Gringo Fish

Ladies and Gents…. Hold on to your horses because you’re about to see my new home. That’s right—state of the art thatch roof 2 bedroom paradise, equipped with faux-wood (marley) floors, a dual-latrine with bats both above and below grounds, a nice backyard area for bathing and cooking, and a hammock for your relaxation pleasure! Ta-da! Plus, it’s right in the center of the village, so “Ix Na Gringo” is on constant display…. I finally understand the “fish bowl” lifestyle!

It’s perfect. I love my life.

So after all the hard things that had happened in the past few months: someone breaking into my house and robbing me; my organization closing down and all my work from the past year and a half going out the window with its closing; and being uprooted from one temporary home to another until finally finding my new residence……… things have actually taken a turn for the better!

I finally have a new home: Pueblo Viejo Village. It’s been a little over 3 months so far in the village and it has been amazing. I lived with an awesome host family the first 2 months who took care of me, introduced me to the village, and kept me from going insanely lonely at night. We have no water or electricity in Pueblo, but that is almost my favorite part about it! Life is so different from anything I’ve ever experienced. I bathe and wash my clothes in a beautiful river, a little nook for just my host family and their families. I love meeting the women down at the river! My “na” (mom), “na chin” (grandmother), host sisters, cousins, aunts, and any other women in the family. It’s always a fun party:children swimming, never wanting to leave the river; women washing and talking the latest gossip while making fun of my inability to wash my clothes properly; and bathing in a natural paradise. Pure bliss. I only wish I could spend more time there every day.

My project framework has drastically changed from my previous project. I am now mostly attached to a primary school, working to develop a library and literacy program from infant 1-standard 6. (The equivalent of kindergarten through 8th grade). Talk about overwhelming! Especially since this is a small school of lone Maya children, who all speak Mopan Maya or Kechi Maya and therefore are all ESL students since the official language of Belize is English. [SO ANY SUGGESTIONS OR INSIGHTS ARE GREATLY APPRECIATED…. PLEASE EMAIL ME!!!! mallory.begley@gmail.com Thanks!] Not only is the language barrier an issue, but we pretty much have zero materials to work with in the school. Every teacher was given one roll of tape, 2 markers, typing paper, and a ruler….oh, and a broom. Talk about very basic! We are working with the bare minimum, unless teachers choose to go spend their own limited budgets on materials. So while I’m excited to try to establish a productive program, it’s a daunting task with several obstacles to overcome. Wish me luck.
In addition to the school’s main request of me to develop a reading program, I am working with a lot of after school programs. I have become involved in the school athletic programs (big surprise, right?) and chess club. I also started a Girls Leading Our World (GLOW) Club. With the help of the other two female teachers in the school, we have successfully launched our GLOW club with 23 girls attending! The principal and I also intend on working on a music club and establishing the feeding program in the school. There is a lot going on! I was on the September celebrations pageant committee, helping the girls with their talents and practicing for the show, and serving as the Master of Ceremonies on the night of the event (and speaking in Maya no less!) I am also working with re-establishing the women’s group through a sewing group, while learning how to sew myself! And almost for my own personal pleasure, I’m trying to make the women’s football team more legitimized and creating more opportunities for them to travel and play other female teams.

My daily life is hectic, but the general routine is something like this: wake up around 5:45 am and sweep, (my thatch roof usually gets the floor dirty quick—especially if it’s windy or rains in the night). Then I eat breakfast if I have something lying around to eat and head to the river. I stay at the river from about 6:45 to 7:45am, depending on if I wash my hair and if for some reason I have something big to wash like a towel or sheets which would take longer. Most days I either visit Nachin or Metodia on the way back, some neighbors who live on the path to the river—which usually means hot tea or maybe even more food. Once I reach back to my house, I finish getting ready for school, hang my clothes, tidy up my house some more, and usually entertain anywhere from 3 to 20 children stopping by on their way to school. The school bell rings at 9:00am, or somewhere in that general time frame. I usually begin my mornings in preschool and infant 1—singing songs and such. Gradually I move around to different classes and work on different areas with students. Right now we’re trying to develop an actual library/literacy center in the school for students to work with me on a more individualized level to improve reading and writing skills. At noon I head home for lunch or often visit families in the area. If I’m home, my house attracts the children once again for an hour of play time and ask the gringo 1,000 questions. At one-ish we begin afternoon classes until 3:30. After school I either have chess club, GLOW club, or house games (sports competitions within school teams). I usually don’t end up leaving school until 4:30 or 5pm. On days that I don’t go to play football at the village field, I try to visit different houses after I leave school and before the sun goes down, which usually means I stay for dinner. I reach home, maybe read a little, and call it a night. I’m usually in bed in the 7pm range.

