Algunos Exitos. Some Successes.

Many exciting things have happened in my job with Transitions. Here are some highlights with pics:

Last month, Alex and I decided we wanted to send out a really good holiday card to all our donors this year. Not only did we decide to send out a really pretty card, we decided to send them to over 1,000 people! So how did we put together that many cards? With hand written addresses, and hand written names inside every card?

Some how it all came together in just 3 hours! I asked my Spanish school to create a service project for their students, in the afternoon we needed help—thirteen of them (from all over the world) showed up. And then everyone who worked for Transitions was there, and then I bought pizza for everyone to keep everyone smiling. We finished all the cards and created a nice little Spanish-speaking, pizza-loving community while doing so.


Several weekends ago I spent a night at this eco-lodge in the hills above Antigua. There I stuck up a conversation with a couple that both teach at an “American” high school in Guatemalan City, and the wife of the pair coached the school’s basketball team! I encouraged her to bring her team to come play with Transitions one Friday afternoon. And they did!

This past Friday, 13 high schoolers, most of whom were Guatemalan and Korean (there is a big Korean population in the city), along with 10 or so teachers (who were most from the US, hence “American” school), to play wheelchair basketball. The Transitions guys were great, sharing tips, and their chairs. And before our young friends left, they bought us pizza, and I made them answer a reflection question, “What are you taking away from today?” – thanks for always being inside my head Cal Corps Public Service Center!


El dia de acion de gracias! Thankgiving! So, I had a hard time sleeping the night before the big day, because I had never made a turkey before, let alone a 20 lb. one!

I’m not sure how we did it, but Chef Edgar and I pulled it off: moist turkey, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, green beans and pumpkin pie!

Twenty-four of us came together to eat – my boss (Alex) and his wife, the boss of the wheelchair workshop and his family, the boss of the prosthetic workshop and his family, the Transitions guys who live above our offices, my Spanish teacher and her family, and 4 volunteers/friends from my Spanish school who have been coming to Transitions every Thursday night to help the guys with their English.

Everyone said the food was “rica” and gave thanks to everyone else for sharing this tradition with Guatemala.

I’m convinced that because my first turkey meal went so well, I’m going to have bad turkey luck for the rest of my life…or at least have bad turkey luck when I’m in the home country.

Un dia a trabajo. A day at work.

A visitor to Transitions recently confided in me:
“In my journey I have always encountered wisdom and deep grace by my proximity to suffering BUT also by the undoing of it. In and through Transitions you will inhabit the undoing of suffering and by proximity you will discover your deepest humanity and if you pause for a moment and lean into the silence, recognize within you the power of God.”

Today was a day where I recognized both my proximity to suffering and also realized how Transitions works to undo it, and how I, personally, hope to help.

Last week we planned to make a trip to Guatemala City to buy some Thanksgiving necessities. After lunch today, Alex, Edgar (the boss of the Transitions casa), and myself hopped into the Transitions van, ready to embark on a search for pumpkin pie fixings. Just as we were about to leave, a very short young man, my age, came up to our office, walking completely with the help of crutches.

Before I realized what was going on, he was in the car with us, and we were on our way to la capital.

A theme of my stay here, and I think every foreigner’s time here, is that I’m never exactly sure what is going on. It wasn’t until we brought this young man see our doctor friend at a private hospital, that I realized how much we were helping him. As he was getting x-rays, Alex shared that Transitions has been a friend of this boy since he was 4. He left his home at dawn this morning, and traveled to Transitions, hoping for a little help—a rod, that had been put in his leg years ago, had become extraordinarily painful.

Because my experience with people with disabilities has been mostly through sports, I’ve had the tendency to focus on the awesome parts of having a disability, rather than why it stinks. You gotta admit wheelchair basketball is a pretty bad-ass sport.

But today, sitting in the doctor’s office, with Alex and Edgar, and this boy, hearing the doctor tell him that his bones will only get worse, and he’ll one day have to use a wheelchair…I saw in his face how much he was suffering. And although, we left the hospital with good news (our doctor friend is going to take the rod out of his leg for free) my new friend was distracted with thoughts of how his future would look.

Then we went to the Guatemalan version of Costco. Scratch that: it is exactly Costco, same products, same food court, same food samples in the aisles; it’s just called Price Right, not Costco. Our friend rode in our shopping cart and we tried to cheer him up. I joked about how many pies I would make him with the humongous can of pumpkin pie mix we found. And we ate pizza together after shopping.


But Guatemalan Costco, while very exciting (especially for a gringa preparing for Thanksgiving), still can’t cure how hard it is to have a disability.

There were so many times today where I couldn’t help but smile and/or laugh—working with my friends at work in the morning, our jokes in the car, the doctor’s willingness to help, deciding to buy the biggest Turkey offered in Guatemala. But there were also times today that I wanted to cry. What was moving about my day today, is that these two feelings went hand-in-hand.

El Dia de los Muertos

So my last post leaves us at Sunday, Nov 1st – el Dia de los Muertos! And what a Day of the Dead it was!

After a night celebrating Halloween with a few Spanish-school friends, Sunday’s egg, bean, plantain, tortilla breakfast was very welcomed!

