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# Kara Andrade

Researcher, Journalist & Instructor

## Posts

- [Giving Thanks](https://www.karaandrade.com/giving-thanks/) - Thanksgiving slipped in today.
- [Fellow, News21: Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism (2007)](https://www.karaandrade.com/fellow-news21-carnegie-knight-initiative-on-the-future-of-journalism-2007/) - I was responsible for the design, coordination and implementation of this ground breaking experiment that showcased investigating reporting focused on “God, Sex & Family” into the virtual world of Second Life.
- [Film producer & Director, Nobel Women's Initiative Delegation Against Femicide (2012)](https://www.karaandrade.com/nobel-womens-initiative-delegation-against-femicide-2012/) - I served as film producer and director documenting and directing the Nobel Women's Initiative delegation to report on violence against women in Mexico, Honduras, and Guatemala. The group's delegation travelled for ten days documenting homicides, disappearances, and attacks of sexual violence.
- [Freelance Video Producer, GlobalPost (2011)](https://www.karaandrade.com/freelance-video-producer-global-post/) - I covered Guatemala's 2011 presidential elections during which Otto Perez Molina, the right-wing retired military general with alleged ties to genocide, won. Many supported him because of his promise to use an “iron fist” to wrest control of the country from criminals.
- [CPMX6 - Las internetas: Nuestras historias conectadas](https://www.karaandrade.com/cpmx6-los-internetas-nuestras-historias-conectadas/) - Link Description: "Los representantes 'dream team’ de las InterNetas hablarán sobre proyectos TICS dirigidas por mujeres que están teniendo un impacto social y proyectos que ayudan a crear espacios más inclusivos y participativos para las mujeres en línea. Temas que se abordarán incluyen acceso digital, fortaleciendo las redes de mujeres en línea, la creación de
- [Freelance Writer and Photographer, Al Jazeera America](https://www.karaandrade.com/unaccompanied-minors-wait-in-limbo-dreading-deportation/) - It’s hard to separate Denis from the loud throng of high school teenagers in line for their after-school Frappuccinos at a Starbucks in the upscale neighborhood of Tenleytown in Washington. Except he sits alone at a corner table checking his cellphone, looking over his shoulder from time to time with a glance of uncertainty
- [Lighting Round at PeaceTech Summit: Engineering Durable Peace](https://www.karaandrade.com/lighting-round-at-peacetech-summit-engineering-durable-peace/) - On September 19, 2014 I presented a lighting talk at the PeaceTech Summit that took place in Washington, D.C. While I was only able to stay for the lighting rounds (alas school called!), the "upbeat" tone of the conference made it worthwhile. I am sharing the recording of the conference as posted on the USIP website.
- [HablaCentro & Ashoka Fellowship (2011-present)](https://www.karaandrade.com/hablacentro-in-central-america-2011-2013/) - I moved to Guatemala to begin growing a pilot project in Guatemala called HablaGuate. Within its first year, HablaGuate grew into HablaCentro and expanded rapidly outside of Guatemala and neighboring countries, largely thanks to grassroots demand for an information source that citizens can own and manage themselves.
- [Welcome to Iraq](https://www.karaandrade.com/welcome-to-iraq/) - October 3, 2013 We reach Erbil in time for a suicide bomb attack near the headquarters of Iraqi Kurdish security services, not far from here we land. By the time we deplane at three in the afternoon, the airport has been put on lock down, dozens of police and army vehicles swarm the entrance,
- [Dead Sea Bound](https://www.karaandrade.com/dead-sea-bound/) - August 27, 2013 In the desert there is space, there is expanse and infinity that stretches beyond the present into whatever past we connect ourselves to or future we push towards. It is a feeling of expanding and contracting at the same time that I release a deep sigh of relief while staring out the
- [Please Vote for our SXSW 2014 Panel: Storytelling for Social Change](https://www.karaandrade.com/please-vote-for-our-sxsw-2014-panel-storytelling-for-social-change/) - We have begun to take control of own narratives, telling our stories using whatever tool and digital means is available to us. We have not only begun to tell our stories, but we’ve connected them to others' stories being told simultaneously around the world. That act of storytelling interconnects us – creating an imaginary and
- [The Days My Voice Disappeared](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-days-my-voice-disappeared/) - August 28, 2013 In Ramallah, I lose my voice. It is the second time in my life this had happened. The first time I was getting our stolen laptops back in Guatemala, but I'll leave that story for later. Suffice it to say this time around, it wasn't a surprise. When I first arrived at
- [The Return from Tel Aviv](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-return-from-tel-aviv/) - September 1, 2013 I do not like to watch Tel Aviv disappear from above – the Mediterranean Sea coastline a small strip of white that barely holds us from the immensity of blue that continues as we head west on the plane. I raise the window to watch it disappear until my eyes cannot take
- [Back to the Holy Land for TechCamp Ramallah](https://www.karaandrade.com/back-to-the-holy-land/) - August 26, 2013 Last night I slept sitting up and today I floated in the Dead Sea. Knowing what I'm up against, I sleep the entire trip from Newark to Tel Aviv, no movies, no studying, just food and sleep. The crying babies are mere whispers in my Ambien-induced stupor. It is my second time
- [Freelance Video Producer, Univision and France 24 (2011)](https://www.karaandrade.com/freelance-video-producer-univision-and-france-24/) - I helped to report and produce two videos for Univision and France 24 about the exhumations in Guatemala City during which forensic anthropologists were digging up unmarked remains and using DNA technology to identify war victims from Guatemala's civil war. The families of the disappeared and the scientists together lead an ongoing struggle to
- [Online Community Organizer, Spot.Us  (2009)](https://www.karaandrade.com/online-community-organizer-spot-us-2009/) - Full-time position an online community organizer where I managed and grew the network of individuals who used www.spot.us to support investigative journalism through small donations.
- [En Este Día](https://www.karaandrade.com/en-este-dia/) - In 1982 she came back, for me, for all of us. I was five-years-old and living in La Limonada, a section of Guatemala where you have to make, sell, get lemonade any way you can to survive. We lived in a one-room shack, five of us, with a dirt floor and two small beds that
- [Our Rainy Twilight](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-long-lost-sun/) - June 22, 2012 When the rains come it's hard to imagine a time when there was anything but the rain – the mid-afternoon antediluvian waters that carry you into a timeless state of waiting and expectation. Entropy quicken: roads crack, sinkholes open, houses tumble down cliffs, buses collide, and people race to take cover under
- [Dawning Accidents](https://www.karaandrade.com/dawning-accidents/) - I hit two cops on a motorcycle with our V6 Toyota Tundra on Monday morning just as the sun rose turning the sky magenta. Kofy, the fearless German Shepherd now always by my side, bolted upright from his usual fetal position in the passenger seat – his ears were two upside cones on amber alert.
- [The Way We Do Things Here](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-way-we-do-things-here/) - August 15, 2012 They almost lynched a man in my callejon this week. I had just returned from walking the dog, when I turned into our alley and saw a big circle of men surrounding something or someone in the center. I opened the door and let the dog into the house. This would be
- [A Sewing Machine for Madgalena](https://www.karaandrade.com/a-sewing-machine-for-madgalena/) - We headed West for Magdalena. We knew it would be a rough ride when we had to get three nails taken out of two tires. We pulled into the nearest pinchazo on the Inter-American. Crouched between towers of new tires we listened to the Olympic games over the radio. One hour later we were
- [What's Happening in Honduras](https://www.karaandrade.com/whats-happening-in-honduras/) - February 2, 2013 It is Saturday morning in Tegucigalpa and I do the unthinkable: I decide to walk a few blocks in the middle of the day. I live up the hill from the Presidential House on Juan Pablo II, an area heavily patrolled by police and security guards pouring out from the big hotel
- [What I learned over Chinese Food in Honduras](https://www.karaandrade.com/what-i-learned-over-chinese-food-in-honduras/) - February 9, 2013 The Chinese food in Honduras is to die for, such that I've come to think of the national dish as some variation of chop suey. The baleada, forget it, it's the plate of fried rice we all crowd around under the bright lights of a flat screen television blasting the re-run of
- [On the Road from Honduras to Costa Rica](https://www.karaandrade.com/on-the-road-from-honduras-to-costa-rica/) - February 14, 2013 We're headed south through Nicaragua and the land gets dryer – bramble and brush with large patches of black where the grass has been burned away. The sunlight is different here, it's more direct with a soft, but relentless quality like the light of memories that imprints itself in the back of
- [The Universal Hipster](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-universal-hipster/) - Februry 16, 2013 My new friends are hipsters, Costa Rican hipsters, in the part of town called Escalante where businesses mix with residences and people come out of industrial looking buildings with dark glasses, old Vans or flip flops, sagging skinny jeans and holding cigarettes while they double lock their doors. Of course, I know
- [La Pura Vida as a State of Being](https://www.karaandrade.com/la-pura-vida-as-a-state-of-being/) - February 20, 2013 To live in Costa Rica is "la pura vida" – a common dicho or saying that literally means "pure life" or "all life". It's a newer dicho, having become popular in the past fifteen years after it was coined by the Mexican comedian Antonio Espino y Mora, known as Clavillazo who used
- [Combating the Participation Gap: Why New Media Literacy Matters](https://www.karaandrade.com/combating-the-participation-gap-why-new-media-literacy-matters/) - Distinguished Lecture, School of Information, UC Berkeley Speaker(s): Henry Jenkins Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 4:00pm-5: 30pm South Hall I. Digital natives vs. digital immigrants A. The immigrant -We don’t say the immigrant can’t do this or that. -Jenkins wants a real conversation between adults and youth and fluidity of relationship between groups in the online
- [Life after the dead blog](https://www.karaandrade.com/life-after-the-dead-blog/) - After I somehow managed to delete my old blog, which I had had for years and throughout college, I have finally decided to start blogging again and have that beginner's mind to my new one. Since I am a furious notetaker, I will also be posting my unedited notes (except for spelling) here and have
- [Mark Davis at the Ischool, UC Berkeley in April, 2007](https://www.karaandrade.com/mark-davis-at-the-ischool-uc-berkeley-in-april-2007/) - Mark Davis April 26, 2007 Ischool Social Media Guru in 110 South Hall - iSchool The nature of information, how to rethink it Context content community 2.7B cell phones on planet - networked mm computers 2010 - 4B will be Internet access will come from mobile Changes info science. The four questions: How many of
- [Is SXSW for journalists?](https://www.karaandrade.com/is-sxsw-for-journalists/) - .mcrmeebo { display: block; background:url("http://widget.meebo.com/r.gif") no-repeat top right; } .mcrmeebo:hover { background:url("http://widget.meebo.com/ro.gif") no-repeat top right; }
- [Race and Ethnicity in the 2008 Presidential Contest at UC Berkeley: live blogging this...](https://www.karaandrade.com/race-and-ethnicity-in-the-2008-presidential-contest-at-uc-berkeley-live-blogging-this/) - When: March 19, 2008, 4:00 pm -- 5:00 pm Where: North Gate Library, Hearst at Euclid Avenue, Berkeley Reception: 5:00 pm, North Gate Hall, Courtyard/Library Join Boalt Law School Dean and civil rights expert Christopher Edley in conversation with Boalt lecturer and immigration policy expert Maria Echaveste on how race, ethnicity and immigration are playing
- [Age and the dying of the ties](https://www.karaandrade.com/age-and-the-dying-of-the-ties/) - I've been thinking about growing old in America and what it means to have an entire generation of people my age who did not have much experiences with inter-generational households. In particular I've been thinking about what it means as far as emotional ties to our elders, their process of aging, our own process of
- [NextNewsroom live broadcast on Ustream from Duke](https://www.karaandrade.com/nextnewsroom-live-broadcast-on-ustream-from-duke/) - I am finally at the tail end of my two-week East Coast trip that started out in Boston for the Maynard Media Academy at Harvard, then moved into retreat mode in the corners of Cape Cod, and now I'm at Duke for Chris O'Brien's NextNewsroom Knight Media Challenge grant project. Check it out, we're live
- [Covering the Digital Campaign session at UCB JSchool](https://www.karaandrade.com/covering-the-digital-campaign-session-at-ucb-jschool/) - 2.30pm: Covering the Digital Campaign 4.30pm: Reception (All alumni invited, whether attending the conference or not) (The 12.30pm lunch has been canceled) Covering the Digital Campaign When: April 12, 2008, 2:30 pm -- 4:30 pm Where: North Gate Library, Hearst at Euclid Avenue, Berkeley Reception: 4:30 pm, North Gate Hall, Courtyard/Library Tickets: This is a free event.
