I'm ok

Had a bout of food poisoning and have also been really busy, but just wanted to let everyone know I'm ok. Leaving Managua tomorrow, thank god.

Robbery Count: 1

After a pleasant 8 hour bus ride from San Miguel to Managua, arriving in what is commonly understood to be the safest country in Central America, Susanna and I grabbed a taxi and went to the hotel that seemed the best fit from the description in our guidebook. It was a little difficult to tell the taxi where to go, since in Nicaragua the streets don't have names and there are no addresses, everything is located by describing its location relative to other things. We arrived at the hotel (the address of which is literally "one and 1/2 blocks west of the Ticabus station"), which is a fine place with a not-exactly-friendly staff, got a couple rooms and unloaded our stuff.

It was around 5pm, and we decided to go on a walk around the neighborhood, and see the nearby lake. We saw a number of different people along the way, saying hi to some, just walking past some others. It's just a normal residential neighborhood. The streets were littered with garbage, and the houses varied from run-down-shack to pretty-nice-place, but other than that, pretty much a normal Central American experience. After a few minutes, we walked past an old man, and some little kids playing. Straight ahead of us was a group of six thuggish looking tough guys who I'd guess were in their twenties. Three of them were coming towards us on bike, and three were walking towards us, but they were all approaching together. I saw them notice us, and then all look at each other. They got really close and one of the guys on a bike gave the others a nod, and then pulled out a gun. Two other guns came out immediately after. One guy with a gun went at Susanna. It all happened so fast that at first Susanna thought they were just kidding around, and then instinctively put up a struggle and tried to keep him from taking her backpack (including her video camera, $100, her reporter's notebook, and all of her contacts), but ultimately he won, leaving her bagless with her shirt a little torn up and feeling quite emotionally distraught, but otherwise unharmed.

The rest of the guys came after me.

The second I saw the guns, I put my hands in the air. I had no doubt about what was going on, and I wasn't about to get shot over some ultimately-not-important-compared-to-my-life objects. Immediately I had memories of stories people had told me about Central American thugs shooting people just for giving even the smallest sign of resistance. They were all over me before I could even get my hands all the way up, though, so it was a fairly meaningless gesture. Everything happened so fast, I can't even remember how it happened, but the next thing I know I'm laying on one of their bikes, which is laying on the ground (not exactly "posturpedic comfort" if you know what I mean.) with someone's foot pinning down my neck so I can hardly breath, and can't really see what's happening because my head is tilted to avoid foot-in-mouth-syndrome (I've had this many times before, but it's never been someone else's foot before).

I may not have been able to see everything that was going on, but they made damn sure I saw their guns, and I definitely paid notice. I don't really know anything about guns, but they looked like six-shooter pistols with BIG chambers. Several times I repeated in Spanish "take anything you want. There's no fight from me. Just take what you want." but, as expected, it didn't really effect their behavior towards me.

They went through all my pockets with great thoroughness, and I have a lot of pockets (9 to be exact). They got my wallet, which had some minimal cash--less than $20--my driver's license, student ID, and some other stuff I can't really remember. They also got my camera, which I just got, along with the 2GB memory card inside. Luckily I have uploaded the vast majority of my pictures to http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg so I only lost the most recent stuff, but unfortunately, due to time constraints, many of the pictures weren't uploaded at their full resolution which is kind of a downer. I also lost my spanish-english dictionary, my sunglasses case, and my notebook with all my notes and contacts. If we've met you along our way through Central America, and you are reading this, please let me know your contact info so we can get in touch with you again. We'd hate to lose touch with anyone.

So, while going through all my pockets, they became aware of the fact that I was wearing a money belt. They started digging in my pants trying to get at it. Suffice it to say, this was rather uncomfortable and unappreciated. Fortunately, something occured a few days before, which at the time seemed like bad luck, but in retrospect was quite lucky. A few days before, the buckle of my money belt broke. At the time I was a little upset, because I didn't know what to do, but then I remembered that I had packed America's favorite tool: duct tape. I covered the strap and the broken buckle with duct tape, and, since the buckle no longer could unbuckle, started putting on the belt everyday like it was a pair of shorts, one leg at a time, before putting my pants on.

