Architecture of Lazarc, France

templars.wordpress.com/2007/05/

findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20041128/ai_n12763431/pg_2

A Nice House ~ from José Bové, Larzac France

http://josebove.over-blog.com/article-3736814.html

La maison new age de José Bové
par Raphaëlle Bacqué

Le permis de construire n'a pas été facile à obtenir. La première lettre de l'architecte-conseil de la direction de l'équipement a même franchement jeté un froid : "Votre projet ne s'inscrit pas dans l'architecture vernaculaire du Larzac." Il fallait presque tout modifier. (more)

BabelFish (rough) translation:

The house new old of Jose Bove The house new old of Jose Bove by Raphaëlle Bacqué. The permit building was not easy to obtain. The first letter from the consulting architect of the direction of l' equipment even frankly threw a cold: "Your registered project is not in the vernacular architecture of Larzac." It was necessary almost all to modify.
---
Rec'd from my email friend Cat in France, who writes "A Nice House:
2008/July/9 learned luddite http://josebove.over-blog.com/article-3736814.html
---
For more on Larzac, France: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20041128/ai_n12763431/pg_2

Architecture special: Brilliance on the edge of town
Independent on Sunday, The, Nov 28, 2004

Stretching away to the east is the great wilderness of the Larzac moors, home to ancient fortified farms and villages of the Knights Templar - La Couvertoirade, Sainte Eulalie de Cernon - and the great military training ground of the Larzac (occasionally a tank or truck crawls across the horizon). It was here, 30 years ago, that the first French rock festival, the Aveyron's Woodstock, marked the birth of the protest movement which defeated the army's plan to extend the Larzac base. A year ago, a similar festival reunited 100,000 followers of Bove to the sounds of a raft of like-minded entertainers, from Manu Chao to the Asian Dub Foundation.

Design Like You Give a Damn

Design Like You Give a Damn: Architectural Responses to Humanitarian Crises
by Architecture for Humanity (Author), Kate Stohr (Editor), Cameron Sinclair (Editor)

"Heavy on context and images, light on celebrity names, Design Like You Give a Damn is a bracing reminder that there's more to architecture than museums and posh private homes. Instead, the founders of the group Architecture for Humanity round up 77 nimble solutions to real-life problems: There are fiberglass domes for the homeless of Los Angeles, a schoolhouse in Burkina Faso with an arced steel roof that insulates the clay brick classrooms below -- even a water pump in South Africa that is powered by children playing on a merry-go-round. Truly inspirational. (San Francisco Chronicle 20060716)"
---
...a 336-page love letter to architects worldwide who provide pro-bono design services to communities that have survived war, government oppression and natural disasters. It's also an antidote to apathy. (Leilani Labong 7X7 Magazine )

Product Description
The greatest humanitarian challenge we face today is that of providing shelter. Currently one in seven people lives in a slum or refugee camp, and more than 3,000,000,000 people--nearly half the world's population--do not have access to clean water or adequate sanitation. The physical design of our homes, neighborhoods and communities shapes every aspect of our lives. Yet too often architects are desperately needed in the places where they can least be afforded.Edited by Architecture for Humanity and now on its third printing, Design Like You Give a Damn is a compendium of innovative projects from around the world that demonstrate the power of design to improve lives. The first book to bring the best of humanitarian architecture and design to the printed page, Design Like You Give a Damn offers a history of the movement toward socially conscious design, and showcases more than 80 contemporary solutions to such urgent needs as basic shelter, healthcare, education and access to clean water, energy and sanitation.Design Like You Give a Damn is an indispensable resource for designers and humanitarian organizations charged with rebuilding after disaster and engaged in the search for sustainable development. It is also a call to action to anyone committed to building a better world. (20061116)

Note: This one I have to buy. Right away.

Rural Studio: Samuel Mockbee and an Architecture of Decency

by Andrea Oppenheimer Dean (Author), Timothy http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifHursley (Author) "THE ELDERLY SHEPARD BRYANT makes do by fishing, hunting, and growing vegetables..." (more)
Key Phrases: cardboard bales, goat house, thesis students, Rural Studio, Hale County, Mason's Bend (more...)

CT note: This one sounds great... I've read about Mockbee before. He sounds like a very good man, could have been a priest from the sound of it. Or a saint.