Life could not be better. I’m slowly moving in and setting up my house. With the help of some ladies, I built my own firehearth in my backyard so now I can cook my beans and rice just like every other Maya lady. And I just got a little puppy, Jenny, who is keeping me company and turning me into a responsible mom, haha. She is my soon to be guard dog. I have my mosquito net on top of my foam padded bed that sits on the floor, but it is an awesome bed! I named a little May baby Sean Patrick Cho when I was out on mobile clinic one day—an Irish Maya baby now! We're had two weddings in the village already and a lot of group plantings, which means baking for me and the women. I've been swimming in the Pueblo waterfalls and hiking to the caves.I've seen a lot of pig and chicken deaths (and along with it some serious bouts of diarrhea!)But I love every minute of it. Things are really falling into place. Pueblo is an amazing village with amazing people… I’m truly feeling blessed! Somehow great things have been the end result of all the terrible happenings of the last half year of my life….. I guess it’s true that when one door closes, somewhere there opens a window!

Needs, Needs Please!

So I've done a terrible job filling all you guys in on my life. Pueblo Viejo is amazing--- I'm loving it! Unfortunately, I'm running out of time to internet and will have to fill you in on my life there the next time I post. (I know, I know... insert sigh of disappointment here).

Anyway, I'm trying to get a quick blog out to the world to help me with my new life and some needs I could use in the village---some are major needs, and some just fun things I would like to have! (Some for my village and some for myself!)

1)flashlights/headlamp (&batteries!)-- I have no light in my new village!
2) 2012 agenda/planner-- a nice detailed one! :)
3)storybooks for any ages of children--trying to develop a reading program with no materials! (please someone send me The Giving Tree and any Shel Silverstein stuff!!!)
4)rubber cement-- I think that's what those blue things teachers use to hang up posters?? If you know what it's called, do tell!
5) stapler
6)memory cards for my camera--it uses the small cards-- Samsung PL210 microSD (PNY) cards...not sure how you find them... I've run out of memory card and computer space for everything down here
7) external hard drive-- the bigger , the better (or even just large flashdrives!)
8) Halloween goodies-- we want to have a Halloween fundraiser at school and hope to make a haunted house--- any props would be awesome! But please send them soon seeing as the mail takes long and Halloween is approaching fast!
9) Halloween candy--same reason, for our fundraiser and teaching the kids to trick or treat around the school!
10) Reading/literacy program materials--- I need help all you teachers!!!
11) tape
12) crystal light
13) crayons/markers
14)Christmas cookie cutters
15)Shower curtain
16)Flushable wipes
17) Christmas decorations and crafts!


My address is:
Mallory Begley
Peace Corps
Pueblo Viejo Village
Punta Gorda Town, Toledo District
Belize, CA

my email address is mallory.begley@gmail.com if you have any advice on reading programs!!!

Thanks for your support!

Until my next post...... Ka wilah a bahil!

It's Not An Easy Road...

Phew! June and July were intense...But I'm happy to be past those months.


So now I'm officially homeless.... in a good way! I moved out of my PG home as of August 1st. It's nice to have one stressful thing out of the way. While I'm still in limbo at this point, I have a MAJOR exciting event to look forward to: our central america trip! In 5 days I hit Honduras, El Salvador, and Nicaragua! I can't believe it's already here--seems like we've been planning this trip forever. So I have 2 weeks of CA travel before coming back to reality and my fresh start in Belize.

While I'm vacationing, PC will be doing site development for my new potential village. The goal is to be moved into my new site before Sept 1st--fingers crossed!

So after what seemed like an eternity of insanity... I finally have some sort of plan for the remainder of my PC time.

Central America--here I come!

Sorry, sorry!

Ok... I'm terrible at this. So much for my New Year's resolution to blog more regularly, eh?