With a full belly, I wandered around Antigua, searching for Day of the Dead traditions. My instinct took me to the market first, where I admired the overflow of flowers and fantastically colorful kites. In addition to adorning love ones’ graves with flowers, adults and kids alike fly kites to honor the sprits above. I decided to buy a few kites of my own to remember the day that was to come.

I followed the crowd I found in the market, and soon found myself outside the Antigua Cemetery. The cemetery was surrounded by what seemed to be a festival – cotton candy, fresh popcorn, more flowers, and more kites.

I have never seen a cemetery so hopping, nor so beautiful. The law in the Antigua is that every tomb (all the graves are above ground) is painted white, compared to every other cemetery in Guatemala were each grave is a rainbow of colors. Antigua’s white backdrop made the gorgeous flower arrangements stand out even more. It was a beautiful day. Mariachi bands played between the tombs. Families laughed. Families cried. And I remembered those I had lost too.

I stayed longer in the cemetery than I expected, only leaving because I was pretty hungry.

My boss, Alex, picked up myself, and Transitions boys Nacho and Juanito, to join his family for fiambre. Fiambre is a cold meat salad eaten once a year on Nov 1st. It’s tasty – kinda like my Mom’s bean salad: salty, vinegary, but with more meat.

After fiambre, we piled into the car to go see us some humongous-ass kites. Sumpango, a town just 20-min away, is famous for its Day of the Dead kite festival.

It wasn’t until we reached the top of the town’s hill that I realized how huge the kites were. The biggest on display were 30-40 feet tall. While others were about 10-13 ft in diameter, but somehow could still be flown! There is no reason why you should believe this, except for my following video.

But the highlight of my day was still to come. Mesmerized, along with a crowd of 1,000, I wasn’t paying attention to the announcer until Alex tugged my jacket: “Extranjeros, esto es tu oportunidad.” That’s right I got to fly one of the kites!

The rest of the our time in Sumpango we took pictures in front of the kites too big to fly, and left as the sun started to set to join the rest of the Transitions crew for pizza.

My day wasn’t so dead. It was quite alive. But maybe that’s the point, to recognize the dead by celebrating the present.

Feliz Cumpleaños a mi hermano menor

First, Happy Birthday Kyler! Here are some of my favorite memories from our 20 years together:

- You not ever letting me drive because I drive like a grandma.
- Snail hunting and Jojo's pool in Livingston.
- When you bar-b-que.
- Riding bikes, playing football, the slip 'n slide, and lots of popsicles at 404 Lake street.
- The many times you've scared and/or tackled me, and the times when you somehow get Meg to jump on me, instead of you.
- Sitting on one of the many Berkeley hills one night, venting about our dad.
- When you found out I had taken you to a completely vegetarian restaurant (Saturn cafe) after a day of Ultimate.
- When you told me that my caterpillar Fuzzy Wuzzy had to be let go because "his mommy was calling him."
- Watching you kick butt at BHS graduation, and at your ultimate tournaments.

Second, I've got several blog posts ready to be published. Get yourself ready for some fantastic adventure accounts.

Esta manana. This morning.

I'm still writing many stories from the last couple weeks. But until I get my act together, the events of this morning are worth sharing! Events in Guatemala, and within Transitions often happen with late notice.

I got up early this morning because I thought Alex and I had a meeting in el capital. When we got to work, we found out our meeting is actually tomorrow, and today we had another event to attend: la carrera de chorolas! The race of waiters!


Oh the surprises one finds in Antigua, and within Transitions!


Saludos de todos a Trancisiones!

Memorias de las dos semanas pasadas. Memories from the past 2 weeks.

• Evening walks for tea de manzanilla (chamomile) with housemate Kim.

• Gave a tour of our wheelchair workshop, while cutest kid ever was getting fit for a chair from us. I wish I could say we planned it that way.

• Transitions threw a fiesta for our Special Education class – hot as heck on the basketball court, but the pizza, cake, and water balloons helped us through the festivities.

• Convinced our visiting consultant, PJ, to play wheelchair basketball with us on Friday afternoon.

• PJ and his boss, treated us to the nicest dinner e v e r that night. Transitions 17 year-old adopted double arm amputee, Nacho, is so excited he orders pretty much everything on the menu.

• Transitions Founder, John Bell, takes myself and the two consultants on the “real Guatemala tour,” that the consultants had been begging him for. We rode in the back of a pick-up (along with the various people John offered rides to on the side of the road) all through the Antigua area visiting Transitions families.

• After our impressive “real” tour, PJ made dinner for everyone who lives in the Transitions house. Flan never fails to bring people together.

• Two of my friends from Spanish class came along with us to our basketball game in Guatemala City on Sunday. The Transitions guys very much enjoyed the new female company. Lots of jokes were had.

• Walking home Sunday, I get caught in church procession: 100 people, lots of firecrackers, and one huge baby Jesus figure.

• Executive Director, Alex, took me away from work to a nearby coffee plantation where we bought bags of “thanks for your big donation” coffee.

• Transitions has been learning/practicing a choreographed dance to participate in a flash mob in Antigua's parque central! What is a flash mob you ask? Although our dance is a tad more latin, this is an amazing example of a flash mob from Belgium: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k&feature=fvst

• My Spanish teacher takes me to the market to teach me valuable bargaining vocabulary.

• Halloween party at my Spanish school: free rum and coke starting at 4:30pm only hurt my country’s dance reputation.