Studio at Large: Architecture in Service of Global Communities

Have you seen their book?
basicinitiative.org/Resources/Book.htm and on Amazon.com

"Studio at Large: Architecture in Service of Global Communities" documents the international and regional community studios organized by Sergio Palleroni, Steve Badanes, and David Riley, typically held in intensive ten-week builds in marginalized communities. Involving community members and students, these studios promote maximum use of recycled or inexpensive, locally available materials, as well as lighting and energy systems that reduce utility costs and promote resource conservation. They serve as models for making architectural education relevant to urgent social problems, helping communities mobilize indigenous resources and social capital to develop long-term sustainable practices that protect rather than erode cultural identity, dignity, and stability. These pioneering design/build programs have uniquely combined innovative architectural training with cross-cultural immersion, social activism, and environmental science, using design skills and hands-on construction projects to confront poverty and urgent social problems--one building at a time.

Authors: Sergio Palleroni with Christina Merkelbach
Foreward: Bryan Bell
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: October 2004
ISBN: 0295984325 (paperback, 191 pages)
---
Amazon Editorial Reviews
Book Description
For more than a decade, architects and students from the University of Washington have been working with squatter communities in Mexico, migrant laborers in eastern Washington, and Indian reservations of the inland West as well as communities in Cuba, India, and Africa to provide housing, schools, clinics, and other vital structures. Led by Sergio Palleroni, Steve Badanes, and David Riley, these pioneering design/build programs have combined innovative architectural training with cross-cultural immersion, social activism, and environmental science, using design skills and hands-on construction projects to confront poverty and urgent social problems one building at a time.

Studio at Large documents the international and regional community studios organized by Sergio Palleroni and his colleagues, typically held in intensive ten-week builds in marginalized communities. Involving community members and students, these studios promote maximum use of recycled or inexpensive, locally available materials, as well as lighting and energy systems that reduce utility costs and promote resource conservation. They serve as models for making architectural education relevant to urgent social problems, helping communities mobilize indigenous resources and social capital to develop long-term sustainable practices that protect rather than erode cultural identity, dignity, and stability.

Sergio Palleroni is visiting associate professor at the School of Architecture, University of Texas, Austin, and the founding director of the University of Washington BASIC Initiative. Christina Merkelbach is a designer and former design/build student. Bryan Bell is a founder of Design Corps and editor of Good Deeds, Good Design: Community Service through Architecture.

Humanitecture.com

Re: Sergio Palleroni & Sustainable Building Practices, National Design Award 2005, Inhabit

from Catherine Todd
to "Dijana, Matt, Jeremy Capone"
date Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 7:42 PM
subject Sergio Palleroni & Sustainable Building Practices, National Design Award 2005, Inhabit
Humanitecture.com

Dear Dijana & Matt (?),
Great meeting with you recently; looking forward to your return! As you know, I'm leaving July 29 for August and Sept. to NC in the states, and you all are welcome to use my apartment while I'm gone if you want. I can leave keys for you at the Hotel Kitchequel (sp?) next door. Just let me know before I go.
In the meantime, here's a great article I had stored from awhile back. I had wanted to go to Austin and study under him, and actually went down there, but cedar fever did me in. Now, as you know, I'd like to do some of this work here at Lake Atitlan. I met with Susana from PuraVidaAtitlan.org last week and she will have 2,400 stuffed mini-ecodrillos ready by Nov. for me to start building one of their small houses. Plus I'd like to do a wall and a "dry" outdoor toilet. I assume you saw their model in San Marcos... sounds good! What do you think about these techniques? We actually never talked about that. Hope you can be around for some or all of this... Until later, I remain

Your friend "in art and architecture," Catherine Todd, new cell 502.4198.7184

www.inhabitat.com/2005/10/25/sergio-palleroni/

SERGIO PALLERONI, National Design Awards, Sustainable Bldg Practices, UT Austin

Coming to Guatemala? [SERGIO PALLERONI, National Design Awards, Sustainable Bldg Practices, UT Austin
1 message
Catherine Todd Sat, Jul 5, 2008 at 8:06 PM
To: palleroni@mail.utexas.edu
Re: BaSIC Initiative.org ~ classes, workshop info?
SERGIO PALLERONI, National Design Awards, Sustainable Bldg Practices,
University of Texas at Austin

Dear Professor Sergio,

Thanks for the friend add on FaceBook! I had to look you up in email (FaceBook copied all my contacts and put them here!) What a surprise... I was so pleased to find that I had written to you and commented about your excellent program in sustainable building practices.

I had hoped to come to Austin and take some courses, but cedar fever "did me in." So I'm down here in Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala, getting ready to build some sustainable buildings using different techniques, one of which may be the PuraVidaAtitlan.org project techniques of stuffed, recycled plastic water bottles... it's really pretty incredible. I have four very nice, small building lots across the road from Calle Santa Catarina on the edge of Jucanya, Panajachel, with a lake view just a little ways up the road.

