1er. Aniversario de la Fonda del Ché

I promised you to publish some pictures of the first anniversary party we celebrated last Saturday. Well it took me a while to get hold of the pictures as a friend and client of the fonda, who is a semi professional photographer and has a really good camera took 380 pictures that night, which made me feel like I don't need to. Gavin, the photographer has now left Guatemala to travel through Nicaragua and we only had like 1 day to coordinate the transaction of photos and what made it more complicated was that we did not spend the day in Xela... well end to the long story is that after some 20 phonecalls Gavin left the CD with the pictures at the fonda (good that Guatemalan doors normally do not close at the bottom).
Here's the program of the night:
6.00pm - 7.00pm, classical guitar with Fredy Pena
7.00pm - 8.00pm, trova romantica with Erick Rolando
8.00pm - 8.30pm, trova alterna with Marcos Garcia
8.30pm - 10.00pm trova with Adolfo de Nivea from Huehuetenango (special guest)
10.00pm - 11.30pm Emilio Talva

well this was the plan. But as this night was also the night of the finals of the local football league and Xela was playing against San Marcos, we had to start a bit later. I had to drag the guys to the fonda by pure brute force. Well Xela won and so the city was totally crazy and we did not had too many people come to visit us as they had to hang around in the streets and get totally smashed, one of the hobbies of Guatemalans.

All in all it was a great concert, a nice night but no financial gain as we had to pay all the artists - imagine! So we are now hoping that the tourist season which starts now in June will help us get out of the financial desaster we are in.

Here come some pictures:
el maestro Fredy Pena

Erick Rolando

Marcos Garcia

Adolfo de Nivea

Emilio Talva

Heovani y yo - los ayudantes

mtfbwy

Xela Xela

yes back in xela and already to busy to go to the internet. You can not imagine how small things take up time. just wanted to let you know that I am fine and preparing some nice pictures from our 1st anniversary celebration. The concert was great, 4 great artists, no actually 5 played, but unfortunately not many people came. So finances of the fonda are like zero, actually below zero. We are now hoping that the tourist season of June and July will save us but if not... well who knows.
Anyone would like to contribute something to our project and support some artists of xela, then let me know I will start to collect money soon, really :)
so take care stay tuned and write a comment people, this communication is very much one-sided...
mtfbwy

where do I begin...

so yes, I am back in Guatemala, no need to call my parents to ask anymore.
I arrived after a looong flight in Guatemala City and was able to relax in the small but pretty Posada Belen.

The place is really nice and directly in the zona 1, the historical center of Guatemala. But I found out that when you arrive in Guatemala on a Sunday it does not really matter if you stay in the zona 13, close to the airport or are in the middle of the city, nothing is open around 9pm anyways. So again, like the first time I was in Guate, I went to bed without food. Well I had the option of eating at Burger King, but after all the healthy food on the plane I could not get myself to eat "healthy" again.

On Monday morning I got a really nice breakfast (desayuno tipico) of scrambled eggs with onion and tomato, beans and finally the long waited for and heavily missed TORTILLAS! See my happy face!!


I spent Monday in Guatemala as I thought it would be nice to see something of the capital of Guate and well yes I have seen the parque central and the cathedral (also inside) and even lit a candle for my beloved ones (it's up to you if you think you are part of this group of people or not :))
la Catedral Metropolitana
Palacio nacional de la cultura, antiguo palacio de gobierno
But this was also all I saw, as I, as a cultural ignorant, was not aware that on Mondays museeums around the world are closed. So what to do a full day in Guate... yes the movies. But to tell you the truth, Spider Man 3 is bad no matter if you see the movie in IMAX or not. Bad bad bad.
I also found this little place, well it looks much more usamerican than swiss as it is a chain, but what the heck, I thought it was funny ... the Chocolateria Zurich.


mtfbwy

short update

without words...

one week in the home lands

Yes I am here in CH now for one week. It is quite weird to be visiting home. Or the question is more, where is home at the moment? Well I am strolling around Berne in awe of how beautiful everything is. I noticed that I got much slower and everyone around me seems to be rushing. Maybe this is due to the fact that I don't have anything to do (no must dos) and that doing stuff in Berne is much faster than in Xela, so I have loads of free time I can use to sit on parkbenches and let my mind wonder off.
I have visited loads of friends and it is great to hear their stories. I can not listen to mine anymore, I have told them so many times it really bores me out.
Also lost my time consciousness a bit... sometimes I sleep at 11 sometimes at 3 in the early morning and then get up at 7 am or at 1 pm... strange, I could sleep all the time, my bed is so confy, hopefully I'll get a proper bed in Xela soon. The matresses I had are not ment to be used for 2 months consecutive.
Since I am back the weather is bad... that is April is normal again, it is not Summer anymore. Maybe I need to be around to see that things go right?!

Oh when I got home I found this lovely easterrabbit waiting for me... I was actually contemplating on taking it to Guatemala, as I am sure that none of my friends there have ever seen a chocolate rabbit...

but well, this is my chocolate rabbit 2 days later (yes I was able to hold back for 5 days!!)


mtfbwy

Back and Back

As you can see time in Guate was flying and I just did not find a minute to sit down and update my blog for you my beloved readers. But I think you can imagine how hectic my last few days in Xela were... had to go down to San Felipe again, then Claudia told me she was leaving Xela the next day, my friends organized a "good-bye-francine-party" etc. Plus I had to pack and mentally get ready to leave.
So on April 25. I left for Antigua, spent a night there and on 26. said goodbye to Guate, flying over San Jose to Madrid. In Madrid I could observe how they hauled my luggage out of the plane again after putting it in, which helped me in Zurich to be first to repot baggage loss. Well yes and then I was home. My parents and Susan picked me up and Sue I am wearing these lovely red ballerinas every day!!
Here some impressions of my first few days back home:
yes I am riding trains again, something most Guatemalans would give a body part for if they could do it too.
I am actually enjoying the fresh air and clean environment. Drinking water from the tub is also a great experience :)
Already had my first half day of babysitting Nevio, I had great fun and hope to do some more soon.
oh and I had to go "dr schoene gruene Aare naa".

Now so that you don't need to ask me one by one, yes I am going back to Xela and I am going back soon. I leave lovely Switzerland again on May 20th for another 5 months or so.
Mtfbwy*