TTP Summary

Thoughts on Aide Tourism

many well intentioned westerners enter the community thinking that they have all the answers. This community is strong, it existed before we came and it will continue to exist after we leave.

why must we always transplant our ideas on others, disregarding the answers they came up with themselves.

we live in a country with the largest wealth gap of any developed nation. Many of our children may graduate high school, but how many still cannot read? How many come out not knowing how to learn but only knowing how to perpetuate the machine.

everyday organizations from the US travel abroad and continue to support the colonialism the government. We have been brainwashed to see others as helpless, to see our privilege as the savior and to see our systems as superior, but are they really?

I create this project to tell a story. A story that can be compared to the millions of other similar stories, but also one that is completely rooted in the unique history of one specific community. This story is, I hope, a piece that pays dignity and respect to it's subjects in a way that continually challenges and pushes my reality. I am not a voice of authority or vast knowledge. I speak as an observer, an outsider. There is no quick fix to the problems that I present. However, my hope is that with more awareness we can re-think the way we see ourselves, and within that, how we see others.

Home Stretch = January

to do list for january:

FINISH The Trek Project

this means completing the editing of El Trompo
creating the map/timeline of Latin America
compiling the maps from the mapping workshops
finishing a documentation notebook of the entire project from October 2008 - January 2010


There is a second rough cut of El Trompo on vimeo-
http://vimeo.com/8583078

the password is the same as last time, if you want it email me at hhconnects@gmail.com

ALSO I am proud to present the *almost* final trailer for El Trompo,
check it out: