- “The Life & Rebirth of Hospitalito Atitlan”.
Narration by Isabel Allende.
I wrote & recorded part of the original score, and recorded Isabel Allende ‘s narration at my “Windjammer Studio’s” in San Rafael, California.
A fundraising DVD for the hospitalito, in Santiago, Atitlan, Guatemala. It was wrecked by the government army during the civil war of the 1980’s, finally re-opened in the 1990’s with international help from non-profits, and destroyed again in the terrible mud slide that buried the village of Panabaj on October 4th, 2005. New land was finally purchased on the other side of Santiago away from the slide zone, and a new building is being built…again with volunteer doctors and nurses from around Guatemala, and international non-profit aid.
My brother in law-David Glanville owns the beautiful “Posada de Santiago” in Santiago…he helped shelter survivors of the mud slide that swept down from the volcano following days of driving rain from hurricane Stan…killing over a thousand people. I looked out over the field of mud where a village had stood just three months earlier. It was a very intense moment…the hospital had been buried, as well as a school for Mayan children.
Aldus Huxley once called lake Atitlan the most beautiful lake in the world (until then his favorite had been lake Cuomo in Italy) well perhaps he was right. The mountains of Guatemala are wild, dangerous and beautiful…I will return soon I hope.
I like to paddle a small canoe out onto the lake opposite the Posada after the wind has died down at the end of the day. I like to stop and drift in the gently rocking waves of dusk watching the solo fisherman standing, dressed in their typical clothing while they paddle their dug-out canoes home with the day’s catch through the soft blue wood smoke hanging in the hills.
For more about the hospital and the mud-slide read what I wrote on my web-site back in February 2006. There are links to various important sites also.
http://petersears.wpengine.com/guatemala.htm — with Posada de Santiago.
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