They are small but perfect lots for sustainable building practices, and since I've not started any more building projects in the states due to the downturn in the U.S. housing market, it's a perfect time to start using some of the ecologically sound techniques I have been dreaming about for years. It's good to be able to do things with a variety of materials that are readily available and using local hand labor to make something for oneself and the community, with no Lowe's credit card in sight!

I'd like to plan this small project (4 to 6 houses and community building) in the best way possible, so hope you may have something on your website, or pointers for the right direction...

I am also hoping you are at some point heading this way! Lots of humanitarian groups doing good work around here. Would love to see your group here if you haven't already come...

I have pasted an article about your program and the award it won below from inhabit.com: "SERGIO PALLERONI, National Design Awards, Sustainable Bldg Practices, University of Texas at Austin." It's great to get recognition that is so richly deserved, for building practices and design that is so necessary to us all.

I'll be back to NC in August and visiting San Antonio in Aug. or Sept. Perhaps there is something going on around sustainable building practices nearby or in Austin?

Yours, in art and architecture, Catherine Todd

Oxford NC and Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

-
Catherine Todd
3007 Bent Tree Dr. Oxford NC 27565
H 919.693.0853 U.S. cell 919.605.0727,
Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala cell (dial 011 from the U.S.) 502.4198.7184 (new 6-08)

For 2008:

"The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need do is set our sails."
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ~ Gospel of Ramakrishna

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
— R. Buckminster Fuller, *Critical Path*

Words to live by: "Best of all is to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song." ~ Konrad von Gesner
---
http://www.inhabitat.com/2005/10/25/sergio-palleroni/

Inhabit, October 25, 2005
SERGIO PALLERONI
by NK

Last Thursday, the National Design Awards were announced at the Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum, honoring the best of American Design in ten broad categories including Architecture, Fashion, and Communication. While we applaud Patagonia, who won the Corporate Achievement Award for their environmental initiatives, we are particularly appreciative of the accolades for Sergio Palleroni, who won a Special Jury Commendation for his work at the University of Texas Center for Sustainable Development. Palleroni runs design/build studios in disadvantaged communities worldwide, teaching participants how to best exploit locally available resources and to build long term, sustainable developments.

Professor Palleroni and the UT Sustainable Design and Development Workshop will be showcased next year as part of a 6-part series on PBS called "Architecture=e2," to be broadcast for Earth-Day. The segment, which will be entitled, "Design Like You Give a Damn," will center on Palleroni's work to provide assistance in areas hit by disaster, which seems particularly appropriate given recent global events. Currently, Palleroni is working with a student team to produce 19,000 homes for single mothers in rural Yaqui, Mexico.

+ National Design Awards, Sergio Palleroni
+ University of Texas School of Architecture eNews

Via The New York Times


---

On Fri, Jan 19, 2007 at 6:05 PM, Catherine Todd wrote:

Green for All (podcast), introduction by Brad Pitt, class discussion with Sergio Palleroni re: Austin TX Hispanic district

Hosted at www.design-e2.com June 19, 2006 - 32 views
New PBS Series on Sustainable Design

http://www.design-e2.com/podcasts/Video/green_for_all.mov


Learn more about the inspirational architect Sergio Palleroni, who works with poor and underdeveloped communities around the world

More info from House & Garden, Feb 2007 article, pg. 34.

The University of Texas at Austin
Center for Sustainable Development, Building Sustainable Communities Initiative (BaSIC) founded in 1995; it takes students into marginalized areas (such as South Dakota)... (see article for rest).

http://www.basicinitiative.org/Contact.htm


file:///Users/Catherine/Desktop/Basic%20Initiative.org%20%20U%20of%20Tx%20at%20Austin/Green%20for%20All%20-%20podcast.Sergio%20Palleroni.html




On 1/19/07, catherinetodd < ctodd1000@gmail.com> wrote:


BaSIC Initiative.org
http://www.basicinitiative.org/Contact.htm

Contact

Sergio Palleroni
Visiting Associate Professor
The University of Texas at Austin
School of Architecture
1 University Station B7500
Austin, TX 78712

Tel 512/471-7878
palleroni@mail.utexas.edu


Dear Professor Palleroni,

I am interesting in signing up or auditing one of your Sustainable building courses. I am in San Antonio and Austin for the next year or so, in between farm, landscape and home building projects in North Carolina and various endeavors in Guatemala.

I am very interested in the work you are doing, and have been licensed for over 20 years in landscape and outdoor construction, and real estate in North Carolina. I would like to learn more about "sustainable building" concepts which are critically important to our future, and then put these practices TO WORK here in the United States and Latin America, or wherever needed. For the lasts ten years I have worked with a Latin American crew in NC, speaking Spanish all day, so have sufficient rudimentary Guatemalan Spanish to "get the work done." Plus enough understanding to hold conversations regarding regulations, religion, spirituality, construction, agriculture, weather, tools, materials, plants, animals, with some art, music, newsworthy and family events.