What does this all mean? It means that when those assholes tried to snap off my belt and run off with it, they weren't able to. This was very lucky, because I had my American and British passports, $300, my credit card, and my debit card in that little pouch. I would have been in a really, really bad position if they had managed to take that stuff. Go duct tape!

So they gave up on the money belt, but got everything else, and decided they were ready to go....after getting in a couple kicks. When I got up there was a whole bunch of people standing around, mainly kids, and some older people. I don't blame them AT ALL for not interfering. There were guns involved and there was nothing anyone could do.

Almost immediately after the thugs turned the corner, a police pickup drove by with a cop standing in the bed of the truck holding a fully automatic weapon. Everyone started yelling "Policia! Policia!" and there's no way they didn't hear us, put they just kept on truckin'. I asked someone to call the cops, but they told me someone already did. After waiting a good 20 minutes, they finally showed up. The thugs were surely long gone by now. If that first truck had only stopped they definitely could have caught them.

The cops asked some questions, and then asked us to get in the truck so they could take us back to the station. We got in and then the car turned the corner and then stopped. There was a mob of kids hanging around outside a house. The cops talked to some people and then suspected that the thugs and in fact entered this house JUST AROUND THE CORNER. I don't know if there was justification for them to think this, but they started to approach the house, and then decided against it since they are only 2 guys with guns, and the thugs were 6 guys with guns. Fair enough. I didn't think they would just go into some house around the corner anyways--but it doesn't matter. My stuff isn't worth anyone risking their lives for.

So they took us back to the station, we went through the arduous process of filing a police report in a foreign language, and it was done.

There's a lot more stuff I could talk about, catching up over the last few days, talking more about the cops, what we did today, etc., but this has already been a long blog entry, so I'll just leave it at this: Everyone is ok, no one was really hurttoo bad, no one was shot, we still have our important travel documents and credit cards, we both have travel insurance, and we look forward to the next couple days here in Managua, then Granada (Nicaragua), then onto Panama, Venezuela, and maybe Bolivia. We had a tough night last night, and a tough morning today, but things are looking up and we are going to go full steam ahead.

Day 20: San Salvador, some more

Some new pics of San Salvador are up at http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg.

Yesterday was an interesting day. We started things off by gong over to the office of Asociación Pro-Búsqueda de Niñas y Niños Desaparecidos. Pro-Búsqueda is a Salvadoran organization that seeks to reunite families affected by El Salvador's 1980–1992 civil war. We spoke with one of their investigators. There was a nice British girl who volunteered there and was able to do most of the translating so I didn´t have to. It was kind of a relief, as translating these interviews can sometimes be a bit straining for me.

They seem to be a really great organization. As of yesterday they had 779 cases of disappeared children registered with them, 316 of which had been found. Of those 316, 80 were found to be dead. They have managed to create family meetings with 180 of the found children. Beyond this we heard even more stories of government neglect. The government here seems to be motivated only by self-interest. Recently there was even a case of a government minister fleeing to France with $45 million, money which was intended to go towards a potable water program.

Afterward speaking with Pro-Búsqueda, we went to the University of Central America to speak with their Human Rights office. They told us a lot of interesting things about the current state of human rights in El Salvador (very bad).

Later on, we met some folks around campus and hung out for a bit, then went out for a drink with some friends.

Gotta run! more soon. don´t forget to check out that photos link.

Press Darling

Thanks to the extremely kind and talented City Pages writer, Peter S. Scholtes, for mentioning my blog here, and to the Washinton Post for linking to me for linking to them (and thanks to my dad for pointing this out).

Day 19: More San Salvador

Today we tried in vain to meet with some people around town, but failed miserably. We ran late, people were out of town, people were busy, but we don't really mind. By the time we leave San Salvador we will have had some great meetings. We did have a crazy taxi incident today, though.

