Journal
arrival
Antigua
Lake Atitlan
school
chicken bus
Copan
Santiago Atitlan
Independence Day
language school
orphanage
election
Irazu
Tela
holidays
Tikal
a
new year
Tegucigalpa
Monterrico
Lima
Semana Santa
Guanacaste
las Americas
Chichicastenango
Machu Picchu
year 2
Santiago
Sacatepequez
lake
weekend
UK
in winter
Comalapa
Caye Caulker
alfombra
Quito
El Salvador
Solola
Uspantan
year 3
mudslides
Panama
potters
devils
Patagonia
Carnival Trinidad
Rio Dulce
endings
Quetzaltenango
Semuc Champey
Galapagos
journey's end
Photos
Roatan
Colegio
Maya
a new year
14
enero
Roatan,
one of the Bay Islands off the Caribbean coast of Honduras, was a welcome
four day respite before school started again in mid January. Green and
tropical, with a calm bay, the West End is dotted with colorful hotels
(no high rises here), cute little shops, restaurants and bars, places
offering diving and snorkeling trips. I spent my time there with a friend
sea kayaking, swimming, snorkeling, walking, relaxing on the beach. Pet
monkeys kept by the hotel entertained the visitors staying there. Grilled
shrimp and fresh fruit smoothies made each meal a treat. The snorkeling
outing was definitely the highlight of the trip.
Ken, the young man who took us out, was proud to run his own company called Yush, the sound a boat makes. We anchored within view of the shoreline at West Bay between two coral reefs. The clear, warm water revealed extensive fanciful coral structures, invisible from the surface. I followed a school of blue tangs fluttering in and out of majestic fins and intricate patterns of coral, fat turquoise fish with rainbow stripes hiding in the depths of rock, and narrow sunshine yellow and royal blue plates of fish peaking out with yellow snouts to see if I’ve gone. I reminded myself when we returned to look up those fish somewhere and see what they are called, but never did.
24
enero
Our new presidente, Oscar
Berger, has been inaugurated and there have already been some interesting
developments. Portillo, the outgoing president, was found to have $50
million stashed away in bank accounts in Panama. Guatemala has asked the
UN to set up an office to help investigate human rights crimes in this
country. There are mixed feelings among the people on this one, having
given external investigators free reign to explore. I'm hoping it will
at least minimize the political murders and beatings of journalists and
politicians you still see here, the numbers increasing for the months
leading up to the elections, suspected by the military. The most hopeful
sign is that Berger has appointed Rigoberto Menchu (Nobel peace prize
winner and a leader of the indigenous people during the war) to advise
on the implementation of the 1996 peace accord agreements, ignored by
Portillo.
31
enero
This semester at school I’m teaching a new class - Graphic
Design / Yearbook. Unlike the usual group of computer gamers who sign
up for middle school computer classes, or the high school students who
must take the basic computer applications class I teach, this is a creative,
artistic and energetic group of young people and it has been a joy to
see them in action. With a little instruction in Photoshop (graphic design
software) and Freehand (layout software), diverse and imaginative double
page layouts are beginning to emerge. I’ve assigned each of the students
their own pages to design and given them the freedom to choose their own
fonts, photos from gigabytes of digital photos taken this year for the
school web site, and encouraged them to think "outside the box".
Some are out taking informal photos and collecting quotes from students
and teachers, some collaborating on inventive techniques for working with
digital photography. I’m tempted to sit down and design some of these
pages myself, but it’s their project!
16/48 
Photography
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