I'm on assignment in Guatemala for a while, working on stories here. During the trip, I'll be filing short video clips, photos, and notes from the road at xeni.net/trek. Here are a some posts from the last few days:

* Snapshots from Antigua: the image above is from a 16th century monk's crypt beneath Hotel Casa Santo Domingo, a surreal, gotholicious, luxury hotel in Antigua. A room for one night costs more than some indigenous Guatemalans earn in an entire year.

At this hotel in Antigua and elsewhere in the more developed parts of Guatemala, I met some of the many North Americans who come here to adopt indigenous children. Guatemala's adoption system is private, and brokers typically collect a fee to arrange the transaction, and pay something to the birth mother. More than 75% of the population here lives under the poverty line, and Guatemala is one of the most corrupt countries in the world, so there's plenty of room in the adoption system for corruption.

Americans who come to adopt with good intentions may see the act as one of mercy for babies (some orphaned, others born to poor mothers) who face a harsh future here. But a number of the Mayan people I spoke to here feel differently about the increasing number of children leaving their country -- many describe it as theft, or something like a human cash crop. "We already lost so many of our parents during the civil war, now the white people are coming to rob us of our children," one man told me last night.

* Aquí no hay RIAA: spotted in a cafe next to signs for volcano day trips and international VOIP calling rates, "BURN CDS."

* Video clip: Caffe Opera.

* Recycled Life: Documentary film about people who live in the Guatemala City Dump, the largest and most toxic landfill in Central America.

* Heartbreak device spotted in mercado: BoingBoing's recent podcast guest John Hodgman calls these games "heartbreak devices" because "they are not particularly responsive to the poor reflexes and ill coordinated movements of a 5 year old, so very little comes of it except for tears -- and the enjoyment of watching a claw."

* Video clip: Cafe Condesa. A neat old fountain where water comes out of a mermaid's breasts.

* Space alien volcano umbrella plants: In nearby Costa Rica.

* Visit with Don Victoriano, a K'iche Mayan linguist.

* Infrastructure tech for Guatemala's rural poor: A group called AIDG develops green, sustainable infrastructure technologies for poor communities in Guatemala and elsewhere. I'm heading out there shortly to file radio and video reports.

* Two interesting places to stay in Antigua.

* Special request snapshot for Violet Blue.

* Video Clip: vendiendo nisperos en el mercado.

posted by Xeni Jardin at 07:04:15 AM permalink | Other blogs' comments