Well, what a CRAZY few months it has been! The last time I blogged was in February? In my blogger defense, I have a few drafts written up that I never completed and posted. Maybe I'll still post them anyway-- you'll just have to jump around with my life!

So where to begin? I'll give you a summary of the major events of the past few months.

March began with La Ruta Maya canoe race, (trust me I will post the blog about that adventure!). It was 170 mile race from Cayo to Belize City--across the country of Belize! It was really, REALLY hard, but such a fun 4 days! I rowed with my two best friends down here, Matt and Dan. We had a few obstacles along the way, (broken oars, broken seats, canoe flipping), but we pulled through in 64th place! (out of 81) And the first Peace Corps team to finish! wohoo!

March ended with a trip to Tobacco Caye with a bunch of volunteers from our group to celebrate our one year mark in country! One year! Madness. We had a nice weekend of kayaking and snorkeling and soaking up the beach life. Nice, nice!

April--what happened in April? April was pretty low key for me, I believe. I did a LOT of work with HIV/AIDS, launching the Sex Chatz men's initiative discussion group with another volunteer in town and Belize Family Life Association (BFLA). I also worked in the high school with the BFLA nurse teaching sex ed-- I became known as the "sex lady".... hmmmm.... But it was such a rewarding working month! On top of those two awesome projects, I coached my Big Falls women's team to the semi-finals of the Delhardt-Courtney Cup.

May was the beginning of tough times down here. Matt had a football marathon on May 1st to raise money for the feeding program in his village. We played out there on "team suk"--the team of gringos. hahaha! It was a fun day, but as we left to head home on the 4pm bus, apparently things went south. The night ended with drunken men arguing over cheating and nonsense, ultimately resulting in a man drinking poison to kill himself. The guy was Matt's friend, and he was pretty shaken up by the whole event. It was all very sad.
Mid-May I took a trip up to Chetamul, Mexico to watch the first movie I've seen in over a year! Crazzzzy! And to eat McDonald's--what else! haha. While up north we also had a Gibnut and Black Orchid game (our Peace Corps football teams)in Yo Creek, Orange Walk. I played three games that day and was dead tired! I played in the women's game and we won our first Black Orchid game ever! Then I played in the men's game and scored a goal and think I truly embarrassed the goalie. I felt kinda bad....but I was kinda a big deal. hahaha. Then we had a final co-ed game and I'm pretty sure my legs didn't work anymore. I was so tired! I think I was pretty much useless that game. But it was a nice northen trip.
As May neared an end I felt myself feeling more and more homesick and down in the dumps. I think it was the one year slump they say is pretty common for PCVs. Things were just very hard. I looked forward to my birthday to kind of knock me out of it. My birthday was awesome! I had a surprise fiesta-themed party with an authentic Mexican pinata! It was a really fun night. Unfortunately, the next day was my actual birthday and I still felt homesick, Matt got physically really sick, and other things were happening all at once.... Things started to go awry.
May ended with a nice little visit from some totally cool people. It was a nice break from the downward slump everyone seemed to be in.

I thought we would be over the hill once June rolled around, but I was oh so wrong. June started with some rough times. A bunch of stuff happened, leading people to be sent home. It was really hard to deal with. Once I got over the initial shock of saying goodbye to some of my closes friends, I found out my main partner organization, BFLA, is going under due to a “financial crisis”. All my HIV/AIDS work was with BFLA…Nurse Cus is awesome and it was a shock to hear they’d be closing in one month. As if that wasn’t enough to put on my plate, only 4 days after hearing about BFLA’s closing, somebody broke into my house and robbed me, taking pretty much everything valuable I own from my house. Luckily, I happened to be at my friend’s having dinner at the time, so I was not in the house when they showed up. They ripped my burglar bars right off my window and came in through the back bedroom. It was a shock to come home to and has been a hard thing to deal with. Now I am in the process of moving and essentially starting over my Peace Corps career. So that’s June in a nutshell. The hardest month I’ve had in Peace Corps, and probably one of the hardest month’s I’ve had in a long, long time. But I have to try to make the most out of things—it can only go up from here. I’m most likely moving to a small Mayan village in western Toledo, which will be a fresh start full of new experiences.

Wow—this turned into a much more downer post than anticipated. Look forward to hearing about the new chapter of my PC life because it’s gonna be great!
In the meantime, I may finish some older drafts and post them to entertain you folks…

Next time den!

This is What I Call Life

So this weekend I felt was typical in my sense of the word these days. Saturday the boys and I caught a ride up to Machaca Hill—this beautiful jungle resort 5 miles off the Southern Highway—to do some extra rowing before the big race. We rowed for a few hours in the hot morning sun and called it a day around noon.

It was a pretty happenin’ Saturday in PG. Toledo Community College was having its annual fair, so tons of football and food was happenin’ at the field. We grabbed some bbq for lunch before I had to jet to get my team organized. It was our Big Falls “Lil Swaggers” first match of the Delhardt Courtney Cup!

Of course the 3:30 match started around 5pm…. But we put in a good showing and ended in a 2-2 draw. The field was ROUGH and after only a few knocks to the ground, both of my knee caps and one elbow were pouring blood. I can honestly say I don’t think my knees have ever been scraped up so badly—they are still oozing 2 days later! They feel like 3rd degree burns! It’s quite terrible….especially since I need them for the canoe race this weekend! I can’t afford any extra scrapes or bruises!

Anyway, it was a really fun game! There were a TON of people, though I know most weren’t there to support us, but still! It was awesome!

The next maanin it was a party on Bol’s bus at 6am! A bunch of us were heading to Santa Elena (Matt’s Village) for a next football marathon! We were representing not only the lone gringo team, but the lone team with females on it! Our name was Team Suk…. Now, now don’t confuse our name with Team Suck, because even though we kinda sucked, we were named suk, (pronounced “sook”) because it means “white” in Maya. So we were the white team. Very politically correct, I know.

We were a lee bit nervous to play… these guys were for serious! And we were apparently playing round 1 versus the best team there—a team from Guatemala! Doubly international! Hahaha. But we held our own. Apparently, the first time I received the ball there was a massive wave of laughter from the crowd—a white gyal with ball skills! But I didn’t even hear it; was just told about it after the game. We ended in a 1-0 loss in the last 2 minutes. I think we were spent. We basically left Dan the whole half of the field to defend on his own: an easy breakaway, 1v1, and goal. But we didn’t embarrass ourselves! We put on a decent showing…and it actually worked out better that we didn’t win because Dan and his friends had plans in his village and they were able to catch a ride heading to San Antonio earlier than the bus… so it was all perfect!

After the game, the rest of us chilled in Matt’s village. They were selling caldo kax and tamales and all sorts of goodies to support the newly started feeding program in the school. So it was not only a good cultural experience, but it was for a good cause! We enjoyed some homemade meals, soaked in the HOT HOT rays, and had an afternoon of football. Nice, nice!

Lucky for me, Gomier, our local Rasta vegetarian chef came all the way from town to see Matt’s village and the marathon. He’s SUCH a chill and nice guy! He gave me a ride back into town that evening, saving me 2 hours and 5 bucks! Wohoo! Haha. We even stopped to bathe at the San Antonio Falls….so beautiful and refreshing.

I got home around 4:30 in the evening and took a moment to realize that this is life….. How did I get this lucky?

Amazonian style

So as I mentioned in previous posts, the Mopaneers are planning to tackle this year's La Ruta Maya Belize River Challenge. It officially begins one week from tomorrow!!! Eeeek!!

In preparation for this event, Matt, Dan, and I have been working out on our own--with whatever makeshift weights and activities we can get our hands on. Personally, I filled up pvc pipe and oats cans with cement and made faux oars and weights. Nice, nice.

Anyway, in recent weeks we've tried to get all three of us in town to train on the rivers. At first it was pretty rocky---we are not really canoeing competitors or experts by any means! The guys are pretty comfortable and know what to do, but I think I can count the number of times I've actually been IN a canoe on one hand prior to this! During our first practice, I asked "what do you mean by paddle forward?"-- which now is the source of a good make-fun-of-Mallory joke every now and then!

