back to school!

so everything is going back to the routine, let's say the weather is almost back to normal... it's still a little chilly for my taste hehe though it's sunny now, traffic jams, early wake ups, spending most of our days out, oh and I must not forget.... the earthquakes!
it was my first day at school today as well as my sister's and we were all welcomed by a 6 degree earthquake in the Richter scale! Man! that was scary! specially since I was in a crowded class in the fourth floor of the building!
As I see it I will have less and less time to write here because of school and just living life, I don't want to stop though I wish I could write about so many things going on here. But I need to set all my energy into becoming a doctor, a very good one.

My little cousin Marianna will be born on wednesday, my aunt has a c-section programed for that day. We are so excited, in my mom's side of the family me and my sister, we've been the only girls for sooo long!

There is and unbelievable twist to the Rosenberg case, aparently he planned his own death!! What in the world?? That's what the CICIG found out after about a year of investigations.
Plus... the awful earthquake in Haiti... the images are heart breaking, this is the time when we have to show our brothers our support in every way.
Lot's to say about these subjects but not enough time... need to read an article about innate inmunity... see ya next time!

I'll leave you with a pic... just because I love my brother and sister

C O L D !!!!

we broke a record today, it's incredibly cold here! I mean, it even snowed in the top of the Tajumulco Volcanoe, one of the highest of the continent. We are hitting the 39ºF this morning at 8am in Guate City!! and they said the temps could get lower tonight and tomorrow!
Man! this is not my type of weather.... It's hard to move my fingers! I mean... we could have snow!! something I would never even dream of.
And just to cope with it all... we had an earthquake! It wasn't very strong though.
My brother starts school tomorrow, I'm going to miss him :( my days of glory are almost gone, I start school on Monday, I'm excited though.

brrrrr! that's all for today... I need to warm my hands!!

Happy Thanksgiving day

To all my american friends reading this blog, we don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Guate but what better day to be thankful for friendship and all the blessings in our lives?! Of course we have to be thankful everyday.
Well, the days when we stuff ourselves with delicious food are coming so I'm just going to be patient... I already have a few more pounds on me so...

We had another earthquake today... God! It was soooo scary!! I know I always say that but this one was really terrible! My mom was so close to a panic attack, I was on the verge of tears and we were about to run down stairs and out of the building when it stopped.
According to the news it was 6 degrees in the Richter scale and happened in El Salvador, though we could feel it in many places here.
There were reports of material damages in houses and buildings but no one got hurt, thank goodness.

My grandma is back from her trip, she's very happy, had a great time and came back with lots of funny stories to tell, believe me they are all very special. It's great that she got to be with her brothers and sisters, she hardly ever sees them, specially sinces my great-grandma passed a couple of years ago. We've got to make this kind of reunions more often!


We got to skype with "sweetpea" (Angelina decided that is her new name) and her family. We got to meet her aunt and uncle, her grandma and our dear friend Joan were there too. Andrea and Angelina are so cute! Andrea showed us her pink skates and Angelina just wanted to sing the "monkey's song" and jump in her trampolin. Truly adorable.
I am thankful for Angelina, for her wonderful family, for getting to see her grow up and just know how loved she is and how happy she is with her family. We sure miss her a lot, and think about her everyday, but we know she is doing great. And that brings peace to our minds and hearts.

feeling the winter

winter is showing its face around here. It's been a few days now with rain, cold, clouds, you know, that kind of day when all you want is to stay in bed all warm and cozy. Not my kind of weather really, this year has been pretty hot, the rainy season is coming waayy late. It means we are using sweaters, scarf, boots or sneakers, I even wore gloves yesterday... GLOVES!! and I am Miss I.Always.wear.Sandals for Christ sake!
Anyway, we did have a couple of hours of sunshine today, then the rain came back :( , this is all because of a hurricane near Nicaragua that is now heading north. They said in the news the rain will be over by the 10th and then we can expect more cold. Great! ¬¬

I got a call from the call center I was trying to work for, they wanted to hire me!! too bad the schedules they were offering were way different from the times my mom can drive me. And as dangerous as it has been around lately, I rather stay home with no money but safe. I mean seriously, there have been attacks to police cars and 17 to 20 people are killed every day due to violence. I had to say no.


News from the US, little Angie, my sweet girl, it's going to school now with her sister. Her mommy told us that according to her teacher, Miss Megan (she has mentioned her on skype talks), she is the smartest in her group and is really good paying attention in class and follows instructions very well! Believe me she is sooo smart, I mean she had words at 9 months old! and at age 2 she has 4 and 5 words sentences! God I love this child to pieces.
We get to see both babies every friday now, which is great, though within a week there is not much to talk about, our life is not that exciting. lol!