Please let me know where I can find more information about calendar events, course dates, sign up, fees, auditing, workshops, etc. There is some information on your website, but I am not sure of what would pertain to a grown person like me or where to go to actually sign up. The regular "registrar's office" at the University of Texas? Any chance of being a part-time student or auditing a class?

I saw a notice about your program in the current issue of House & Garden magazine, Feb 2007, which I picked up at the airport on my way to San Antonio. Excellent!

Sincerely, Catherine Todd


Catherine S. Todd,
6754 Leaning Oak Rd. Oxford NC, 27565 and San Antonio Texas USA,
Tel's: NC 919-693-0853, U.S. cell 919-605-0727, GUA cell: dial from the U.S. 011-502-5382-4694, ctodd1000@gmail.com

*** Traveling:

"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning to sail my ship." - Louisa May Alcott

Words to live by: "Best of all is to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song." -- Konrad von Gesner

"Jewel Box Houses"

Dear Sara,

"Are you going to try the plastic bottle construction? "

Oh, yes, that's the whole point: to make at least ONE "ecological" recycled / solar / renewable / etc. etc. etc. BEAUTIFUL "jewel-box" house. I'll start with this one since it will cost the least, practically no money... a few thousand dollars, anyway ($5 - 10,000 tops?) and that fits my budget. The one good thing I can think of about being (almost) broke. No money to go to Lowe's (yes, they have one in Guatemala City along with Office Depot and more!) so this time around I will HAVE to figure out ways to "make do" in beautiful, ecological ways. People have been doing it for thousands of years, so I figure so can I. And there's lots of indigenous living almost exactly the way they have for those many long years, and they get along fine. So it seems... and they seem as much or even happier and content than I. So I am happy to give it a try.

What is a "jewel-box" house? You asked me that and I've been thinking about it ever since. It would have to be something of exceptional unexpected beauty, with a beautiful surprise inside!

Lots of polished dark, native woods mixed with lighter tones, lots of skylight areas, many built-ins and closet / storage areas half hidden from view, rich tapestries and glowing windows with clear and rippled glass, with stained glass arches over windows and doors... a thatched or tile roof with lots of shade and sunlight patio space, and everything built "just so." Even the furniture should come "made to measure" to fit the spaces just so. Then add the gorgeous colors of Latin America, the roses, golds, brick and blues... hand painted adobe tiles and adobe, bamboo, palm, flowering vines and scarlet bougainvillea blooming outdoors, keep a tree growing through a roof in the patio area, et voila: perhaps this fits the criteria for a "jewel box house do you think?

I'll send some photos of a beautiful little place I photographed when I went to San Marcos. It's a little cafe next to one of the many spiritual retreat / yoga centers you would love if you were here. Susana from Pura Vida uses it as her "outdoor office" so that is where we met. That pretty much is where I've taken this description from!

How are you doing? Your friend, Katie

PuraVidaAtitlan.org

I went with Rojelio by launch, and he and I met today with Susana Heisse and her two young assistants, from PuraVidaAtitlan.org across the lake in San Marcos. We went over all kinds of things to do with the Pura Vida recycled bottle/ building program and what I want to accomplish on my lots. I will start in November when she gets enough eco-blocks ready by the school children, and I will donate money to buy school books. What a great day.

Pura Vida-building with recycled plastics

In English: Pura Vida - Alternative Trash Management, for a life without contamination.
Pura Vida teaches villagers to compact clean, dry plastic trash into used plastic bottles, thereby converting waste into easily-storable and transportable “eco-blocks” or eco-bricks ("eco-ladrillos") for construction.

FOR A LIFE WITHOUT CONTAMINATION
Alternative Trash Management
Lago Atitlan, Guatemala
puravidaatitlan@hotmail.com
English: http://www.puravidaatitlan.org/english.html
Spanish: http://www.puravidaatitlan.org/

Pura Vida-San Juan la Laguna dock

Atitlan Resource

Atitlan Resource has useful links for a little bit of everything... resources, groups, businesses, Spanish schools, links, on a very nicely designed website:

atitlanresource.com/

Dr. Camille Bentley ~ DoCare International

Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 1:08 PM

To: "Dr. Camille Bentley" , drczb@aol.com
Cc: markmuncey
DRA. Camille Bentley - RVU DOCARE
Rocky Vista University.org
cbentley@rockyvistauniversity.org
drczb@aol.com (home)

Docare International.org

Hello Dr. Camille Bentley!

