Bueno, más bien ruminaciones... (Well... more like ramblings...)
2005/01/30
The (unfortunate) day we decided to
visit El Salvador... (english)
My father was kidnapped in El Salvador
in 1979 for half a month, and when he was released,
he was told to leave the country inmediately. The next day all the family was in
Guatemala. I lived in Guatemala for seven years...
Rarely did we venture back to El Salvador... and I remember one of these
occasions very vividly. It was in November 1989, and we wanted to take the
Melva-Pezzarozi bus to El Salvador. Somebody commented that there was an attack
to the National Guard garrison the night before, and there was some
aprehension... but we thought: an attack to a military installation, that is not
a very uncommon occurrence in our civil war, so we insisted to go anyway.
We felt that something was amiss when we saw the bullet riddled toll booths in
Santa Ana, and the roads were deserted and quiet, with only the occasional sound
of (luckily) distant machine gun fire ... The final offensive by the guerillas
to overtake the capital was in full swing, and ours was the last bus from
outside to enter El Salvador.
El (infortunado) día que
decidimos visitar El Salvador... (español)
Mi papá fué secuestrado en El Salvador en 1979 por medio mes, y cuando lo
liberaron, le dijeron que dejara el país inmediatamente. El siguiente día toda
la familia estábamos en Guatemala. Viví en Guatemala por siete años...
Raramente nos aventurábamos de regreso a El Salvador... y recuerdo una de esas
ocasiones vividamente. Era Noviembre de 1989, y queríamos tomar el bus
Melva-Pezzarozi a El Salvador. Alguien comentó que había habido un ataque al
cuartel de la Guardia Nacional la noche anterior, y había algo de
preocupación... pero pensamos: un ataque a una instalación militar, esta es una
ocurrencia casi normal en nuestra guerra civil, así que insistimos en ir de
todas formas.
Sentimos que algo no estaba bien cuando vimos las casetas de peaje llenas de
balas en Santa Ana, y las carreteras estaban desiertas y calladas, con sólo el
sonido ocasional (por suerte) de ametralladoras distantes... La ofensiva final
de las guerrillas para tomar la capital estaba en su apogeo, y nuestro bus fué
el último que entró El Salvador desde el extranjero.
2006/01/13
The Realities of the Civil War
(english)
During the war, we lived a kind of sheltered life in our school. Somehow, living
in the capital, and going to the Escuela Alemana, which was a very low profile
school, made us a bit invisible to the ravages of the war - we didn't suffer
nearly as much as the people living in rural areas. But that didn't mean it
didn't affect us at all (as I told you before, my father was kidnapped in that
period, as was the mother of a classmate). This story also tells about the
parents attempts to hide the horrors from us, even though it was a losing
proposition under our reality...
One day, we heard that a man with a child had entered the administrative offices
of the school, and thrown some subversive leaflets there. Rumor was, they were
being followed by death squads, and as soon as they left the school, were shot
down.
It was midday, and we were waiting to the school transport (the van of one of
the parents) to pick us. When the van arrived, the parent who was driving told
us those were only rumors, it was not true... Only that, as soon as the van
passed the exit gate of the school, there they were, the man and the children,
lying on a pool of blood.
Las Realidades de la Guerra Civil
(español)
Durante la guerra, vivíamos una vida protegida en nuestra escuela. De alguna
manera, viviendo en la capital, y llendo a la Escuela Alemana, que era una
escuela de bastante bajo perfil, nos hacía algo invisibles de la destrucción de
la guerra - nosotros no sufrimos ni cerca de lo que les pasó a la gente en areas
rurales. Pero eso no significa que no nos afectara para nada (como les conté
antes, mi padre fué secuestrado en ese período, al igual que la mamá de un
compañero de la escuela). Esta historia también es sobre cómo nuestros padres
trataban de esconder los horrores, aunque era imposible bajo nuestra realidad...
Un día, oímos que un hombre y un niño habían entrado a las oficinas
administrativas del colegio, y habían tirado algunas hojas subversivas allí. El
rumor era que eran seguidos por escuadrones de la muerte, y tan pronto como
dejaron la escuela, fueron acribillados.
Era mediodía, y estabamos esperando que nos recogiera al transporte escolar (el
microbus de uno de los padres). Cuando el microbus llegó, la mamá que manejaba
nos dijo que sólo eran rumores, que no era cierto... Sólo que, tan pronto como
salimos de la puerta de la escuela, allí esaban, el señor y el niño, en un
charco de sangre.
2006/01/13
The Sound of Dying (english)
We were staying some days in Cojutepeque with some relatives, and they gave us a
room at the back of the house. That room was next to a side street (the front of
the house faced the town plaza). Our beds were next to some windows with wood
curtains that gave directly to the side street. One night, I awoke at the sound
of scuffling on the street... There was no shouting, and nobody outside on the
street was uttering as much as a word, but the scuffle continued, and then a
gurgling sound that continued for a few minutes... I was petrified and couldn't
move during the whole episode...
The next day we were told that a head was found in the town plaza.
(Some weeks later, we weren't staying in Cojutepeque anymore, and I heard the
news in Voice of America that a whole family was slain in Cojutepeque, our
relatives that were our host when we stayed there... )
El Sonido de Morir
(español)
Estábamos viviendo por unos días en Cojutepeque con unos parientes, quienes nos
habían proporcionado un cuarto en el fondo de la casa. Ese cuarto estaba al lado
de una calle lateral (el frente de la casa daba hacia la plaza del pueblo).
Nuestras camas estaban al lado de unas ventanas con celosías de madera que daban
directamente a la calle lateral. Una noche, desperté con el sonido de una pelea
en la calle... no hubo gritos, y nadie afuera en la calle decía nada, pero la
pelea continuó, y luego un sonido burbujeante que continuó por varios minutos...
Yo estaba petrificado y no podía moverme en todo ese período...
El siguiente día nos dijeron que encontraron una cabeza en la plaza del pueblo.
(Algunas semanas después, ya no estábamos más en Cojutepeque, y oí la noticia en
Voice of America que una familia completa fué asesinada en Cojutepeque, nuestros
parientes que nos habían acogido en nuestra estancia allí... )
2006/01/13
Young and Hotheaded (english)
I was with Rafa, who was driving his Dodge Colt up the Escalon street. We were
teenagers, classmates at school (I am talking more than 25 years earlier). Rafa
somehow sensed that someone was following us, and began to pass red lights and
passing cars, driving on the opposite lane of the crowded Escalon street. He
tried to lose our follower, dodging incoming cars and finding small spaces in
the traffic, but then, at one point, the traffic didn't let us pass, and our
follower put his car next to us, lowering the side window. We were expecting to
see firearms popping out, but it was just our classmate Antonio
"playing" with us... phew, that was a scare...
But later on, Rafa's mother was kidnapped. We later got wind that Rafa's
movements (as well as us, his friends) had been being tracked for some time by the kidnappers, and they may
have concluded that kidnapping Rafa would be more difficult and
troublesome.
There was another scare with Rafa, on the same Dodge Colt, at the Alameda
Roosevelt. Rafa began to pass a Chevy pickup that was full of armed men (passing
through the opposite lane - as was Rafa's custom)... and I, in the passenger
seat, just caught sight of one of the armed men motioning us to slow down and
not to pass them - but too late for Rafa to see him... and then I heard the
Ratatat... but luckily it was only the exhaust noise of the Chevy pickup's V8
accelerating...
and I should note that scares also happened with my more level-headed
classmates, as the one time with Wolfi, when we were passing the Estado Mayor at
night and a "tanqueta" (those wheeled armored personnel carriers)
trained the lights on us at the intersection, signaling us to stop, but Wolfi
just went ahead... I then asked Wolfi: What happened? Didn't You see they were
telling us to stop? - Ooops, I didn't see them....)
Jóvenes y Alocados (español)
Estaba con Rafa, quien manejaba su Dodge Colt subiendo por el Paseo Escalón.
