Eugene's Comments June 29-July 6

We arrived last Saturday evening, June 29, and were met at the airport by John Mann who is a tremendous blessing to us and has been instrumental in putting this piano teaching project together. We met John when we came to Guatemala last December with Garth and Cheryl Norman.  John insisted that we stay at his very large house in Ciudad Vieja.  He invited us back any time and when Debbie got the idea to come back to teach piano, John offered to let us stay at his house.  

Sunday morning, June 30, we attended the Ciudad Vieja ward and as expected, there was no one to play the piano so Debbie was invited to play.  The piano has only been played a few times a year and is horribly out of tune and in severe need of repair. On top of that there was an insulated protective cover folded back, and it acted as a sound damper.

Right after the first hour of the block meetings we met with the bishop briefly who gave us the list of those people who had signed up for the classes.  There were about 44 people on the list.  Debbie was very concerned that she did not see the girl from Antigua that inspired her to even try this unusual project. We went over to the Antigua ward building and were able to find the girl named Adela Sagatume and she was eager to attend the classes.  Debbie was so glad to find her as she has been asking John to try to find her since she made the decision to come back after our very memorable trip in December.

Debbie started teaching Monday morning and most of the people who had signed up actually showed up plus a number of others who had not signed up.  In addition Debbie insisted that the three children of John’s maid Esperanza that live in the house in the house with her attend as well. He also allowed the handy man that John has do work around the house to attend.  We currently have 76 students enrolled to attend each day, though not everyone is able to come each day. We have as many adults as children and everyone is eager to learn.  Debbie divided the group into three classes and began this very unusual and historic project of fast-paced piano instruction to a group of people only a few of which knew anything at all about music.

Debbie has certainly given this project her all and it has been exhausting for her. One of her students,  Megan Moncrief, came with us and has been a great help, but Debbie  really needs more assistants to help with these new  students.   She has even solicited me to help teach which is a real disadvantage as I have forgotten much if not most about what I once knew about music.  I have been struggling to learn the notes on the keyboard in order to teach them to the students that Debbie gives me during the breakout sessions. She has students from 5 years of age to 58 years.

John Mann arranged for a wonderful young man named Chris  to be a translator for Debbie. Chris  was raised in a home here in Antigua by a mother from the US and so is bilingual and speaks English and Spanish very well.  He has been a great help to this project. Although he doesn't play piano, Debbie has  him helping her teach.

We have just finished the first four days of classes and it is amazing how fast some of the students are picking up the skills of reading and playing music.  Everyone seems to be keenly interested in learning and there has already developed a great bond between students and teacher.

We begin the first classes around 9 am and end about 5:30 pm.  At night Debbie has been working on preparations for the next day and I have been trying to keep up with my work project emails.  We are so appreciative of John Mann hosting us at his house where we have great accommodations including a reasonably good internet connection.

Friday July 5 was the first break that we have had and we went to Antigua for a couple of hours so Debbie and Megan could shop.  In my mind the definite highlight of the day was driving to the Macadamia Farm just about 10 minutes or so from John’s home. The owner, Lorenzo, is really a character and during and after a great macadamia pancake breakfast we had a wonderful conversation with him. He is 73 years old and is just recovering from a serious case of shingles and has been in a lot of pain. He has a fascinating story that he told when we met him for the first time last December. He is originally a fire fighter from San Francisco who was injured fighting fires when he was 35 years old.  He learned about macadamia trees while living in Costa Rica and then came to Guatemala about 30 years ago.  He has been very successful developing techniques for growing macadamia trees from seed. He gave us a great tour of the farm and the equipment that is used to harvest the nuts. He made a very ingenious home-made machine for removing the husks off of the nuts that uses a rotating flat tire as the main mechanism to strip off the husks. He really can give a great lecture on the many benefits of growing macadamia trees including how much carbon the trees take out of the atmosphere.  He shared the many health benefits of macadamia nuts and his philosophy about how the world could be greatly benefited from planting lots of trees, and using plants and seeds that have not been genetically modified.  

We had a very interesting day Saturday, July 6.  We went to Guatemala City to go the LDS Church Distribution Center to get some copies of the church-produced Simplified Hymn Book and Beginning Keyboard Course.  When we got there we learned that the temple is shut down for some repairs and since the temple was shut down the Distribution Center is also.  Debbie spoke with some missionaries who were passing by and found out that the Guatemala Mission Training Center is just around the corner. We went there and after some considerable effort and discussion were allowed past the security gate to speak with the MTC President who was very delightful to speak with and who was very helpful.  He and John Mann hit it off very well when the president learned that John Mann is an active free mason, and involved in the same International Rotary Club as the president.