We flagged a taxi down near the National University. He took us a little way, and then stopped for gas. After "smooth-talking" the female attendant in a most questionable manner, he opened the hood, and we saw that smoke was coming out. He grabbed a hose and started spraying the engine with water. We discussed it for a second and decided that this was not the taxi for us. Any normal person at this situation would have then reached for the door handle and gotten out. Being the normal people that we are, we did this. Unfortunately, the handles were not there and we could not open the doors. We were stuck in the car! I stuck my head out the front window and asked one of the attendants if he would be so kind as open the door for me. He tried, but he couldn't!

A second later the cab driver gets in and starts the car. I told him we do not wish to be in his car for a second longer, but he just pretended not to hear me and started driving.

That really pissed me off.

I reached my hand forward, grabbed the e-brake, and jerked it up. Then I grabbed the stick and pulled it out of gear, and I repeated, very slowly and very carefully so there was no confusion, "We do not want to be in your car. Let us out." To this, he submitted. He did some weird trick to open the door, we got out, and to the gas attendants surprise went to the street and flagged down a different cab. There was no smoke coming fronm this one, and I felt much safer. When we finally arrived to our meeting place, our contact was not there anymore. The waiters said he had left about 5 minutes before--about the time it took to deal with that jerk. Very frustrating.

Also, I want to clarify something. In my Day 18: San Salvador blog, I didn{t mean to give the idea that EL Salvador was more developed than Guatemala, only that it was my first impression, and that the Taiwanese embassy reinforced this impression. After spending some time and talking to some people it is clear that El Salvador has a long, long, long way to go.

One perspective on the new events in the middle east

Below is an email my mom sent me explaining how she sees the current crisis in the middle east (edited slightly) and what life is like for her in that context. I just thought it was very valuable to see a first person account and wanted to share it. War is madness. I'm not interested in taking sides, I'm interested in peace and justice, but I think hearing the different sides in any disagreement is the first step to resolution. I'd love to post any first hand accounts anyone may have from this war, or any side of any war. Please send me one if you have it.

For background, my mom lives in a small town in south central Israel, near the southern point of the dead sea if you are looking at a map, called Arad. In the meantime, it is Northern Israel which is receiving rocket attacks from Hezbollah.

Click here for some of the latest developments.

Not really sure where to send you for a comprehensive analysis, but I'm sure that if you know how to use a search engine, you can find something without any help from me. I really think it's worth learning about (any suggestions?). The more I learn, the more confused I get, but sometimes confusion is a good thing. Often people who have all the simple answers aren't really looking very deep.

Anyways, here's my mom on the matter:

"After I wrote to you, I went to my acupuncture session and to my exercise class. I was bombarded with people asking me if I still have room for people from the north to stay. Apparently, at least half the people I know are hosting families from the north for as long as they can handle. My friend from Afula will probably come with her son. He has Down syndrome , and he is freaking out right now, so she doesn’t want to take him out of his familiar home, but if it continues she will come with him. Apparently, they needed to cancel all his activities but there is a strong support group for him and he is continuosly getting phone calls. He got a phone call today where he was asked to be on the board of the special Olympics or Macabia in Israel.

I glanced at the reports you suggested and was amazed at how one sided the news was. Mainly on Labanon, and hardly a thing about Israels side.

Clearly, we could have given the 3,000 hezbolla a million dollars each and it would have been like dirt cheep solution, but their goal is not to resolve the conflict until Israel is eliminated. If you could have understood the Arabic you would realize that this is not Israeli propaganda but just plain fact. The whole situation started off with rockets from Hezbolla and the kidnapping of soldiers. There was an agreement that the Lebanese army would dismantle them, but instead they have been receiving rockets, including long range from Iran, and support from Syria, who wants the situation to be volatile, because they want the opening for the oil pipes from Syria to the mediteranian to be in their hands.



Lebanon used to be the dream of every Israeli as the first country to be in peace with Israel. There are also Christians and various Moslems sects all living together and we thought that if they can do it, we can do it too.