Eramos adolescentes, compañeros de colegio (estoy hablando de más de 25 años
atrás). Rafa de alguna manera sintió que alguien nos esaba siguiendo, y empezó a
saltarse semáforos en rojo y a pasar carros, manejando en contrasentido en el
tráfico del Paseo Escalón. Trató de librarse de nuestro seguidor, quitándose
carros que se nos venían enfrente, y encontrando pequeños espacios en el
tráfico, pero entonces, en un punto el tráfico ya no nos dejó pasar, y nuestro
seguidor puso el carro al lado nuestro, bajando el vidrio de la ventana. Ya
esperábamos que aparecieran armas, pero simplemente era nuestro compañero de
clase Antonio "jugando" con nosotros... Fiuuu... eso sí fue un susto...
Pero más tarde, a la mamá de Rafa la secuestraron. Más tarde supimos que los
secuestradores habían seguido los movimientos de Rafa (y nosotros sus amigos)
por un tiempo, y habrían concluído que secuestrar a Rafa hubiera sido más
difícil y problemático.
Tuvimos otro susto con Rafa, en el mismo Dodge Colt, en la Alameda Roosevelt.
Rafa empezó a sobrepasar un pickup Chevy que iba lleno de hombres armados (Rafa
les sobrepasaba en contra-sentido, como era su costumbre)... y yo, que iba en la
silla del pasajero, apenas logré ver que uno de los hombres armados nos hizo
señas de que desceleráramos y que no les sobrepasáramos - pero muy tarde para
que Rafa los viera... y luego oí el Ratatat... pero por suerte sólo era el
escape del pickup Chevy V8 acelerando...
Y debo notar que los sustos también sucedían con mis compañeros más "cuerdos",
como una vez con Wolfi, cuando estábamos pasando el Estado Mayor de noche, y una
tanqueta nos alumbró con sus luces en la intersección, señalándonos que
paráramos, pero Wolfi simplemente siguió... Le pregunté a Wolfi: ¿Qué pasó? ¿No
viste que nos señalaron que paráramos? - Oooops, no los ví... )
2005/01/30
Coincidences - or is El Salvador a very small country or what?
(english)
After the 2001 earthquakes, many people were displaced and put in refugee camps.
One of these was at the Las Delicias soccer stadium and another at the
Cafetalón soccer stadium, both in Santa Tecla.
Las Delicias was a relatively small camp, with about a hundred tents. With my
friend Mauricio Ramos, we helped to take the census of the refugees there (http://www.guanacosonline.org/images/20030609LasColinas/20030609_las_colinas.htm).
I remember one of the tents in Las Delicias more than the others, as the
family living there had brought their pet parakeet...
Later on, my brother and yours truly were at the other camp, Cafetalón, trying
unsuccessfuly to take the census there. An imposible task, as the camp was open
and people kept coming and going, and there were almost 12,000 people at one
time.
At the Cafetalón camp, someone came and asked to see if his relatives were at the
camp. The usual answer was no, as the census was a mess and it was almost
imposible to find anybody. But his name rang a bell. I asked him: do your family
have a parakeet with such and such name? And voilá, it was his family's
parakeet, and we could guide him to his relatives at the Las Delicias camp. A
small moment of joy amidst days of thankless frustration. Also, a moral: bring
your parakeet...
Coincidencias - o es El Salvador un país bien pequeñito? (spanish)
Después de los terremotos del 2001, mucha gente fué desplazada a campos de
refugiados. Uno de éstos estaba en el estadio de fútbol de Las Delicias, y otro
en los estadios de fútbol del Cafetalón, ambos en Santa Tecla.
Las Delicias era un campo relativamente pequeño, con cerca de cien tiendas de
campaña. Con mi amigo Mauricio Ramos, ayudamos a tomar el censo de refugiados
allí (http://www.guanacosonline.org/images/20030609LasColinas/20030609_las_colinas.htm)
Recuerdo mejor a una las tiendas de campaña de Las Delicias, ya que la familia
que vivía allí había traído su periquito...
Más tarde, mi hermano y su servidor estábamos en el otro campo, El Cafetalón,
tratando sin éxito de tomar el censo allí. Una tarea imposible, ya que el campo
estaba abierto y la gente venía e iba, y habían casi 12,000 personas en un
momento dado.
En el campo El Cafetalón, alguien vino y preguntó para saber si su familia
estaba en el campo. La respuesta usual era no, ya que el censo era un desorden y
era casi imposible encontrar a alguien. Pero su nombre se oía conocido. Le
pregunté: tiene tu familia un periquito con este nombre? Y he ahí, era el
periquito de su familia, y le pudimos indicar dónde estaban sus parientes en el
campo de Las Delicias. Un pequeño momento de felicidad enmedio de la
frustración. Y también una moraleja: tráete tu periquito...
This was the first mayor earthquake for me, as I wasn't in the
country for the previous 1985 earthquake. So the extent of the damage didn't
sink in at first.
First thing after the earthquake, I tried to honor an appointment with a friend at the Burger King
Masferrer fast food joint... When I went there to find my friend, all of the
ceiling pieces of the restaurant had fallen to the floor and my friend wasn't
there... much later he told me that after the tremor, he had gone straight to
his house in Santa Tecla, and that he found that his house had completely
collapsed.
Then I tried to reach the house of my girlfriend at Las Delicias. The traffic
was completely stopped at the Utila shortcut to get to Las Delicias, with cars
stopped or backing up, so I had to return and go through the Santa Tecla
center... and I then began to see the fallen adobe walls. Later the family of my girlfriend told me that there was a landslide
on the road where I tried to pass at first, at Las Colinas:
http://www.guanacosonline.org/images/20030609LasColinas/20030609_las_colinas.htm,
where countless people tragically died.
Este fué el
primer terremoto grande para mí, pues estaba fuera del país en el terremoto
previo de 1985. Así que al principio no comprendí la extensión de la
destrucción.
Lo primero que hice después del terremoto, es que traté de cumplir con un
comprimiso de juntarme con un amigo en el Burger King de la Masferrer... Cuando
llegué allí para encontrarme con mi amigo, todas las lajas del cielo falso del
restaurante habían caído al suelo y mi amigo no estaba... mucho más tarde, me
contó que se había ido directo hacia su casa en Santa Tecla, y que encontró que
su casa se había caído completamente.
Luego traté de llegar a la casa de mi novia en Las Delicias. El tráfico estaba
completamente parado por la calle de La Utila que llevaba a Las Delicias, con
carros parados o retrocediendo, así que tuve que regresar y pasar por el centro
de Santa Tecla... y entonces comencé a ver las paredes de adobe en el suelo. Más
tarde, la familia de mi novia me contó que había habido un deslizamiento en la
calle por donde había tratado de pasar, en Las Colinas:
http://www.guanacosonline.org/images/20030609LasColinas/20030609_las_colinas.htm
donde mucha gente murió trágicamente.
2007/08/02
About the 2004 Tsunami (english)
My classmates have had lives touched by tragedy, because of the civil war, accidents and disasters. The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami was specially
cruel: our classmate Wolfi lost his wife and his two beautiful daughters.
http://www.chatzidaki-schaeffer.de
. Now, two and a half years later, we read in a reportage that Wolfi is marrying Billi
Cramer, a former model who
in turn lost her husband and two children.
After learning of the Tsunami and Wolfi's tragedy, I made a web site so Central
American people could ask for their loved ones that were in Thailand and other
countries affected. But almost no other victims were reported for Central
America. Nonetheless this sparked an interest to work with the Red Cross of El
Salvador to have computer systems for times of disaster. One group of
Universidad Don Bosco made a system to be used with Pocket PCs to evaluate the
situation on site. Another group of Universidad Gavidia made a Blood Donor Club
Web Site. Yet another group from the Evangelica University made the main portal.
A lot needs to be done.