- [trying to write....](https://www.karaandrade.com/trying-to-write/) - trying to write....
- [Reading this from Bradelectro:

BART ( ...](https://www.karaandrade.com/reading-this-from-bradelectrobart/) - Reading this from Bradelectro: BART (observations from a former pick pocket) Reply to: pers-647355287@craigslist.org Date: 2008-04-18, 1:05PM It's about time that something is done about ingorant people in the bay riding BART. How aware are you when you are riding BART? I know that a lot of you move here all confident thinking that your
- [Just finished reading a NY Times article ...](https://www.karaandrade.com/just-finished-reading-a-ny-times-article/) - Just finished reading a NY Times article and it makes me feel live I've been doing it all wrong. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/fashion/17fitness.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5124&en=7d72893aa47831a7&ex=1366171200&partner=facebook&exprod=facebook
- [Fourth Annual International Reporting Conference](https://www.karaandrade.com/fourth-annual-international-reporting-conference/) - It's so refreshing to hear Amar Bakshi talk about the Washington Post's PostGlobal site. This is good design for a multi-platform approach, definitely and in some ways is a survey-like, glorified vlog that is very sustainable in terms of cost and accessibility. It's the essence of back-pack journalism. What would be really interesting is to
- [Call me the sponge](https://www.karaandrade.com/call-me-the-sponge/) - From the farthest corner of my home office I slowly separate the signal from the noise while working on several stories at once. I put my toe into the rapidly flowing tide of information this week and pull out Eduardo Hauser on Monday morning who I am doing a profile on both for the Maynard
- [Home sick, but tuning in to this](https://www.karaandrade.com/home-sick-but-tuning-in-to-this/) - Check it out: The I-World Island 24 Hours Event is Underway! and Amazing! I-World Island opens at midnight Pacific with 24 hour concert Friday, April 18th, 2008 at 11:54 PM by: Teeple Linden At the top of the hour, I-World Island debuts with a full twenty-four hour showcase of musical talent. Here‚s the lineup (PST):
- [Just posted this: INNOVATIONS IN JOURNAL ...](https://www.karaandrade.com/just-posted-this-innovations-in-journal/) - Just posted this: INNOVATIONS IN JOURNALISM EXPO 2008 "Creating a Brighter Future" KQED TO TAPE KEYNOTE PANEL NOTE TIME CHANGE: Saturday, May 3, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. A showcase for breakthroughs in business, technology, media and democracy Venue: The Domain Hotel, 1085 East El Camino Real, Sunnyvale, CA Online: http://artsandmedia.net/expo/journalism/ Phone: 415-677-9877
- [Wine and the Doobie Brothers](https://www.karaandrade.com/wine-and-the-doobie-brothers/) - DSC_0093 Originally uploaded by newmaya Ah, yes, finally a Saturday off for the workalcoholics. You never would guess from this picture lurks the evil work ethic.
- [My piece on Eduardo Hauser finally poste ...](https://www.karaandrade.com/my-piece-on-eduardo-hauser-finally-poste/) - My piece on Eduardo Hauser finally posted!
- [Buck arrested](https://www.karaandrade.com/buck-arrested/) - This is a great story of someone I know and went to school at UC Berkeley using Twitter in a way that is incredibly effective.
- [Getting into Google News](https://www.karaandrade.com/getting-into-google-news/) - Presentation by David Meredith at Newstools and Drupal Day Held at Yahoo in Sunnyvale Each site is evaluated by a moderator What do we look for? Original content Multiple authors Proper Attribution Response time Not all sites make the cut, but most legitimate news site do. How do we get our data once in the
- [Peter in Minneapolis](https://www.karaandrade.com/31/) - Looking forward to Peter Brantley posting up the keynotes from their conference in Minneapolis. He leaves me with this tease: "The keynotes were both stunning; I worked with my friend Peter Kaufman of intelligent tv and twin cities public tv to get them taped; eventually we get them edited (in may) and release them." Eventually
- [Hoping to eventually read Edwin Okong'o ...](https://www.karaandrade.com/hoping-to-eventually-read-edwin-okongo/) - Hoping to eventually read Edwin Okong'o's piece on Tribal Wars, http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/blog/2008/04/kenya_the_onlin.html.
- [Just finished listening to these awesome ...](https://www.karaandrade.com/just-finished-listening-to-these-awesome/) - Just finished listening to these awesome Ischool presentations: NUJJ I. -What is a location -based service for mobile device users? Chart of different types of interactions Synchronous Asynchronous Face to face communication Flyers, fridge magnets Graffiti, historical plaques II. Local questions and answers You want to eliminate time sensitive questions III. Travel Planner -There are
- [Anyone else going to this?](https://www.karaandrade.com/anyone-else-going-to-this/) - Looks pretty awesome. http://ij5.innovationjournalism.org/
- [Sort of live blogging the Ij5 conference](https://www.karaandrade.com/sort-of-live-blogging-the-ij5-conference/) - IJ5 Stanford University How do we innovate? http://ij5.innovationjournalism.org/ 9:50 AM How do we innovate? Steve Jurvetson - Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, USA & Charles W. Wessner - Director of Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, The National Academies, USA & Richard Horning - Principal, Fish & Richardson, USA & Marc Ventresca - Associate Professor, Saïd Business
- [The notes from IJ5 are up: http://www.fa ...](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-notes-from-ij5-are-up-httpwwwfa/) - The notes from IJ5 are up: http://www.facebook.com/notes.php?id=623605011
- [Help with Unity](https://www.karaandrade.com/help-with-unity/) - I wanted to pass this one for people interested in going to Unity: NEED SOME HELP TO ATTEND UNITY ’08? CHECK THIS OUT! The National Association of Hispanic Journalists will offer financial assistance in the form of convention registration and/or air transportation to a limited group of NAHJ members to attend the UNITY ’08 Convention
- [Every once in a while it's time to connect with the clan](https://www.karaandrade.com/every-once-in-a-while-its-time-to-connect-with-the-clan/) - In these times where rites of passages are becoming more isolated, I find Craigslist always helps to connect me to groups like this one.
- [CabbieTalk](https://www.karaandrade.com/cabbie-talk/) - The creative energy is rampant these days, reaching a nice crescendo at SXSW and continuing as I apply to mini-grants for projects that are leaking out every pore of me. One of the ones I worked on yesterday for the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center Mobile Challenge Cabbie Talk. It's a project that has me
- [Teaching Ro and Ellen how to use Wordpre ...](https://www.karaandrade.com/teaching-ro-and-ellen-how-to-use-wordpre/) - Teaching Ro and Ellen how to use Wordpress to write about cancer.