Unfortunately neither of us are doing a good job.



The UN force that was there in the past just vanished when the attacks against Israel began, so now nobody trusts them.

So what can Israel do?

It could dismantle the rocket launchers, destroy the rockets, and destroy the 3000 army soldiers/terrorists/ etc.

Ask Lebanon to be in control of her territory, by providing them with a destroyed minority army and allow the Lebanese army get control.

All this is the theory. Now - good luck with the outcome.



I wish I could believe we could have avoided the destruction. I feel sorry for all the families in Lebanon that are not involved. The language at wartime is fascinating.

Lebanese that move elsewhere are called refugees, Israelis that are moved are called going on vacation.



We, in Israel have absolutely nowhere to go when we are attacked. Just to each other’s homes, therefore we are afraid to take risks. Like letting the hezbolla get any stronger in Lebanon which will allow Syria to take over. Though my brother thinks it would probably be better for us because then Syria could not pretend she doesn’t control Lebanon through the hezbollah.


In the mean time, Arad is getting crowded and the artist colony are preparing clowns and theater shows in the evenings for the children that are “on vacation”.

The weather is hot so the aairconditioned mall is full. We discovered that some families from the north have absolutely no regard to water shortages, so we are also educating them on the subject of water.

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Day 18: San Salvador

You would not believe the amazing bus we rode from Guatemala City to San Salvador! It was like riding first class in a really nice airline. There were attendants, meals, movies, and incredibly plush, comfortable seats. It was fantastic. $27. Eat that greyhound! The 6 hour trip in that King Quality bus went by sooo fast compared to the 2 hour trip in a cramped "Chicken Bus" between Antigua and Guatemala City. Those buses are left over U.S. school buses (the ones that aren't good enough for Americans anymore) with 3 to every seat and the aisle comleted filled with people standing in cramped conditions the whole way.

From now on it's King Quality all the way.

Our first impression of San Salvador was that the people here have a much more comfortable life than the people of Guatemala City. Things are much cleaner here, and the streets, even though there is barbed wire and protective walls around most of the houses, seem more tranquil. Our suspicions were reinforced by a visit to the Taiwan embassy, who told us that things are really great in El Salvador and that the standard of living is like in the U.S. People even use U.S. dollars here. They have their own currency, but according to the Taiwanese press person (who, I should mention, was unable to even mention the names of 2 important newspapers in El Salvador) it's better for the economy to use U.S. dollars. Can't say that makes a whole lot of sense to me, but please let me now if you are able to follow that logic.

We decided to visit the National University of El Salvador next. 2 Weeks ago there was a peaceful demonstration there aginst the government attack on the autonomy of the university. In reaction, there was a massive repression by the police, involving guns, tear gas, helicopters and a subsequent fear on the part of the students and the professors who spoke out in solidarity with them. We wanted to hear how the students were doing now.

We managed to find the student journalist group and spoke with a representative there. He told us that contrary to what the Taiwanese Embassy may have told us, 75% to 80% of the people of El Salvador live in extreme poverty, on average earning something like $130 per month for a "household" of 4. I put household in quotes, because he said that it is totally normal for most of these people to live in a house made of cardboard, plastic, and branches. Earlier we had eaten at the student cafeteria and been astounded at the low price of $1.25 for a full plate of food and a bottle of water, but now it seems really expensive for someone supporting 4 people on $130 a month. The journalism student told us he would be happy to show us one these poor neighborhoods, and in fact, felt that is very important that we see what life is like for these people and get the word out. We will be going sometime this week, either with him, or with someone from a Buddhist Humanitarian organization that is working with victims of the latest earthquakes.

Before we left, he wanted to show us some interesting murals around campus. Hopefully they will be available by the time I post this blog at

http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg

I'm having some problems uploading though, so you may have to wait a little bit.
As a product of the Civil War in the 1970s and 1980s, the murals are all quite revolutionary, and once again we see Che Guevera's mug prominently displayed everywhere we go, only this time Fidel Castro is quite often up there with him, which is quite interesting as we haven't really seen much of that up until now.