Have a great week!

xoxo

more pics & video!

I made this slide because it's easier to upload them and I also added a couple of videos from the independence parades we witnessed while we were in Flores, Petén.
Watching the parades brought so many memories to me, I used to be one of those children and young men and women, wearing my costume or uniform or holding the school flag or the guatemalan flag, well the videos in the slide were taken at night but there are also parades at noon, which are terrible for the kids, I remember losing my skin from the sun burns! ugh!
Anyway, it's amazing how much work and thought they put into the costumes and the dancing and acting shows they present at the park or wherever they end up.
Oh how I wanted to be in those little shows, or play something in the school band, but I was too shy and small to carry any instrument! lol!

Hope you like it, though I warn you it's a little long :s Sorry if there are some pics that I had already posted!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

also, we've been having some hot weather lately along with some rain. I am actually glad the rain is coming back, since this has been the driest year from the last 30 years and is causing serious trouble with the harvest all over the country, and at the same time leaving whole families with literally nothing to eat, I hate to see children and parents pleading for food and help. Thank goodness this has brought generosity out of a lot of people both here in Guate and internationally. This independence day really showed how we want to make this a better country and that we are starting to show how much we all love Guate.

we are back!

We came back home on Monday evening, to be honest we could not stand the HOT weather any longer! We felt like we were melting, it got better after the sun went down, but still it was really hot. This has been a very hot year, even here in the city!
Don't get me wrong, we had a great time, lots of beautiful sights, and we got to see some friends and family that we hadn't seen in a long while.
I think that the best thing of all was spending time together, we had a lot of that in the road. It took us 9 and a half hours to get to Flores, a ride that would usually take about 7 hours. That's because it was raining heavily in some parts of the highway and then we got stuck in a trailer/truck wreck. Anyway, we were laughing and singing the whole time in the car, and thank goodness for the A/C!

We had a good time at Flores, even with the hot weather and all, it has changed a lot since the time we used to live there, there are a lot more hotels and nice things like a new levee, which is not finished yet but almost...
The opening of the stadium was really fun, lots of family members, good food and an astonishing view of the Petén Itzá Lake. Seems like my uncle has helped that little town a lot, it is really nice.

Well, enough yapping and lets get into the pictures, I know that is what you're waiting for

Here we are... having a photoshoot while we waited in the road




This is one of the sights on the way to the stadium




The sights of San José, Petén... this is another soccer field in the town


The sight from the new stadium, we used the view to strike some poses, my sister is a natural...



Here's my brother sporting the family futbol uniform, they played twice that day



The team, all uncles and nephews got their uniforms


Mom and Dad showing some love lol!


The levee (is that the right word?)


Nice! I think we look cute in this one! We stayed there for about 15 minutes and that was it... it was 10 am and it was about 100.4º!



This is the island's church, it was way too hot to be inside with it full of people so we waited outside and just listened to the sermon

Here we are, sitting in the park infront of the church

Ok, I will include more pics in my next post so stay tuned! I have a LOT!

RoadTrip!

Oh Yeah! we are going on a trip to our home town, well, my parents hometown. There is a big family reunion there and luckily we all have vacation, which is pretty rare. We leave today at noon and will be coming back probably on Monday.
We are going to Flores, Petén. A little island that has changed a lot from the time we used to live there and it's pretty nice and most important... it's HOT! I mean the weather is super hot there which is one of the reasons we left.
Anyway, we are determined to have fun and enjoy this few days together, on the road for 7 hours if we are lucky and don't have to stop many times on our way :s
I'm looking forward to see some old friends and family that we haven't seen in a while.
It's been a crazy week, my dad's bday last wednesday, aunt Sofi's bday on thursday and we are leaving today!
Promise to take a lot of pics to share with you when I come back! It truly is a beautiful place!

P.S. in other news I got my grades from the last exams.... I did Great! Oh my goodness I am proud of myself; I got my hands into a female corpse to check the reproductive organs; Independence day next tuesday, September 15th! Lots of parades and flags around. I love Guatemala!

Now we are getting some winter... & Happy Father's Day!

Ok, since last Monday it's been rainy and just a little bit chilly. We are going to be having rain, thunder and lightening for a while. It's worst in some places around the country and it sucks if don't own a car and have to go out being splashed by cars or having to use the city bus :s

Last year 97% of all the roads in the country had severe damage because of the nonstopping rain. They did repair most of it but as usual they didn't use the best material to fix things so we are already seeing some of the huge holes again! ugh! As a plus we have more traffic and a lot of car accidents and believe it or not 2 little girls and 2 women died after a mud slide went over their house!
Last year 69 people died this way. These people live in very dangerous places, near cliffs or inside the cliffs, an awfully dangerous place to live. They just don't have any other option.
Also the rain has already destroyed some bridges in Escuintla and only God knows what is to come :s And all of this without mentioning the earthquakes that increase during this season, we already have had enough of them if you ask me!

