Giramonda.com

This years winners of the 2010 Hunger Bites! World Food Program video contest are heading to Guatemala to raise awareness about the country’s underfed population. A recent drought has exacerbated the Guatemalan hunger crisis…
Two aspiring filmmakers from Mexico, the grand prize winners of an annual video competition held by the United Nations World Food Programme [...]

In the recesses of the Sierra Madre Mountains in Northwestern Mexico lies the Barranca del Cobre (Copper Canyon), a natural wonder considered to be yet more spectacular and raw than the Grand Canyon. It is in the gorges, twists and bends of the Barranca del Cobre that the Tarahumara keep their ancient customs and rituals [...]

Yesterday, Bob treated me to both lunch and dinner… and salsa lessons in between. First, homemade spinach ravioli at Andre’s Confiserie Suisse complete with cinnamon tea, cream filled cake covered in marzipan and fine coffee. Wow. Then salsa lessons… we got vid of a cool dance sequence for women… so I’ll be able to practice! [...]

From the Persian poet Rumi:
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep
You must ask for what you really want
Don’t go back to sleep
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
Where the two worlds touch
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep
Contemplation on the Phoenix process:
Named for the [...]

Exciting news! The man featured in the documentary “Being the Diablo” has invited me to collaborate on another documentary film – this time, one that features the Copper Canyon Ultramarathon. I’ve been itching to get more involved in documentary and film making for too long now. Finally… I am!
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Helped film two most interesting interviews today. [...]

They observe the ceremonies.
They protect the forest.
They run.
“At the heart of who they are is running,” Will Harlan.
“Where we see giving as something extra or something that you should get praise for, to the Rarámuri, giving is just so ingrained in who they are that it’s not something that you have to go out of [...]

Coffee is the fair trade commodity of choice in Guatemala, but the Tennesean reports that some university students are aiming to broaden the spectrum of fair trade goods produced in Guatemala. An excerpt from Entrepreneurship Can Help Rebuild Communities by Jeff Cornwall:
The town of Chajul, located in the mountainous region of Quiche in northern Guatemala, [...]

Bob came by for lunch. He has treated me several times so this time I cooked him a veggie stir-fry with my infamous salad. Of course, I’ve learned yet more about Bob and his most interesting life pursuits. Looking forward to kicking it with him this weekend before I go.
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Had an invigorating swim and sauna [...]

I keep coming back to this idea of posting every day. Still working on making it stick. I tend to have two posting seasons: flood season and dry season. Ha. But, after discovering the journal entries from my first trip abroad in Italy (which I just published in Unearthing Firsts), I am once again inspired [...]

“I would rather live in a cardboard box on a street somewhere and make art, than spend my life in a cubicle doing something I didn’t want to do.” ~Dominique Elise
This quote from an up and coming artist caught my attention. Here’s more about the artist:
Her first album, “Outside Influence” (available on iTunes and CDBaby), [...]