Day 18: It´s unfortuate, really

Still no internet at my house. The people who manage the place are a married couple and have the presence of a door mat. It is my pet peeve when people just lie down and play dead. I know that I´m not in the US, but there can be customer service in other places... argh

So here I am, after 6 hours of classes today, at the internet cafe. Look at my dedication to you, the reader. Actually it´s probably only to my family and a few close friends, but I care about you enough to try and keep this thing going. Not sure why the planets aligned and the internet went out... I would much rather go home and relax to write...

There are so many things that I´ve been saving up to tell you! I keep thinking that THIS will be the day that the internet is working...

Last week I went to the Capilla del Hombre, which is a kind of museum designed by a famous Ecuadorian artist, Guayasamin.

 Here`s the top of the building. I was trying to get a photo of the amazing view, but it was a bit overcast.


This man was an incredible artist. His work is inspired by Picasso and tells stories of desperation, opression, hunger, and pain and suffering of people around the world. His paintings are very moving. The Capilla del Hombre was part of his dream to exhibit his work in a place that is close to his house. He lived up on the East side of the city overlooking Quito. Here are a few examples of his work. I couldn´t use a flash in the Museum, so you can google his name to find better photos...

 

The next imagine is a traditional image of Jesus during his pain and suffering.

Next to this painting, is the same image, but done by Guayasamin...

I like this one so much  more! The emotions that his paintings evoke are incredible. I actually bought a copy of one of his paintings... a small one. I´ll have to show you later when I unroll it...

One of his projects (that he didn´t get to finish before dying) was to represent the suffering and pain people endured in the mines in Potosi. Remember Potosi? It´s in Bolivia and is the location of the big Cerro Rico, the mountian of silver. Over the years the Spaniards brought slaves from Africa, used indigenous people and other europeans to take out as much silver as possible. The death stastics are astounding. Not only death, but suffering in the cold, high altitude, dust from the mines. Trying to live in a place that is very dry and where there is nothing green anywhere close... Guayasamin painted this ceiling (or started to) as a rememberance of those people in Potosi.

This building was HUGE, and spacious. In a good way, but also in a way that made me wonder how much it cost... The fee to enter was $4 per person no matter if you are foreign or not. I couldn´t help but wonder why a man that was so concered with opression and poverty would build such a monstrosity of a building for his work. Now mind you that this is the OTHER building in addition to his museum which is only a short walk down the hill. As I am wondering this we come across his former house. Apparently he had a few wives and children with each of them so there is some dispute as to who should get the inheritance... So I look over and here it is...

First of all I don´t have to remind you about how cold it is here! We are 10,000 feet high and the nights are frigid and the days, when they are cloudy, are not much better. Why on earth would anyone in Quito have a pool? Look at this place? I really love his art, but I can´t help but think of what kind of person he was. I guess you can really care about the world and try to bring awareness to issues without having to live in the streets, but isn´t this a bit too much? I don´t know, maybe not.