Still, we've been getting some time in on the river, and things are looking up! We finally got out rowing strokes in unison, can turn fairly well, and have a general stamina that I think will lead us to successfully complete the race. We will not win it by any means, (those people are insane!), but we want to finish.....preferably not in last! haha

The entire race starts in Cayo and finishes in Belize City, crossing the whole country of Belize. We will row 49 miles on Day 1, 60 (!) miles on Day 2, 34 miles on Day 3, and 25 miles on Day 4! 170 miles total~! Our arms burn with our workouts now so I can only imagine how miserably sore we will be after each of these intense race days! But we can't complain too much. We practice rowing along the Toledo rivers in straight jungle. It's like the Amazon! Literally, it looks like out of a movie. One day we paddled right beside a crocodile! (Which caused massive paranoia for the rest of the day). Another time we got caught in random patches of torrential downpour, where we felt like the cloud was raining just over our heads and nowhere else....but no complaints because it was very refreshing! MY favorite practice was spent following a snow white egret, who would perch a few hundred yards from us until we almost reached it, and then fly off just to perch a few hundred yards again. It was like our unofficial river tour guide for the morning. Rowing in an environment like that really makes you take a minute to stop and think about life--how beautiful everything is! It also reminds me how lucky I am to be living in this untouched wilderness so close to home....

Nonetheless, I am confident in Team Bembes, (which means strong women in Kriol). We are representing WIN-Belize (Women's Issues Network of Belize), which focuses on a special interest in women’s issues and a commitment to the improvement of social and economic opportunities for women and their families in Belize. WIN-Belize has been fighting for women’s equality since 1993.

So not only are we participating in one of the top 5 hardest races in ALL the world, but we are doing so for a good cause! Our bodies will be tired, blistered, sunburned, and in general pain--- but it will be worth the experience!

So keep your thoughts with Team Bembes March 4-7, 2011. If only we could have a waterproof video camera to document the ridiculous antics that will be occurring in the boat.....

Don’t Read This If You’re a Vegetarian!!!

Not too long ago I was able to spend some time in Crique Jute. Let’s be honest, it’s pretty much my adopted village by now. The villagers all know me and--brace yourself--one guy even named his newborn daughter Mallory after yours truly! So I’m officially a legacy! With a name like Mallory, my heir will do great things in that Maya village! Hahaha
Anyway, I went out to help Dan thatch a hammock house… or as we would say in maya: na’j uk’aan. A couple of his villagers came to “help” us out, (aka- do it all themselves). Since I had previously thatched a house with my host brother, the men were impressed with my knowledge of thatching! I knew the number of leaves to use, the rotation, where to put the sticks that hold up the leaves while tying, and a few other general tid bits. Normally the women would be inside cooking during a thatching event. But, as you know me, I decided that I would be part of this thatching experience. Unlike the last time I thatched, the guys even let me get up on top of the beams and tie on some of the cohune leaves! It was so awesome!!
The thatching only took about 2 hours or so because the house wasn’t too large. Afterwards, Dan had made his grandmother’s chicken soup, which he jokingly told the guys was “Gringo Kaldo.” Traditionally, the women members of whoever’s house is being built will cook a kaldo, whether it be chicken, pork, etc. So to tie in a little American influence into the typical respectful gesture, Dan made his own version of kaldo. It was nice, even though we ate it at like 10am because we finished so quickly! Hahaha