Del Tsunami del 2004
(spanish)
Mis
compañeros de escuela han tenido vidas tocadas por tragedia, por la guerra
civil, accidentes y desastres. El Tsunami en el Océano Indico en el 2004 fué
especialmente cruel: mi compañero Wolfi perdió a su esposa y dos bellas hijas.
http://www.chatzidaki-schaeffer.de
. Ahora, dos años y medio después, leemos en un reportaje que Wolfi se casa con
Billi Cramer, una ex-modelo que a su vez perdió a su esposo y dos hijos.
Al saber del Tsunami y la tragedia de Wolfi, hice un sitio web para que personas
de Centroamérica pudieran preguntar por sus seres queridos que estuvieran en
Tailandia y otros países afectados. Pero casi ninguna otra víctima fué reportada
para Centroamérica. De todas formas, esto encendió un interés para trabajar con
la Cruz Roja de El Salvador para tener sistemas de cómputo para tiempos de
desastre. Un grupo de la Universidad Don Bosco hizo un sistema para sistemas
portables Pocket PC para evaluar la situación en un sitio. Otro grupo de la
Universidad Gavidia hizo un sitio Web de Donadores de Sangre. Y otro grupo de la
Universidad Evangélica creó el portal principal. Falta mucho por hacer.
2005/01/30
Coincidences - or is El Salvador a very small country or what? Part II
(english)
The Web site I administer,
www.guanacosonline.org,
is a list of salvadoreans all over the world, so they can find relatives or meet
someone. As I haven't gotten around to include a guest book, I don't know of
many stories or anecdotes of people finding each other. I may have heard of
3 or 4 cases at most, which, I would think, cannot be true as the site has been
working for years now... (well, I sincerely hope that there are more than 3 or 4
cases...)
Well, back to the story:
The days after the quakes, all of us at our apartment building couldn't sleep well,
jumping out of bed and running outside at each aftershock.
At one of these forced outings, all of the neighbours were on the parking
lot. Many of us didn't know each other yet. At one point someone called me by my
name...
Then another one of the neighbours came to me, asking: are you really Roque
Mocán? I said yes, why?... And he continued: It so happens that through your
web site I found the person that is now my current wife!
Well this is one of the 3 or 4 cases... (I have heard of two marriages,
including this one, that happened because of Guanacos Online. I sincerely hope
these are SUCCESS stories!)
¿Coincidencias - o es El Salvador
un país muy pequeñito? Parte II (spanish)
El sitio que administro,
www.guanacosonline.org
es un sitio de salvadoreños de todo el mundo, para que puedan encontrar
familiares o encontrarse. Como no le he puesto todavía un libro de visitantes,
no sé de muchas historias o anécdotas de gente que se encuentran. Habré sabido
de 3 o 4 casos a lo sumo, que, pensaría, no puede ser cierto ya que el sitio ya
ha estado trabajando por años ahora... (bueno, sinceramente espero que sean más
de 3 o 4 casos...)
Bueno, de regreso a la historia:
En los días después del terremoto, todos nosotros en el edificio de apartamento
no podíamos dormir bien, saltando de la cama y corriendo hacia afuera después de
cada réplica.
En una de esas salidas forzadas, todos los vecinos estábamos en el parqueo.
Muchos de nosotros no nos conocíamos todavía. En algún momento alguien me llamó
por mi nombre...
Entonces, otro de mis vecinos vino a donde yo estaba, preguntando: ¿Sos tú
realmente Roque Mocán? Yo le contesté que Sí, ¿Por qué?... y continuó: sucede
que a través de tu sitio web encontré a la persona que hoy es mi esposa!
Bueno, este es uno de los 3 o 4 casos... (He oído de dos o tres casamientos,
incluyendo éste, que sucedieron por Guanacos Online. Sinceramente espero que
sean casos de EXITO!)
2005/01/30
How was I cited as an Example by the President of El Salvador, Francisco
Flores (english)
Well, truth to be told, this happened before Francisco Flores became
President of our country. He was a teacher at the Universidad Dr. Jose Matias
Delgado, and taught Law Applied to Business. I should say that his explanation
of what an "Estado de Derecho" was is the most lucid I have heard - I
finally understood what that meant.
As part of the class we had to learn the different types of companies under
the law, like: S.A. - Sociedad Anónima, S.A. de R.L - Sociedad Anónima de
Responsabilidad Limitada, etc. - like learning what is legally meant by a Co.,
what is Ltd. etc.
I never went to his classes because of schedule conflicts with my work, so I
went to the final exam with the foggiest notions of the matter. When a question
about different companies came up, I answered naively: the types of companies
are: agricultural, industrial, services, etc.
The day the exams where given back, future President Francisco Flores held my
exam up in the air, for everybody to see: This is an example of what NOT to do!
Cómo fuí citado como un Ejemplo
por el Presidente de El Salvador, Francisco Flores (spanish)
Bueno, la verdad es que esto sucedió antes de que Francisco Flores se
convirtiera en el Presidente de nuestro país. El era un profesor en la
Universidad Dr. José Matías Delgado, y enseñaba Ley Aplicada a los Negocios.
Debo decir que su explicación de lo que constituye un "Estado de Derecho" ha
sido la más lúcida que haya escuchado - por fín comprendí lo que eso
significaba.
Como parte de la clase, teníamos que aprender los diferentes tipos de compañías
bajo la ley, como: S.A. - Sociedad Anonima, S.A. de R.L. - Sociedad Anonima de
Responsabilidad Limitada, etc.
Yo nunca fuí a sus clases por conflictos de horario con mi trabajo, así que fuí
al examen final con ninguna noción sobre el tema. Cuando vino la pregunta sobre
los diferentes tipos de compañía, contesté inocentemente: Los tipos de compañía
son: agriculturales, industriales, servicios, etc.
El día en que devolvieron los exámenes, el futuro presidente Francisco Flores
levantó mi exámen en el aire, para que todos lo vieran: ¡Este es un ejemplo de
lo que NO hay que hacer!
2006/07/13
A true friend... (english)
In spite of what you could think of me as a student from the previous story,
I wasn't THAT bad a student... in fact, there was one time when I was too good for my own
good... At the Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala we were taking Microeconomics,
with a new teacher, and our first exam was a surprise for all of us... the
questions were somehow different from what we had learned (I think about
elasticity of demand and supply)... I just tried to wing it and follow common
sense in the answers, and the result was that I got something like 90 and
everybody else got from 60 on down... and because of that lonely 90, the teacher
couldn't use a curve to adjust the grades... I wasn't in the class room at the
time, but my classmates were seething and talking a bit nasty (within bounds, as
we were all very good friends).... My friends told me later that at that moment
Alicia Solís, the soft spoken nicaraguan student, spoke for me and defended me,
she was the sole dissenting voice... So, Alicia, wherever you are, I never got
to thank you, and I gotta tell you, there is real courage under that soft, shy
demeanor!
Una verdadera Amiga... (spanish)
A pesar de lo que pudiera pensar de mí por la historia previa, no era TAN mal
estudiante... de hecho, hubo una vez que fuí demasiado bueno para mi bien... En
la Universidad Francisco Marroquin de Guatemala estábamos tomando Microeconomía
con una nueva profesora, y nuestro primer examen fué una sorpresa para todos
nosotros... las preguntas eran de alguna forma diferentes de lo que habíamos
aprendido (creo que algo sobre la elasticidad de la demanda y la oferta)...
Simplemente traté de improvisar y seguir el sentido común en las respuestas, y
el resultado fué que obtuve algo como 90 y todos los demás de 60 para abajo... y
debido a ese solitario 90, la profesora no podía usar una curva para ajustar las
notas... Yo no estaba en la clase en ese momento, pero mis compañeros estaban
bastante molestos (dentro de límites, ya que eramos todos muy buenos amigos)...
Mis amigos me dijeron después que en ese momento, Alicia Solís, la callada
estudiante nicaragüense, me defendió, siendo la única voz que disentía... Así
que Alicia, donde quiera que estés, nunca pude agradecerte, y tengo que decirte,
que hay coraje real bajo tu manera de ser suave y tímida.
