Hola!!!
If you want to follow my adventure, now go to my website http://www.proyectogt.org/milka/
See you there!!!
Monday, May 07, 2007
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Monday, April 30, 2007
Blood at the Black Cat
Working in a hostel is usually very nice but sometimes you have bad experience, like yesterday night. Let’s start by the beginning… On Saturday morning came two Guatemalan guys and they started drinking beers. After a few, one of them asked Magda if we had a bed available for him. So Magda checked him in but told me later to be careful with him because he looked a bit dodgy. I wasn’t working on Saturday because there was a music festival organized by the French Alliance (that was really nice). When I came back at night, my Co-manager told me that he was drunk in the afternoon. But then nothing happened, he came back and went straight to bed.
On Sunday, I was working alone all day. It was a crazy morning because we had 21 people staying on Saturday night and 16 checked out about at the same time. This guy came down and asked for a beer and didn’t want to eat. Then another one, another one… when he got to 6 beers (at 12pm) I told him I could not sell him another one because he was already drunk. So he left… so saw him coming in and out a few times in the afternoon looking more and more drunk. But I was so busy with work that I didn’t check on him. Around 6 pm, Chris who was sharing the room with him asked me if he could change room because there was a bad smell in the room. And it smelled alcohol and cigarette. He had 3 beers bottles in the room so I wanted to tell him that he’s not allowed to drink in the room. But he was out.
Then suddenly at 7:00 pm he arrived at the hostel pissing blood from his nose and mouth. He started walking all over the restaurant and hotel putting blood everywhere. We finally arrived to make him sit in the stairs, but he was so drunk that we had problems to understand what happened. He didn’t want to see a doctor or go to hospital. We called the police and the ambulance but nobody came. After a while, he stopped loosing blood so we went with him to his room and encouraged him to take a shower. He finally changed his clothes and just fell asleep on the bed (putting blood on the sheets and cover…). Off course, my boss was in Antigua and it took me a while to join him. We called the night guard to ask him if he could come earlier and help us with this guy. When he arrived, he went to take car of the drunken guy, helping him to wash his face and gave him some ice. Then let him sleep but told him he wasn’t allowed to get out of his room until tomorrow.
When I think happened is that we went drinking in a bar and after a while the barman asked him to leave but as he didn’t want they kicked him out by force, pushing him in the face and mouth. And I learned that on Friday he was staying in the hostel in the same street but they kicked him out because he wanted to fight with someone else. Great!!! So this morning, we went to wake him up at 6 am telling him that he needed to leave. He packed his stuff and told us he’s going to look for another place and come back to pick his bag. Off course nobody wanted him with his damaged face. So he told us he’ll go to look for a doctor and come back for his bag after. He came back this afternoon and told my co-manager to thanks me and that he will never forget me… well I hope he will! Because I don’t want to see him again but at least he was grateful for us looking after him.
The night guard was working at the other hotel before and he told me that the owner didn’t accept any Guatemalan guy alone or in group. A friend told me others bad stories about Guatemalan guys in other hostels. So I think that I’m going to be more vigilant and refuse to accommodate someone who doesn’t look right.
Ah well, bad things happen and I guess it won’t be the last time. But first time are always hard when you’re not prepared…
Apart from that story, things are getting better at the hostel. We’re having more and more people staying. Around 15 people every night this week. So slowly but surely….
After this bad experience, I really need a break having working 5 weeks non stop. So on Wednesday and Thursday I’m going to Antigua for a bit of fun!
On Sunday, I was working alone all day. It was a crazy morning because we had 21 people staying on Saturday night and 16 checked out about at the same time. This guy came down and asked for a beer and didn’t want to eat. Then another one, another one… when he got to 6 beers (at 12pm) I told him I could not sell him another one because he was already drunk. So he left… so saw him coming in and out a few times in the afternoon looking more and more drunk. But I was so busy with work that I didn’t check on him. Around 6 pm, Chris who was sharing the room with him asked me if he could change room because there was a bad smell in the room. And it smelled alcohol and cigarette. He had 3 beers bottles in the room so I wanted to tell him that he’s not allowed to drink in the room. But he was out.