So good to meet you and your group of students at the Hotel Playa Linda this trip! Hope you come back again SOON. I am so impressed with your medical program helping the indigenous in the villages around Lake Atitlan, and hope I can help in any way I can.

I'm working on a website for Georgina at the Hotel Playa Linda [where your group often stays], and would love to feature your group, with their emailed experiences and photos if you like. At one point I hope to create a blog where people can post themselves. In the meantime, send anything you want. We can note that you are always welcome to donations for medical supplies or more physician volunteers. The work you are all doing is just wonderful, and so needed. Can't wait for you to return!

Yours, Catherine Todd

---

Mark Muncey Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 5:18 PM

To: Catherine Todd

I got your e-mail, Catherine. What a treat to meet you!!
I got home yesterday, unpacked, did laundry and went up to the mountains, today, for a picnic lunch.
It's always good to get home.
Keep in touch!
Mark

Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 9:05 AM
To: Mark Muncey

"I got home yesterday, unpacked, did laundry and went up to the mountains, today, for a picnic lunch. It's always good to get home."

What a nice homecoming you must have had, and it's great to hear back from you, too! Send me any experiences or photos you want for the blog I hope to get going about "good works around Lake Atitlan." I am just thrilled that Dr. Camille brings these groups through her organization DoCare, and accomplishes so much. I am so impressed that you have joined her group and are getting your medical degree as a second career. It's really admirable.

Let me know when you are coming back. I'm back to NC in the states Aug and Sept. probably, but here the rest of the year, I believe. Here's a photo of the volcano view from my balcony window on Calle de los Tigres.

Yours, Catherine Todd

--
Catherine Todd
3007 Bent Tree Dr. Oxford NC 27565
H 919.693.0853 U.S. cell 919.605.0727,
Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala cell (dial 011 from the U.S.) 502.5013.6300 or 4198.7184 (new 6-08)

For 2008:

"The winds of grace blow all the time. All we need do is set our sails."
~ Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa ~ Gospel of Ramakrishna

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
— R. Buckminster Fuller, *Critical Path*

Words to live by: "Best of all is to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song." ~ Konrad von Gesner

Lake Atitlan Volcano Calle de los Tigres.jpg

"Gautemala Programs, Stories & Database"

I want to make this a list of all the incredibly interesting people and programs that have flown here from all over the world... landed like snowbirds and hummingbirds migrating to help rebuild this beautiful world that had been so thoroughly destroyed. Times they are a changing; volunteerism and humanitarianism is high. Have to figure out how to make it possible for people to enter their own info, there are so many to put in.

I'm going to try and update this Guatemalan blog to include many of the Guatemalan stories from my personal "Catherine Todd" blog, and any worthy groups, places of interest, business or volunteer opportunities, retirement, "moving here" info, and any other useful websites I can find. Hope people can add to this blog with their own businesses here, stories, experiences, recommendations, photos and more... email me with anything you like. CTodd1000@gmail.com

I want to build this house in Guatemala!

I want to build THIS house as my first project at Lake Atitlan, Guatemala.
Why are all my houses pictures of churches? Am I in the right country? Am I in the right era? Am I in the right life? They have volcanoes in Auvergne, too, which I didn't know. Life is full of surprises.

Notre-Dame-des-Chazes, by l'agence de communication Conjoncture S.A.
http://www.globalfest.com/tour_en/tour_en_Auvergne.htm
To see: Le Bouchet Lake, the high pastures of Le Forez, Yssengelais and Le Meygal craters, Notre-Dame Cathedral and St-Michel d’Aiguilhe Chapel in Le Puy-en-Velay, St-Julien Basilica in Brioude, Cistercian Abbey in La Chaise Dieu, Collegial Church of St-Laurent in Auzon, 12th Century Cloister in Lavaudieu, and the thatch-roofed hamlets of the Mézenc Highlands.

More beautiful photos and info at: http://www.chevalet.co.uk/template.php?sectionId=1002

Letter from Atitlan

From G: "I NEED AN ELENA TOO. LOVED THE PICS... love your art work on the wall."
---
Dear G, You wrote: "I need an Elena too!" Yes, we ALL need an Elena! Another reason I live here. I pay her $1.00 an hour; that is TWICE the going rate. I got paid $1.05 an hour (minimum wage) when I was 16 years old in 1966. So they are 40 years behind the times here, pay wise, but since it's double what most get, she is very happy; so am I. It's much cheaper to live here. Wages are cheap, but some products are expensive, so it's not a "consumer culture" yet; handmade arts & crafts are high on the list.