- [The Art of Storytelling](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-art-of-storytelling/) - I am doing a barter-exchange of filming and webcasting this day long workshop at St. Mary's College in Morage in order to learn the art of storytelling, specifically for leadership purposes: Live Videos by Ustream
- [KQED Storytelling classes](https://www.karaandrade.com/kqed-storytelling-classes/) - I'm glad they're offering different class levels. Check'em out, they're free! "We've reviewed and revised our workshop schedule, streamlining our traditional workshop and adding more variety by including place-based digital storytelling using Google applications like Google Earth and Google Maps. All workshops take participants through the 4-step process, from concept to completion, from idea to
- [The New Regime](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-new-regime/) - Yes, I am still up at almost 1:30 AM after staying up until about 4 AM last night preparing for a presentation for New American Media at Mission Vocational School. It was spur of the moment request and I wanted to help as much as I could to bring multimedia concepts of visualization and interactivity
- [Speech Launching Intro on Flickr - Photo Sharing!](https://www.karaandrade.com/speech-launching-intro-on-flickr-photo-sharing/) - [vodpod id=ExternalVideo.799381&w=425&h=350&fv=offsite%3Dtrue%26intl_lang%3Den-us%26div_id%3Dstewart_swf3375303106_div%26flickr_notracking%3Dtrue%26flickr_target%3D_self%26flickr_h%3D375%26flickr_w%3D500%26flickr_no_logo%3Dtrue%26onsite%3Dtrue%26flickr_noAutoPlay%3Dtrue%26in_photo_gne%3Dtrue%26photo_secret%3D383169a9d4%26photo_id%3D3375303106%26flickr_doSmall%3Dtrue] more about "Speech Launching Intro on Flickr - Ph...", posted with vodpod
- [Slow Sunday](https://www.karaandrade.com/slow-sunday/) - Sometimes sleeping less feels better these days. I missed church/zendo this morning when my eyes opened shutters around noon. I pored over the SF Chron and NY Times while chowing down on oatmeal pancakes and Brad avoided large chunks of food now that his wisdom teeth are gone. Then it was mad dash to clear
- [Richard Gott: Chávez's perfect gift to Obama | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk](https://www.karaandrade.com/richard-gott-chavezs-perfect-gift-to-obama-comment-is-free-guardiancouk/) - It was a well-thought out gift, no doubt. It was a backclaw in a way reminding Obama of the legacy he has stepped into:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/apr/20/hugo-chavez-barack-obama
- [Pew Hispanic Center Factsheet: Mexican Immigrants in the United States, 2008](https://www.karaandrade.com/pew-hispanic-center-factsheet-mexican-immigrants-in-the-united-states-2008/) - "Mexican immigrants living in the United States. On the eve of President Obama's visit to Mexico, this profile reveals that a record 12.7 million Mexican immigrants lived in the U.S. in 2008, a 17-fold increase since 1970.Mexicans now account for 32% of all U.S. immigrants and more than one-in-ten of all persons born in Mexico
- [The Hindu : National : Journalism on wheels](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-hindu-national-journalism-on-wheels/) - Can someone please tell me why the BBC gets "it" and is constantly on the innovative edge with coverage compared to the US media? "To provide an insight into the exhaustive electoral exercise in the world’s largest democracy, the BBC’s India Election Train was flagged off from Safdarjung Station...Carrying a team of journalists working for
- [What A Web We Weave When We Deceive in Guatemala](https://www.karaandrade.com/what-a-web-we-weave-when-we-deceive-in-guatemala/) - There is a moment in the movie Rashomon when the woodcutter, priest, and commoner are at the temple and all you hear is the sound of a crying baby that has been abandoned in a basket. The commoner takes what was left for the baby, the woodcutter reproaches him for stealing, but the commoner asks
- [Lamentablemente](https://www.karaandrade.com/lamentablemente/) - From an anonymous contributor: "Lamentable, situación, hay política sucia detrás de todo esto, hay narcotráfico metido, hay lavado de dinero sucio también, pero sobre todo hay un ser humano que parece ser que no le dio la gana ser una estadística mas (un muerto mas) y se puso los pantalones bien puestos, y saco valores
- [Al Jazeera English - Americas - Rival rallies over Guatemala murder](https://www.karaandrade.com/al-jazeera-english-americas-rival-rallies-over-guatemala-murder/) - This is what it takes for Guatemalans to protests and start the revolution we've all been waiting for. The only question is how can Guatemalans from the US help? http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2009/05/2009517173238237782.html
- [Op-Ed Columnist - The Howls of a Fading Species - NYTimes.com](https://www.karaandrade.com/op-ed-columnist-the-howls-of-a-fading-species-nytimes-com/) - So true: "Ms. Sotomayor’s nomination is a big deal because never before in the history of the United States has any president nominated a Latina to the highest court. Only two blacks have ever been on the court, and the one selected by a Republican has been like a thumb in the eye to most
- [More on Rosenberg](https://www.karaandrade.com/more-on-rosenberg/) - Indigenous organizations members of Waqib' Kej and representatives of the peasants' organizations of CNOC said yesterday that they would not support the demonstrations, neither in favour nor against president Colom. They view Colom and his government as part of the problem, and said that this is a dispute of power between different criminal groups within
- [Is The Attention Economy The New Currency?](https://www.karaandrade.com/is-the-attention-economy-the-new-currency/) - Not sure I necessary agree, but "the key ingredient in the attention game is relevancy" and since this was relevant I did read until the end:http://www.zmogo.com/web/is-the-attention-economy-the-new-currency
- [Create an Online Citizen Participation Portal - by IdeaScale](https://www.karaandrade.com/create-an-online-citizen-participation-portal-by-ideascale/) - As far as ideas go for creating citizen participation portals this one is clearer than most. I just wonder about how these can be created internationally?http://opengov.ideascale.com/akira/dtd/2557-4049
- [Time for a Truth Commission | Rights and Liberties | AlterNet](https://www.karaandrade.com/time-for-a-truth-commission-rights-and-liberties-alternet/) - This would be incredibly relevant at an international level:http://www.alternet.org/rights/140108/time_for_a_truth_commission
- [WORDCAMP](https://www.karaandrade.com/wordcamp/) - WORDCAMPMay 30, 2009Mission Convention CenterI. Tim Ferris, author The 4-Hour Work WeekA. Writing: How I writeThe important thing is not being a good writer, but having a voice.People most often are quite bad at predicting what they would like. when in doubt, write about things that make you angry but never attack your readers.Write about the
- [Jakarta station sees democracy drive deliver prize | The Australian](https://www.karaandrade.com/jakarta-station-sees-democracy-drive-deliver-prize-the-australian/) - I get visions of Guatemala linked by solar panels driving local radio stations.--AN Indonesian experiment in promoting democracy and social justice through community news radio has won the world's most prestigious development prize.At least part of the E150,000 ($268,000) purse will be used to install solar panels for powering studios and equipment at the network's
- [CB'ing it all the way to Guate](https://www.karaandrade.com/cbing-it-all-the-way-to-guate/) - Three months from now we'll be on the road bound for Guatemala. One of our main concerns is our safety and making sure we have as many ways as we can to stay connected to the local communities we pass through. Ideally we thought we'd have the Mad Max mobile loaded with a GPS unit,
- [Open Video Conference NYC](https://www.karaandrade.com/open_video_conference_nyc/) - Open Video Conference, NYU Law School http://openvideoconference.org/ http://openvideoconference.org/about/ twitter: #openvideo Opening statements and introduction Yochai Benkler Summary:Keynote: Yochai Benkler - (10:15 AM - 10:45 AM) Description:Yochai Benkler is the Berkman Professor of Entrepreneurial Legal Studies at Harvard, and faculty co-director of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. He writes about the Internet and the emergence
- [Mobs, Media and Mobilizing Action](https://www.karaandrade.com/mobs-media-and-mobilizing-action-for/) - Brower Hub Members Description of Hub Spaces And Community Kiva, Change.org, Regina O'Connell – Moderator, founding member of the hub. Join Matt Flannery of Kiva.org Steve Newcomb of Virgance Ben Rattray of Change.org Regina and her introduction to action and activism Focus on the Family This is social activism and enterprise 201 We want to
- [YCombinator: The Future of Journalism](https://www.karaandrade.com/ycombinator-the-future-of-journalism/) - Three does seem to be the magic number for a moving an online news project along. "Groups applying to work on this idea should include at least one person who can write well and rapidly about any topic, one or more programmers who are good at statistics, data mining, and making sites scale, and someone
- [Digital trails](https://www.karaandrade.com/digital-trails/) - Since I spend more than 12 hours online everyday, having mobile online access is up there with food, air, water and this thing called sleep. In preparation for the trip I've been debating leaving the AT&T money sucker behind, switching the cellphone number to my Vonage VOIP service and just buying a SIM card in
- [My office now](https://www.karaandrade.com/my-office-now/) - Yes it's organized chaos. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
- [Road books: what war?](https://www.karaandrade.com/books/) - I don't know why I'm still buying books, since I have my Kindle now, but this one was totally worth it: "I am a survivor of the Guatemala civil war." In 2004, Laurie Levinger left her home in Vermont for Guatemala where she planned to teach English to Maya university students. But on the first
- [The Mini-Me solution](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-mini-me-solution/) - I spent an hour with ATT&T's international department today, 877-707-9208 (and a lovely exchange it was, quite unexpectedly) and worked out all my anxieties about data access from the road
- [Mapping the route into Guate](https://www.karaandrade.com/mapping-the-route-into-guate-2/) - We mapped out the homestretch of our trip last night. It took an adjustment to go from the expansive terrain of Mexico to Guatemala's small yet crazy curvy highland interior. Hey um, where's Antigua?
- [Modularize, modularize, modularize](https://www.karaandrade.com/late-night-pre-packing-2/) - Our pile in one corner of the livingroom is now neatly stacking up during our late night pre-packing phase.
- [I Tethered Today](https://www.karaandrade.com/i-tethered-today-2/) - Through an hour's worth of tinkering and a little help from this tutorial I was able to tether my Blackberry Pearl 8100 to my Macbook using bluetooth. Now while this may seem a bit like a gearhead gone wild, it is a very practical way for me be online in our car for the next 2,992 miles as we traverse Mexico and Guatemala.
- [LA Bound](https://www.karaandrade.com/la-bound/) - After weeks of preparation we are finally on the road and headed to Venice, LA our first stop, 307 miles into our trip.
- [Brad at the wheel](https://www.karaandrade.com/brad-at-the-wheel/) - A couple of hours outside LA and Brad's got his driving face on.
- [Just passed these shimmering waters](https://www.karaandrade.com/just-passed-these-shimmering-waters/) - I always wanted to stop at Lake Huges. But alas not today, we have to beat the rush into LA.
- [70 miles until LA](https://www.karaandrade.com/70-miles-until-la/) - This is as close as we get to hills like white elephants in California.
- [Morning fuel](https://www.karaandrade.com/morning-fuel/) - Made a pitstop right before San Bernardino for some morning fuel. Goodbye LA, hello Phoenix.
- [Land of windmills](https://www.karaandrade.com/land-of-windmills/) - We are surrounded on both sides by these right now as we head into Phoenix.
- [Did You Miss the Pre-packing & Day 1 Roadtrip?](https://www.karaandrade.com/did-you-miss-the-pre-packing-day-1-roadtrip/)
- [Phoenix, land of cacti](https://www.karaandrade.com/phoenix-land-of-cacti/) - Drove into the ever growing mass of Phoenix. Now we're sitting here looking at these cacti across from our friend's house.
- [Couch Brad](https://www.karaandrade.com/couch-brad/) - Brad passed out after a long day of driving.
- [Zofia's new flag](https://www.karaandrade.com/zofias-new-flag/) - Our friends' showed off their new flag given to them by their neighbors.
- [Big Mama](https://www.karaandrade.com/big-mama/) - On the way to Tucson and saw this Big Mama along the side of the road. That and the ostrich farm.
- [La Chapina on CB with the Trucker Boys](https://www.karaandrade.com/la-chapina-on-cb-with-the-trucker-boys/) - We got the CB radio rolling and started talking to our trucker friends from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, all headed East on highway 10. We got some great road tips, including the best place to eat in Blythe. Casa Maria got big props and so we stopped and had some not so fresh fish tacos
- [Bye US, hello Mexico](https://www.karaandrade.com/bye-us-hello-mexico/)
- [Getting our car permit in Nogales](https://www.karaandrade.com/getting-our-car-permit-in-nogales/) - You're looking at the car permit "office" located near the border in Nogales, MX. We basically walked back and forth between this concession stand looking area and another office that looked like it was built inside of a construction site trailer, for a good 1.5 hours. We had to speak at length to no less
- [Crossing the border at Nogales](https://www.karaandrade.com/crossing-the-border-at-nogales/) - "I've spent more time in a McDonald's drive-thru than at the Mexican border," Brad said minutes after we crossed the Nogales border today around noon. It took about five minutes to get past the speed bumps in the bat mobile. This experience has not been the case earlier in my life when I crossed the
- [Guaymas](https://www.karaandrade.com/guaymas/) - First big town in our 11 hour trip to Mazatlan.
- [Prius factory](https://www.karaandrade.com/prius-factory/) - Yep this is where your Priuses are made in Mexico.
- [It's like the San Mateo bridge](https://www.karaandrade.com/its-like-the-san-mateo-bridge/) - We've hit the Pacific.