Then suddenly at 7:00 pm he arrived at the hostel pissing blood from his nose and mouth. He started walking all over the restaurant and hotel putting blood everywhere. We finally arrived to make him sit in the stairs, but he was so drunk that we had problems to understand what happened. He didn’t want to see a doctor or go to hospital. We called the police and the ambulance but nobody came. After a while, he stopped loosing blood so we went with him to his room and encouraged him to take a shower. He finally changed his clothes and just fell asleep on the bed (putting blood on the sheets and cover…). Off course, my boss was in Antigua and it took me a while to join him. We called the night guard to ask him if he could come earlier and help us with this guy. When he arrived, he went to take car of the drunken guy, helping him to wash his face and gave him some ice. Then let him sleep but told him he wasn’t allowed to get out of his room until tomorrow.
When I think happened is that we went drinking in a bar and after a while the barman asked him to leave but as he didn’t want they kicked him out by force, pushing him in the face and mouth. And I learned that on Friday he was staying in the hostel in the same street but they kicked him out because he wanted to fight with someone else. Great!!! So this morning, we went to wake him up at 6 am telling him that he needed to leave. He packed his stuff and told us he’s going to look for another place and come back to pick his bag. Off course nobody wanted him with his damaged face. So he told us he’ll go to look for a doctor and come back for his bag after. He came back this afternoon and told my co-manager to thanks me and that he will never forget me… well I hope he will! Because I don’t want to see him again but at least he was grateful for us looking after him.
The night guard was working at the other hotel before and he told me that the owner didn’t accept any Guatemalan guy alone or in group. A friend told me others bad stories about Guatemalan guys in other hostels. So I think that I’m going to be more vigilant and refuse to accommodate someone who doesn’t look right.
Ah well, bad things happen and I guess it won’t be the last time. But first time are always hard when you’re not prepared…
Apart from that story, things are getting better at the hostel. We’re having more and more people staying. Around 15 people every night this week. So slowly but surely….
After this bad experience, I really need a break having working 5 weeks non stop. So on Wednesday and Thursday I’m going to Antigua for a bit of fun!
Monday, April 23, 2007
Guatemala 10 years later
10 years earlier was signer the peace accords which ended one of the armed conflict the most bloody of America Latina: the civil war of the Guatemala.
2006 marked the anniversary of the signature of 13 accords which not only ended the 36 years of war, but was looking to transform the institutions of Central America.
The conflict between the guerrilla and the army caused 200.000 dead, 50.000 people who disappeared and more than 600 communities destroyed.
But how did Guatemala started this war? Who were the actors of the conflict?
“The argumentation that had the guerrilla organizations on the beginning of the armed conflict was that there were conditions of profound inequality that had to be changed. And the reason that gave the State to get armed and receive the help of the army was that the war was begun by the guerrilla. So that shows the contradictions.”, explained a BBC the Guatemalan anthropologist Yolanda Aguilar.
The military element
The dolour of the victims and their families was the key element for this peace process.
Without doubt, there were others factors which helped the peace, like the end of the cold war and the interest of the international community to the conflict in Guatemala.
According to Rachel Sieder, of the Institute of Studies of America in the University of London, the military element was one of the key to start the process.
“The guerrilla was military defeated a lot of time before the signature of the peace”
But the other side was in the same situation as the Colonel Mario Merida, Vice minister of the interior in the 80s, confirmed to the BBC.
“The army of Guatemala didn’t have the capacity to fight. The Sate of Guatemala was in a middle of an economic crisis”.
The negotiations started in the years 80, but it took 10 years before to be signed.
And the reparations??
Through the dolour and the lost, the signature of the accords brought optimism.
“ we had big hopes, we thought that it was going to change a lot, that it was going to eliminate the racial discrimination and force to respect the rights of the indigene towns”, said the indigene leader Dominga Vasquez.
The 13 accords of 1996 covered lots of areas: the reform of the military force and the politic parties of the State, the redistribution of the lands, the material advance of the Human Rights, the installation of a committee for the truth, the demobilization of the guerrilla and its incorporation in the society, and a program of reparations.
From the point of view of some analysts and the victims, the reparations didn’t arrive at everybody.
“When the reconnaissance at the victims has been going really slowly, it has not advanced in the area of Soloa”, said Vasquez at BBC.
But for the representative of the president of Guatemala, Rosa Maria de Frades, the balance is positive:
“What provoked the slow process at the beginning was the search of the families and persons who were victims during the armed conflict. Now the process of reparation of the victims has advanced a lot: more that 10%, we’re close to the 25% and hope to finish by next year”, said the government employee.
Guatemala today
According to Frades, the process of the institutional transformation and the fight against the poverty and corruption are the priorities for the government of Oscar Berger.
