

One expects these kids’ concerts to be cute, but it’s always an amazing surprise when they’re not only cute, but GOOD!

One other bit of exciting news regarding this program is that the parents of students in the music program have gotten so excited about it that they’ve been bringing in donated building supplies as they can and have gotten pretty far toward building a music room on the second floor of the school. This picture is the result of a year’s worth of donated materials. It’s always good to see people taking ownership and partnerships being exactly that.

Stay tuned for more trip news…

Back in Guatemala

I woke this morning to the familiar sound of a long string of fireworks going off below my window. It was about 6:30, and it’s interesting that it no longer startled or surprised me. Guatemalans love fireworks and in Antigua they celebrate by setting them off first thing in the morning most mornings.

Four years ago, when Deanna and I first came to Guatemala on our honeymoon, I remember asking our friend and host, Tere, what that noise was each morning. She explained that it was celebratory fireworks, but we were still confused. “Every morning?” Deanna asked, and Tere replied “Well, it’s always somebody’s birthday.”

Today the fireworks are to celebrate Día del Padre, or Father’s Day. This is my first year to be featured in any way in Father’s Day, so it’s fun to get to celebrate it twice. My own father and mother took me to the airport Sunday morning and we got to have a bit of Father’s Day breakfast in the states before I flew here.

I’m traveling with my long-time friend Caroline Craig Proctor, who will be the new director of PEG when I move to Australia in January, and her husband Alan. It’s good to be personally introducing Caroline to some of the folks she’ll be working with, and renewing some relationships that she already has here. Caroline first came to Guate in 1988, and has been down several times since then. She’s been on the board of PEG since we first formed a board, and will be great in this new role.

Sunday afternoon we met up with Dennis Smith, who has been one of my strongest mentors in this work, at his home in Guatemala City. We had a good time sharing some stories, music and wonderful food, as well as gaining a better perspective on current events and history in Guatemala. Dennis is a knowledgeable and wise man, and it’s always a privilege to have some time with him.

We got to Antigua later that night and settled in at Tere’s house, then went out to La Peña del Sol Latino for some dinner. La Peña is one of my favorite places to spend time in Antigua. The house band recognizes me when I walk in, and I have to admit that it’s fun to be a regular at a music club in Antigua. After dinner they asked me to play a song, and I enjoyed that.

Yesterday was mostly a day to run some errands, meet up with a few people and catch our breath. We stopped by Probigua school, whom we’ve partnered with on a couple of projects (the library expansion at Pedro Molina school in El Tejar and the children’s section at the library in Tecpan). Caroline had a good conversation with Rigoberto, the founder and director of Probigua.

We also had lunch with some former students of Caroline and Alan’s, here as year-long Young Adult Volunteers with the PCUSA. One of them mentioned that the kids at her school were having a hard time just getting the money together to buy pencils, so PEG bought her 300 pencils to take back to the school.

Last night we attended a Mayan cleansing ceremony, and it was my first time to witness one. It was fascinating, and I’m glad we fit it in. Paco, who was being blessed in the ceremony, is also part of the band at La Peña, and assured me it was fine to take pictures, which I thoroughly enjoyed doing.

Today we’ll be visiting the music program we started last year at the CEDIN school in El Tejar. This project is funded in partnership with LEAF International, and organized by Child Aid. It’s great to partner with other organizations on some of these projects and network since we don’t have organizational staff on the ground. By tonight we’ll be in Santiago Atitlan, and the next couple of days will be full with meetings and checking in on projects at the Lake.

I’m looking forward to standing again in the places where our work is having a tangible impact, seeing the faces of the kids. And, of course, it’s good to be back in the land of the world’s best guacamole.