Well,
Let's talk about happier things now....
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY! to all the wonderful daddies out there
This is actually a late post for me since we celebrate father's day on June 17th though I know it is father's day in the US.
We had a great day with my dad, he is working out of town but managed to stay in the city so we could spend some time together on his special day. As it was wednesday and we all had things to do, he picked us up to go out for dinner. We had lots of hugs and loving words in the morning, no present since I am a penniless student so it was all hugs.
I love my dad so much, he is such a great man and I have learn a lot from him.
I love how he's so good at his job, how he is always willing to help others, how he knows almost every corner of this country, how he gives me supportive words when I'm not doing so good at school, how he holds his gilr's (my mom, my sister or me) hand when wherever we are walking, how he gets emotional about things that not even I get emotional about, how he doesn't like to watch horror movies, how he's so loving with little children, how he always says yes to everything we ask him for even when it never happens (my mom makes it happen at the end lol).

Believe me there are not enough restaurants in this city to hold a ton of hungry people on a holiday!
It was the same thing for mother's day, it felt like it was Christmas Eve with all the traffic and crowds everywhere and parking lots full.
He drove to about 5 different restaurants and they were all full! So we ended up going to this place called Arrin Cuan where they serve all kinds of typical guatemalan food, in this mix of old-modern house turned into a restaurant. The food was yummie and we had a great time together!

In other news, can you believe we have over 200 cases of swine flu! Just a week ago we had not even hit the 100 cases! I think there is a lot more people with the disease out there and the government just doesn't want to tell that to the media and they refuse to claim a calamity state.
At least most of the kids are off school... but even now I have not seen anyone wearing a mask to go anywhere!

Winter?

Well, we have been feeling some very HOT days lately, even when the winter season oficially started las May 20th.
And when I mean hot I mean really hot. It's really hard to believe since last year it started raining very early and it only stopped until late October. Actually 97% of all the roads in the country were severely damaged. And now this? I guess we are really feeling global warming around here....
As for right now, we are having our first June storm, after a particularly HOT day.
God knows we needed this! Though we don't need too much rain right now either, my mom's car A/C system is not working very well and having to drive around the city in the crazy traffic is not fun at all. We'll see how it goes...

Also, this post goes to try out my new signature I did all by myself!! ha! Isn't cute??

swine flu finally hit us!

There are currently over 74 cases of swine flu in the country.
Which is huge since our first 3 cases reported only a few weeks ago.
As I posted before I never saw anyone wear masks to go anywheres, I guess that is something to think about now that we are getting close to a hundred cases.
Even when the amount of cases started growing extremely fast there were no signs of people wearing masks or any other kind of preventive actions.
Of course, in hospitals and all kinds of health places people are wearing masks and gloves.

In a desperate action to prevent the spreading of the disease the Education Ministry fast forwarded the 'middle year' vacation coming in just a few days for all the children in the country because most of the new cases were taking place in public and private schools.

We as med students cannot show up at the hospitals unless we have something very important going on. We are being saved in case the flu goes out of control.
A 12 year old boy died last week. He was thought to have died from kidney failure but after the doctors runned some test the A H1N1 was confirmed.

If you are out there, keep washing your hands and avoid touching your face, eyes, mouth before washing your hands. Oh and stop going to places with big crowds and kissing and touching other people's hands!

update 2

Well, a lot has been going on since my last update.
I apologize for being soo off date with my posts, but I have been really busy and some other times too tired to write a post!

Anyway, the past protest got together over 6000 guatemalans, seeking for justice and the end of violence. Of course if wasn't even near to the amount of people in the first protest, but just the fact of that much people together means a lot here.

Tomorrow another protest will take place, I know in my heart this one will be bigger than the last one. From the awakening that Rodrigo Rosenberg did with his video, a lot of young guatemalans have started a fight, a fight for our human rights to be finally respected, to stop the death of hundreds of innocent people.

I will be there of course, along with some other family members. I just cannot see myself hanging out in my home leaving the task of making my country a better place to somebody else. Guatemalans truly need to stick together now more than any other time. We cannot let this horrible situation fall in the oblivion and keep standing the same taunts any longer!
Even when the leaders of the city movements supporting this cause have had their lives threatened, they refuse to abandon it. Why should the rest of us abandon it then?