- [Almost at Los Mochis](https://www.karaandrade.com/almost-at-los-mochis/)
- [Brad at El Farrollon in Los Mochis](https://www.karaandrade.com/brad-at-el-farrollon-in-los-mochis/) - We just had the best ceviche and Brad got a data point.
- [Lunch dessert](https://www.karaandrade.com/lunch-dessert/)
- [Our morning view in Mazatlan](https://www.karaandrade.com/our-morning-view-in-mazatlan/) - Something about taking dip early in the morning.
- [On our way to Tepic](https://www.karaandrade.com/on-our-way-to-tepic/) - Some fishing going on out there. It's so lush and beautiful and you can tell by the salt air that the Pacific is close.
- [Dark clouds](https://www.karaandrade.com/dark-clouds/) - Heavy clouds linger over Tepic and we are finally on our way! Guadelajara a next!
- [Next stop is Lagos de Moreno](https://www.karaandrade.com/next-stop-is-lagos-de-moreno/) - We have four more hours before San Miguel Allende. Whew!
- [My reading station in the car](https://www.karaandrade.com/my-reading-station-in-the-car/) - With all the time changes sometimes the light just disappears so you have to create your own.
- [The view from the San Miguel Allende rooftop](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-view-from-the-san-miguel-allende-rooftop/)
- [The church in the distance](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-church-in-the-distance/)
- [En la iglesia de San Miguel Allende](https://www.karaandrade.com/en-la-iglesia-de-san-miguel-allende/)
- [Shopping in San Miguel](https://www.karaandrade.com/shopping-in-san-miguel/)
- [Cesar from PuenteSur visits for an afternoon](https://www.karaandrade.com/cesar-from-puentesur-visits-for-an-afternoon/) - The coordinator of PuenteSur took a seven hour bus ride from Zacatecas to visit us in San Miguel Allende.
- [Bye San Miguel Allende, hello Mexico City](https://www.karaandrade.com/bye-san-miguel-allende-hello-mexico-city/) - Dude on the horse is San Miguel. Dude at the wheel is yours truly.
- [Thai in Mexico City](https://www.karaandrade.com/thai-in-mexico-city/) - Thai flavors and spices at Mibong restaurant are a welcome change from all the Mexican food we've been eating. And Brad didn't have to worry about his accent when ordering from the menu.
- [Coca Cola from a different angle](https://www.karaandrade.com/cola-from-a-different-angle/)
- [Listening to Hey Jude backwards](https://www.karaandrade.com/listening-to-hey-jude-backwards/) - The piece is titled, "The Ballad of John and Yoko." Brad says it's great to write emails to.
- [Glovetrotter](https://www.karaandrade.com/glovetrotter/) - The steel mesh used to make gloves envelopes a range of spheres.
- [Babel by Cildo Meireles](https://www.karaandrade.com/babel-by-cildo-meireles/) - A tower constructed from hundreds of radios tuned in to different frequencies, creating an incomprehensible wall of sound.
- [Lunchtime](https://www.karaandrade.com/lunchtime/)
- [Rice](https://www.karaandrade.com/rice/)
- [Fontes](https://www.karaandrade.com/fontes-1992-2008/) - Brad says this is something about measuring time. Not pictured: numerals from the clock faces scattered all over the floor.
- [Bye Mexico City, Hello Puebla](https://www.karaandrade.com/bye-mexico-city-hello-puebla/) - We made it out of Mexico City's rush hour traffic in 15 minutes and now we're headed to San Cristobal de Las Casas, 11 hours later.
- [The Road to Cordoba](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-road-to-cordoba/) - It's like the road through Presidio but not really.
- [120 km from Tuxla](https://www.karaandrade.com/120-km-from-tuxla/) - The landscape is starting to look more like Guatemala now, selva on both sides and that tropical heat near Puerto Barrios where my family is from. We are still a few hours drive from the border, but we roost in San Cristobal tonight.
- [Patch of blue in the rain](https://www.karaandrade.com/patch-of-blue-in-the-rain/) - We've gone through three rainstorms on our drive to San Cristobal. Here's a small patch of blue as we reach it.
- [Luz's street](https://www.karaandrade.com/luzs-street/) - I don't think the Google street team made it here yet.
- [San Cristobal De Las Casas](https://www.karaandrade.com/san-cristobal-cathedral/) - We're taking the day off from driving to chill in San Cristobal De Las Casas-here's the very beautiful main cathedral in the Zocalo.
- [Night walk in San Cristobal](https://www.karaandrade.com/night-walk-in-san-cristobal/) - Not another church!
- [Bye San Cristobal, hello Comitan](https://www.karaandrade.com/bye-san-cristobal-hello-comitan/) - We have a long day of driving ahead of us. At the end of it we hope to be in Antigua. First town: Comitan.
- [Topes](https://www.karaandrade.com/topes/) - Plenty of topes on the way to La Mesilla.
- [Hola Guate](https://www.karaandrade.com/hola-guate/) - Just crossed La Mesilla in less than 30 minutes.
- [The road to Antigua](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-road-to-antigua/) - We are driving on a newly paved four lane highway and all hell has broken loose between large chunks of rocks from the cliffs on the road, a massiv storm, fog, broken down cars and the usual windings of the highlands, oh and there's sections that are unpaved without much warning. It's tough love from
- [Corn of Chimaltenango](https://www.karaandrade.com/corn-of-chimaltenango/) - We are about an hour from Antigua after a quick stop at Casa de Don Robert for hot chocolate, pasta and to alert Nelly, our kind host, that we had not been swallowed up by the cerros.
- [Hola Antigua](https://www.karaandrade.com/hola-antigua/) - Por fin! Llegamos! We are here and now to find Nelly.
- [This is the "We're finally here!" picture](https://www.karaandrade.com/this-is-the-were-here-picture/) - Brad calls this his Zolcalo now.
- [Brunch in Antigua](https://www.karaandrade.com/brunch-in-antigua/) - We had our first brunch at Cafe Condesa. We've got some altitude sickness, but still managed to unload our car and make it into town for a day of setting up the HQ. I was a bit annoyed by the mandatory Q10 for parking anywhere in Antigua. It's a change that makes sense when you
- [Our Craigslist](https://www.karaandrade.com/our-craigslist/) - Looking for apartments.
- [Looking for apartments](https://www.karaandrade.com/looking-for-apartments/) - In all the wrong places.
- [Chinese fire drill, Guatemalan style](https://www.karaandrade.com/chinese-fire-drill-guatemalan-style/) - After the 3200 mile drive from Oakland to Antigua, we figured it was time for an oil change. We took the car to a garage called Repuestos La Recoleccion (Avenida La Recoleccion #4) that was recommended to us by our friend and trusty Antigua-advisor, Rudy Girón. Damage? Around $40.00, but this included a 1/2 liter
- [Rush hour Guatemala City– no es rush nada](https://www.karaandrade.com/rush-hour-traffic-in-guate-city-no-es-rush-nada/) - It's 6:43pm in Zona Viva, Guatemala City and we're getting nowhere fast. In fact, in the past hour we've advanced only a couple kilometers as we crawl back to Antigua after our security briefing at the American Embassy. More on that later- for now it's the oh-so-authentic experience reminiscent of being shoved through a funnel
- [Waiting](https://www.karaandrade.com/waiting/) - I am getting to know RENAP well today. Pushing two hours now.
- [Accident back up near San Lucas](https://www.karaandrade.com/accident-back-up-near-san-lucas/) - When it rains, it pours. On the brighter side, rainy season typically ends in November.
- [Telgua employees don't officially use cellphones at work](https://www.karaandrade.com/telgua-employees-dont-officially-use-cellphones-at-work/) - Telgua is the national phone company– they're the only game in town. So, when you complain to them that they never answer their customer service number, they really don't care. Just one advantage of being a monopoly I guess. Anyway, we tried to get the representative helping us to give us his cell phone number
- [From Guate to Guate ](https://www.karaandrade.com/from-guate-to-guate/) - I'm from Guatemala, but I'm really not from here. I was born in Bananera– the United Fruit Company's very own labor town– and spent some time in Guatemala City until in 1982, at the age of five, I joined the immigration tide of thousands of people fleeing Guatemala’s civil war, poverty, gangs and corruption to
- [Major  blackout in Guatemala](https://www.karaandrade.com/major-blackout-in-guatemala/) - There's no signs of electricity for kilometers. Radio Sonora reports 18 departments in Guatemala are without electricity, including Guatemala City. The airport and hospitals are running off their own generators and all national flights are suspended for now. All traffic lights in Guate city are off in major areas so it's chaos on the street,
- [No hay energia, pues que pasa?](https://www.karaandrade.com/no-hay-energia-pues-que-pasa/) - Lightning struck a big generator in Esquintla and that has caused the massive black out in Guatemala. We are down to 15 departments and some zones like zone 11 in Guatemala City have electricity. It's nuts because my cousin in Chiquimula, there hours northwest of Guate City, is in the dark. I am definitely going
- [Guatemalan pride](https://www.karaandrade.com/guatemalan-pride/)
- [Punto Que](https://www.karaandrade.com/punto-que/) - Synthesis, I think, ingesting massive amounts of noise and putting filters on it like your sink strainer to capture the gunk, that's what reporters do. On Hablaguate and HablaHonduras, everyday I filter the noise of Tweets, blogs, newspaper RSS feeds, Facebook group invites, Skype chats, CNN, Telesur and radio streams galore. By noon, it's time for a different kind of noise, so Brad and I head out on our first walk into Antigua, before the afternoon rains.
- [Our dryer broke today](https://www.karaandrade.com/our-dryer-broke-today/) - So we took to the roof.
- [Como se dice "Sound Board?"](https://www.karaandrade.com/como-se-dice-sound-board/) - The search for Brad's sound deadening board, a building material that absorbs stray sound waves (like in a music studio), is on:
- [Cutting Drywall A Lo Chapin](https://www.karaandrade.com/cutting-drywall/) - The adventures in getting Brad's music studio continue today as we venture into La Recollecion to score some drywall.
- [Conociendo El Pilar](https://www.karaandrade.com/conciendo-el-pilar/) - The hardest part about getting to know Guatemala is the lack of signage and good directions. Going north is "para arriba" (you want me to drive towards the sky?), "recto" cannot be confused with "derecho" (as they say in Mexico) – a direction indicating you need to go straight, "para aya" could mean right or left, and "no esta muy lejos" could mean it's 1 km or 10 km away
- [Back then we had it good – my Blackberry & me](https://www.karaandrade.com/back-then-we-had-it-good/) - My relationship with my Blackberry Pearl is on the rocks since we got to Guatemala. We don't talk as much anymore- when we first started it was hard to tell my hand from its curvy little frame. Now I'm looking at other phones, I admit it, not just once in a while, but every time
- [Now which one of these actually works in Guatemala?](https://www.karaandrade.com/now-which-one-of-these-actually-works-in-guatemala/) - I got this from Mashable in my random searches for phones that might work well in Guate. Now where's the new Android phone in there? I am also wondering when people will start reviewing these in developing countries based on what's most compatible with networks down here.
