Founder and director of First Person Arts, Vicki Solot, sometimes goes on vacation, but she never travels without her love of true stories from real life:

It’s my fourth trip to Belize, but the first time I’ve thought much about the skinny, barefooted children you see selling beaded jewelry, hawking papaya chips, helping to load luggage or roaming the streets or the beach.  They aren’t in school, though school seems to be in session.  Their sales skills are good – they know how to pull at your heart strings.  It’s hard to resist a kid who needs money to buy medicine for his sick mother.

At eight, Abner was one of those kids. His father had walked out on the family, leaving his mother alone in Guatemala with four young children to care for.   With few opportunities for employment, she went to Belize to look for work.  When she found a job, she sent for Abner and his five-month old brother, but with what she was earning, she could only afford to bring the two of them.  The others had to stay behind to be raised by an aunt.

“I quit school in third grade,” Abner tells me.  “The teacher was prejudiced toward me because I was dark-skinned and Guatemalan.  She picked on me all the time, so I just walked out.”

That’s when he went to work – helping out in the produce market — working every day from 6 AM until into the night and earning only $80 Belize ($40 US) each week, which he gave to his mother to help cover the family’s living expenses.   He has worked continuously ever since – in various markets, on a farm (a job he walked away from – literally — because the farm-lady worked him to the bone but never paid him) and eventually in construction.

At eleven, he learned the tools of the trade that ultimately led him to Captain Morgan’s, where his story finally took a turn for the better, thanks to the support and encouragement of its owners Karen Riley and Ernie Olmstead.

Captain Morgan’s is a gorgeous resort on Ambergris Caye off the coast of Belize that includes time-share units and a booming, new development of condo residences.   Captain Morgans also owns a lumber mill on the mainland, where they mill all the wood for the residences, and a farm where they grow produce for the resort’s restaurant.  They employ more than one hundred fifty people, many of whom have been with them since they opened the resort 15 years ago.

Abner, a soft-spoken, heavy-set young man in his mid-20’s has worked there for five years.  He started out as a construction worker, then developed skill as a tile craftsman.  At first, he was responsible for laying tiles for floors, shower stalls, counters, etc.  Now, he designs them as well, incorporating explosive patterns and innovative installation techniques for outdoor fountains, customized hot tubs.  Any surface that can be tiled is, it seems and they all contain evidence of Abner’s artistry. This year, he will travel to Miami with Karen so he can have a hand in the tile selection.  He is modest about his talents, but Karen boasts for him.  The beauty of the resort is testimony to his achievements.

Though he works exclusively for Captain Morgan’s, he runs his own business and employs five workers, including the younger brother he grew up with in Belize.  Although he needs help preparing contracts and invoices, due to his lack of formal education, by Belize standards, he is quite successful. He bought his own house and rides a swanky motorcycle.    Recently, when his mother was hospitalized, he was able to pay her medical bills out-of-pocket.  This summer, he flew his whole crew to Guatemala to spend a month building her a new house — at his expense.

It was a labor of love, no doubt — and I’m sure the tile work is exceptional!

You can get a little taste of Belize yourself now that the online portion of First Person Arts Auction is open.  The auction will run through November 6, 2008, concluding live at our “First Taste Festival Preview Dinner” at Ristorante Panorama on November 6, 2008. (Click here to purchase tickets!)

Proceeds go to First Person Arts to support our annual Festival of Memoir and Documentary Art, our monthly StorySlams and Salons, and our artist-in-residencies and Community Writing Program.  Auction items range from exotic vacation getaways to activities and gift items guaranteed to delight and surprise.  So, get in on the action and start bidding!