After the exhausting morning in the heat, we took our much needed relaxation time before hitting the dirt path on a visiting walk. We headed to the hill Dan’s host family lives on to witness a pig being killed for a Baptism. One of the boys in the village had raised his pig for a year and a half and the men were killing it for the special day. The pig was 410 pounds!!! By far the biggest pig I’ve seen in this country yet…maybe ever! Hahaha. Though we just missed the actual slaughter of the pig, we got there just as they were shaving off the hair. Since I love the gross and gory stuff, I got right up next to the men, touching whatever they would allow me to. As they brought out the knives and machetes, one of the guys handed me a huge knife and pointed to the neck! He let me slice the neck off!! It was insanely cool and surprisingly easy to do. The only tricky part was the actual bone, which he took over and broke through. The pig head was enormous! I couldn’t believe it. It was probably the size of my torso in length. Ok, maybe not. I’m not a good judge of this sort of thing—it was really big!
We spend the remainder of the evening hanging with random villagers and helping where we could with the pig stuff. They gutted the pig, and cut off all the feet. Then all the insides were given to the women and we went down to the creek and washed them up. They ate EVERYTHING! They even sliced open the intestines, cleaned out the pig crap, and washed it thoroughly….and then brought it up for cutting and cooking. It was insane! The washing portion took a really long time! It must have been a few hours! It was a long, loooong process.
While I hung out in the river with the women, I seemed to attract every child under the age of 10 to my hip. I was being jumped on, tickled, attacked, got a new hairstyle—you name it, they did it. It was pretty cute and funny at first, but wore me out quick! The cutest part of playtime was one of Dan’s host sisters, Sonya, the cutest little 5 year old girl you’ll ever meet—she told me she loved me! It was so cute. She later went on to tell me I was her mom… which got really awkward when we were hanging out with her actual mom…hahaha.
After the insides were cleaned out, we headed back up to the hill. The men had started frying the skin for chicharon. The women went inside and started cutting up all the insides and making corn tortillas. I took advantage of playing with the kids for awhile before going in and helping with the MASSIVE pile of massa that had to be flattened into tortillas. Haha
The first batch of chicharon was a little bit weird. It was not the full skin, it was the layer right under the skin that was sort of meaty too. I was not a fan of that too much. I took my first bite and it tasted exactly like pig—not in a good way. I actually got nervous at first, thinking that maybe I had lost my appetite for pig after cutting one open. Ham is my favorite meat, how could this happen! Luckily, once the real chicharon came out, all my worries were put to rest because I was back on track. The chicharon was crunchy and nice and I’m sure extremely healthy. (Isn’t everything I eat down here healthy?)
I was feeling pretty proud of the day’s achievements by this point. Little did I know, the best what yet to come. As Dan and I tried to make our way out of the party, they brought out pig tongue! For serial! They fried it up, as they do everything, and—yep—I ate pig tongue! Pig tongue—not a fan. It tasted like a tongue! Hahaha. It was chewy and hard to swallow. I was done after half of one piece. I thought that was the last of it, but as we said our goodbyes, I was handed a bowl of pig liver! Hahaha True story! So we sat and ate our livers and, I have to admit, it was pretty delicious! Liver is by far my favorite part of the pig—at least of the parts I’ve tried! It was very flavorful and really nice with tortillas. It left a good last taste in my mouth before finally getting out of there.
All in all, it was a pretty successful and enjoyable day in the village! I had a blast! I love experiencing new things like that! Where else am I going to get to do something as awesome as slit open a big head and then eating it’s giant tongue??? Hahaha….
Belize it!

Fall Fun!

Aside from my very crazy and hectic work schedule, I still manage to have time for fun! (You gotta do it all when you're in Belize!) Let me start from recent events and work my way backwards (with the exception of Thanksgiving-- which I gave its own blog—and the Christmas holidays, which I’ll tackle another day…)

Fall…for the most part….
.... November was a big Garifuna month, which is a culture of descendants of Carib, Arawak, and West African people. And PG is one of the first Garifuna settlements in Belize, so it was a BIG celebration! Garifuna Settlement Day was Nov 19th, and there was a big party and drumming and all sorts of fun events all day in central park. A bunch of the village volunteers came in town for the day’s events. Even though PG was originally a Garifuna settlement, it has gotten much more diverse in recent years. Nonetheless, we ate some good ole’ hudut, which is a coconut milk stew that is usually served with some sort of fish. I’ve had it with shark before!! We spent the rest of the night watching punta contests, listening to drumming, watching the women in their gorgeous traditional skirts, and dancing. It was a very culturally exciting and fun day!

Because PG has very strong Garifuna roots, the entire month of November was filled with various events to commemorate Garifuna Settlement Day and the Garifuna people. One of the best ones I went to was The Battle of the Drums.... so cool! Drumming groups from all over Belize, and also one from Guatemala and Honduras came to compete in the competition. If you’ve ever been to Battle of the Bands in middle or high school—it’s kinda like that…. but way more awesome! Hahaha. For me, more awesome means more culturally diverse! What happens is they start off with various songs, including the Belize national anthem, all sang in the Garifuna language… which is a very bubbly and poetic language. Though I didn’t understand ANYTHING they were saying, it was beautiful to listen to. Following various songs from primary school children, the “battle” begins. The first part is lone drumming—teams from villages and towns throughout Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras are paired off against each other. The first part, I have to admit, gets a tad bit repetitive because I don’t have keen enough of an ear to actually appreciate and distinguish the differences between the groups’ styles of drumming. BUT the second part of the show down is so exciting! First each group comes out and begins drumming. Then one member from each group starts to act out different cultural activities—whether it’s hunting, washing clothes, farming, etc. After that portion of the drumming and acting is finished, the “jabiru” dancer of another group comes out and starts doing traditional dancing. The jabiru is a dancer that wears a mask and a decorative headress. But the catch is that the drumming group has to match the dancers beat—how cool! It was really awesome to watch! The drumming groups and dancers are so good! At the end of the night, there is a competition for the best “jabiru” dancer, as well as a winner of Battle of the Drums. Hopkins Village was the winner this year, and a woman won best jabiru! (It’s traditionally a man’s role).

