Going To Guatemala on July 4th

I am going back to Guatemala soon! Alas, it will only be for four little days. :( But that doesn't mean I won't go back - possibly for a really, really, ridiculously long time. I leave on July 4th and come back on July 8th. I want to see all my old students from when I used to live there as a computer teacher at a school called Shalom. There have been many people here who have donated money for new computers for Shalom's lab and I will get to bring that money down to them.

I am going to bring my Canon XL2 in hopes of getting some great shots of life in Guatemala. This will be just a test run for potentially doing an extensive documentary in the lives of Guatemalans and foreign missionaries in Guatemala. I have two major concerns with the whole idea - the first is how to travel via airplane with my delicate XL2 in hand. Yesterday I purchased a very expensive professional camera backpack. I am excited to get it - I hope it will allow me to take my Canon XL2 into the wilderness of 3rd world countries more easily.

My second concern is keeping the camera on me at all times. There are a lot of sticky fingers in Guatemala, and any opportunity someone gets, they'll take my valuable professional camera. So I plan on having my camera on me at all times throughout the trip.

I really hope I can be escorted down to "Paradise" and "Rat's Nest" - two rough areas in Zone 18 - close to Shalom in Guatemala City. Zone 18 is a red zone for gang violence. I really want to capture the absolute poverty on film. I want to showcase the hope of the Guatemalan people despite the fact of having absolutely nothing. With such a pursuit of the American Dream, we have blinders on that prevent us from realizing so many horrible realities in the lives of those around us in other countries. And it would be SO easy to help them! Why don't we? Oh, yes of course - the college education and new car. How silly of me.

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