Since the start of the investigation of Rosenberg's death, the CICIG has found not one new prove against anyone, on the contrary, it seems like the ones behind his murder have been trying to sabotage the investigation and keep coming out with fake traces. Which can only make the CICIG waste more time. It has been more than a month now, and in my opinion if there was anything to be found it has already been destroyed and if there was any witness or someone with any kind of info has already been bribed.

The protest have caused a positive impact, even if it is small, in the past weeks.

Several new laws have been finally aproved, one of them had been presented to the congress by a congresswoman known for fighting the system to break the corruption cycle, this law pretends to force the members of the judicial system to actually make a prior investigation to whoever starts working as a judge or any other spot in the judicial system. Isn't unbelievable they don't even do that? It means that any person with links to drug traffickers or God knows what kind of influences can actually work there and decide on the worst kind of human beings.

The other law, is about the motorcycle drivers. Since most of the murders commited in the country come from men driving motorcycles, the new law states that now can be only be ride by one sigle person, who is also supposed to wear a vest with flourescent stripes and the cycle's plates both in their vests and helments. There were several protests about this law, motorcycles have become very popular in the country because they are cheaper and people actually drives their whole families (wife and 2, 3 or more children) to school of wherever they need to go.

Besides a lot of them drive like crazy so there were a lot of accidents.

Other laws are the one that forbides the smoking anywhere surrounded by walls, which means you are not allowed to smoke unless you are outside wherever you are. Great idea if you ask me.

There is another law that I might post about some other time 'cause this post is getting way too long! ha!

Here we go again

Tomorrow another manifestation will take place, same place, same time, hopefully a lot more people!
The manifestation from last weekend was historical, never in the history of Guate so many people has gather demanding justice even when we have lived in the same impunity situation almost since democracy started.
And so we went from bad to worst with the same attitude we've been having for centuries. Bending our knees and turning away our heads unless violence hits very close to our hearts and homes. All of it is finally ending and in the past week we have since at least one protest per day!

Seems like we finally had enough! People is rising, specially the youth.
This makes me sooo happy! I know this thought has been in a lot of minds here, we want a better Guatemala, for ourselves, for our children. We are now fighting for it.

I truly enjoyed last Sunday, I felt truly happy and just watching those thousands of people united for our beloved Guatemala. I had tears in my eyes when we sang our national hymn, more than 35,000 people singing their hearts out! Unbelievable!
We were sunburned and we are still pealing off some skin but we are sooo there tomorrow!

Not so Wordless Wednesday! :s

This are just a couple of pictures of Last Sunday, as you can see a Big protest took place, we were all asking for justice, no more impunity, no more murders, no more corruption, we want PEACE!
That is the reason we are dressed in white. We were more than 30,000 people.
But this is not it, another protest just like this one, and hopefully with more people, will be taking place next Sunday, May 24th.

This is completely unusual here, it takes a LOT to make guatemalans gather like this. It means we are tired of having to live in the middle of so much violence.

Now, guess what President Colom did... he brought a similar amount of people from all over the country to protest in his favor! Believe me he and all his government did it.
Some of the people there even said they were offered Q.60, a meal and some others said they were there because they were threatened saying that if they didn't show up they were going to lose their jobs or wouldn't recieve the government's help anymore!!!
The press says the government spent around 1 MILLION DOLLARS bringing all those people and feeding them. Where do you think all that money is coming from???

Please Sign the Petition!

Petition to ask Alvaro Colom his resignation from the presidency.

Go here to sign the petition

http://www.petitiononline.com/gtRemove/petition.html

To: Guatemalan Congress and all international comunity -


Preamble:

In Guatemala City, on May 9, 2009 the lawyer Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano was despicable and cowardly murdered. After his death was released a document and a video recorded by himself, which explains in detail why Alvaro Colom Caballeros, the current President of Guatemala and his senior aides are responsible for his death.

Counsel Rosenberg was a father with a wife and 4 children for whom and by ensuring that he certainly had reason to live.

Considering that no human being would give his life in exchange for a political scandal as the government has been speculation in the propaganda that is currently airing on all media in the republic of Guatemala.


Lawyer Rosenberg Video is in YouTube and other websites. The journal "El periódico" has published a note with the transcript of the document and the link to the videos (all in spanish) at http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20090511/pais/100336/

Petition:

Mr. Alvaro Colom Caballeros to be removed from office as President of the Republic and the withdrawal of the immunity currently enjoyed by constitutional mandate, to go to the courts for the serious accusations leveled against him.

The same way, everyone involved in the facts by lawyer Rosenberg Marzano to be removed from their public charges and submitted to the courts.

The people of Guatemala do not want to break the institutional order, it is requested that Dr. Rafael Espada, current Vice President of the Republic takes office as President, while Alvaro Colom resolves his legal status.