2006/07/13
To the Mountains...
Speaking of curves to adjust grades, when I was in school, the newly minted
Education Minister of El Salvador went to our school, Escuela Alemana, to give a
speech. He explained why the final exams to be taken for graduation, which were
adjusted with a curve, were flawed (the exam used nowadays, called PAES doesn't
use a curve, which is the kind of exam espoused by the Minister). His exposition
was very clear, very reasoned, and well presented. This is a hell of an
Education Minister, I thought... The next day we went to school, a shocker
awaited us... we were told that the Minister just went to the mountains, to
combat with the guerillas. Nowadays, with the peace accord signed, that former
minister, Salvador Samayoa continues to give his well reasoned points of view on
one of the local newspapers, a breath of clear thinking in our very factional
politics.
A las Montañas...
Hablando de las curvas para ajustar las notas, cuando estaba en la escuela, el
nuevo Ministro de Educación de El Salvador llegó a nuestra institución, la
Escuela Alemana, para darnos una charla. Nos explicó por qué los exámenes
finales que tomábamos para graduarnos (los "Privados"), los cuales eran
ajustados con una curva, eran erróneos (el exámen que se utiliza hoy en día,
llamado PAES no utiliza curva, que es el tipo de exámen que proponía el
Ministro). Su exposición fué muy clara, muy razonada y bien presentada. Este es
un excelente Ministro de Educación, pensé... El siguiente día que fuímos a la
escuela, nos esperaba una sorpresa... nos contaron que el Ministro se acababa de
ir a las montañas, para combatir con la guerilla. Hoy en día, que se ha firmado
el Acuerdo de Paz, ese ex-ministro, Salvador Samayoa, continúa dando sus bien
razonados puntos de vista en uno de los periódicos locales, un soplo de aire
fresco en nuestra polítizada realidad.
2005/01/30
Why we should be patient... (english)
I was very young when this happened, so it doesn't hurt that much when I
remember...
After school, I went to the swimming pool of the National Stadium, to learn
to swim. As a way to save time, we went to school with our swimming trunks
already on, and we only had to take off our pants and shirts.
That particular day I was very, very late coming from school to the swimming
class; so I took my shoes, pants and shirts off as fast as I could and ran to
the swimming pool, passing in front of all the parents of the other children, to get to the water.
On reaching the border of the swimming pool, the teacher kindly asked: Why
are you stark naked?
Por qué debemos ser pacientes... (español)
Cuando esto pasó, estaba muy joven, por lo que ya no duele tanto cuando me
recuerdo...
Después de la escuela, iba a la piscina del Estadio Nacional a aprender a nadar.
Para ahorrar tiempo, iba a la escuela con la calzoneta puesta, y sólo tenía que
quitarme los pantalones y la camisa.
Ese día en particular yo iba muy, muy tarde de la escuela a la clase de
natación; así que me quité los zapatos, pantalones y camisa tan rápido como
pude, y corrí hasta la piscina, pasando enfrente de todos los padres de familia,
para llegar al agua.
Al llegar al borde de la piscina, el profesor amablemente me preguntó: ¿Por qué
venís totalmente desnudo?
2005/01/30
What You do and like as a Youngster affects You in Life
When we were at high-school, there was a group of us who were crazy about a new technology for us: programming. In my case, I had an HP-29C with 29 programming steps - that was it... you only had 29 opportunities to do something... So it was only elementary things that we programmed on that machine, like an algorithm were the machine guessed a number we had thought off, as we guided the machine: lower! higher!... and the ubiquitous biorrithms...
Jorge Aviles was a whiz, and he had the means: an HP-41C with alphanumeric display and expansion modules. With that machine he was able to coble a program to keep track of our finances at the class piggy bank. He was the class treasurer. Carlos Aguilar was also very keen on this (http://www.guanacosonline.org/roquesite/20030818KlassenTreffen01.htm), as was also Rafael Salomé (http://www.guanacosonline.org/roquesite/20030818KlassenTreffen02.htm). All of us went to work with technology: computers or communications. This thing about early preferences also worked in fields unrelated to technology: Ana Regina Gálvez (http://www.guanacosonline.org/roquesite/20030818KlassenTreffen03.htm) and Carmelina Jockish (http://www.guanacosonline.org/roquesite/20030818KlassenTreffen02.htm) began baking bread, so Carmelina went to have a bakery.
Lo que haces y te gusta de Joven te afecta en la Vida
Cuando estábamos en la escuela, había un grupo de nosotros que éramos locos con
una tecnología nueva para nosotros: programación. En mi caso tenía una HP29C con
29 pasos de programación - eso era todo... tenías sólo 29 oportunidades para
hacer algo... Asi que sólo programábamos cosas elementales, como por ejemplo un
algoritmo en donde la máquina adivinaba un número que pensábamos nosotros, y le
guiábamos: más abajo, más arriba!... y el popular biorritmo...
Jorge Avilés era un genio, y tenía los medios: un HP-41C con despligue
alfanumérico y módulos de expansión. Con es máquina él fué cpaz de armar un
programa para llevar nuestras finanzas en la caja de nuestra clase. Jorge era
el tesorero de la clase. Carlos Aguilar también estaba metido en esto, como
Rafael Salomé. Todos nosotros fuímos a trabajar con tecnología: computadoras o
comunicaciones. Este asunto sobre las preferencias tempranas también funcionaba
en campos que no estaban relacionados con tecnología: Ana Regina Gálvez y
Carmelina Jockish comenzaron a hacer pan, por lo que Carmelina terminó teniendo
una panadería.
2007/08/02
Chayanne crashing our Office's Christmas Party
For some reason, Guatemala, where I was studying in the 80s, is a place where a lot of artist went to live or to pass some time when their careers were on hold: From Cat Stevens to Jose Jose... One of these artist was boricuan (Puerto Rican) Chayanne. We were celebrating our office's christmas party in one dingy hotel at Zona 4 in Guatemala, when Chayanne appeared uninvited. He took a look at our crowd, which was a bunch of nerds (we sold computers) and turned away and disappeared as suddenly as he appeared...
Later on, I was back in El Salvador, studying at the Jose Matias Delgado University. Chayanne was then making a comeback in show business and gave a show at the Feria Internacional of El Salvador. Maria Teresa keep pestering me to invite her to the concert. This would seem so un-manly, to go to a Chayanne concert, but to make Maria Teresa stop nagging me, I acceded. You have no idea of the fun my office co-workers had at my expense for weeks, because I went to the concert... but I don't mind: The show itself was good, and better: the audience were all young girls, and they were so frisky in close quarters! If it were another person instead of me, surely there would have been a sexual harassment suit...
Chayanne cayendo de gorrón en nuestra Fiesta Navideña
de la Oficina
Por alguna razón, Guatemala, donde estaba estudiando en los '80s, es un lugar
donde muchos artistas iban a vivir o pasar un tiempo cuando sus carreras estaban
en un paréntesis: Desde Cat Stevens hasta José José... Uno de esos artistas era
el boricua Chayanne. Estábamos celebrando nuestra fiesta navideña en un modesto
hotel en la Zona 4 en Guatemala, cuando Chayanne apareció sin que fuera
invitado. El tomó un vistazo a nuestro grupo, que era un montón de nerds
(vendíamos computadoras), dió la vuelta y desapareció tal como había
aparecido...
Más tarde, yo ya estaba de regreso en El Salvador, estudiando en la Universidad José Matías Delgado. En ese entonces Chayanne estaba regresando a la farándula y dió un show en la Feria Internacional de El Salvador. María Teresa se la pasaba molestándome que la invitara al concierto. Esto sería de poca hombría, ir a un concierto de Chayanne, pero para que María Teresa dejara de molestarme, accedí. No tienen idea de las bromas que hicieron mis compañeros de trabajo por semanas, por haber ido al concierto... pero no me importa: El show en sí estuvo bueno, y aún mejor: la audiencia era todo de jóvenes chicas, y ellas eran tan toconas al estar tan apretados! Si fuera otra persona, de seguro habría metido un juicio de acoso sexual...