Elena's daughter is 5 years old and as sweet as can be; there's nothing like a child's hug who is still "in love with the whole wide world" and all that is in it. Including me! She's started first grade this year and loves it because she can "play with her friends" and has learned her numbers in English and Spanish!

It's not my art work; I should have mentioned that. It's a gorgeous "primitive" style of overhead painting, in this case the coffee pickers. My computer table is in the top right hand corner where I am working right now.

No one needs to answer unless they have time or the inclination; I just don't want to leave anyone out. Send photos if you like! I think I'll set this up on an interactive blog when I have time so people can peruse and comment "at their leisure." I'll let you know when I get it done. Pam, you could send us some of your poetry / writing as well. I know you have it somewhere!

Your friend, Catherine

Catherine Todd
3007 Bent Tree Dr. Oxford NC 27565
H 919.693.0853 U.S. cell 919.605.0727,
Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala cell (dial 011 from the U.S.) 502.5013.6300 or 4198.7184 (new 6-08)

For 2008:

"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." — R. Buckminster Fuller, *Critical Path*

Words to live by: "Best of all is to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song." ~ Konrad von Gesner

"To Lake Atitlán" - Michael J. Totten

http://www.michaeltotten.com/archives/2003/11/to-lake-atitln.php

"To Lake Atitlán" by Michael J. Totten, November 28, 2003

Excellent piece of writing! Very descriptive about Guatemala and Lake Atitlan, and some of the poorer villages one never hears much about. I live in a dream world, apparently, here.

Google Blog & La Merced Church, Antigua GUA

Dear Sr. Elizabeth,

Send the Google Blog info to the Bishop and have him set up a blog and he can still use the newspaper one as well.

So happy you liked the music... I picked out ones I thought you would like. Here's a larger photo of La Merced, a beautiful church in Antigua (that I also attached to your other email). See more photos here:

http://www.twip.org/image-central-america-guatemala-antigua-church-la-merced-gl-5369-1717.html

Yours, K.

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 5:20 PM, Sr. Elizabeth wrote:

Dear Katie,
I almost forgot to tell you that several evenings ago, I forget what day it was, our Sr. Patricia Vereb very kindly agreed to show me how to get that Papal Blog of our wonderful Bishop Kicanas into my "Elizabeth" Word File. From there we sent it to her E-mail server, just to see if it was working. It was. It really mounts up in your server. I think it was 1.5 whatever the word for the measurement is. I think I am too old to learn how to do this myself. I kept falling asleep as she was doing it for me.
Again, let me thank you for your wonderful piano music. I also loved the pieces by Mick McAuley and Olivia Newton-John. As I listened to your own music I timed the first Sound Track 1 was 4 minutes and a half, approximately, and the second one, Song Track 3, was 14:31. They are so beautiful. I can tell you love it so very much. Truly, a great and wonderful gift to enjoy yourself and to share with many, many others.
Lots of love and prayers,
Sr. M. Elizabeth

Back "Home" to Panajachel, to Sr. Elizabeth

Guatemala pics 563
Originally uploaded by grupodeduke

Dear Sr. Elizabeth,

I am so happy that you have enjoyed everything in the little "treasure box" I sent you... I was hoping that this would be true! The blank cassettes are for you to record more music on, and I can change them to mp3's when I get back to the states. I haven't sent out the piano CD recordings to many people yet, so am very happy that you have enjoyed them. I played on a real grand piano at the (formerly) called Windham Hill recording studio near Brattleboro VT. It was wonderful. What took me so long?

I am writing to you from Guatemala, where I am back "home" in Panajachel, Lake Atitlan, having arrived two days ago. It's wonderful and I am so glad to be back. We are just starting into the rainy season so it's "indoors" for me after 3:00 pm (just like Hawaii), otherwise it's 75 degrees year round, as always, and ALL the flowers and roses and bougainvilleas are blooming like I've never seen before! Unlike me, they never seem to get tired!

I brought a whole load of Mac laptop computers for LIFE School here in Panajachel; it is 70% indigenous, 30% gringo+ and is the only school that teaches the local language Kichea (sp?) and English, and does wonderful work in other areas as well. See their website at Life School in Panajachel Guatemala:

* "L.I.F.E. School: An international school educating children preK-12. Includes school handbook, class pages, and photos of school activities." www.lifeschoolweb.com


I'm collecting things for them as this country is very, very poor. Perhaps you might have some ideas on this?

As far as setting up a new blog, send the Bishop the info and he can do it himself, and also use the same info for the newspaper. That's probably the easiest way to do it!

Will write more later, and hope you do too.