We also ask to the international community to lend its support, through established channels, to be conducted independent and thorough investigation of the facts until the very end.


It is suspected that, at this stage, the material perpetrators of this crime have been eliminated, so that they can not incriminate the accused to be the intellectual authors of this crime. We calls to embassies and diplomatic missions accredited in the country immediately and publicly offer to provide a asylum for these people, so that if some of them are still alive, can give their testimony to help clarify this.

In the same way we ask to withdrawn entry visas to their respective countries and not be given political asylum or any other assistance to those involved in this crime.


I found this in facebook and I don't know for sure this will truly help my country but my people is finally rising all together and figthing for our rights to be respected, please sign the petition and help the guatemalan people to finally be able to live in Justice!
In this country 98% of all the murder cases remain UNSOLVED!
Last year 6,200 guatemalans died due to violence and this year, just a few months ago a 2 month old baby boy was killed in a shooting in a city bus. We want the Rosenberg murder to be the last one! (Add to the mentioned number the already hundreds of people killed this year).
I am adding a couple pictures of the protests taking place in front of the National Palace. This is a group of people already fighting for the president's resignation. A massive protest its being organized for next Sunday and many national organizations are getting together to make thousands of people to join this cause.

.

update

This is an update from my previous post, since the release of the Rosenberg video the news has gone around the world. The video is now translated into various languages and has been post to many newspaper's websites.
The International comission against the impunity in Guatemala, CICIG, is now in charge of the Rosenberg investigation. Though the CICIG director has recommended the president and everyone else directly accused in the video and the written declaration.
To this, the president has responded that he would only leave the presidency dead.
This can only show his lack of good sence and dignity. If he was truly innocent he would have any problem with his innocence to be proved.
Everyone else involved says they are innocent. International and national opinions lead to the thought that to have a clear and believable investigation, the president, his wife and the presidency secretary must leave their spots in the government at least for the time the investigation takes place and the CICIG finds the truth. Their staying there can only obstruct the path to the truth.

The Ministerio Público looked for the people who distributed the video in Rosenberg's funeral first instead of the assassins!
Then the national district attorney had an almost secret meeting in the president's house!

Since Monday, the family of the Musa's and the attorney Rosenberg organized protests in front of the National Palace to ask for the president resignation and for Guatemala to finally see Justice and to stop the death of so many innocent people everyday due to violence.
The government response was (as it has always been everytime they have a problem or someone protesting against them) to move a mass of people in buses, planes and helicopters to the same place, but the difference is this people are defending the president and his government. They say this is the only government that has remembered the poor (yeah right!).

No one believes this things anymore, there have been cases of journalist asking random people in the crowd why they are protesting and sometimes they just don't have any idea, sometimes they say they were offered some money or a meal and sometimes they say they were threatened saying he government was going to take away the little help they have given to their families.
You can tell these people are poor and illiterate, they have no choice but to show up everytime they are asked for.
We all know these groups are brought by the same government, how else would anyone be organized to move hundreds of people away from their jobs and homes? Believe that just doesn't happen in Guatemala.

The fact of gathering these two groups of people in the same place can only be meant to create disputes, and make everything worst.
Every day the group of the ones against the president grows and so does the group of the ones in favor of the president. And it seems like this will continue for a few more days with more and more people joining the cause.

I truly hope the death of this honorable man doesn't go innoticed. It is time for Guatemala to wake up and finally fights for the JUSTICE we need so desperately!

And I totally believe him!

This is the latest news, this video and his written declaration was distributed by every media in our country, websites even crashed from so many visits in order to watch and read his words.

This was a very important attorney assassinated last Sunday, May 10th while he ride his bike in las Americas Avenue, he worked for an important business family, Khalil and Marjorie Musa, who were both assassinated a few weeks ago. This man knew the truth behind this murders and as he knew his death sentence was already signed didn't surrender by the same fear all guatemalans feel and made this two declaration to shout the truth that we all know but refuse to do something about.
This has turned into a big scandal and I believe every word he said and wrote. How many other good guatemalans are going to have to die until we rise and stop these filth trying to take our country. The national TV channels didn't show any of these Big News (wonder why?), except for Guatevision and in the radio.

This breaks my heart, I can't even imagine what his family must be feeling. It fills me with shame and indignation. People has been asked to dress in black today to protest for Rosenberg's death, so he won't become another statistic.
I truly hope every man guilty rots in jail.

Attorney Blames President for His Assasination

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q...

