Antigua, Guatemala November, 2011
My new friend, Andrea is a classy and bright young Latino woman from Venezuela who is volunteering at Camino Seguro and living with us in the Morales home. She has advised me that life in Latin America is full of contrasts. She mentioned this in relation to Caracas, where abject poverty exists not far from the high rise opulence of the well-to-do. Here in Guatemala, I am often struck by the irony of the beautiful pink rose bush that rises up over the cement wall, in defiance of its surroundings in the dump neighborhood. And when I get to school, I love seeing the occasional little girl who has emerged from a filthy environment, dressed in her gauzy, many-layered ball gown, with a pair of dirty sneakers to complete the outfit! As we approach Antigua on the bus at the end of the day, we pass a small cluster of low tin-sided shacks with smoke from an open cooking fire inside leaking out of the eaves of the house. Looming over the house is a giant billboard advertising a luxurious hotel in the city! Contrasts do, indeed, surround us.
My new friend, Andrea is a classy and bright young Latino woman from Venezuela who is volunteering at Camino Seguro and living with us in the Morales home. She has advised me that life in Latin America is full of contrasts. She mentioned this in relation to Caracas, where abject poverty exists not far from the high rise opulence of the well-to-do. Here in Guatemala, I am often struck by the irony of the beautiful pink rose bush that rises up over the cement wall, in defiance of its surroundings in the dump neighborhood. And when I get to school, I love seeing the occasional little girl who has emerged from a filthy environment, dressed in her gauzy, many-layered ball gown, with a pair of dirty sneakers to complete the outfit! As we approach Antigua on the bus at the end of the day, we pass a small cluster of low tin-sided shacks with smoke from an open cooking fire inside leaking out of the eaves of the house. Looming over the house is a giant billboard advertising a luxurious hotel in the city! Contrasts do, indeed, surround us.
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