“The army was against any process of investigation of the massive violations of the human rights that happened during the conflict. But it resulted by the creation of a commission very important for the country”
Guatemala still suffers of the effects of the inequality and poverty.
In conversation with the BBC, the anthropologist Yolanda Aguilar agreed that Guatemala today “is a country which needs to go out of the condition of normalization of the violence. They learnt to live in a violent society.”
But in these 10 years, Guatemala too has been a land of positive experiences.
As demonstrate the Foundation Nueva Esperanza, in Rabinal, which transformed the dolour of the conflict into programs of development and of indigene leadership.
Through the agricultural activities, they auto finance some educative projects which include, in the future, converting a dream in reality: the creation of a University.
The project was born because of the inefficiency of the application of the peace accords. What we have been doing in Rabinal is constructing and not criticizing”, said Guillermo Chen, one of the leaders of the association.
2006 marked the anniversary of the signature of 13 accords which not only ended the 36 years of war, but was looking to transform the institutions of Central America.
The conflict between the guerrilla and the army caused 200.000 dead, 50.000 people who disappeared and more than 600 communities destroyed.
But how did Guatemala started this war? Who were the actors of the conflict?
“The argumentation that had the guerrilla organizations on the beginning of the armed conflict was that there were conditions of profound inequality that had to be changed. And the reason that gave the State to get armed and receive the help of the army was that the war was begun by the guerrilla. So that shows the contradictions.”, explained a BBC the Guatemalan anthropologist Yolanda Aguilar.
The military element
The dolour of the victims and their families was the key element for this peace process.
Without doubt, there were others factors which helped the peace, like the end of the cold war and the interest of the international community to the conflict in Guatemala.
According to Rachel Sieder, of the Institute of Studies of America in the University of London, the military element was one of the key to start the process.
“The guerrilla was military defeated a lot of time before the signature of the peace”
But the other side was in the same situation as the Colonel Mario Merida, Vice minister of the interior in the 80s, confirmed to the BBC.
“The army of Guatemala didn’t have the capacity to fight. The Sate of Guatemala was in a middle of an economic crisis”.
The negotiations started in the years 80, but it took 10 years before to be signed.
And the reparations??
Through the dolour and the lost, the signature of the accords brought optimism.
“ we had big hopes, we thought that it was going to change a lot, that it was going to eliminate the racial discrimination and force to respect the rights of the indigene towns”, said the indigene leader Dominga Vasquez.
The 13 accords of 1996 covered lots of areas: the reform of the military force and the politic parties of the State, the redistribution of the lands, the material advance of the Human Rights, the installation of a committee for the truth, the demobilization of the guerrilla and its incorporation in the society, and a program of reparations.
From the point of view of some analysts and the victims, the reparations didn’t arrive at everybody.
“When the reconnaissance at the victims has been going really slowly, it has not advanced in the area of Soloa”, said Vasquez at BBC.
But for the representative of the president of Guatemala, Rosa Maria de Frades, the balance is positive:
“What provoked the slow process at the beginning was the search of the families and persons who were victims during the armed conflict. Now the process of reparation of the victims has advanced a lot: more that 10%, we’re close to the 25% and hope to finish by next year”, said the government employee.
Guatemala today
According to Frades, the process of the institutional transformation and the fight against the poverty and corruption are the priorities for the government of Oscar Berger.
“The army was against any process of investigation of the massive violations of the human rights that happened during the conflict. But it resulted by the creation of a commission very important for the country”
Guatemala still suffers of the effects of the inequality and poverty.
In conversation with the BBC, the anthropologist Yolanda Aguilar agreed that Guatemala today “is a country which needs to go out of the condition of normalization of the violence. They learnt to live in a violent society.”
But in these 10 years, Guatemala too has been a land of positive experiences.
As demonstrate the Foundation Nueva Esperanza, in Rabinal, which transformed the dolour of the conflict into programs of development and of indigene leadership.
Through the agricultural activities, they auto finance some educative projects which include, in the future, converting a dream in reality: the creation of a University.
The project was born because of the inefficiency of the application of the peace accords. What we have been doing in Rabinal is constructing and not criticizing”, said Guillermo Chen, one of the leaders of the association.
Finally some pictures of the Black Cat!!
The living room
The bar and restaurant
the entrance
the corridor upstair
our lovely patio
one of the dorm
a double room
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