- [Getting Gothic in Guate](https://www.karaandrade.com/getting-gothic-in-guate/) - Blackletter, also known as Gothic script, has been with us for centuries– from French monks to German Nazis to Mexican lowriders– and of course it's all over the signage of Guatemala! If you read anything important in this country, i.e. religious or market-related, chances are it's been set in blackletter type. Actually it'll most likely
- [Not So Secret Remedies](https://www.karaandrade.com/not-so-secret-remedies/) - I like being sick, it's true, because it slows me down and forces me to pay attention to things.
- [Antigua Más Que Ruinas Exhibit](https://www.karaandrade.com/antigua-mas-que-ruinas-exhibit/) - The exhibition is a part of the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Consejo para la Protección de La Antigua Guatemala. The exhibition will have two objectives: to introduce the club to the local community and to collaborate with a local association in need of support through the sale of the exhibited photographs.
- [Go Fly a Kite](https://www.karaandrade.com/go-fly-a-kite/) - I've been thinking about kites. I've been thinking of them in the obvious revived Maya custom of using giant kites to send messages to ancestors during Day of the Dead, but also in the way Guatemalans often fly kites with their children as a pastime on Sundays.
- [Is there a DJ in the Convento?](https://www.karaandrade.com/is-there-a-dj-in-the-convento/) - BradElectro played his first Antigua gig this year at the opening of Club Fotográfico de Antigua's photography exhibit in Las Capuchinas, an ancient convent of all places, and introduced his special recipe of house music to the art-loving audience. We had a town crier proclaim the event official, and the rain stopped long enough for
- [We Got Snail Mail](https://www.karaandrade.com/we-got-snail-mail/) - I feel connected to the world again and it's as simple as getting my New Yorker to our house- with no special arrangements made at all. I just called The New Yorker, gave them my forwarding address in Guatemala and they promised it would be at my doorstep, two days later than most folks in
- [New Wheels](https://www.karaandrade.com/new-wheels/) - When I was younger and living in the remotest part of North Carolina, getting a bike was the equivalent of having a car – I didn't have to ride the "cheese wagon," the bus to school where I was the only immigrant Latina. With a bike I could just hop on its K-Mart squeaky clean
- [Journey Back](https://www.karaandrade.com/journey-back/) - My step-father died so I am headed back to the United States to be with mi mama to spend more time with her and, apparently, the Dallas airport as well. While easy and rather cheap to get a flight back for only $630 with a one-day advance, I am always amazed at how a flight
- [Tampa Bay Does Free WiFi](https://www.karaandrade.com/tampa-bay-does-free-wifi/) - Tampa International airport has free WIFI, laptop workstations, and an integrated domestic-international terminal that makes life easy at 5:15 AM. By the time my plane is called, I have downloaded five TED episodes, All Songs Considered, the NY Times Front Page and a few documentaries from the BBC , blogged and done my first fix
- [My Welcome Back Sunset](https://www.karaandrade.com/my-welcome-back-sunset/) - I've been gone for a week from Guatemala and already I missed the laneless Roosevelt drag, the fearless pedesterians zizagging between car pile ups, the "va pues" between sentences, the unbroken green canopy of the elephantom drop leading into Antigua, and, of course, the sunsets. Brad and I stared in awe at this one today:
- [It's Called Monterrico](https://www.karaandrade.com/its-called-monterrico/) - Monterrico, originally uploaded by newmaya. My people are coastal people. They are from the Caribbean side of Guatemala, out by Puerto Barrios, so close to the border with Belize that the saunter is equally slow and unyielding. I tell people in Antigua I was born by the coast because I identify with the blanket of
- [Race for Lights](https://www.karaandrade.com/race-for-lights/) - It'll be my first Christmas in Guatemala since I was a kid and the tree is the harbinger. How can I just walk past it without paying due respect?
- [Sometimes a Woman Has to Drive Back Alone From Coban](https://www.karaandrade.com/sometimes-a-woman-has-to-drive-back-alone-from-coban/) - Guatemala is hard on the system. From Coban I bring back a cold and chills, as if having internalized the rainy, smokey mountain terrain.
- [The Guatemalan Wall of People at GUA](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-guatemalan-wall-of-people-at-gua/) - Mi mama and mi abuelita made it back to Guatemala City this weekend after more than seven years of threatening to come back.
- [La Virgen en Chiquimula](https://www.karaandrade.com/la-virgen-en-chiquimula/) - The sleepy town of Chiquimula is not so sleepy on La Virgen de Guadalupe Day when La Virgin is paraded around town to much firework fanfare and brought back to La Catedral to be lavished by hundreds of candles placed by her feet by women. Children await her return dressed as inditos y inditas and
- [Posadas Pasadas](https://www.karaandrade.com/posadas-pasadas/) - In Guatemala you learn to live not knowing what's around the corner.
- [The Beauty of Gift Wrapping](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-beauty-of-gift-wrapping/) - I will admit it: I can't gift wrap and I can't cook. I don't have patience for either one. But I do have patience to hold the camera while someone at SIMAN does.
- [Rain in Puerto Barrios](https://www.karaandrade.com/rain-in-puerto-barrios/) - Puerto Barrios is cold, wet, and dirty. It is, as Brad so aptly put it, "the armpit of the armpit of Latin America." Barrios, named after President Justo Rufino Barrios in 1884 (you'll see a nice statue of Rufino at Parque Tecun Uman) , is known for three things: boozers, prostitutes and Hotel Del Norte. Del Norte,
- [From Fincas to Skype](https://www.karaandrade.com/from-fincas-to-skype/) - My uncle Nefta's eyes are big black globes around which his face orbits in thick folds of skin sunken in by the sun, lack of food and a grin that has filled his entire face since I was a child. At times it is a seven-year-old child gazing into the banana fincas of Media Luna
- [Blowing Up Christmas– "It's Bomba Time" Music Video](https://www.karaandrade.com/blowing-up-christmas-its-bomba-time-music-video/) - Fireworks are a must for Christmas in Chiquimula, Guatemala! Director: Kara Andrade. Music: "Keep It Hott (BradElectro Remix) by The Middle Agent, feat. Garth Culti-Vader & Tech N9NE. Available on Tarantic Records from iTunes.
- [Belize for Business](https://www.karaandrade.com/belize-for-business/) - It's true that if I learn it for myself there's a better chance I'll believe in it. And so it goes with car permits and immigration renewals in Guatemala during the holiday season. We knew our 90 day permits for both our passports and the car would expire on December 26, so we mentally prepared
- [Baile del Venado in Puerto Barrios](https://www.karaandrade.com/baile-del-venado-in-puerto-barrios/) - Unexpectedly, while we were giving Safari restaurant a second try in Puerto Barrios, we witnessed the "Baile del Vendo". The Ministerio de Cultura y Deportes informs us that during the period of the conquest of Guatemala, the Spaniards would watch the wildlife that crossed the road and delighted by the wild diversity of quadrupedal locomotion,
- [Lights from Hell](https://www.karaandrade.com/lights-from-hell/) - In case you haven't gotten your holiday lights yet, why not consider some musical lights?
- [Stop Light Performance Art in Zone 6, Guate City](https://www.karaandrade.com/stop-light-performance-art-in-zone-6-guate-city/) - Sometimes art happens just as you're sitting there waiting for a light to change.
- [Passing Procession](https://www.karaandrade.com/funeral/) - Sometimes the sacred just has a way of stopping you in your mundane tracks on your way to pick up tortillas and chocobanano.
- [New Year's Musings](https://www.karaandrade.com/new-years-musings/) - At midnight I ate 12 grapes and made 12 wishes with my mom and my husband next to me under the Arc in Antigua. Two years ago in this same street my husband and I were engaged and we made a promise to return to live if only for a brief moment in our lives.
- [The New Year's Multimedia Extravaganza in La Antigua](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-new-years-multimedia-extravaganza/) - As promised, here is the Old Year's last few hours in La Antigua. The Festival Calle del Arco in La Antigua, as Prense Libre informs us, was created by a group of Antigueños in 1999, neighbors who were working on a peatonal project to increase street traffic. "Little did they imagine that 10 years after the
- [San Felipe Ingenuity and Finca Filadelfia is a Fail](https://www.karaandrade.com/san-felipe-ingenuity-and-finca-filadelfia-is-a-fail/) - We promised mi mama a leisurely Saturday around La Antigua away from the madding crowds of the Puerto San Jose beaches and the onslaught of traffic generated by the one million Guatemalans headed back to Guatemala City this weekend after a long holiday break.
- [Two Days of Firsts](https://www.karaandrade.com/two-days-of-firsts/) - New clothes don't make me happy. Fast, new shiny cars don't make me happy. Meat doesn't make me happy. But getting my recyclables picked up makes me immensely happy and such was my happiness today at the end of the day when these guys arrived: For weeks I've been asking different people about recycling centers,
- [Giant Steps Are What You Take With La Antigua Sunsets](https://www.karaandrade.com/giant-steps-are-what-you-take-with-la-antigua-sunsets/) - Today was a hard day of getting lost in Guatemala City looking for the bus station in Zone 1. I knew the old address but 21st street, 11th avenue was horribly painful to get to. But I digress, it's the sunsets that really matter.
- [Crack of dawn grandma drop off ](https://www.karaandrade.com/crack-of-dawn-grandma-drop-off/) - We dropped off abuela at 6 am and got to see the sun rise: Then we headed over to Cafe Condesa for Sunday morning breakfast. We were the first customers there and were two hours early for the infamous Sunday buffet. I haven't seen the streets of La Antigua this empty in a while:
- [Rosenberg's Last Laugh](https://www.karaandrade.com/rosenbergs-last-laugh/) - Perhaps his last relational act Rosenberg gave us was giving us this view into a snake that eats itself and you are forced to watch it hoping for something to change.
- [Was Monday's Shake Up a "Temblor" or a "Terremoto"?](https://www.karaandrade.com/was-mondays-shake-up-a-temblor-or-a-terremoto/) - My friend Esteban Tweeted me today shortly after the 6.0 magnitude earthquake reported to have taken place offshore Guatemala at 9:40 AM on January 18. He writes: "Was it a temblor or a terremoto?" When I sent him the USGS link that presents the "Earthquake Details", he tweeted again: "Glad u ok. My parents said it was a bit strong but definitely just a "temblor" where they were. They think "terremoto" and they think 1976."
- [What would Maximón do?](https://www.karaandrade.com/what-would-moximan-do/) - We were led to him by two Tuk Tuk drivers who zipped us to the other side of the island, passing Parque de Paz, the devastation of Hurricane Stan, and onward to a private home with thatched roofs, dirt floors, and a family eating their lunch by the large pot boiling over the wooden fire.