The president tried to find a copy of the Simplified Piano Course, but instead found a simplified hymn book that was put together by a music missionary back in 2007.  Debbie looked at the book and was thrilled that this missionary had simplified every hymn in the Spanish LDS Hymns book.  Monday, John is going to get  copies of some of the pages of the book printed so that Debbie can use it with her piano students here. Every page of the simplified book is available for copying.

After leaving the MTC (Missionary Training Center)  we went to Office Depot, Walmart, a Sony store and to another Walmart to try to find some adaptors and headphones that could be used with the keyboards and also a chip for my iPhone so that I could call the states for my work.  At John’s suggestion I ended up buying a new cheap phone with a local number so that I could still keep my original number on my iPhone.  So now I can make calls with the local phone at a cheaper rate and then still receive calls with my same number on my iPhone. When I leave two weeks earlier than Debbie I can leave the phone for her to use.

After the shopping centers we went back to Antigua where John dropped us off at what used to be the Convent of La Concepcion for a celebration party. John had invited us to go with him to this event which was a big party for English speaking people, most of whom are from the US, to celebrate the Fourth of July. It was estimated that around 200 people came and went during the course of the party.

We were told that there are probably at least 700-800 North Americans living in the small towns surrounding the city. The party went all afternoon and into the evening and ended with an amazing fireworks display which would rival many of the Fourth of July fireworks displays that we have seen in the US. We were standing directly under the fireworks.

We met some very interesting people there and had a great conversation with a man from Delaware who had just moved here about 1½ years ago. He had college degrees in accounting, law and medicine. John Mann told us that many at this event were highly educated and many had doctorate degrees. This man from Delaware told us some fascinating facts about the medical system in Guatemala and how inexpensive it is. Most of the doctors were educated in Europe. They have a different approach to  prescribing medicine and are very effective.  They are inexpensive because they work on a cash basis and do not have to deal with the seemingly endless paper work required by American health insurance companies.  Most doctors work out of their homes and do not have expensive offices.  Because insurance companies are not involved, they can charge rates as low as $25 dollars for an office visit and $2,500 for significant surgeries such as facial surgery. He also had some very interesting comments on the American education system and how he believes that it is failing to educate people like it should.  He made the statement that he would not hire an American student to work for him because so many of them had never really learned how to work and had a sense of entitlement for everything.  He also stated that when he lived in the U.S. and hired students from other countries to work for him, he did not have to pay social security or employer taxes. 

   

I want to comment on this place where the event was held.  I asked for and received a short one-page history on the convent.  Four nuns arrived in 1578 from Mexico to start the convent. The convent was built, expanded, repaired and rebuilt and was finally completed in 1694 and was among the finest in the area. It suffered major damage from earthquakes in 1717. By this time the nuns numbered well over 100 plus some 700 servants. The convent was rebuilt in 1729 and covered two square blocks and had 22 fountains. The convent finally succumbed to the earthquakes of 1773.

It was customary for noble families to give their second child to the religious life and the girls brought with them dowries that enriched the convent significantly.  Life in the convent was not about seclusion or vows of poverty, as was common in Europe.  To the contrary, some chose the convent for independence, as their only alternative to marriage.  They could live in luxury they could afford, in private quarters with plenty of servants. They could manage their money, even conduct business, and receive visitors according to their social status.  There were festivals, theater and dance, sometimes attended by ladies and gentlemen of the court. The nuns also taught the 140 girls in their charge to read and write, which was their work.

One of the most famous nuns was Sister Juana de Maldonado y Paz.  She was the only child of a judge of the Royal Court and eventually had her own home built within the Convent.  It had many rooms, galleries and a garden. She even had her own private chapel which was adorned with precious stones, silver lamps and a gold embroidered canopy where she enjoyed playing the organ and other instruments alone or with friends, or with the bishop when he came to call.   Sister Juana’s private cluster survived the 1773 earthquake surprisingly well. It is being restored and is now used for rented office spaces and special events such as weddings and parties like the one we attended. There is still a small convent on the adjoining property.