Well, I have been here in Guatemala for about three days or so and without seeking to be too cliche or anything like that, I honestly feel that this is a place and time in life where as Dom Helder Camara says "Providence has grabbed me by the hand and led me here." The people I have been working with are people I already admire deeply and I have seen so many possibilities in the first few days for different projects and ideas to take shape. I am actually not even going to be working in Guatemala that much, but my mind is spinning with different projects. The other day I sat down with Antony and Irma, the two country representatives, and we discussed all sorts of different development projects. I have met many amazing people working for justice and peace in a society of injustice and violence. Guatemala is a beautiful country filled with systemic ugliness. From the roof of my apartment I can see two or three huge mega malls, a plethora of multinational corporations, and the hidden slums of which the majority of Guatemalans live. So in this context, where politicians see development as bringing in these corporations and mega malls to serve the interests of a few elites, it is a great joy to be working with an organization dedicated to creating development solutions to help the majority of those people living in those hidden slums who never will dream of buying a McDonalds hamburger or wearing Gap bluejeans. That's all for now.
Peace...