I went back to Guatemala this month, and did some local travelling to some locations that i hadn’t yet gone to, and was again humbled by some of the architecture in the country, and not just the architecture of buildings, but the architecture of people’s relationships and the interconnectivity of life in a city that has an eternal spring. It seems that every time i return to Guatemala, i find that the city is exactly the same way that i left it, nothing new, nothing different. Technology is still quite a ways behind ours here, and the way of life there is pretty hard still. Working in Guatemala, one can hardly get by economically, but it is this hardship and oppression that in some cases ends up binding friends and family in ways that alot of us here in the US might not no or understand completely, or might have forgotten.It is living and struggling with family that reward people in guatemala more than monetary values do.

With the current economic hardships that we are facing in the United States, especially in the profession of architecture, i am finding that it is the community of equally hardpressed friends that come together that bring us closer to each other and remind me a bit of home.  Now more than ever, i am trying to bring our friends together, gather our thoughts and enjoy each others company, share meals and merryment and ultimately bring a bit of the Guatemalan lifestyle back here, and in hopes of creating architectural buildings in the future, strengthening an architecture of friendship first. Pictures of Guatemala will be posted soon.