Rodrigo Rosenberg's Declaration, prior to his death

If you are reading this message, it means that I, Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano, was murdered by the President's Private Secretary Gustavo Alejos and his associate Gregorio Valdez, with the approval of mister Alvaro Colom and Sandra de Colom.

The reason for which Gustavo Alejos and Gregorio Valdez have ordered my death, and for which the President of the Republic Alvaro Colom has approved it, is because until the day I was killed, I was the lawyer for two incredible Guatemalans, Mister Khalil Musa and his daughter Marjorie Musa, and knew exactly how Alvaro Colom, Sandra de Colom, Gustavo Alejos and Gregorio Valdez were responsible for this cowardly assassination, which I made known to them and to anyone who could and would hear me.

I was a 47 year old Guatemalan, with 4 beautiful children, with the best brother one could ask in life, with wonderful friends, and with an overwhelming desire to live in my country, but I could not have lived with myself without rebelling, arming myself with valor and denouncing before all Guatemalans who have principles and values the real reasons for the deaths of Mister Khalil Musa and his daughter Marjorie Musa, without regarding the consequences, and understanding that my life was in danger, I wanted to leave behind this testimony, should something come to happen to me, as it unfortunately did.

It was Alvaro Colom who, through Gustavo Alejos and Gregorio Valdez, asked for the collaboration of Mister Khalil Musa to form part, Ad honorem, of the board for Banrural, without Mister Khalil Musa being aware of the illegal, million-dollar business transactions taking place daily in Banrural, which range from money laundering to the deviation of public funds to non-existent programs belonging to the President’s wife, Sandra de Colom, as well as the funding of paper firms employed for drug-dealing.

It was Alvaro Colom, in agreement with Gustavo Alejos and Gregorio Valdez, who withheld Mister Khalil Musa’s already signed appointment, without his knowledge, for over three months, for in reality they had no intention whatsoever of granting him this post, but were using his good name with the argument that if new quotas of power were not distributed, Mister Khalil would denounce the corruption with which Banrural’s General Manager Fernando Peña operates this bank at his whim, for the service of Mrs. Sandra de Colom, as an associate and financier with the funds of the bank and of the businesses owned by Gregorio Valdez and Gustavo Alejos, without the bank’s president, José Angel López, doing anything to stop Fernando Peña from turning Banrural into the dwelling for thieves, drugdealers and murderers which it is now.

With the impunity with which Guatemalans in recent years have granted to thieves and murderers, José Angel López, Fernando Peña and the cowardly Gerardo de León directly threatened and intimidated Mister Khalil Musa a few weeks before his assassination, so that he’d give up his post and Mister Khalil Musa, as a true gentleman, told them he had no problem with his appointment being canceled, as it was Gustavo Alejos and Gregorio Valdez, in agreement with our most splendid President Alvaro Colom and his perennial shadow, Sandra de Colom.

Mister Khalil Musa let Gustavo Alejos and Alvaro Colom know that he’s decided not to take part in the board of Banrural to avoid troubles, but they asked that he give them time, as all was getting resolved, without Mister Khalil Musa having the slightest idea that once the thieves and murderers had everything settled, they would kill him along with his daughter, Marjorie Musa (whose only crime was to be an exemplary daughter who always accompanied her father), as he’d served his purpose, without caring for anything or anyone and with the utter leisure of knowing that good Guatemalans would once more do absolutely nothing, justifying their inactivity in the impotence which always pervades us, or simply saying “Most likely, they were involved in something…”

Boasting lack of moral principles or values and of the vaguest sense of shame, Gustavo Alejos, after trying to invent other theories who nobody accepted on the grounds of the moral virtue of the victims, personally told Mister Khalil Musa’s family that he’d regrettably been assassinated for the horrible problems which exist in Banrural, reaching the point that the very President Alvaro Colom invites one of Mister Khalil Musa’s political relatives to his office to confirm what’s been said by his Private Secretary.

Now you can understand why neither Alvaro Colom and much less Gustavo Alejos publicly declared what they told to the family of Mister Khalil Musa and his daughter Marjorie Musa, and ordered the corrupt and incompetent Secretary of the Interior and the nonexistent Attorney General to let this assassination slide, as always occurs with the murders, thefts and violations which have thrust Guatemala into its darkest depths.

Day by day this horrible story repeats itself and fills with grief one more of our Guatemalan families, while good Guatemalans decide to look the other way and pray it’s not our turn.

It’s enough! Let’s rescue our country from thieves, murderers and drugdealers, and once united, let us reclaim our Guatemala, our values and our faith in justice, and let us kick out the current puppet we have for president, and let us imprison the thieves and murderers, starting with Gustavo Alejos, Gregorio Valdez, Fernando Peña and Gerardo de León, among others, and once and for all, let us demand the resignation of all the current members of Congress, all of who, with very few exceptions, are a bunch of thieves, and let us start all over again, for the love of God and our country.