- [Did you miss the sunset from another planet today?](https://www.karaandrade.com/did-you-miss-the-sunset-from-another-planet-today/) - I swear to you, this is the view out our rooftop. No Photoshopping involved.
- [Extrenando a Craiglist en Guate](https://www.karaandrade.com/extrenando-a-craiglist-en-guate/) - Like a new pair of shoes I walked out of the store with (yes after having paid), I didn't even wait ten minutes after stumbling upon Craigslist Guatemala to put up my first post in both the Writing and Community sections. I knew these sections well and felt right at home, but I did wonder
- [The new hammock](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-new-hammock/) - I grew up with a hammock in Chiquimula that served as a respite from the scorching hot afternoons where the best survival tactic was to find a dark corner and just stay still until evening arrived.
- [stage 5 of #rallygt ](https://www.karaandrade.com/stage-5-of-rallygt/)
- [How Community Radio Is Getting Its Game On](https://www.karaandrade.com/how-community-radio-is-getting-its-game-on/) - I rode the back of a big red truck with Massachusetts plates all the way from Guatemala City to La Antigua with a bunch of so called pirate radio folks. It was really the best view in town and it punctuated the end of a long morning that started at 4 AM to make it
- [Missing the Kindle](https://www.karaandrade.com/missing-the-kindle/) - riday was the second morning in a row that I beat the roosters to heralding morning. At 4 AM I was parked outside La Fabrica gym in La Antigua reading my Tweets, NY Times and Prensa Libre on my phone, just biding the time until 5 AM determined my trust in humanity.
- [Did someone say Sipacate?](https://www.karaandrade.com/did-someone-say-sipacate/) - Sipacate is we're headed today for Valentine's Day. If it's near as fun as this map from Sipacate.com then we're golden. More on this from the road crew.
- [Journey into the Heart of Guatemala City](https://www.karaandrade.com/journey-into-the-heart-of-guatemala-city/) - I grew up with a fear of Guatemala City as this monolith of chaos that swallowed up people in the same way that La Siguanaba inhaled men's souls late at night when they pranced back through the fincas to their wives from their illicit love affairs. Somehow she also took niños malcriados, but I never figured
- [Cuando las Calles Son Santas](https://www.karaandrade.com/cuando-las-calles-son-santas/) - Jesucristo y Dios were interchangeable in my family where the Old Testament and the New Testament only made a difference when whatever you did was grave enough to merit the old time religion that justified the punishment. Semana Santa did, however, always remind us that there was a difference and the 40 days leading up
- [The carpool lane on the way to El Carmen](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-carpool-lane-on-the-way-to-el-carmen/) - We're talking serious carbon credits.
- [Not All that Glitters is Gold at Talisman](https://www.karaandrade.com/not-all-that-glitters-is-gold-at-talisman/) - The road to Tecun Uman and El Carmen is lined by green forest, sloping pastures with grazing cows and purple lilacs falling gently on the pocket-marked pavement ridden with potholes and speeding tractor trailers headed to Mexico.
- [Tecun Uman'ing](https://www.karaandrade.com/tecun-umaning/) - In Tecun Uman the streets are like a Pac-Man game, sometimes they wind in impossible turns around the main square and sometimes they just end onto a dirt path and on the other side is the border.
- [Buenos dias Panama](https://www.karaandrade.com/buenos-dias-panama/) - Woke up in Panama this morning.
- [The Best Part About Finding a New Restaurant in La Antigua](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-best-part-about-finding-a-new-restaurant-in-la-antigua/)
- [Pillow Fight in La Antigua](https://www.karaandrade.com/pillow-fight-in-la-antigua/) - Cuaresma is reaching its climax in La Antigua and sometimes a pillow fight in the middle of Parque Central is exactly what you need.
- [Domingo de Ramos Brings in Holy Week](https://www.karaandrade.com/domingo-de-ramos-brings-in-holy-week/) - I've had to brush up on my Catholic liturgy today by calling mi abuelita and having her explain to me the significance of Domingo De Ramos or Palm Sunday. She tells me that Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion, which is really the triumph of Christ as Messiah as he rides
- [Holy Friday, Black Friday, Great Friday](https://www.karaandrade.com/holy-friday-black-friday-great-friday/) - At 3:30 Thursday morning and by the light of the full moon as the rooster crowed a couple times, my husband and I threw on our sweaters and jeans, stumbled out into the quiet streets of El Calvario and into our car. We knew we were taking a chance by driving into La Antigua Guatemala on
- [Presenting BradElectro](https://www.karaandrade.com/presenting-bradelectro/) - While he never stole his older sister’s records, young BradElectro did sneak into her room to find out what the big kid’s Top 40 radio station was. This was a difficult task— what with all the yelling, kicking and punching.
- [ The Señor Sepultado Floats Through Town](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-senor-sepultado-floats-through-town/) - Out of the thick cloud of incense, dark night and rain the procession of Señor Sepultado de San Felipe floated out of the ether of La Antigua's narrow streets, on the shoulders of a hundred black-hooded men and cutting the river of the throngs gathered along the embankment. Warmed by the heat of dozens of
- [Winging It In Todos Santos](https://www.karaandrade.com/winging-it-in-todos-santos/) - The town of Todos Santos floats above the clouds, positioned safely beyond that world of concrete, black bus smoke, and the bustling human activity back on earth in that almost border town we call Huehuetenango. And so we climb. As the sun surfaces and kisses the terracería red, we've gone off road and all we can
- [LuchaLibre lives on in Guatemala](https://www.karaandrade.com/luchalibre-lives-on-in-guatemala/) - Who would have guessed that LuchaLibre was still alive, but certainly not well, in Guatemala? This was no NachoLibre orphanage in the fields we were going to, it was one of the poorest, slummiest and unsafest parts of Guatemala City.
- [Mi Tío Neftalie](https://www.karaandrade.com/mi-tio-neftalie/) - Mi tío is schizophrenic, that much I know. I find myself staring at him as he maneuvers his space on the street in La Antigua or tries to find a narrative to all the stimulus that is rushing past him.
- [Another way to measure the passage of time](https://www.karaandrade.com/another-way-to-measure-the-passage-of-time/) - Since the AC unit in the car is Brad's final tie to the First World we just got the AC filter changed in our Honda CRV. Here's the before and after.
- [Cellular Saved the Radio Star](https://www.karaandrade.com/cellular-saved-the-radio-star/) - One perk of staying up until 3 AM each night is that I get these bursts of creativity and then I drag my husband and my friends with me on bizarre ideas like thisSXSW proposal that ended up with us recording a cover of a famous Buggles tune. We called it "Cellular Saved the Radio
- [I Hang My Umbrella Here](https://www.karaandrade.com/i-hang-my-umbrella-here/) - As the sky cries an endless river of rain during a gray Monday that began with thick clouds, I take shelter in a library – the Spanish Cooperative library in La Antigua. I run across the courtyard surrounded by ruins, past everyone huddling at the doors like birds waiting for the rain to stop (why
- [The Rough Rewarding Road to Lancetillo](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-rough-rewarding-road-to-lancetillo/) - July 23, 2010 Zona Reyna, Lancetillo I am sitting in an open salon of some one hundred young indigenous children watching "La Isla" quietly and attentively after having finished their hot chocolate and sweet biscuits on a Friday night in Zona Reyna, El Quiche. Not a single whisper escapes in the group as they stare
- [All We Need to Know of Dying](https://www.karaandrade.com/all-we-need-to-know-of-dying/) - It's so quiet now as the rains have stopped in La Antigua and the Central part of Guatemala. This time yesterday the mountains had buried the living with avalanches of mud along the Ixtahuacan region, Alaska to be exact, KM 171. As families searched for their disappeared more were buried, 150-200 the mayor informed us
- [Let the Building Begin](https://www.karaandrade.com/let-the-build-begin/) - As many of you know we've been working on a project to build a house for mentally ill uncle who lives in the fincas of Media Luna near Puerto Barrios. So the good news: ConstruCasa agreed to start building the house before we have the full $3,200. They are giving us a month to finish
- [Dancing to the Music before Independence Day](https://www.karaandrade.com/dancing-to-the-music-before-independence-day/) - The marching bands are all over La Antigua (thumping incessantly near your house even) this week in preparation for Guatemala and the Central American States' Independence Day on September 15, 2010. There's a frenetic youthful energy that is hard to encapsulate into one moment, but I'm sure this one does a good job:
- [Good Morning News](https://www.karaandrade.com/good-morning-news/) - The first thing that surfaces from my bed is my arm scrambling blindly for my cellphone – my umbilical cord to the pixel world scrolling through my email. Sometimes it's good news and I jump out of bed, sometimes I just bury my head in the pillows after one glance. It's my own personal roulette
- [We Did It!](https://www.karaandrade.com/we-did-it/) - Every joint and muscle ached today and I thought immediately of my cousin Lucky and her children and how we share everything in my family, including horrible, miserable one-day flus. Nonetheless, "No hay mal que por bien no venga," there isn't a bad that doesn't come for a good reason. And, sure enough, I watched
- [Relaxing Into Change](https://www.karaandrade.com/relaxing-into-change/) - I started to feel better when I stopped fighting; when I stopped being angry, let myself relax into the surrounding darkness and those feverish dreams I was having about a big earthquake destroying all our homes and everyone waiting outside the rubble, barefoot, holding on to their children and whatever they could grab hold of
- [Going Back To Cali](https://www.karaandrade.com/going-back-to-cali/) - It's true, at 4 AM Sunday morning come rain or shine we're getting on the road bound for Cali. We're well aware it may take us twelve hours to leave the country with all the landslides from the rain, but trust that we'll be documenting the entire route. Looking forward to the drive back!
- [Entering the Second World](https://www.karaandrade.com/entering-the-second-world/) - Waking up in Tuxtla Guiterrez makes me feel like a part of the rest of the world – connected, efficient and hopeful. It hurts me to feel this way because I love my country and the warmth of everyone in Guatemala, but it is simply just not there yet, for whatever history, for whatever reason,
- [The Long Road Ahead](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-long-road-ahead/) - Pedal to the metal, 80 90 miles per hour on seamlessly paved road winding around lush green mountains where the fog forms a quickly lifting halo around the base, and this is how we make our way through Mexico, one spectacular moving portrait at a time passing by your window. Brad's got the "80s part II"
- [How to Survive the Autopista Being Closed in Southern Mexico](https://www.karaandrade.com/how-to-survive-the-autopista-being-closed-in-southern-mexico/) - Puebla _ We drove through the mountains of the spirits last night on the heels of tractor-trailers in their nightly journey through the dark winding roads that start outside Cordoba, Mexico. We were the only small car drifting among these giants of the midnight hour carrying double loads slowly in and out the mountain through
- [A Place Called Puebla](https://www.karaandrade.com/a-place-called-puebla/) - TEPIC, MEXICO - Every trip is different, even if you planned the same route, things happen and you respond. Yesterday we woke up in Puebla instead of Mexico City and today we woke up in Tepic instead of Mazatlan where I would have been steps from the ocean. It was something I was looking forward
- [Rites of Passage on the Road](https://www.karaandrade.com/rites-of-passage-on-the-road/) - NAVOJOA - The foothills hang on our left forming a striped silhouette of red, to orange, to yellow, blue, darker blue of entering dusk and impending night. We're in the desert and as we drive into the night headed north to Hermosillo we all settle into our cruise control, passing tractor trailers, and hanging in
- [Goodbye Mark Francis, Hello Jeff Cassman](https://www.karaandrade.com/goodbye-mark-francis-hello-jeff-cassman/) - Editors note: in the wake of the ruling against Jeff Cassman, we've received several new and interesting comments regarding this post. Therefore, we're sticking this one to the front page for the next week so nothing gets buried! HERMOSILLO – I went to sleep with this gnawing feeling of being betrayed and lied to and
- [Back in the USSA](https://www.karaandrade.com/back-in-the-ussa/) - PHOENIX -- Around noon we left Hermosillo after much needed rest and pointed our direction north to the Nogales border. Hermosillo is one of my favorite last stops before leaving Mexico, it's easy, so easy, to find hotels, restaurants, its proximity to the autopista in unbeatable and there's just a general ease for the I
- [Viva the Venice Bubble](https://www.karaandrade.com/viva-the-venice-bubble/) - VENICE – This is as exclusive as it gets: boutique shops, macrobiotic protein-powdered food and women, new fast cars, manicured lawns, hair-sprayed dogs, six-pack torsos and accessories for the accessories. No two people are the same on the Venice Beach boardwalk where entire sections reek of medicinal marijuana stores and people ride their bikes and
- [So Close to Oakland, So Far Away from Guate](https://www.karaandrade.com/so-close-to-oakland-so-far-away-from-guate/) - Oakland bound - Three hours from Oakland and the landscape is so familiar it feels like an old pair of shoes – familiar, comfortable and with the novelty of not having been worn since we left. We have ten weeks to make a lot of things happen to prepare for three years in Central America.
- [Notes from Cellphone Justice 101010 Conference](https://www.karaandrade.com/notes-from-cellphone-justice-101010-conference/) - 10/10/10 Cellphone Justice Conference
- [El Tiempo Lo Dirá](https://www.karaandrade.com/el-tiempo-lo-dira/) - SF BAY AREA – Waking up in one's own bed after after being away for one year is as close as I'll get to waking up in a time capsule, buried amid the rubble, rain and weeds that grow around it like a rock. I stare at the red room we painted years ago and
- [Why Guatemalans Don't Pay Taxes](https://www.karaandrade.com/why-guatemalans-dont-pay-taxes/) - A couple of days ago The Guatemala Times published an interesting post entitled: "International Community agrees: Guatemala urgently needs fiscal reform" and I wanted to pull out a significant statistic: "Today and yesterday many of the 150 country delegations that participated at Conference for Reconstruction and Transformation of Guatemala expressed their support for the plan
- ["Social Entrepreneurship in Developing Nations: A View from the Field"](https://www.karaandrade.com/social-entrepreneurship-in-developing-nations-a-view-from-the-field/) - "Social Entrepreneurship in Developing Nations: A View from the Field" David Green, Schwab Fellow of the World Economic Forum 4:00 p.m., Monday, October 18 B100 Blum Hall UC Berkeley http://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/citris.html?event_ID=36082 Bio: David Green is a MacArthur Fellow, an Ashoka Fellow and is recognized by Schwab Foundation as a leading social entrepreneur. He helped establish Aurolab
- [Leadership Lessons from a Turn of the (Last) Century Social Entrepreneur with Louise W. Knight](https://www.karaandrade.com/leadership-lessons-from-a-turn-of-the-last-century-social-entrepreneur-with-louise-w-knight/) - Leadership Lessons from a Turn of the (Last) Century Social Entrepreneur with Louise W. Kn Like young women leaders today, Jane Addams -- the first American woman to earn the Nobel Peace Prize-- struggled to grow purposefully, collaboratively, and with integrity. Louise (Lucy) W. Knight, the author of the just-published Jane Addams: Spirit in Action,
- [Patch Comes to Berkeley ](https://www.karaandrade.com/patch-comes-to-berkeley/) - Liveblog of Patch Comes to Berkeley When: Tuesday, October 19, 12:00 PM Where: North Gate Hall Library A panel of five UC Berkeley J-School grads will talk about their experiences launching local community news sites in the Bay Area for AOL's Patch. Executives from Patch also will discuss opportunities for jobs, internships and freelancing at
- [Postcards from the Road](https://www.karaandrade.com/postcards-from-the-road/) - While we didn't send any of you postcards, we do have plenty of images from the road that we'd love to share with you, so here goes! I promise I will write more this week.
- [The Evolving Internet: Driving Forces, Uncertainties and Four Scenarios to 2025](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-evolving-internet-driving-forces-uncertainties-and-four-scenarios-to-2025/) - The Evolving Internet: Driving Forces, Uncertainties and Four Scenarios to 2025 The Evolving Internet: Driving Forces, Uncertainties and Four Scenarios to 2025 with co-authors Enrique Rueda-Sabader, Cisco Systems; Don Derosby, Monitor GBN Monday, October 25th, 4:00pm South Hall, room 202 What will the Internet be like in 2025? How much bigger will it have grown
- [The Evolving Internet: Driving Forces, Uncertainties and Four Scenarios to 2025](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-evolving-internet-driving-forces-uncertainties-and-four-scenarios-to-2025-2/) - The Evolving Internet: Driving Forces, Uncertainties and Four Scenarios to 2025 The Evolving Internet: Driving Forces, Uncertainties and Four Scenarios to 2025 with co-authors Enrique Rueda-Sabader, Cisco Systems; Don Derosby, Monitor GBN Monday, October 25th, 4:00pm South Hall, room 202 What will the Internet be like in 2025? How much bigger will it have grown
- [Coming to Light](https://www.karaandrade.com/coming-to-light/) - My friend Ingrid is having a baby and I feel so helpless. I sit outside in the livingroom among the women, her mother-in-law, her sister-in-law, the mid-wife who peacefully goes in and out of the bedroom where she is giving birth. It is quiet except for the sound of the bubbling water in the fish
- [Liveblog from Play Conference 2010, UC Berkeley](https://www.karaandrade.com/liveblog-from-play-conference-2010-uc-berkeley/) - Play Conference
- [Lights for the Dead and Parades for the Living](https://www.karaandrade.com/lights-for-the-dead-and-parades-for-the-living/) - We're getting closer to darkness. El Día de Los Muertos reminds us how close we are to that needlehead thinness between living and passing; the passed and the still yet suffering. Two years ago my friend Ellen died in her sleep, bled into herself after many struggles with cancer. I can't imagine her struggling because
- [Belated SMS Thanksgiving](https://www.karaandrade.com/belated-sms-thanksgiving-4/) - Nov. 25, 2010 We're on the road again and it makes me want to write. It's the expanse of fruitless trees with their dried branches adding cracks to the blue sky, the wind hissing through the windows, the tall bales of hay and then the entrance into the walls of pine at the base of
- [What the Nuns Taught Me](https://www.karaandrade.com/what-the-nuns-taught-me/) - There were two things I quickly learned not to do in my first year living in the United States: not go around telling people how much you loved them and, even worse, telling their secrets to other people. For both you gained a reputation that preceded you as someone "loose" with things that should be
- [Pounding the Pavement](https://www.karaandrade.com/pounding-the-pavement/) - Today I hit the pavements of San Francisco as the sun refused to turn up from the gray blankets. I wound my multi-colored cotton Guatemalan scarf that really doesn't do much to fend off the cold around my neck and braced for the four temp and staffing agencies where I would be dropping off my
- [Yo No Olvido El Año Viejo](https://www.karaandrade.com/yo-no-olvido-el-ano-viejo/) - The irony isn't lost on me. I now do temporary work for a company that makes bridges. "Good afternoon, T.Y. Lin. One moment, I'll connect you." T.Y. Lin is a civil and structural engineering firm that did the engineering behind the Rio Dulce bridge, overseen by Chuck Simon who personally flew down to Guatemala when
- [The Next Bus](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-next-bus/) - I have this paranoia of missing the bus. It's more a fear of being left behind to be honest. It's not something I experience when I'm driving anywhere, late and harried, and somehow my fear of missing something at the other end kicks in. Of course, the show can't start without me, so that mitigates
- [Mysterious Lights](https://www.karaandrade.com/mysterious-lights/) - Is it possible that a dream can slip and fade away? Like fortune and the winged ankles of Hermes is it something that needs to be grasped on its way in and not on its way out? The sun and blue skies of the San Francisco Bay welcomed us to the New Year where we
- [Fallen Grace](https://www.karaandrade.com/fallen-grace/) - If you saw it coming, then why did you do it? Why did you wait? The four boxes of pizza fell from heaven, slipped right through your fingers while you pecked on your phone, it, too, tumbling to the ground along with your slice half-eaten, the grease making a profile against the brown bag crumpled
- [Because the Moon Tells Me So](https://www.karaandrade.com/because-the-moon-tells-me-so/) - I run to stand still. I pray the bus will be late, but knowing the driver, I lock up the house fast, head on into the sun and unabashed blue sky - my only witness to my lateness. I speed up and run when the hand lights up red. The sun is beaming and suddenly
- [Birthday Thought to Ellen](https://www.karaandrade.com/birthday-thought-to-ellen/) - Today would have been my friend Ellen's birthday. She would have been 79 years old. Had she been alive, had I died instead, I would be almost 34 years old and somehow it would have seemed less of a practical joke the universe played on both of us. I welcome it, this dance with death
- [Chile Landing](https://www.karaandrade.com/chile-landing/) - Santiago, Chile – There are many things mi mama taught me – many of which I wasn't prepared to learn until adulthood, but slowly the knowledge seeps into the roots. One of the most important things she taught me is to be fluent in Spanish. We struggled over it. At school I spoke English, at
- [En Un Cafe](https://www.karaandrade.com/en-un-cafe/) - Nothing like running errands on a Sunday afternoon to get a crash course in the weekend habits of Chileanos in Santiago. After a four-hour nap I woke up to my trusty shortwave radio blasting bad 1980s hits. I dragged my disconcerted self out of a bed which faces the balcony overlooking the Cerro Santa Lucia
- [The Wedding Dress  ](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-wedding-dress/) - I'm selling my wedding dress and I'm sure my mother doesn't want me cryogenize it, freeze it and preserve it for posterity. She quietly backed into the topic while were were talking on the phone about the minutia of moving back to Guatemala, to all of Central America, but for three years this time. It
- [Plotting](https://www.karaandrade.com/plotting/) - You always think you've made it past certain places in your life that like points on a grid, create lines deep inside you etched in skin, sweat and memory. Your being winds around the labyrinthian turns that you took for straight lines, endless and at times wide stretches of possibility that in fact could explain
- [A different profile](https://www.karaandrade.com/a-different-profile/)
- [Por Carretera](https://www.karaandrade.com/por-carretera/) - Knowing more doesn't necessarily equate to feeling more control, more groundedness in that knowledge. Knowing more can be quite unnerving – you are more aware of the myriad ways things can go wrong so quickly and in awe at the small needle hole that has to exist for things to go right. The question for
- [No To the Tolls! Cuota Protest Near Los Mochis, Mexico](https://www.karaandrade.com/cuota-protest-in-los-mochis-mexico/) - There's an edge to Sinaloa. In less than two hours we go through three security checkpoints – military men with rifles, dark sunglasses and crisp blue uniforms sizing you up to determine whether or not you must get out of your car for further questioning, or simply wave you on for the next 50 KM.
