Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Home Again, but Still Thinking of Suchitoto

This blog began in Baden exactly one month ago, so I think it appropriate that I make at least one more entry from here. I'm far too exhausted to even think about any kind of an over-view. Not tonight anyway. I've just stumbled in the front door, it's closing in on midnight, and I have an eight am call at the Festival.

Thank you for all the support and positive feedback. My experience in Suchitoto was more life-changing than I ever would have dreamed. Keeping this journal has been an interesting challenge, especially on those nights when the Internet connection failed, or the times when I would rather have just gone to bed. I'm not sure if and when I'll give up the blog, but before I do, I intend to publish several more photos and perhaps a few comments. So stay tuned...

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Last Post?

With nothing on the agenda for today, I could easily have slept in this morning. But the day dawned bright and inviting and it seemed a shame to let it go to waste, so I found myself out on the terrace well before eight. Sometime around eleven, Hector, the videographer from Es Artes, swung by with a request to record our feelings about the project. The office is less than a five minute walk down the street, so I took another quick swim to cool off a bit and then we walked over for the interview. Tito played translator and then the three of us drove to Villa Balanza for our last lunch there.

The heat of the day felt particularly brutal today. After lunch we returned directly to the hotel. Mad dog and Englishman, we realized this was our last chance to return home with something beyond our wonderful memories. Tan time. With the quenching water of the pool inches away, we were able to withstand the blast of the sun for short spells. Frank has a thermometer built into his travel alarm and out of curiosity, he brought it outside. In the shade of the patio shelter the temperature was a relatively chilly 99 degrees F. In the sun, we got a reading of 121. Not surprisingly, we now each resemble a ripe tomato balanced on a red pepper. Nothing like a sunburn to make the cramped five hour flight tomorrow as comfortable as possible.

Ed Daranyi and some others from Es Artes arranged a beautiful last supper in the mango courtyard. I counted heads; there were fourteen of us gathered around a table, sharing chicken and vegetables cooked under the stars on a BBQ borrowed from the kind folks at Balanza. Toasts were exhanged, a couple of short speeches were delivered,including an eloquent thank you from the normally quiet and shy Evelyn, office manager for Es Artes. I can think of no more fitting conclusion to our visit to Suchitoto than this memorable evening. Even the moon popped up above the back wall of the courtyard right on cue and quickly climbed the sky, shedding its amber vestments and shining a brilliant white light down through the branches of the mango tree. If ever I make it to heaven, I hope it looks like this.

Monday, March 1, 2010

The Last Day of School

We paid our last visit to Escuela Taller this morning. Valentin and I screwed some hinges onto the masking flats while Frank and his eager female apprentice Arely and tiny Nelson did some final touch ups to the paint job on the ticket/information booth. For the benefit of Edward's rehearsals on the modular stage, which for the time being is set up at Escuela Taller, Anselmo and I taped out the chapel's column locations on the floor. Before Frank and I packed up all the personal tools we had brought south with us, fun-loving David presented each of us with a small plaque he had made. On the back of mine he had neatly penciled in: DE DAVID PARA TED UN GRAN AMIGO. GRACIAS POR COMPARTIR EXPERIENCIAS. Then Mario surprised me with a hanging 'sign' of my first name, delicately cut from a piece of steel by hand and distressed tastefully and artfully. In both cases all I could say was 'gracias'; I hope they could both tell by the look on my face how deeply I was touched.

After a quiet lunch at Gringo's (many of the restaurants in Suchitoto, including Villa Balanza, are closed Mondays - another Stratford parallel) we returned to the offices of Es Artes and took measurements of the courtyard. Perhaps the dream of an outdoor performance/rehearsal space there will become a reality some day. If a stage under the magnificent mango tree is ever built, it's unlikely I will be fortunate enough to be involved in its construction. But anyone who knows me could guess I would try to at least put my oar in the water.

It was overcast and close today; the pool was a welcome sanctuary. Having finished what we came down here to accomplish, our energy finally deserted us this afternoon. We roused ourselves for an early evening walk downtown. While sipping a cerveza at the Internet Cafe we ended up having an interesting chat with a young professor from San Francisco who regularly visits Central America to teach art. After saying farewell to her, we stumbled down the tumblestone streets to our hotel, stopping en route to pick up the pizza we had ordered from around the corner an hour earlier. We carried it back to El Tejado and shared it on the dining terrace with our two favourite waitresses/desk clerks. Rosa Alba and Yany. We (Meester Frahn and Meester Teh) are the lone guests at the hotel tonight, so their duties are light.) Their English is as limited as our Spanish, but their dark eyes had lit up when I asked them if they felt like having some pizza tonight. 'Pizza!?! Si! Gracias!' Some words are universal. The boss had been part of the pizza 'conversation' and her reaction had been a sweet smile, so I knew we had not violated any rules of etiquette or hotel policy and that the girls wouldn't be in any trouble.

Tomorrow is our last full day here. Sadly, it will soon be time to say goodbye to the people, the views, the heat, the roosters and dogs, the cobblestoned hills, the beautiful town of Suchitoto .