Love, Katie

On Thu, May 1, 2008 at 5:11 PM, Sr. Elizabeth wrote:

Dear Katie,
There are simply no words adequate to thank you for the precious gifts that came yesterday by media mail. I opened them and put your super-beautiful piano CD on. At the time I only had 5 minutes or so, but I came back again this afternoon (next day) and played it from start to finish. I marvel at the beauty your fingers produce from the keyboard. What kind of piano are you playing? I think I could listen to your music for hours on end and never tire of it. I'll bet you thank God night and day, 7/24 for this precious GIFT God has given to you. I want to read the book that you also sent, MAKE PEACE WITH ANYONE" by David J. Lieberman, Ph.D. It looks tremendously good. And another huge debt of gratitude to you are the tapes you sent: "Christmas Favorites," over 30 minutes on each side! And Three Other Tapes, two have not even been opened, one 90-minute one, and the other 120 Minutes!
And two additional tapes, both 90 minutes. My endless gratitude for all, dear Katie. As I said, there are no words adequately to tell you of my deep gratitude.
Lots and lots of love and prayers, always!
Sr. M. Elizabeth

Guatemala pics 563

Guatemala pics 563
Originally uploaded by grupodeduke

One of the most beautiful churches in Antigua, Guatemala, right near Dona Clara's, where I used to stay. Great shot.

Joyce Maynard's Writing Workshop July 2008

JOYCE MAYNARD'S LAKE ATITLAN WRITING WORKSHOP, San Marcos, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
July 5-13, 2008 (July 6 -13 without Antigua stopover) — With Ann Hood & Dorianne Laux
http://www.joycemaynard.com/writing-workshops/lake-atitlan.shtml

News from Guatemala

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Re: snail mail address? & News from Guatemala
1 message

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Catherine Todd	Thu, Jan 17, 2008 at 5:04 PM
To: sandi sylver
Hi, Sandi! Been thinking about you... so good to get an email! My address is at the bottom of all my emails, here it is again. You can also get photos put on a CD and send them out by email, even if the camera isn't digital (I think). I don't know when I'm coming back... seems like no reason to right now, especially since I had planned to for Feb 15th - cold, cold - but I can ask Les to scan them and send them I hope. Sometimes he does fulfill a request or two for me. How have you been? I'm quitting the pain pills for my back so that I can come back to life and also won't need to go back every three months for a refill; the muscle relaxers were a really good change - lifted depression quite a bit - but the big one is harder. Was fine for two days - the first full two days without them being the last two days - but I felt so good I walked all along the shore of Lake Atitlan to a very nice restaurant yesterday. Lots of the standard back strain pain today, so broke down and took a half a pill and went to bed and am up and a bit better now. Have a massage appt. tomorrow which I hope will help. Andrea, the masseuse, is German and studied physical therapy and it's practically - it IS - a "spiritual experience" going there, in her massage room high up in the trees, overlooking the mountain and a waterfall, and Lake Atitlan when you go up further on the roof. She is married to Nunio, a Brazilian architect who has designed lots of gorgeous houses here in Panajachel, and she has two wonderful children and she is always laughing and smiling and has a "real life" here, not just my alone-life that I have, in the "latter years" having retired from what? so it's very good to be there, to remind me that some people have happiness and a real life, after all. And that maybe one day I could achieve it, too. So all in all the depression is starting to lift, in part because the pills are leaving my system (I tell myself anyway) and I am forcing myself to get up and out a bit more each day. I was two weeks ill with intestinal flu and la grippe, so being outside now in the sun and the light is magical beyond belief. "I AM ALIVE" and I can hardly believe it's so. I've been reading every spiritual book I have, which is (too) many that I ended up bringing over here each time, and a whole bunch of trashy beach novels that I just love - have never read these kind before, not in ages and ages - that I can trade in for at the local English bookstore. They certainly raise my spirits as well. But it's very lonely at times; incredibly different now that I am planning on staying here more "permanently" and will be on a much stricter financial budget at some point in time. It's amazing how everything has changed in just a few weeks, thinking about how I could be staying here for a long, long time - and for the first time the lonelies have really gotten to me. I can't imagine another relationship after the disaster of the last thirty years; Les and I still get along well by telephone and email, and as long as we don't have any financial doings together we can share the same house just fine, but it's practically my whole adult life down the tubes as far as I can see, and I did it to myself. Always waiting and wondering "why" he would do the crazy things he would do, never knowing about Asperger's or believing the behavior that I saw each and every day. Always living in the future, "it will be better then..." and I can see that this is exactly how I have lived my entire life, ever since I was a child waiting and waiting to be able to leave that horrible house that I grew up in and was finally legally released at the too-young but absolutely necessary age of the tender sixteens. Then, not a little more than two or three years later, there I was found myself in NYC and the Gaslight. I can hardly believe it. So much water under the bridge, but it's so good to be able to write TO YOU after all these years. I still love what you said about "you can't go back and re-live your life no matter how hard you try," and I read that email all the time to remind myself of this. I know that this stage is the - I hope - final stage of "regret" for the lost years of my life, going back so many years I can hardly count. I know that time brings all kinds of surprises, so I am waiting for (another) one to come this way. After all, who would have thought that I would end up here right now? Now, that's a surprise! Went to the open-air market with Georgina today and as usual, had a great time. She really is getting old now and her memory is failing a lot more in the last year than I had seen before. So I hope I can start helping out at the hotel on a regular basis starting next week. Just to give her a break and go with her to the market and carry and check the list... we had to get another tuc-tuc (open sided three wheeled golf-cart type taxi) and go back for dog food and a whole bunch of other things. I always enjoy going with her anywhere. I prayed for years for my grandmother to come back to me and she did, in the form of Georgina. I always smile when I say her name. So with that I will close; let me know what is on your always-full plate! Your friend, Katie NC address below: -- Catherine Todd 3007 Bent Tree Dr. Oxford NC 27565 H 919.693.0853 U.S. cell 919.605.0727, GUA cell (dial 011 from the U.S.) 502.5013.6300 For 2008: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." — R. Buckminster Fuller, *Critical Path* Words to live by: "Best of all is to preserve everything in a pure, still heart, and let there be for every pulse a thanksgiving, and for every breath a song." ~ Konrad von Gesner On Jan 17, 2008 11:11 AM, sandi sylver <sandisylver@yahoo.com> wrote: I HAVE BEFORE & AFTER PIX TO SEND YOU...I NEED YOUR SNAIL MAIL ADDRESS! (more later) xoxoxoxox Sandi Sylver (and "the Girls") Storyteller-Ventriloquist-Songstress ILLINOIS ARTS COUNCIL ARTSTOUR ROSTER ARTIST (Find out if your school/library/preschool qualifies for a grant to hire me!) www.storytelling.org/sylver Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.