- [The Humans Must Be Crazy](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-humans-must-be-crazy/) - They are burning the land in Nayarit to prepare it. Large plumes of black smoke fill the sky and then are swept into the white wisps hiding the sun. The road winds between wide lush valleys, foothills to mountains, the horizon ends where green meets the blue. "We're not making good time today," Brad proclaims.
- [Once Upon a Time in San Miguel Allende, Mexico](https://www.karaandrade.com/once-upon-a-time-in-san-miguel-allende/) - San Miguel Allende is far from the madding crowd, farther still from the endless asphalt dropping us closer to Guatemala. It's Dante's descent, it's Hermes' flight, it's Persephone's re-entering the cave – the journey becomes the mental preparation for another way of life and challenges to things we hold close to us: safety, security, consistency, continuity,
- [What It Takes To Get Out of Central Mexico](https://www.karaandrade.com/what-it-takes-to-get-out-of-central-mexico/) - It hailed as we drove through the Sierra Madre Sur headed to Oaxaca – first small white pepples of rock and then bigger white stones straight to earth and onto the truck windshield as the sky turned an atomic red. We landed on Mars. We stopped underneath an overpass and watched the stones bead on
- [Brad's Got a Brand New Tattoo](https://www.karaandrade.com/brads-got-a-brand-new-tattoo/) - We're really the worst tourists ever. Instead of touring Oaxaca, we got Brad a new birthday tattoo. Video of the whole thing will be posted up next week! Later in the evening, we see Brad continuing his birthday celebration well into the night.
- [Life Simple](https://www.karaandrade.com/life-simple/) - Some cities you just can't sleep in and Oaxaca is one of those for me. I wake up Sunday morning on my second restless night of sweaty half-sleep. The rings under my eyes are dark and deep. I'm exhausted, but ready for the road to Tuxtla Guiterrez and possibly San Cristobal de las Casas. Before starting our climb back into the Sierras, now lush and green, we pass by Matatlan which the sign in large type over the road tells us is the "Mezcal Capital of the World." It's a sleepy dusty town with houses converted to storefronts selling bottles of mezcal.
- [I Registered To Vote in Guatemala for the First Time in My Life](https://www.karaandrade.com/i-registered-to-vote-in-guatemala-for-the-first-time-in-my-life/) - There are some things you just can't pass up in life, no matter how late you are for dinner or in this case, to the gym. I was dashing across Central Park in La Antigua when right in front of me in the municipality building was the first voter registration table manned by the TSE,-
- [A Thief in the Day](https://www.karaandrade.com/a-thief-in-the-day/) - Inevitably, we all reach that moment in our relationship with Guatemala that has to go beyond dating. That moment that tests our meddle, commitment, intentions, our resiliency and our very capacity to overcome. It's a loss of innocence and of a romanticized notion that a halo of protection exists around those of us that are
- [Romulus Rising](https://www.karaandrade.com/romulus-rising/) - Guatemala has not been kind this morning, in fact it was chewing me and spitting me out to splatter against a surface. The few things left unbroken or hanging by a thread, so thin, so fine, have fallen to the ground. Passport renewals, airplane reservations, Internet, toll free calls, pens with ink, military checkpoint in
- [We're At It Again](https://www.karaandrade.com/were-at-it-again/) - This time we've done it, we lost the thread and picked it back up again between knots, loops and thread on the point of breaking. We've strummed it like our own guitar. We've reach almost three months in Guatemala and there's no more time to spend in transition. It's the critical election season in Guatemala
- [The State In Me](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-state-in-me/) - There are walls within walls here and my fingers clutch at the hardened skin. It is not like an onion, I say to myself, it is more like bark that protects the tree and at the core reveals a soft life. I peel back and push towards the center, slowly at first and then quickly
- [Belated Apology](https://www.karaandrade.com/belated-apology/) - October 25, 2011 By Kara Andrade On October 20, the day of Guatemala’s revolution, the country’s government formerly apologized to the family of former president Colonel Juan Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán – 57 years after he was deposed. “I want to apologize to the family for the great crime committed on June 27, 1954,” said President
- [The DNA of Change](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-dna-of-change/) - October 31, 2011 Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist, writer and novelist writes: este mundo loco se divide entre los indignos y los que están indignados. This crazy world is divided between the unworthy and those who are outraged. It’s a matter of choice to be indignant and confront larger institutional inequalities, to take an active role
- [Felíz Navidad y Año Nuevo ](https://www.karaandrade.com/feliz-navidad-y-ano-nuevo/)
- [Getting to Know Houston](https://www.karaandrade.com/getting-to-know-houston/) - We woke up in Houston this morning, esconced between the high rises and the grey sky reflected in the glass. It's warmer and more humid than Austin, but the same feeling of ample, open spaces remains. The same feeling of being able to expand into the wide, flat terrain, once desert, now asphalt, concrete and
- [Entropy](https://www.karaandrade.com/entropy/) - There are moving parts in the moving parts and it's hard to get a footing. It's difficult to gauge progress or movement forward or back. There is no back, there is no forward. The simple fact of making it through the day intact physically and psychologically is its own reward, its own miracle of life
- [First Day of our Stay-Vacation](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-anti-semana-santeristas/) - Yesterday was the quiet and today was the storm. Jesús Nazareno exited La Merced Church carried on the shoulders of more than 50 bearers and thousands of spectators. The sea of people parted with his passing and we hid with our dogs and our pixels. It was the first day of the seven-day march towards
- [We Are The Eighth Station](https://www.karaandrade.com/we-are-the-eighth-station/) - April 3, 2012 We are the eighth station of the cross right outside our doorstep, in our callejón, in our alley. The entire street is now one long alfombra of fresh pine needless neatly arranged over sawdust and sand with red flowers and pineapples to welcome Christ as he enters our rarely clean alley. Today
- [Deus ex machina](https://www.karaandrade.com/deus-ex-machina/) - A helicopter fell to earth yesterday, a straight drop from the sky, a fallen mechanical angel. We watched it crash between two houses and then I ran toward the plume of smoke out of instinct, nothing in my hand, just a response. It was nine in the morning.
- [Wearing my trousers rolled](https://www.karaandrade.com/wearing-my-trousers-rolled/) - Predictability – it was a term I associated with boredom, with the unimaginative, the fearful, the ones who clutched to stability like a shawl of mediocrity. It was the haven of those who shunned the arbitrary and the changing nature of all things; the unexpected and unavoidable truth of our existence. It was the ditch
- [The Type Machine](https://www.karaandrade.com/the-type-machine/) - From Jerusalem I bring back an old manual typewriter in a half torn case that cracks open the leather spine during all the security checks. Random people stare at it with familiarity or confusion, the security guards click on the keys and laugh with each other in Hebrew. Then I trek it across Jerusalem, Tel
- [Border Runnings](https://www.karaandrade.com/border-runnings/) - It is our last run to the border, to La Mesilla, the border with Mexico which is six hours from Guatemala City. Five military checkpoints and countless speed bumps later we are in Comitan checking our email at an Internet cafe and waiting for the requisite hour to pass before Brad and I can get
- [Freelance Writer and Blogger, The Christian Science Monitor (2011- Present)](https://www.karaandrade.com/freelance-writer-and-blogger-the-christian-science-monitor-2011-present/) - I am a contributing writer, freelance reporter and blogger for The Christian Science Monitor. I have reported during Guatemala's election, volcano eruptions and Efraín Rios Montt trial which was the first time any domestic court had tried someone on genocide in the world.
- [Writing and Photo Freelancer, Agence France-Presse (2005-Present)](https://www.karaandrade.com/writing-and-photo-freelancer-agence-france-presse-2005-present/) - Reported, photographed and wrote stories, which included features on the launch of Twitter, the Olympic Torch relay, technology and music trends, Avian Flu, bio-terrorism, virtual worlds and international interest stories.
- [Blogger, Americas Quarterly and Huffington Post (2009-Present)](https://www.karaandrade.com/blogger-americas-quarterly-and-huffington-post-2009-present/) - Long-time blogger focusing on Guatemala news, trends and current events for Americas Quarterly. Americas Quarterly is a policy journal and magazine dedicated to policy analysis and debate of economics, finance, social development, and politics in the Western Hemisphere.
- [TechTrainer, Office of Innovation of the U.S. State Department (2012 - 2013)](https://www.karaandrade.com/office-of-innovation-of-the-u-s-state-department-2012-2013/) - I organized and founded TechCamp Guatemala and served as a TechTrainer at four TechCamps (Tel Aviv, Ramallah, Tegucigalpa, Donetsk, Mexico City and New York City), and assisted in organizing TechCamp Honduras.
- [Chips Quinn Freedom Forum Fellow, Oakland Tribune (2005)](https://www.karaandrade.com/chips-quinn-freedom-forum-fellow-oakland-tribune-2005/) - Full-time bilingual English and Spanish general assignment reporter. Completed more than 30 stories, eight of which were A-1 stories, which included crime spot news, features and photography.
- [Freelance Reporter, The New York Times (2010 to present)](https://www.karaandrade.com/freelance-reporter-the-new-york-times-2010-to-present/) - Independent reporter for The New York Times helping to provide spot coverage, in-depth investigations, leg work and Central America reporting.
- [Fulbright Scholar, U.S. State Department (2009 - 2010)](https://www.karaandrade.com/fulbright-scholar-u-s-state-department-2009-2010/) - In October of 2009, my husband and I drove back down to Guatemala, the country of my birth, 3,118.5 miles, 53 hrs 1 minute of driving according to Bing maps, all the way from California.

## Pages

- [About](https://www.karaandrade.com/about/) - Kara Andrade has more than two decades of experience in various sectors, including journalism and media, social entrepreneurship, public health, research, and development, launching and supporting projects in more than twenty countries. She has focused on the adoption of innovations and the telling of more inclusive narratives to solve common democracy problems. As an Ashoka
- [Blog](https://www.karaandrade.com/blog/)
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