Dean won't keep us down

i write today as an official Peace Corps volunteer. no longer a piddly little trainee/initiate/pledge, i have joined the ranks of the illustrious PCV family. Hurricane Dean did his best to slow the progress of BZ45 toward this lofty goal, but we beat him back, and in the end were delayed by only one day.

our country director, Eileen, upon getting confirmation that Dean was indeed likely to make landfall in Belize, ordered all trainees and current volunteers to consolidate at the Garden City Hotel in Belmopan. all 65 or so of us were told to procure emergency food and water rations, fill our bathtubs with water and wait out the storm on lockdown. it was a recipe for much rowdiness, but we woke the next morning to find that Dean had left little impression on the southern 2/3 of the country. Belmopan got hit with some rain, but it wasn't even enough to wake me from my slumber. the north didn't fare quite so well. Corozal district, and parts of Orange Walk got heavy rains and wind, which took out their power and water services. i spoke with my host family in Orange Walk, and it seems they were all put back together after just a day. the last i heard, however, the volunteers serving in Corozal were on their way up north with Eileen to assess the damage and see if they could move back into their homes. haven't heard since then. papaya crops in Corozal were completely destroyed, and one statistic claimed that 2000 people have lost their homes. it's a sobering moment for those in the north, but the majority of the country is breathing a sigh of relief at a close shave. in all the coverage leading up to landfall, i couldn't help but notice that the U.S. news stations barely made mention of Belize, and seemed to be focused entirely on potential damage to tourist resorts in Jamaica and Mexico. kinda twisted, if you ask me...

but, despite Dean's arrival, 36 of the 38 BZ45 trainees (so named because we're the 45th group of volunteers to serve in Belize) swore in as volunteers on August 23. Marc returned home a couple weeks ago after deciding that this wasn't the right time in his life to make a 2 year commitment overseas. Dave is still in the hospital in Pittsburgh, after suffering severe heat stroke several weeks ago and being flown home for medical treatment. his absence was deeply felt - we all wore blue ribbons to keep him with us, and the director of Peace Corps in Washington sent him a letter naming him as an honorary volunteer along with all of us. the morning following the ceremony, we all packed up our things and headed out on buses for every corner of the country. i'm sad to see them all go, knowing that i won't see many of them again until December. i can't say that i feel like a different person on the flip side of swearing in, but with training over, my friends scattered around the country in towns and small villages, and facing the prospect of my first day on the job tomorrow, life as a Peace Corps Volunteer is finally starting to feel like a reality. it's taken a while to get here!

the house on the hill

here i am in my final host family's lovely house on a hill in San Ignacio. this town is beautiful! very hilly, which makes for some good exercise. my family lives at the top of a steep one on the outskirts of town, just yards from the entrance to the Maya site of Cahal Pech. the house is large even by U.S. standards. i spent 6 hours yesterday in the hammock, reading the final Harry Potter and gazing out at a view of the entire city (until the mosquitoes starting to drive me out of my skull). gorgeous! and i seem to have lucked out again with the internet access. this definitely wasn't the living arrangement i was envisioning when i joined the Peace Corps. but i'll enjoy it while it lasts...

i met my work counterpart, Jose (or Joe, as most call him), and sat in on some teacher training workshops that he was coordinating. seems like he'll be fun to work with, and i'm getting the sense that september is going to be a HECTIC month. it's never a good sign when one of the first things your counterpart asks you is whether you have problems working on weekends. ruh roh.

now that i've settled in a bit, i head back to Belmopan to officially end my training and swear in as a Peace Corps volunteer. just in time for Hurricane Dean to make landfall. it's all over the news, and on everyone's minds. looks like it's likely to be a soggy, windy next couple of days. i'll let you know how i fare...

marching and dancing

banners and signs and body paint...

Rebecca preps to march



Jasmine and her banner



everybody got one?