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start the new year right!

Started this page a little bit early, would be my Christmas gift and New Year's resolution all at once!

Catherine & Jessalyn

Photo from a visit last year to Noe Vasquez' daughter Enclish, in Coatepeque, Gautemala, 4 hours from Panajachel at Lake Atitlan. Jessalyn is one of Enclish's daughters, and is as sweet as can be, as are all of Enclish's children. They LOVE crayons and coloring books and come dancing up the street in the rain when they see I've arrived, singing "crayones et livros! crayones et livros!" It's such a pleasure visiting there. Have to go back SOON.

P.S. My hair really isn't white, it's just the way the sunlight reflected in the photo for some reason. I'm partly gray and brown. So many people have asked, I thought I'd answer that question in advance. LOL. (What year / date was this photo taken?)

GUA News Apr 18, 2006

I am supposed to come back from Guatemala May 11, but I might be able
to figure out how to stay longer. I have an opportunity, perhaps, to
set up computer / English classes and run a florist shop / restaurant
at the wonderful small B&B Hotel Playa Linda, right across from Lake
Atitlan, I am staying at. Scared to death to try, but who knows? It
might just work out...

Love, Katie
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[robb] So good to hear from you when I am finally able to check my email...
"Semana Santa" kept me out of the streets all last week (along with
the first flu I've had here). I missed all the processions, but did
get to see and photograph in front of a church where the children were
making a beautiful traditional "carpet" out of colored sawdust and
fruits, vegetables and flowers from the entrance to the street. It's
really incredible.
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"To enter heaven, one must take it with them."

"Though the human body is born complete in one moment, the birth of the human heart is an ongoing process." ~ John O'Donohue, "Anam Cara"

Letter from Guatemala 2006

Catherine Todd Wed, Feb 22, 2006 at 8:55 PM

Dear Sara,

Can't wait to navigate my way to finding a box and the post office to send your fabric and photos; bought some more silk embroidered fabrics and pillows and large bag etc. today that were more expensive (for me, and my house, wherever that may end up being), but will send photos. The fabrics here are blindingly beautiful; each one more beautiful than the last. It's as if I'm holding Alladin's lamps as the shopkeepers keep unfurling one beautiful jewel-toned gem of fabric after another. If I were rich, surely my house would be one of the most beautiful in the world.

--
"To enter heaven, one must take it with them."

"Though the human body is born complete in one moment, the birth of the human heart is an ongoing process." ~ John O'Donohue, "Anam Cara"