Rob Mercatante's Guatemala Journal: A Late Thanksgiving Tip

November 25, 2005

A Late Thanksgiving Tip

No, this has nothing to do with recipes for left-over turkey, hints on how best to reheat yams, or ideas for removing gravy stains from dress shirts.

This is a particularly personal tip from my particularly peculiar Thanksgiving:

If you should happen to go to the movies on a Thanksgiving evening, and if you should happen to see a movie about evil spirits and demonic possession (like, say, for example: "The Exorcism of Emily Rose") you should not... I repeat should NOT... walk home alone through the empty streets of a darkened city.

This was the first time I had actually hoped to be attacked by a pack of gang members:

Thug: "Oye, gringo, hand over all your cash!"

Me: "Ok, sure, but on one condition: will you guys walk me home?"

Seriously spooky film, folks. And it gave me a couple more things to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving day... I'm thankful that I made it home without getting mugged and without having six spawn of Satan invade my body.

I guess that I just thankful for the little things in life.

Tags: Guatemala, Thanksgiving, Exorcism, Emily, Rose

Posted by elcanche at November 25, 2005 05:08 PM

Comments

(laughing) Just didn't have the same impact as those old Rambo movies did, huh?

Posted by: susan at November 25, 2005 07:57 PM

Hey... you can't karate-chop a demon, you know! ;)

Posted by: Rob at November 25, 2005 09:02 PM

So you didn't listen when I told you many years ago not to go see scary movies. (As I remember, you and your brother and sister also went to see Jaws without permission. I also remember it was hard getting you guys near water for a long time afterwards!) Love, Mom

Posted by: Mom at November 26, 2005 08:18 PM

funny!
Amazing how we hope for bad things to happen to overcome the fear of something worst happening.

I've found your Journal while looking to see who else out there is putting informaton on the web re/ TPS requeted by the Guatemalan Government.

thanks for the laugh!

-Mario

Posted by: Mario Alvarez at November 27, 2005 09:06 AM

Hi Rob, your pictures are beautiful. They show those of us that are far from Guatemala how beautiful the people are as we get to see how they live out their everyday lives. Your pictures touch my heart. But then I started reading your articles. I must admit that today I was just not up to the bad news. I'll try again tomorrow. Love Bob
PS I am honored that you chose to Quote Nelson Mandella

Posted by: Robert Cruickshank at December 2, 2005 03:06 PM

Hey everyone,

Thanks for your kind comments! Sorry the news has been so heavy lately... I'd love to put some more upbeat stories online, but these tough articles have been too important to ignore.

I'll try to spend this weekend working on some more photographs. At least, like Bob said, their beautiful faces will hopefully counter-balance the negative news!

Posted by: Rob at December 2, 2005 03:21 PM