Kyle's many messages



the march begins

OW youth rally

last Friday marked a major accomplishment for the Youth Development trainees in Orange Walk. the teens we've been working with at Youth For the Future pulled off an incredibly inspirational rally and march. after four weeks of planning -recruiting participants and guest speakers, getting a sound system, snacks, paint and posterboard donated, securing airtime on the radio and spending hours in a closed room spraypainting signs - Jasmine, Daisy, Donald, Sairy, Janine, Stefan, Shanidi and others created something amazing. a group of around 60 youth, Belizean military personnel and Peace Corps trainees gathered under threatening clouds in the middle of town on Friday afternoon. after listening to a speech from youth activist Nouri Mohammed, and armed with posters and banners on issues ranging from HIV/AIDS prevention to poverty, crime and eduction, we headed off on our march through town. they chanted and yelled and passed out informational pamphlets, laughing and attracting attention the whole way. at the conclusion of the march we gathered in a park in the center of town to celebrate. they seemed joyous and exhilarated - wonderful to see in a country where people under 30 make up 75% of the population but face a serious lack of opportunity and have little in the way of voice. it was exactly the sort of thing people join the Peace Corps for because we did very little to make it happen. just gave them an opportunity and a little bit of guidance and let their talents and passions take them the rest of the way. what a rush!



one of the march participants choosing her message


our resident artist, Donald. he produced the majority of the posters - and pretty much all of the good ones.


Youth For the Future

that's right, that was me you heard on the radio

for any of you out there who were listening to Fiesta FM radio in Orange Walk, Corozal, or as far away as Chetumal, Mexico just under an hour ago (how's the shortwave working, Dad?), you weren't experiencing auditory hallucinations. that was indeed my voice you were listening to. i just had my Belizean radio debut! Matt and i appeared on air with Daisy and Jasmine, two highly motivated young ladies, to talk about the upcoming rally we've been planning with an organization called Youth For the Future. this Friday in the center of Orange Walk Town, we'll be gathering with a group of Belizean youth who want their voices to be heard. they'll be marching through town with banners and signs on topics ranging from HIV/AIDS awareness to teen pregnancy, violence, and the link between poverty and lack of education. they secured the radio air time, recruited a drum corps to lead off the march, got the Belize Defense Force to provide security, and convinced a local politician to donate paint for the banners and snacks for the participants. and all WE had to do was ask them what type of project they'd be interested in working on. they did the rest. in three weeks. they've completely blown me away. if all the youth i encounter over the next two years have this sort of energy and enthusiasm, i'll just be sitting on the sidelines...

a random anecdote:
Matt has these moments periodically where he'll spontaneously realize how lucky he is to be walking down a street in CENTRAL FREAKING AMERICA. i had a similarly revelatory moment the other day when i was walking out of a meeting with the mayor of Orange Walk, and he stopped to ask me about my tattoos. how often do i get into conversations with Central American politicians about the significance of my Celtic body art? not every day, i can assure you. it was a trippy moment, to say the least.

a fun Belizean fact:
Mennonites make up just 6% of the population of Belize, but produce 65% of the food consumed in the country.

site assignments

so... on Saturday our entire training class traveled back to Belmopan to receive our site assignments. we'll be scattered all around the country, north to south, from villages of just over 100 residents to big bad Belize City. for those of you who have been on this journey with me since january, and have been wondering where i'll be living for the next two years, this is the moment we've been waiting for. my assignment? San Ignacio!

located on the western edge of Belize (just nine miles from the Guatemalan border) and smack in the middle of the country north to south, San Ignacio is a town of roughly 10,000. it lies on the west bank of the Macal River, where the annual Ruta Maya four-day canoe race begins. it's a jumping off point for a variety of outdoor adventures, as well as a couple of Mayan archaeological sites, so there tends to be a lot of tourist traffic. which means i'll likely be seeing more American faces than i'd anticipated, but also means there will be a nice variety of restaurants, cafes and bars to choose from. and i hear they've just opened a movie theater (only the second one in the country!). and word on the street has it that San Ignacio has the best outdoor market in the country. my language trainer, Miss Santos, tells me i'll have my pick of all the fresh fruit and vegetables i could want. the population of San Ignacio is largely Mestizo (a mix of Spanish and Maya descent), but you'll also find Kriol folk, as well as Mopan and Yucatec Mayans, Mennonites, Lebanese and Chinese. Spanish, English and Kriol are all spoken frequently.

as for the job... i'll be working in the district education office in Santa Elena, San Ignacio's sister town, located just across the river. i'll be responsible for assisting the district coordinator in implementing, monitoring and evaluating the Health and Family Life Education curriculum in a number of area schools. it's a brand new curriculum, which focuses on four main areas devoted to healthy living - self & interpersonal relationships, sexuality & sexual health, managing the environment, and eating & fitness. it's a lot to contemplate at the moment, and i'm still having difficulty envisioning what my job will actually entail, but i'm excited to have a bit more clarity about what i'll be doing for the next two years. and from what i observed during the three (!) hours i spent in San Ignacio several weeks ago, i think i'll enjoy living there. start booking your tickets, folks!

more Lamanai

this mask depicts the image of a Mayan ruler represented as a deity. our tour guide informed us that the Maya had a god for everything, even suicide.



and here's the jaguar temple. Belize is home to the world's only jaguar reserve, and jaguars can still be found in the wild throughout the country. we didn't see any of those, but we did see a couple howler monkeys, and witness firsthand the incredible noise that gives them their name.



roots of a particularly spectacular strangling fig (so named because they're actually vines that drop onto the branches of host trees and swallow them from the top down, eventually killing the host).



here's a sight for all those out there with a sweet tooth. the main industry in Orange Walk for years was sugarcane. this is raw sugar being emptied onto a barge, to be shipped downriver.



and one of the many glimpses of local fauna we caught on the ride down the river. also on the list were: a couple crocodiles, a colony of bats snoozing in a dead tree, a great blue heron, and a slew of Jesus birds (so nmed because they walk on water).

Lamanai

the youth development group took a trip to Lamanai yesterday. we hopped on a boat in Orange Walk and took a tour down the New River to the lagoon that lies just to one side of the site. Lamanai is a mistranslation of the orignial Mayan phrase meaning "submerged crocodile," (of which you will find many in the New River). the site was continually occupied from around 1500 BC until the 16th century, when the Spanish arrived. it is estimated to have been home to between 35,000 and 60,000 Maya. there are over 700 structures there, only 5 of which are typically visited. we trekked through jungle, past allspice trees and towering strangling figs, to find ourselves standing in front of...



the High Temple. when it was built (around 100 BC), it was the largest structure in the Maya world.



it really is that steep! they kindly provide you with a rope to cling to while you're clambering up and down.



here's a view of the New River Lagoon and lush jungle from the top.



this would be us, youth development trainees extraordinaire!



and that's Matt...

it's all good

the ferris wheel at Orange Walk's annual Fiestarama. i was feeling a tad nauseated already, and knew better than to assume that Kyle and Matt would allow for a tranquil ride, so i opted out of this one. Yolanda obviously didn't know better - she didn't speak to them for a while afterwards...



Ashli, Clare & me at Mayan Wells restaurant in Lucky Strike. the two Youth Development crews met up that day to learn about community gardening projects.



sunset on my walk home from St. Peter's

the family Flores (and Tuyub)

here's my other host sister, Zoe, sitting in the hammock on our front porch. precocious would be the word to describe this one... :)



Yolanda offering me a wet puppy. they were just a couple weeks old when i arrived. it's amazing how much they've grown over the past few weeks. never been a dog person, but in puppy form they're pretty damn cute.



my host mom, Donna, used to be a chef on St. George's Caye. she got the job when she was working as a hotel maid and the chef quit unexpectedly. the boss was away, no one else wanted to cook and the guests were seated and getting hungry, so she walked into the kitchen and got to work. when the boss returned a few weeks later, the guests were raving about the new chef, so she was officially named to the post. considering how i've been eating, i can certainly understand why! matt and kyle stopped by the other night for a visit and were treated to a common american traveler's craving - a good hearty spaghetti dinner with freshly made sauce. i think they may become permanent dinner guests...

here she's making crust for a coconut pie. i got to grate out the fresh coconut meat until she told me i was going so slow we wouldn't have pie until evening. hmph.