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I am indeed pleased and delighted by the offer from the Mercator College staff, to be the Mercator Face for February. I have been living in Mercator for the past two and a half years and life has been pleasant enough, and for the past five years I have been moving around here and there to wherever the circumstances and chance take me.

I was born in Guatemala City, in Guatemala C.A. (the last two letters stand for Central America, yes, there are three parts of America “the continent”, and no country called America). Anyway, the city is a mere concrete jungle and one better be smart and sly to get around there.

My family never moved from the city, only once from one trouble place to a worse one. But actually the house is pretty nice, rather big and enough space for all of us. I have two older brothers and unfortunately no younger sisters. We three lived with my father all along and my mother resides currently in NYC.  Life at home was still wonderful. And indeed it got much better.

During my last year in high school, a catholic school to which I attended for eleven consecutive years with few bumps on the way, I got an offer to leave the country. However, before we get in that, let me tell you little about the school. The place was indeed very nice and friendly, but there was something still there that I did not conciliate fully. The school was too catholic, the discipline was rather strong and firm. So by the last year one tends to go a bit crazy and wanting to leave the place. Fortunately, I managed to complete it. My father was proud of me because my two older brothers had been expelled form that school before they finished it, so I had to deal with their fame and with my name.

Anyway, about the offer: I applied to the United World Colleges, a organisation comprehending eleven schools around the world, bringing students from 97 countries for two years to promote the values of peace, justice and cultural understanding through education and interaction among people. Quite a cool place by the way. I got a scholarship to attend the Red Cross Nordic UWC, situated in the west coast of Norway. There I pursued the International Baccalaureate. The education was great but even greater was the possibilities there to do basically anything you would like to do. I used to be a climbing instructor for local kids. My friends and I would bring them over to nearby cliffs and teach them the basics of climbing. Also, I played soccer with friends for fun about once a week at the local school.

Life there was also very intense. Living together with four other people in the same room is by far nothing easy. One has to discuss every single detail so things run smoothly. Also, the number of activities one could do was almost countless. I remember I arranged a project to visit a school for the blind in Poland, near Warszawa for a week. I went there twice and these were the kind of experiences that broadened my sense of being, and raised awareness of other people and their needs. Many projects like that came to be with the help of my friends, and most of them, with the great help of private funds.

Well, after Norway I moved for a while to Denmark to live with my girlfriend, Louise, for a short while. There I also worked as a foot-ball trainer for little children. Man, that was something good. Not even learning the language was good, but kids are just amazing. The work there was as much fun for me as it was for them. Anyway, after that job I did some other stuff and then managed to go to one of the biggest Rock festivals in northern Europe. That was also nice.

Amongst all my interests, there is one that I feel greatly attached to: theatre. I have done around five major projects and directed one, the last one here at IUB.  One of them was a classical play, which was not much of a hit, given that it was my first main role ever. After that I worked with a good friend of mine doing circus. We did two main projects, and the second one is worth mentioning. The play was called White Trash, it was written by my friend- who was also the greatest inspiration for me in my latest project (Thanks Tormod). The play was performed during Feb, 2005 in a place called basement in Copenhagen, Denmark. We managed to get a full-house during our three performances and get enough money to pay my ticket back to Bremen heheehe.

The latest project was Waiting for Godot, a project in which my dear actors got really involved and so did I. It represented much of my head, and it meant a lot to me. Oh, and I almost forget, another project was the Mercator Strasse 69, a mix of theatre, music, good vibes and loads of beer. And indeed this year is also happening, thanks to the help of my fellow floor representatives.

All of the above are among the highlights, or at least what I can remember right now. It is hard to compress oneself into finite words, I guess this applies to everyone. Below are some pictures of special moments throughout my time, girlfriend, great roommate and friend, friends, places, things…..

And I say farewell with a poem that meant a lot to me, and probably depicts part of what I am meant to do:

“Vi græder og græder indtil dén tåre, der er den tungeste del af et liv, om at falde, fra øjet og ned, bryder frem. Så er vi voksne.”

(We cry and cry until that tear, which is the heaviest part of a life, when falling from the eye down, breaks through. Then we are adults.)