2005/01/30
Coincidences - or is El Salvador a very small country or what? Part III
At our consulting company in El Salvador, we received a call from Fredy Arevalo of Guatemala, about a guatemalan customer who needed some piece of technology (a way to bridge two different computer worlds: Microsoft .NET and IBM AS/400). He told us about a company in Canada which marketed such a product: Asna. And Fredy told us: I don't know why, but for some reason the Canadian business contact of Asna is currently in El Salvador. We took note of this person's e-mail address so we could write to him and hopefully contact him.
Anyway, later that day, with my co-worker Juan Carlos Zarate we went to dinner at Friday's at the El Paseo Mall (http://www.guanacosonline.org/images/20040418MallPaseo/20040418MallPaseo.htm). We were there dinning when someone called us and asked: "Excuse me, but were you a classmate from Kerstin? I was her boyfriend back then (that is, 25 years ago...). I remember your face from that time". We talked a bit more and he gave me his business card: he worked for Asna software, in Canada.
Coincidencias - o es El Salvador un país bien
pequeñito? Parte III
En nuestra compañía de consultoría en El Salvador, recibimos una llamada de
Fredy Arévalo de Guatemala, sobre un cliente guatemalteco que necesitaba una
pieza de tecnología (una forma de conectar dos mundos computacionales: Microsoft
.NET e IBM AS/400). Nos mencionó una compañía canadiense que mercadeaba dicho
producto: Asna. Y Fredy también nos dijo: No sé por qué, pero por alguna razón
el contacto de negocio canadiense de Asna estaba actualmente en El Salvador.
Tomamos nota del correo electrónico para escribirle, con la esperanza de
contactarlo.
De todas formas, más tarde ese día, con mi compañero de trabajo Juan Carlos
Zárate fuímos a cenar en Friday's en el Mall El Paseo. Estábamos cenando cuando
alguien nos llamó y preguntó: "Discúlpeme, pero no eras tú un compañero de la
escuela de Kerstin? Yo fuí su novio en ese entonces (25 años antes...). Yo
recuerdo tu cara de entonces". Hablamos por un momento y me dió su tarjeta de
negocio: El trabajaba para Asna software, en Canadá.
De mi vida Social
From my Social Life
2006/01/13
Once a Dork, always a Dork
Social graces aren't my strength. Sometimes, under different circunstances, I
might hit it off with somebody, but then, when we get back to normal
circumstances, there is suddenly awkardness... In this story, I was in my way,
walking from the store in Metrosur were I worked, to the National Stadium, to
run a few laps on the track and try to lose a few ponds. There was a University
on the way (was it the Einstein University? I don't remember), and there were
two young girls on their way to the University, when suddenly a burglar stopped
them and took their bags. I asked the girls: did he just rob you? and they said
yes (that was a stupid question, it was apparent with all the shrieking from the
girls that they were being robbed). So I began to chase the burglar, and just before I
catched him, he let go of the bags...I returned the bags to the girls (the bags,
by the way, didn't contain anything of value for the burglar, it was an
architecture homework assignment). I said good bye and that was it.
Some days later, I was at my University, the Matias Delgado University, and the
beautiful girlfriend of my co-worker Saul came and said: "That was
something the other day, when you chased the burglar..." She was one of the
two girls, and I just hadn't recognized her the day of the burglary, maybe
because I was pumped in adrenaline... The thing is, we made some chit-chat about
that situation, and we began to talk about her work and my work, etc. and
suddenly the conversation went south fast, and felt very akward... I think that
after a few seconds, it quickly comes to the surface how boring and
uninteresting I am... so, once a dork, always a dork.
Un Nerd para Siempre
Las gracias sociales no son mi fuerte. A veces, bajo circunstancias diferentes,
la puedo pasar bien con alguien, pero luego, al volver a circunstancias
normales, sobreviene una gran torpeza... en esta historia, iba caminando de la
tienda en Metrosur donde trabajaba hacia el Estadio Nacional, para correr
algunas vueltas a la pista y tratar de perder algunas libras. Había una
universidad en el camino, y habían dos jóvenes mujeres en camino a la
universidad, cuando de pronto, un ratero las paró y les tomó sus bolsos. Le
pregunté a las jóvenes: Les acaban de robar? Y me contestaron que sí (pregunta
tonta, era aparente con los gritos de que les estaban robando). Así que empecé a
perseguir al ratero, y cuando ya iba a alcanzarlo, dejó caer las bolsas... Le
devolví las bolsas a las jóvenes (las bolsas, de hecho, no tenían nada de valor
para el ratero, era un trabajo universitario de arquitectura). Me despedí, y eso
fué todo.
Días más tarde, estaba en mi universidad, la Matías Delgado, y la bella novia de
mi compañero de trabajo Saúl vino y me dijo "Eso fue algo, cuando seguiste al
ratero...". Ella era una de las dos jóvenes, y yo no la reconocí en el día del
robo, tal vez por la adrenalina... La cosa es que empezamos conversando sobre la
sitación y luego sobre el trabajo de ella y el mío y de pronto la conversación
se fué abajo y se sentía raro... Yo creo que después de algunos segundos sale a
la superficie qué aburrido y gris soy... así que, un nerd para siempre...
De mis Viajes
From my Trips
2006/07/12
Dog Beach
With Mauricio, we were attending a Microsoft convention in San Diego,
California. We rented a car and went sightseeing (We did the same in Florida,
went to Sawgrass Mills - could never forget letting the car lights on and
finding at midnight that the car wouldn't start and we had to take the plane
tomorrow. Also, in Atlanta, we took the subway to the Buckhead night club scene and
then there was no subway going back after midnight...).
In San Diego we went to
the Gaslight District (The Steven Soderberg film Traffic was being filmed at the
moment), La Jolla, Coronado island, where we saw the Viking jets practicing
touch and go landings, Cabrillo National Monument with its lighthouse and
secluded beach - as an aside, spanish explorer Cabrillo had its ships made in
our country, El Salvador -, etc. We ended in the "Dog Beach"...
When we arrived, we saw why it was called that way: It was literally a beach
where dogs could roam and run - other beaches prohibit dogs... Even the water
fountains had one spigot for the human master, and one lower down for the dog!
Well, we went to nearby Ocean Beach to take some sun. Interesting to see 50's
women bodyboarding. I began to do a sand
sculpture - the figure of a girl - which is my hobby when on the beach... and
after a moment I saw Mauricio talking with a pretty young blond girl - a tourist from
Britain... the sculptures were the reason they began to talk, and Mauricio
didn't present me his new friend, so HE ended getting the girl (so to speak). I
sooo hate you!
La Playa del Perro
Con Mauricio estábamos en una convención en San Diego, California. Rentamos un
carro y fuímos a turistear (Hicimos lo mismo en Florida, donde visitamos a
Sawgrass Mills - no podemos olvidar que dejamos encendidas las luces, y que
cuando regresamos a la medianoche el carro no arrancaba, y teníamos que tomar el
vuelo ese mismo día en la mañana - una amable afroamericana que salía de
trabajar nos pasó algo de corriente. Cuando estuvimos en Atlanta, tomamos el
tren a la zona de bares en Buckhead y, cuando queríamos regresar, no había tren
después de la medianoche... por suerte encontramos un taxi).
En San Diego,
fuímos al Distrito Gaslight (estaban filmando allí la película de Steven
Soderberg, Traffic); fuímos a La Jolla; a la isla de Coronado, donde vimos a los
jets Viking practicar aterrizajes y despegues; al Monumento Nacional Cabrillo
con su faro y aislada playa - como nota: el explorador español Cabrillo
construyó sus barcos en mi país, El Salvador; y otros lugares. Terminamos en
"Playa de Perros" (Dog Beach)... cuando llegamos, nos dimos cuenta por qué se
llamaba así: literalmente era una playa donde los perros podían andar a sus
anchas - pues otras playas prohibían los perros... Hasta tenían bebederos de
agua que tenían dos chorros, uno para el dueño humano, y otro más abajo para el
perro! Bueno, fuímos a la cercana Ocean Beach para tomar algo de sol.
Interesante ver algunas cincuentonas haciendo bodyboarding. Comencé a hacer una
escultura en la arena - la figura de una mujer - que es mi pasatiempo cuando
estoy en la playa... Y luego de un momento, ví a Mauricio platicando con una
bonita joven rubia - una turista de Gran Bretaña... comenzaron a platicar por
las esculturas, y Mauricio ni me presentó a su nueva amiga, asi que EL se quedó
con la chica (por decirlo así), así que te odio un gran montón!
2006/07/12
The Pink'Un
In another Microsoft convention, in the Bahamas, I wanted to sightsee more and
leave our hotel, at distant Cable Beach (so called because the underwater
communications cable ended there... see, there is logic to the names of the
beaches... in the previous story, Dog Beach has dogs...), so took the bus, got
down downtown and began to walk... went to
Fort
Fincastle with the shape of a ship, and the Queen's Staircase with its 66
steps, one for each year of the Queen, and which was used to escape invaders;
went to eat conch, the Bahamas Viagra - didn't have someone to use it with,
though...; then I passed a slight, small pink house; and just by chance saw a
sign that lay felled down in the front garden. It said that there lived for a
time John Steinbeck (the author of Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Of Mice and
Men)... So, much is
happenstance... if I were on a bus and not walking, I would never have seen the
sign that lay there on the grass, and would have never experienced this place
the same way.
Speaking of buses (or Jitneys, as they call the Toyota Coaster buses there), one
strange thing that I saw was that there was a large amount of woman jitney
drivers, who where so "ample" that they literally filled the space
between the motor cover and the wall...
El
Pink'Un (El "Rosado")
En otra convención de Microsoft, en las Bahamas, quería turistear un poco más y
dejar nuestro hotel en la distante Cable Beach (llamado así porque el cable de
comunicaciones submarino llega allí... ven que hay una lógica para los nombres
de las playas... en la historia previa, la Playa de Perros tenía canes...). Así
que tomé un bus al centro de la ciudad, y comencé a caminar... fuí a
Fort
Fincastle, con su forma de
barco, y los Peldaños de la Reina, con sus 66 peldaños, uno por cada año de la
Reina, y que era usado para escaparse de los invasores; fuí a comer conchas, el
Viagra de Bahamas - sólo que no tenía con quién usarlo allí...; luego pasé por
una modesta y pequeña casa rosada, y sólo por suerte ví un letrero que se
había caído al suelo en el jardín. El letrero decía que allí había vivido por un
tiempo John Steinbeck (el autor de Grapes of Wrath, East of Eden, Of Mice and
Men)... Tantas cosas son pura casualidad... si hubiera pasado en bus, y no
caminando, nunca hubiera visto el letrero sobre la grama, y no habría
experimentado el lugar de la misma manera.
Hablando de buses (o Jitneys, como les llaman a los Toyota Coaster allí), algo
extraño es que había una gran cantidad de mujeres conductoras, que eran tan
"amplias" que literalmente llenaban el espacio entre la tapa del motor y la
pared...
2006/07/12
Spanish heard in passing
I continued walking down the street in Nassau, and reached
Fort
Montagu. I took some photos, and on the way back, I saw three people
drinking beer in front of their car at the fort parking place... upon getting
closer I heard them speaking... in spanish. Turns out they were from Honduras,
from the Roatan island, and were living and working in the Bahamas... one of the
things that they had done is catch a Manta Ray for the Atlantis hotel in
Paradise Island... It was for them a surprise that a chinese looking tourist in
the Bahamas began to talk to them in spanish, and that we were from neighbouring
countries.
(Another instance where I wouldn't have thought of hearing spanish was at this
club in Houston - we were there to take some training at Compaq - and at night
went out looking to unwind ourselves... So, there was this hot looking blond
dancer - very american looking - and I called her for some lap dances... and she
said something in spanish to one of her coleagues... talking with her, it turns
out she came from Tamaulipas in Mexico...I think I put a lot of bills in her
bikini... Oh well, the videogame I planned to buy will have to wait until
another trip...)
Español oído
de pasada
Continué caminando por la calle en Nassau y llegué a
Fort
Montagu. Tomé algunas
fotos, y cuando iba regresando, ví a tres personas que estaban tomando cerveza
frente a su carro en el parqueo del fuerte... al llegar más cerca los escuché
conversando... en español. Sucede que eran de Honduras, de la isla de Roatan, y
estaban viviendo y trabajando en las Bahamas... una de las cosas que habían
hecho es atrapar una Manta Raya para el hotel Atlantis en Paradise Island...
Para ellos fué una sorpresa que un turista asiático en las Bahamas les empezara
a hablar en español, y que eramos de países vecinos.
(En otra ocasión que no esperaba oír español fue en este club en Houston -
estábamos tomando un entrenamiento en Compaq - y en la noche fuímos a
desestresarnos... Así, que estaba esta linda bailarina rubia - se veía bastante
americana - y le pedí algunos bailes... y ella le dio algo en español a una de
sus colegas... hablando con ella, sucede que venía de Tamaulipas en México...
Creo que le puse muchos billetes en su bikini... Bueno, el juego de video que
pensaba comprar va a tener que esperar a otro viaje...)
2006/07/12
Swimming with Sharks (not!)
Later on in the Bahamas, I took one of the
Island
World Adventures cruises to Exuma Islands, on those 800 hp boats... We went
to this beautiful island, Saddleback Cay, which reputedly was a pirate hidding
place, as it had a bay with exits on both sides of the island. There was a small
stone cabin where people like Marlene Dietrich used to spend vacation (where did
they sleep? The cabin had an interior yard or garden, open to the elements, so
that the hurricanes wouldn't blow out the roof, and the cabin in itself was less
than 10 meters wide and deep); and then we went to a crescent shaped beach with
the whitest of sands... paradise! I floated on the turquoise waters for hours...
Later, we went to eat the buffet, and the hosts told us: don't throw the chicken
bones... Why? Because we will use them to feed the sharks! So, after dinner, we
threw the bones to the water, and the sharks came running (swimming?) like dogs
after the bones... not a 100 meters from where I was so carelessly floating some
minutes before... Thank god we bathed first and feed the sharks later, I
wouldn't have gotten in the water if I knew we had that kind of company all
along...
Other highlights from that trip, if you want to go there: The Islands are the
breeding grounds for the famous Conchs that are served in Nassau, so they are
protected grounds... As the Conch is called the Viagra of the Bahamas, that
would make the island the Pfizer island...
Nearby there was some fiberglass - aluminium piece of junk. Our host told us
that maybe it was something aeronautical, from NASA... it it the Bahamas
Triangle, after all...
Nadando con
Tiburones (¡Nada que ver!)
Un poco después en las Bahamas, tomé una de las excursiones de
Island
World Adventures a las
Islas Exuma, en esas lanchas de 800 caballos de fuerza... Fuímos a esta bella
isla, Saddleback Cay, que supuestamente era un escondite de piratas, pues tenía
una bahía con salida a ambos lados de la isla. Había una pequeña cabaña de
piedra allí, donde personalidades como Marlene Dietrich solían pasar sus
vacaciones (¿Dónde habrán dormido? La cabaña tenía un jardín interior, abierto a
los elementos, de forma que los huracanas no se llevaran el techo, y la cabaña
no era más de 10 metros de ancho y de fondo). Y luego fuímos a una playa en
forma de media luna con la arena más blanca... ¡Un paraíso! Estuve flotando en
las aguas turquesas por horas... Más tarde fuímos a almorzar en el buffet, y los
anfitriones nos dijeron: no boten los huesos de los pollos... ¿Por qué? Porque
los usaremos para alimentar los tiburones! Así que después del almuerzo, les
tiramos los huesos al agua, y los tiburones venían corriendo (nadando?) como
perros siguiendo a los huesos... ni siquiera a 100 metros de donde estaba tan
tranquilamente flotando minutos antes... Gracias a Dios que primero nos bañamos
y luego le dimos de comer a los tiburones, no me habría metido al agua si
hubiera sabido que tendríamos esa compañía todo el tiempo...
Otras notas de esa excursión, por si quiere ir allí: las islas son un lugar
donde nacen las famosas conchas que se sirven en Nassau, así que son zonas
protegidas... Ya que a estas conchas se le llaman el Viagra de las Bahamas, esto
haría que estas islas sean las islas Pfizer...
Cerca nos enseñaron ciertas piezas de fiberglass con aluminio. Nuestro anfitrión
nos dijo que tal vez era algo aeronáutico, de la NASA... ya que, de todas
formas, era el Triángulo de las Bermudas...
2006/12/30
Why is nobody in the water?
We were in Miami, South Beach, for a big Microsoft Convention (50 hotels!), and
Héctor Montoya and I decided to take a swim... it was strange for us that nobody
was in the water, but us... maybe because the water was a bit brackish? The
thing is, when we got back to the hotel, we saw the news, and there were those
aerial shots that showed sharks in a frenzy on the Miami shore... there was news
about a boy being bitten by a shark... Oh, that's why there wasn't anybody in
the water! They were waiting to see the spectacle of us being eaten...
¿Por qué nadie está en el agua?
Estábamos en Miami, South Beach, para una gran convención de Microsoft (50
hoteles!) y Héctor Montoya y yo decidimos ir a nadar... era bien extraño para
nosotros que nadie estaba en el agua - sólo nosotros... tal vez porque el agua
estaba algo turbia? La cosa era, que cuando regresamos al hotel, vimos las
noticias, y vimos las tomas aéreas de tiburones alocados en las aguas de
Miami... había noticias de un niño que había sido mordido por un tiburón... Ah,
por eso es que nadie estaba en el agua! Estaban esperando ver el espectáculo de
que nos estaban comiendo...
2006/07/12
Why is this bus climbing, when our
hotel is at the beach?...
In yet another trip to a Microsoft
convention, we went to Rio de Janeiro, and once there, the Guatemalans (Luis,
etc.) and I decided to go sightseeing... went to Copacabana, Ipanema, etc. and
then, we had to come back... and I didn't quite much remember the bus number
that we had to take. Well, we mounted this bus, and on our way to the hotel, at
the Sao Corado beach (why do they sent us to beaches far away from the main
attractions?) and we were headed in the right direction, that is, until the bus
unexpectedly turned right and began to climb a steep street, to one of the
famous Rio de Janeiro favelas or slums... and then the bus stopped, it was the
end of the line... What now? Well, we were a bit apprehensive, but we just
waited another bus coming down and that was it... having seen films like
Pixote (and later,
City of God), we weren't
that keen on being there... But truth to be told, a lot of bad things are said
of our own places: Guatemala and El Salvador, and we manage to live... and the
Favela (at least this one) didn't look to me so downtrodden and poor. The houses
and buildings were of concrete, and not of cardboard. I have seen more poor
looking neighbourhoods in our own Guatemala and El Salvador...
¿Por qué este bus está subiendo, cuando nuestro hotel
está en la playa?
En aún otro viaje a una convención de Microsoft, fuímos a Rio de Janeiro, y una
vez allí, los Guatemaltecos (Luís, etc.) y yo decidimos ir a turistear... fuímos
a Copacabana, Ipanema, etc. y luego, teníamos que regresar... Y yo no me
recordaba mucho del número de bus que teníamos que tomar. Bueno, nos montamos en
este bus, y en el camino al hotel en la playa Sao Corado (por qué nos mandan a
playas tan lejos de las atracciones principales?), e ibamos en la dirección
correcta, eso es, hasta que el bus inesperadamente cruzó a la derecha y empezó a
subir una empinada calle, a una de las famosas favelas de Rio de Janeiro... y
luego el bus paró, pues era el fin de la ruta... Y ahora? Bueno, estabamos un
poco preocupados, pero simplemente esperamos a otro bus que bajaba y eso fue
todo... habiendo visto películas como Pixote (y más recientemente, Ciudad de
Dios) no estabamos muy entusiasmados de estar allí... Pero, en honor a la
verdad, muchas cosas malas se dicen de nuestros propios lugares: Guatemala y El
Salvador, y logramos sobrevivir... y la Favela (por lo menos en este caso) no
parecía tan pobre. Las casas y los edificios eran de concreto, y no de cartón.
He visto vecindarios mucho más pobres en nuestra Guatemala y El Salvador...
2006/07/12
Mojados in Mexico
This was at the end of the Eighties. It was my first time in Mexico City, and
went with my co-workers at Omega Electronica, Ulises, Napoleón, Erick, etc...
for a Novell Conference at the Nikko hotel. When we arrived in Mexico City, our
group (from El Salvador) was taken to another room, and sternly lectured and
warned to not leave the city of Mexico or else. We salvadoreans have special
treatment in a lot of countries, it seems... (Another example, although this has
subsided, is in our first travels to Costa Rica, there was alwasy a guard after
Inmigration, that upon hearing that we came from El Salvador, stopped us again
and did a doble check to our passports... Maybe we should thank the Nicaraguans
for improving the situation of El Salvador travelers, as they are even most
suspiciously seen in Costa Rica). This incident at the Mexico Airport was the
start of a very eventful day, which I detail below...
2006/07/12
A $20.00 (or $30.00, I don't really know) Escapulario
We were SO naive... Ulises, being the super-catholic member of the group, said:
First thing we will do, we go to see the Virgin of Guadalupe. From the airport
we only went to the hotel to leave the luggage (not at the the expensive Nikko,
but in a budget hotel, I think it was the Maya) and off we went in a Pecera (the
VW Microbuses used in public transportation)... When we arrived at the church, a
dozen fat women stormed us and told us, you have to buy this escapulario or that
cross to offer to the Virgin of Guadalupe, or they won't let you enter... Being
fresh from the Airport, we only had large denomination bills. So I (and the
others too) gave a $ 20 dollar bill for the escapulario and demanded our
change... but they keep insisting that you also had to buy this and that, or the
priest wouldn't let us enter... (at this moment I think I shelled $ 10.00 more
for another "neccesary" item, I was so overwhelmed that I am not
sure...). The end of this is that they NEVER gave us our change back... so
we were stuck with the most expensive escapularios in the world...
Ulises had other plans for us in Mexico: he wanted to see the famous Panda bear.
First we went to the Museo de Antropologia and the Castillo de Chapultepec, and
then, when we finally got to the zoo, all tired, the famous Panda was sleeping
and we couldn't get to see it... We were almost in mutiny and would have thrown
Ulises overboard from the Pecera... but he wasn't the only one doing bad
things... See "The Big Chase" below
2006/07/12
Mexican Angels
We took a Pecera from the Guadalupe Church back to our hotel, all of us with our
tails between our legs, after being robbed in so an infantile way. A pair of
very sexy girls entered the Pecera (I mostly remenber the bookish one, the one
with the red rimmed glasses; and the other one was the one with the curly hair)
, and along the way caught on that we were tourists (what with our city maps
stretched open). They conmiserated with us, and said, we are going to french
classes at the Zona Rosa, let us show you around... So, they took us to the Zona
Rosa, we went to a café and had a good time, and then we brought them to the
language institute. We scribbled down their telephones, but it was impossible
for us to contact them later, so that was it... but it was like Karma, in the
sense that all the horrible things that happened minutes before were erased by
these beautiful angels... Thank you, wherever you are! (Possibly helping other
naive tourists...)