Surely the cowards will try to defend themselves by staining the memory of Mister Khalil Musa or his daughter Marjorie Musa, and will try to convince Guatemalans that this is all a new ploy, but in the end, the one and only truth that matters is that if you are reading this message, it’s because I, Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano, was murdered by Gustavo Alejos and Gregorio Valdez, with the approval of Mister Alvaro Colom and Sandra de Colom, for refusing to allow the vile and cowardly assassination of two incredible people like Mister Khalil Musa and his daughter Marjorie Musa to become another statistic, thus continuing to hand over my country to the killers, cowards, thieves and drugdealers who currently govern it.

Rodrigo Rosenberg Marzano

PS
I remind Mister Vicepresident of the Republic, Doctor Rafael Espada, that he who’s silent, yields, and that you are neither a thief nor a murderer, and should be the first one to head the movement to recover our Guatemala, and make the law be carried out with the help of all the good Guatemalans who support it without reserve.

Swine Flu is Here!

We heard on the news early this week the first case of swine flu hit Guate!
To be honest we are all kind of bewildered because being so close to Mexico we hear about the first case until now, when the disease has spread all over the world!
Anyway they say the 11 year old girl who brought it from Mexico is already in her home feeling well and so is her family. More cases are about to be confirmed on Saturday, since the samples have to be sent to Atlanta.
As I was talking today with my school mates, if we have only ONE confirmed case of the A H1N1 virus... why did the alarm go from zero to ORANGE?! and then to a Calamity State along with some gossiping about everything being shot down? That is causing people to be over worried and the masks are already sold out! Anyhow, I haven't seen anyone wearing them to go anywhere.
It seems like there are a lot of other issues in this country to be worried about...
I will be praying and praying that this thing won't explode and that they don't find any more cases, and that they are not hiding any info from us, so we can be prepared.

If the flu spreads here... it could be really really bad...
People doesn't seem to understand well what the illness is about, they said in the newspapers that a lot of people stopped eating anything comming from pigs so they would not be infected??!
And some others just don't trust the system and rather die in their homes than send their relatives to a hospital or whatever. Sad huh?

Hope this stops very soon and that they find a vaccine soon.

The Reign of Chaos

Chaos is the perfect word to describe the situation we are currently living in Guatemala City.
Just in the past week so many horrible things have happened that its hard to believe we have to keep on standing.
The things we hear, see and read every single day are just enough to make anyone feel helpless and vulnerable and simply frightened.

Impunity in this country has reached a level that seems unbelievable. This has become a city were around 15-17 violent deaths are reported EVERY DAY. Now any day can be your last day, you just pray the Lord to keep your loved ones and yourself and leave your home with the huge weight of worries hoping to see them all safe when you come back.
Since the start of year 2009, more than 30 bus drivers have been murdered, that is without counting the victims of the lost bullets in the shootings. Amongst these innocent people we can now count a 2 month old baby boy that was hit in the abdomen by a lost bullet and died that same day in a national hospital. I am happy to say at least one of the men that caused this deaths were captured. But here that can't be much of a consolation since most of the criminals are released 1 or 2 days later. After paying a certain amount of money they remain free on bail.
What kind of sick authorities do we have? Allowing murderers, rapists, drug dealers, thiefs and kidnappers walk out of jail as if they had done anything wrong?

We have heard so many times of people calling the police to report a robbery, a kidnapping or any kind of criminal activity and either the police never shows up or if they do they come too late. We all wonder if they actually care a tiny bit about the safety of the nation or are they as the rest of the people in the government just worried about how they are going to get their pockets filled with money?

All of this has left us living a collective psychosis, we are afraid to drive our cars with the windows open or even ride a public bus because there reports of 200 robberies EVERY DAY.

We no longer trust anyone else besides our family members because we no longer know if that person is going to kidnap you later or break into your house to steal or if you can get into a fight with they could send assassins to kill you or somebody else in your family. Could they do that? In a place were they have found entire families killed and women chopped in pieces, teenagers shot dead when they were going home after church... with no suspects... I think they could.

A couple of weeks ago a teacher was brutally murder by his students, he work in a detention center for teenagers. They were pissed off after an inspection and the teachers always waited a couple of days so the interns would calm down, but this time some of the teachers decided not to wait and entered the place to do their jobs. After a few minutes they found themselves trapped in the middle of a riot. The prisoners had said what they were capable to do and under the lens of the media they chose their victim, first they hit him to death and then opened his chest, took his heart and intestins out and they threw them against the gratings... and that is not it, after they did this they DANCED around the body!

