Bridges in Guatemala

Eileen Teaches Kevin to Juggle

I looked through my pictures to try to find something that no one else might have photographed; Eileen told me later that she hadn't gone down there for that purpose.         Marty

Building Bridges with Schools in the States

At the grand Atitlan Film Festival the kids each posted the maps they share with a pen-pal school in the US.  These include drawings of Religion, Food, Language, Culture, Clothing, and Language.

Another prong of Bridges is to increase cross-cultural understanding among kids in the US.

- Matt

Festival Fliers Around Town

Friday morning

Jeff jumped into gear once the band was confirmed for the Film Festival.  The kids pulled the photos and Jeff worked with Warner to create the fliers.  By morning they were posted around town.

- Matt

The week in 20 seconds

The week came to a crescendo with the Saturday Evening Film Festival in the Santiago Atitlan ampitheater.

The intensity and hard work paid off.  The kids, their families, and many folks from the town seemed to have a good time.  A few shots from the week....

- Matt

A few shots while we're catching up

OK, we're behind on the posts but they're coming.

A few shots of the past days:

Werner, Fotokids Sound Guru and photographer from Guatemala, lugging Erik's camera

Hard at work on the production

David's dad at the "Film Festival".  David was the star of the boys' film.

And the band that came together hours before the show.

Looking out on Lake Atitlan from the hotel

- Matt

Guatemala Girls Unite!

The task seemed overwhelming.  How do you take 1600+ photos and edit them down to 30?  Somehow, the girls worked together and knew exactly what they wanted to say through their photos. 
  The only skill I contributed to this process was the ability to toggle between photos.  They did all the rest and VERY fast.  We were finished in one morning.

-- Margaret

Thanks to Sara for capturing this moment.

Giggle girls

These are the giggle girls.  We have split up into two groups to make 2 final multi-media projects -- the girls and the guys.  These are our girls that we are working with who can be both silly and serious, smart, quick to learn, and patient with those of us who are struggling with our Spanish.

From Left to Right we have Brenda, Josefa, Maria, Holy, Daysi, and Betty.  I have been paired up with Holy from day one when we did portraits.  She is fabulous.  I am learning so much from these kids and they amaze me every day.
- Sara

photos by Sara Guren

A few things we've learned already

Geoff and I arrived early Friday morning and spent a wonderful day in Antigua.  With cameras in hand, we toured the city and surroundings, accompanied in the afternoon by a knowledgeable guide named Giovani Mendoza.  The sites were beautiful but I found the people even more so--friendly, smiling, many kites still flying in celebration of el dia de los santos disfuntos which ends at 6:00 pm este noche.  Knowing very little about Mayan culture and history, nearly everything Giovani told us was new knowledge.  On the chance that some if it might also be new to you, I share a few things I found interesting.  I did not know the Mayan's holy scripture is the Popol buh, which translates roughly to "knowledge book".  It was written in the 1500's by Fr. Francisco Jiminez who who copied down the stories he was told by the Mayans.  Por ejemplo, when, in the beginning, the high gods asked the medium gods to create man, the medium gods first created man from mud.  But the mud man couldn't walk straight.  So they destroyed him.  Next, they made a man of wood.  It turns out he could walk but refused to worship the gods.  So he too was destroyed.  That led to the third and final attempt by the medium gods--they created man out of corn.  This time, man performed brilliantly and also worshipped the gods.  Corn is obviously very important.  We saw fields of it on the mountain sides and shocks of corn as ornamentation on cathedrals, along with clusters of grapes and hummingbirds.  Geovani also told us that Mayans believed the world was flat and therefore has four corners.  In the four cornered shrines we saw, we were told that sacrifices of tobacco and alcohol were placed, then set on fire to please the gods.  Also, that when Mayans cross themselves, it doesn't symbolize God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost, but heaven, earth, wind and water.  Muy interesante!  I've probably got some of this wrong so I'll appreciate any corrections you can provide and, when I have a moment, I'll check to see what Wikipedia has to say on the subjet.  Whatever, we've loved our introduction to Guatemala and eagerly look forward to meeting and working with all the Bridges people and the Photo Kids too.

Keith Reinhard