2006/07/12
The Big Chase
We took another Pecera VW Bus from the Zona Rosa with our pair of angels, to go
back to the hotel. We got out along the way and the two girls went ahead in the
Pecera. I was in charge of all the passports of the group... and as soon as the
bus left, I said oops... I left the passports in the Pecera! So, we frantically
stopped a taxi (a VW Beetle) and told the driver, follow that Pecera! We
actually lost visual contact with the chased bus, and when we got to the end of
the line, in front of Bellas Artes, there were dozens of Peceras! I got out and
ran from one to the another, jumping on the windows to see if the girls or the
passport where there... and LUCKILY, in a Pecera that was just going to depart,
there was the bag with the passports, on the empty bench. One observation: There
are very honest people on this planet, leaving the bag the way it was found on
the bench of the bus. And if we wouldn't have the luck that we had right there,
there was no way that someone could return the passports to us, as we had just
arrived in Mexico and there was no indication anywhere of which hotel we were
staying in.
As you can see, it was a hell of a first day in Mexico City for us...
2008/08/04
There is space for more in the back...
When we travel in buses and microbuses, they always try to pack more of us: They
tell us: there is space for more! Well, my story doesn't concern buses or
microbuses. We were coming back from Tikal, in the new year's eve of 1985-1986,
and Aviateca's Boeing 727 was full. So full that we were the last seated (just
in front of the bathroom) and people were still coming in! Where would they
seat? That's when the stewardess instructed them to take the wood stools and put
them on the aisle... That year was tragic for aviation in Tikal, a Caravelle
from Aerovías de Guatemala went down only days later after our trip.
2006/01/29
Cómo nació Guanacos Online
How Guanacos Online came to be
Is Central America a small place or what?
When I worked at Omega Electrónica of El Salvador, in the 1990's, I went with
Willy Mayorga (of Omega of Guatemala) to a training by Microsoft in Costa Rica,
so we could become business partners. We had a good time there, and made friends
with the other participants in the training.
One participant was a petite, blond and very clever guatemalan girl, her last
name was Beabourg, or something... Later, back in El Salvador, I asked my friend
Willy if he had the e-mail of her, and Willy told me to look for her in Chapines
Online (Chapines = persons from Guatemala) - a site where Guatemalans could
leave a brief description and an e-mail address, so other people could contact
them - a kind of phone book for the Internet...
So I went to the site (at that time: http://www.nortropic.com/chapines
and now at http://www.chapinesonline.ORG
) and I found the e-mail of the girl, but never came around to writing her (or
she didn't answer). Anyway, I noticed the web master of the site, Grete Pasch...
I knew her from years ago! She was a teacher's assistant when I studied in
Guatemala, at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín (at the older campus, across
the street from the Campo Marte). I distinctly remember that she drove a Mazda
323... Maybe I even had a student crush on her. She was now married and living
in Austin, Texas.
So I wrote to Grete Pasch asking why there wasn't a Guanacos Online (Guanacos =
persons from El Salvador), and she told me that was because there was nobody to
take care of the administrative duties... Those duties included reading e-mails
from people that wanted to be in the list, and entering the records by hand...
this at the time when Internet was beginning in our countries (1996?), and we
had to connect through dial-up at slooooow speeds... Well, I said, I will take
care of it.... and that was it!
Grete created some administrative pages so I could enter or edit the new entries
- she was the brains of the operation, I was the brawn, entering records late
into the night...
Later on, a Catrachos Online was also created (Catrachos = persons from
Honduras). Someone from Honduras was duped, like I was, to take care of the
list... There haven't been requests by people from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, or
Panama, and that is why there were no sites for those countries...
(Years later, Grete Pasch came back to Guatemala, and took charge of the Media
Lab at the Universidad Francisco Marroquín (see photos of her at the University
clicking here),
so she could not continue taking care of Chapines Online, Catrachos
Online, Guanacos Online... I told Grete that I would take care of the sites for
her, and put a small computer on the dining room of my apartment, and re-wrote
the programs in Visual Studio .NET - the originals were in Perl on a Sun
Microsystem Server... so here they are, Chapines Online, Catrachos Online,
Guanacos Online, on the dining room in a measly PC with 1 Ghz processor and 256
MB Ram memory... sometimes I don't have money to pay for the connection -
about $ 180.00 monthly, so there have been stretches of time - months
inclusively - where there was no service. I am still trying to figure out how to
make the service self sufficient)
2005/01/30
Six Degrees of Separation
There is this theory that says that we are at most six degrees apart from
anybody in the World (or from actor Kevin Bacon). For example, the relationship
between Kevin Bacon and the Alien of the movie Aliens: Kevin Bacon was in the
film Footloose, where Dianne Wiest also appeared. Dianne Wiest was in The
Birdcage with Gene Hackman. Hackman was in The Firm, with Holly Hunter. Hunter
was in Copycat with Sigourney Weaver. Weaver was in Aliens with the Alien. This
results in five degrees of separation.
In El Salvador, being such a small country, it might perhaps be three degrees instead of six. The examples of coincidence from the stories above should be proof of that. Sometimes it crosses the border to neighbouring countries. So, to me, it is not farfetched that in Guatemala, when I went to Landivar University, I usually went to study with Edgar, the saxophonist, whose wife was from El Salvador; and a decade later, back in El Salvador, Cristina, a co-worker, told me about her sister, married with a saxophonist in Guatemala. Or in Honduras, at a University where I was giving a training, the person in charge was married to the sister of a customer here in El Salvador and also was the cousin of a former co-worker at the Omega Honduras office, who now works for Amadeus, which has offices on the next floor upstair from the Microsoft Honduras office (I worked for Omega and Microsoft) - this was a convoluted relationship!. Or my ex-partner in a small software company, Sandra, who, I learn later, is married to the brother of my classmate Doris' boyfriend. Or Sandra's sister, Debbie, who is best friends with Toti, who is a classmate of Bea, who was the receptionist at Microsoft, when I worked there...
Well, you cannot go out in El Salvador without bumping onto an acquantaince; so here you have to be straight as an arrow, a difficult task.
2006/12/30
Coincidences, Coincidences
I was mulling about coincidences the other day... I was watching a movie RKO
281: The Battle over Citizen Kane on cable, and there is a scene where Orson
Welles and William Randolph Hearst meet in an elevator. Hearst uses his cane to
push the stop button of the elevator, and at that precise moment the cable
signal went blank. This made me remember when I was watching a James Bond movie:
The Spy Who Loved Me, in a San Salvador cinema, where a tanker opens a hatch and
engulfs a submarine. There is a scene inside the submarine where it begins to
shake... and at that precise moment there was a real minor earthquake and
everybody in the cinema began to shout: the shaking is for real!
Well, I was thinking of coincidences, and later that day another coincidence happened... I am involved with a group of students of the Francisco Gavidia University (among other groups) to do volunteer work for the Red Cross of El Salvador. The Francisco Gavidia group is programming a Web Site for a club of blood donors. The donors will be able to check in this web site how many times they have donated, when and where blood donating drives happen, etc. These holidays the Red Cross is lacking blood and several stories appeared on the newspapers about the lack of blood - sometimes they had just three or four bags of blood! This got me to thinking: I haven't donated blood in a while, more than 15 years ago, when the guerillas launched their final ofensive on the capital city. I will donate as soon as possible! I told Lic. Frida Candray of the Blood Bank that I would go to donate at about 11:00 o'clock after doing some administrative chores at the Red Cross. Well, these chores took me a lot of time and I didn't have time to donate that day... I told Lic. Candray tomorrow I'll come back to donate... Next morning, Lupita, a friend called me: We need donors for a friend of an acquantaince, who was assaulted in San Martin with a knife and lost a lot of blood! So... years of not donating blood, and when I decided to donate, someone needed it almost to the day... if I had donated the day before, the blood would not have been possible to be assigned to this particular person... Please, please, please go to the Red Cross Blood Bank and donate! And don't let 15 years pass between giving!!!