The police later said that the ones that comited this atrocity are 20 year olds that belonged to some of the worst gangs ("maras"). What are this men doing among 13 to 18 year olds? What are they learning from those psycopaths?

What kind of savages are we raising? Aren't they supposed to be rehabilitated in these places?

How can this be happening? How much longer are we going to have to take it?

Then the president shows up on tv and in the radio blamming the past governments and saying there are organized crime groups trying to destabilize HIS government instead of offering reassurement or at least one good plan to stop this horrible violence.

Believe me we are not going to stand this for much longer. Guatemalans are used to be stepped over by the ones with power but we are being pushed to our limits and we can not stand watching 2 month old babies or anyone else dying victim of drug cartels of whatever it is that is causing this chaos.

Pacific marches are being organized and everyone is finally starting to raise their voices in the hopes of PEACE for Guatemala. We are not giving up, we are not going to bend because of the fear or intimidation anymore.

If you are reading this PLEASE pray so Guatemalans can finally find some peace and hope and for the ones whose lives were taken.

Living in the city of FEAR

Well, once again I must say what a lousy blogger I am.
The past days have been chaotic, lots and lots of things to do, places to be... just so many things there is not enough time!
First of all I had two big exams for this week (yesterday and today) and so I became "book face" once more and along came the lack of sleep which can make me really fussy.
Good news is that as far as I know most of my answers where right and I will have some decent grades.

On other things, I want to say a belated Happy Women's Day! to any wonderful women reading this post anywhere.
This past weekend was nothing but heartwrenching, there where so many people killed! The police found 2 young girls dead, one was found burned and the other was cut in pieces and the body parts where in plastic bags in a large area.
3 bus drivers were shot and died. I have to mention this is something that has become somehow common in GC. Only in the first 3 months of 2009, more than 20 bus drivers have been murdered in the same circumstances. So everytime you get on a bus or someone close to you gets on one you can only pray and pray that he gets to wherever he/she is going safe and sound (though they might get safe it doesn't mean they didn't get robbed while in the bus!)
It is very frightening to live this way. Robberies happen everywhere now, we are literally afraid of driving in our cars with the windows open because the robbers now drive motorcycles and use the red lights to point guns to the drivers and take their stuff away!!
There were also 5 police chasing incidents all over the country the drug cartels are trying to get the control of the country to pass drugs! There are dozens of people dead because of this, there have been several masacres in the past months.

Besides all of the mess we have to live with here, summer is here and that also means that fires are a threat in many parts of the country. AND from sunday to this day we have had 3 earthquakes!! (I HATE EARTHQUAKESSSS!!) According to the newspaper there have been 17 earthquakes since sunday but only 3 where sensitive all over the country.

Anyway, I just keep praying and praying that this violence ends very soon because it can't get any worst than what it is. When there are teenagers killing people just to be accepted in a gang or just because they are going to receive a meal or clothes in return something is seriously wrong with the society.

Year 5125... the Marimba and Tecún Umán

(ok, this was meant to be posted yesterday but I just couldn't finish it :s sorry!)

Today is the start of the year 5125 in the mayan calendar. As you may know mayan people had an almost exact calendar as the one we use nowadays. The difference was that every month in their calendar has 20 days and then came 5 days in which they thank their Gods for the blessings and made reflections.
As it is such a special ocassion, many mayan priests and priestess (they are called "tatas" and "nanas") came from all over the country to celebrate. They all made their altar to greet the sun in the first dawn of the year. The altars included resin from many trees, plants, food and candles.
The ritual took place at the sacred city of Iximché, in Tecpan, Chimaltenango. This is a very old mayan city that was abandoned in 1524 when the Spanish people came to conquer this city, one of the last ones standing. The ritual also has a special dance, la Danza del Venado.
They say this year will be ruled by "Iq", the Wind. And I think they are totally right 'cause that is exactly what we had today, WIND!

Also last week we celebrated the day of our national instrument La Marimba an instrument with great cultural value, represents the art and tradition of Guatemala.

Nowadays, some people listens to Marimba music when they are having luch (cuando están almorzando) and during each town celebration, among a lot of other activities.

It was also the day of our national hero, Tecún Umán, they is a great leyend about this man. They say he was one of the last mayan kings, they say he and his army fought against Pedro de Alvarado (the man who supposedly conquered the mayan people), during the fight Tecún Umán was hurt by Pedro de Alvarado's sword and died, the leyend says that a Quetzal was flying above the fields were the battle took place and when Tecún fell to the ground the Quetzal posed over his chest and stained its beautiful green feathers with blood and since that day on the feathers in every Quetzal's chest are red.