November flew by between Garifuna and Thanksgiving activities. But it was overall an excellent month. I spent a LOT of time hiking Sero Hill, one of the times even being at 4am in the dark!! I was scared howler monkeys were gonna get me for sure!! I also finally settled into my OWN house and painted it! It’s a lovely mixture of aqua green and baby blue—so Caribbean!

October was pretty fantastic as well! I officially got my own house—which was long overdue! And after a quick trip to the States for a family wedding, I was able to have a fresh start in my own place! I ended the month in Placencia with some friends for Halloween. We dressed up and had a blast! Since Placencia is a little more prone to tourists, we even saw some kids trick-or-treating! But they used shilling bags instead of pumpkins or any other types of sacks!

Not to mention…fall in Belize is perfect weather! For once I wasn’t pouring sweat as soon as I stepped out of the shower!! I seemed to wear JEANS for most of the time! It was amazing! I even used some thin blankets to sleep in at night! Belize is amazing in the fall!

Back Track: August & September Part 2: The Work Stuff & September Celebrations

The first week of August, the head guy from COMPAR stopped by my house, (while I was having a little dinner party!) to tell me that he was leaving to do a 2 year education leave in Jamaica on top of letting go of the other supervisor in the office…. In addition, our intern Allyson was leaving at the end of the month to go back to Barbados. So I officially turned into the ONLY worker in the entire Toledo COMPAR office! Ahhh! Oy vey! And before he left, we had to take care of conflicts among the Rover girls in the village. There’s been a lot of petty fighting going on among them. In many of the villages you can find one small dispute will turn into a major break between villagers. If you do something to piss off my family member, then I won’t be friends with you or ANY of your family or help them in any way. That’s kinda how it works. Anyway, I do not deal well with being a person of authority when it comes to confrontation, so this was extremely hard for me. So work has been difficult lately, trying to find my appropriate role without actually becoming the boss. Luckily, just last week they hired a new COMPAR supervisor and finally a new RCP supervisor (all in the first week of October! It only took a few months!). So I’m excited to start working with them. Now I can actually try to implement sustainable practices! Peace Corps just gave a Designing for Behavior Change workshop and I formulated a conflict resolution plan and I can’t wait to present it to my counterparts and get the ball rolling on this issue! It was really helpful… and motivating!

