brian|robert|m.

This could turn out to be a great way to get good clothes for cheap

how I know I’m in Monterrico

measure the time not in minutes or hours, but in how full my bellybutton is of sweat

how I know I am in the caribbean

never fasten more than one button on my shirts

“There is nothing so cruel in the world as the desolation of having nothing to hope for.” Murakami – wind-up bird chronicle

This comes from a novel about the impossibility of knowing someone and the continual failures of trying to. Murakami, so good and so hopeless.

Aid and the Kingdom of God

This is a part of my response to reading a bit of The Bottom Billion by Collier for my Global Development class for anyone who is interested.

The Bottom Billion reading had one part in particular that struck me that I will discuss first. On page 12, Collier brings the concept of hope into the discussion. He says that without hope people will use their energy to escape. I cannot read this without thinking about faith, and particularly the work of Jurgen Moltmann. What Collier defines as aid I would define as faith, but on different scales. I believe that the world is broken, but we take hope in God’s Kingdom reigning in fullness rather than coming up with a plan to escape from the brokenness. Defining aid as giving hope to those who need it most means that aid is the work of the Church. Offering hope, or providing aid seems to be very similar to working for the kingdom of God. I want to be careful to say that I am not confusing aid with evangelism though. Hope to those who are truly hurting does not come in the form of a Bible. Hope comes through seeing a glimpse of something better than present circumstances. For the bottom billion, maybe that hope is in the outcome of an election. On the larger scale of humanity, that hope might be found in the joy of friendship, small revelations of God’s spirit on earth, and in the promise of future resurrection. In both cases, hope is of course in the future. As someone who believes in God’s future I attempt to work towards that future. God’s future means no sick, no hungry, no naked, no war, no lonely, and an abundance of fellowship and love. My faith then tells me that my work on eath is the same work of offering hope thorugh tangible action that Collier calls aid. There is so much more to say about this, and I would love to, but I don’t want to rant on and on too long about something that seems to be a minor piece of the assigned readings.

First Impressions

Antigua is a beautiful, bright, compact and slightly confusing city. I’m assuming this characteristic isn’t unique to Antigua or Guatemala, but the vegetation here is incredible. It grows very densely and is very vivid. This characteristic is not that unique or exciting, but it is hard to not notice. All of the colors of Antigua are very bright. The plants, the walls of buildings, the sun shine, and yes of course, the people too are very lively. Along with being lively, the people have adopted a different understanding of personal space than what is normal in the states, and that is what I mean by compact. Not only is Antigua only six square miles, but people here live closely with one another. It is not uncomfortable or uncommon to walk through the market pressed into the two or three people around you, busses are always three to a seat and never full even when there are ten people standing between the driver and the door, and rarely does anyone do anything alone. Mothers take infants to work, children work side by side with their parents, and meals are always shared. Here there is very little emphasis on an individual or a person’s individuality.  Instead the focus is on the family or the community and on traditions. The last thing I will mention here is the confusion of Antigua. La Antigua means the old, and Antigua still looks very old. The architecture is old, many of the buildings show obvious signs of age, and if it were not for the cars driving the cobblestone streets it would be too easy to imagine what Antigua may have been like hundreds of years ago. Seeing an $80,000 brand new car drive those streets feels a little out of place. Antigua was also Guatemala’s capitol from 1543 to 1776, but it is too exposed to natural disasters and the capitol was moved. There are three volcanoes surrounding Antigua, one of which is currently active. El Volcan de Fuego last erupted in January, but it often can be seen smoking, including today. The volcanoes pose threat to Antigua, but people don’t seem to mind. In fact, many people even live on the base of these volcanoes. La Volcan de Agua is the largest volcano surrounding Antigua, and is responsible for burying Guatemala’s former capitol forcing the Spanish to move it. The other natural threat to Antigua and mush of Guatemala is earthquakes. The North American and Caribbean plates meet just offshore of Guatemala causing a lot of seismic activity here. Also, the Motagua Fault and the Chixoy-Polochic Fault cut across Guatemala adding the frequency and intensity of seismic activity in Guatemala. It has been some time since a major earthquake in Guatemala, but these earthquakes have played an important role in Guatemala’s history and there is evidence all around Antigua of earthquakes and their destructive power. Finally, the weather here in Antigua is very predictable, but extreme. Hot and sunny all day and then sometime between 4:00 and 7:00 it will begin to downpour instantly. By downpour I mean around 3 inches per hour of rain. I really enjoy it.

Needless to say, Antigua is a very interesting place to spend a quarter and I am very thankful to be here. There is a very intense and dynamic history here filled with hardship caused by both humans and nature. I look forward to learning more and trying to understand the Guatemalan way of life.