We have had a productive week in Antigua and Ciudad Vieja. We wrapped one of our stories yesterday after three long days of production. The Ortiz family was such a blessing to work with. We spent two days documenting their routines at their house and then followed their three children at school. Interestingly, despite the fact that it is rainy season, the only day it has rained is the day we needed for it to rain for our story … Thanks to God.
Ciudad Vieja is a beautiful little town at the foot of Vulcan Agua. Kyros school has some amazing views of the volcano and surrounding patchwork fields of green. We followed Victor, Michelle and Josue through their day of school and conducted a few interviews. At the end of the day we drove to a couple of lookout points above Ciudad Vieja and Antogua to get some timelapse footage. It was a wonderful closing sequence for our time together as a team of five.
Today Bobby and J.Mac flew back to the US. They will certainly be missed. Now we are down to three team members. This morning we shot footage arpind the central park in Antigua. We paid a young boy to shine a man’s shoes so we could get a shot of a child working. We also saw several elderly women begging for money. The visuals are such stark contrast … Beautiful surroundings, beautiful people … But such great need. Bengy and I will continue to work with Cesar in Antigua today and will travel back to Guatemala City tomorrow to spend the day with Shorty. We will travel to Casa Bernabe tomorrow evening to begin production on some orphan related stories. We still have over 120 official shots left on our storyboard in order to complete our project. I am certain we will shoot those and even more … This country is simply beautiful.