One of the issues that struck me when I was working on the community newspaper, the Earlsdon Echo in Coventry, was that journalists must tend to be good at finding a new slant on what are in effect almost repeated stories. It was something that I found quite interesting within the context of a community newpaper group as each members of the group would have their own 'bag' and would offer repeated updates each month. This was something that I recognised as one of the main skills of journalism on this level after contact with the team on only a few editions of the rag. After spending a few more days in Antigua with very little to blog home about I do find this to be a similar situation, I do find that I'm not challenging myself and I'm not doing enough to have that facinating a blog to skim through. I have been quite lazy and though I've attended my Spanish lessons I haven't done a great deal in the way of practicing. Spanish feels pretty comfortable as a language: there seems to be a great deal of regularity within the language in a way that I don't recognise in English and I may be speaking to soon, but it does feel like it's beginning to sink in. There were a few days right at the beginning of the course where I felt like I should get some form of prize for having learnt to say my name in Spanish. Now at least I have some form of hunger to be able to express myself in Spanish and really be able to communicate without this being that big a deal.
In terms of things I've been up to and whatever has been an issue of the day, nothing really has crossed my mind as that significant about the area as I don't really know a great deal about the rest of Guatemala and would find it difficult to compare the area with anywhere else in the country. The Lonely Planet guidebook states that Antigua is very much different to anywhere else in Guatemala and it defies explanation as to why the town is laid out so well and managed to maintain so much traditional character. Personally, I think there are probably quite a few former Nazis in the area and they have controlled the town planning significantly. It wouldn't surprise me - I've met a lot of Americans here but not that many Israelis. I was going to suggest to the manager of the school, Tecun Uman, that he only offers home stays with people who have been screened for any Nazi connections because it must cross a few people's minds from time to time.
I was half expecting one of those scenes from Father Ted where Ted finds himself in a room full of Nazi memorabilia owned by another priest, I forget the episode exactly. You walk into a homestay in Guatemala and find yourself having lunch with Goerball's secretary and Adolf Hitler's tailor's wife. Nice place apart from the Nazi links. I did wonder if the combination of sounds that was put together by 'The Destroyers' was in any way linked to combination of Latin sounds with Oompah pah bands from Germany. Maybe this would be a good way to lure out the Nazis in Guatemala. It's a long shot but it might just work. Maybe the Israeli government could fund the Destroyers to tour latin america.
Again, I was rather disappointed with my lack of creativity with regard to photography as I seemed to be following Peter's path again. I did realise when I was facing the one hotel that I took a shot of that I'd almost definately seen the images at SBPS - the shots aren't bad and they do make a reasonable photoessay by my standards at least - see Antigua chicken buses. I took a few other shots of the market, see 'belts' above, but I guess that they're just the same as Peter's as ususal. Some of the shots of Parque Central also looked very familiar when I saw them on my laptop yesterday evening when I downloaded them. I liked the one image of the one teenager standing provocatively near the boy who was shying away. It's a pleasant place to relax.
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