One thing you may also see in those pictures is yet another car with a swastika on it. We asked our friend why we keep seeing swastikas in Central America. Are people here facists? Do they hate Jews? His answer was no. He said that people simply think it's a cool looking symbol, and really have no idea what it means. He says that the people of El Salvador are terribly ignorant, and really need to be better educated. This was circumstantially proven when we subsequently quizzed a passerby as to the meaning of said swastika. His response? "That's the symbol of Russia, right?"

When I told him it was in fact a symbol of the Nazis, he said, "Right. That's what I said: the Russians."

How quickly we forget such important lessons. Don't you dare think that the world will be ok if we just sit by and watch ignorance like this spread through the world's communities like a virus. We need to always be working on the vaccine, and we can't ever stop, because the virus is always changing, growing and getting stronger. We must do the same.

Ok. I'm done with my pedantry now.

Susanna and I want to help our journalist friend here in El Salvador get published. The media and government here are so repressive that only one message has the opportunity to get expressed, the message of the Right Wing. We are going to try to get him and his fellow students the chance to get published regularly in alternative media around the world. Hopefully, using the money from these articles, they can eventually build their own independent media organization to counter the big business and big government monopoly on opinion, and truly educate the people.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with a local poet that our good friends from Guatemala City told us about. They were so nice and told us about so many people and so many things. I hope to keep in touch with them.

The owner of our hotel is also a poet and a journalist with revolutionary tendencies. He says that he was friends with Che Guevera. Awesome...even if it isn't true.

Looks like the whole photo thing might not work out for today, but I'll try to get them up as soon as possible.

Day 17: Antigua, Guatemala (again)

So the Mayan ceremony was very nice, and I learned quite a lot about Mayan culture, both from the experience itself, and from German's in depth explanations. It was a very long ceremony, though, longer than we expected. I was hoping to spend a little more time actually talking with German, but duty called and we had to go.

We went to speak with a representative of ODHAG, the human rights of arm of the Guatemalan Catholic Church. It was quite informative to hear about the church's history of work with the indigenous people, and some of the divisions within the church regarding how these people should be treated.

Afterwards, we decided it was time to deal with a "situation" that's been causing a little stress. Around a week ago, when we left Antigua for Guatemala City, Susanna realized that she left a CD with a bunch of her only copies of several photos in a computer at the internet cafe in the hotel in Antigua (Hotel Posada Angelina--very nice people). She realized this while we were in the shuttle bus to the city. Since we figured the shuttle bus driver probably makes the same trip several times a day, we asked him if he would be so kind as to grab the CD and bring it back on his next trip to Guatemala City. He said he'd be happy to, but suffice it to say, this never happened. He did grab the CD, but he never delivered it to us, thus creating the worst possible scenario. If he had simply left it, things would be much easier, but now we had to track him down somehow.

Last night we came to Antigua to find him. Apparently, we just missed him, and by the time we gave up, there were no more buses to Guatemala City. We decided to spend the night in Antigua rather than paying for a taxi all the way there. This morning, we went to have breakfast at the place next to the travel agency that the driver works with, and in he walks, with disc in hand. We were glad we missed the last bus to Guatemala City, or we never would have gotten the disc back. Another tragedy averted!

By the way, I met some more Norweigans girls last night. What is it with Norweigan girls and Central America? They're everywhere! I thought there were a lot in Minnesota, but this is ridiculous.

We will find out soon whether or not we can meet Rigoberta Menchu. If so, we stay another day, if not, we will be in El Salvador by this evening.

By the way, there are some more Guatemala City pictures up at http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg

New photos

see new photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/ogoldberg.

Hopefully, I´ll have some more photos and explanations for everything later, but I have to go because we are going to meet our new blind-sociologist-Mayan-shaman-poet friend, German (pronounced like Herman--you can see him in the pics. He's the guy reading braile.), because he has invited us to visit a Mayan ritual ceremony this morning. He is a great guy, quite brilliant, and I´m looking forward to it.