Around mid August, I went to San Jose with Allyson to do RCP supervisions and begin the pilot stage of our Literacy Corner program into 15 homes. We each stayed with one of the Rover’s families in the village, which of course was fun for me! And it was fun to be with Allyson in her first village life experience! We bathed in the San Jose river and explored the large, mountainous village. The village has no electricity and both families we stayed with didn’t have running water either—we were roughing it! It was so much fun though! It was so nice and relaxing. We ate by kerosene lamps at night and went to bed around 8pm! It was a very simple and pleasant week. I got to work on my tortilla skills that have sadly been wasting away in recent months! And we listened to the Tumul K’in radio station at night, which is a Mayan radio station playing songs and broadcasts in both Maya and K’echi. We also listened to Love FM, the national station, and my final soccer game was on the news! That was cool to hear!
During our San Jose trip I tried groundmole for the first time! Mr Peck, the dad who I had stayed with, had just killed it before dinner time. I have to admit…. Groundmole tasted like sewage. They gave me groundmole feet and they still had the hair on them! It was not a dish I care to explore again!!
The trip was successful. We got all our literacy corners set up and had a very cultural week together! It was a good week! The final day in the village, our Belize City supervisor came with all the Belize Rovers to see what our girls do. I love watching their interactions because their work styles and lifestyles are so different from each other. Toledo is like a whole separate country compared to Belize City. So the Belize girls got to watch our girls do their work and then we all came back for a workshop on Friday.
The Belize supervisor took me out to karaoke Friday night. I was SO excited for a night of karaoke fun…. It was very different than what I expected! Haha We basically sat at a bar and sang songs off an old school computer monitor that was behind the bar. It was definitely an interesting experience!
In September, I was able to head to Belize City to do a workshop with the Rovers up there. While I was in Belize, I was able to take advantage of the various September Celebration events. Since September marks Belize’s Independence Day, St. George’s Caye Day, and Carnival—it’s a BIG PARTY month! I was able to see the parade for St. George’s Caye Day and even march (or shall I say dance?) in a crowd behind one float! It was so awesome! My counterpart even gave me Belizean colored beads to give me some pride! (Ironically, they are red, white, and blue beads! Haha) But it was a very, VERY fun day! Carnival was also an awesome experience. There were tons of elaborate costumes and dancers and it was an amazing sight to see! I loved all the excess—it was fantastic! It was one big party in the streets of Belize!!
By the time Independence Day rolled around, I was back in PG. (Sep 21st). We celebrated by going to the parade and then hanging out with locals in the area all day and night. We partied at Sports Bar til 4am on the rooftop! They had a tent and no amount of rain stopped the party! It was crazy! We left around 4am and the postman told me the next day that he didn’t leave til 8:30am!! We were early birds!! Hahaha But it was one of the most fun days I’ve had in Belize! I sported a Belizean football jersey and got so many compliments and words of appreciation. It was really cool!

Following Independence Day, we had a Mopan review training at Tumul K’in Learning Center. Tumul K’in is a Maya high school that has kids from all over the country study and also learn about their Maya heritage. It’s a cool place. It’s in Blue Creek village, which is a beautiful place. While we were outside the classroom, we hiked to the caves and around the river—it’s truly amazing out there! (Hence the pic at the top of my blog!)
Unfortunately, our training was cut short by a hurricane evacuation! Hurricane Matthew stormed in and we were consolidated to PG for a few days….aka, home to me! Luckily, Matthew did not bring any damage to us, but it looked like it was gonna be a bad one at first! It was an exciting end to the “summer months” I guess you can say! Haha

Back Track to August..... Part 1: Mogggy and Mr. Lieberwinik

Mogggy & Mr. Lieberwinik!

After my Mexico experience, I was welcomed home with some Northern exposure…. Molly came to visit (& help me with COMPAR!). It was nice to have my northern buddy come down. She got to see my office, Taylor’s house, and a few of the villages I work in. (The villages in OrangeWalk are WAYY different than the Toledo villages!) Even though she may have gotten a little carsick on the way to San Jose, the bumpy, hour and a half dirt road ride, I think it was worth it once she saw the scenery. We just happened to have to hike up a huge hill to do supervisions on one of the Rovers, so she really got a great view of the village and Toledo. After our San Jose supervisions, we headed to San Miguel for a parenting workshop. Molly works for NDACC, the National Drug and Alcohol Council, so she gave a presentation on the negative effects of drugs and alcohol on the family unit. Though San Miguel is our hardest village to get parent participation, we had a decent showing of mothers. After Molly’s part of her presentation, we did a toy box making workshop with the parents and children. Each family brought in a box and we brought supplies and showed them how to decorate the box accordingly. It was surprisingly successful, since we usually don’t make much of an impact on that particular village…. Plus, we also got to stop by Tracy’s for lunch—hot dogs and mac’n’cheese! It was a good business day!

Towards the end of the week, Dan’s dad (Mr. Lieberman) came to visit…or as they say in Crique Jute: Lieberwinik. (“winik” is “man” in Mopan). Even though it was Dan’s dad, it was nice to have somebody’s parent come for a visit…. We all kinda word vomited our lives to him the whole time! Hahaha. Luckily, he stayed in the nice hotel we have in town, so I got to take advantage of a pool!! Mr. Lieberman spoiled us that weekend! It was so, so, SO nice!!! Hopefully, my parents can return the spoilage soon!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Well, it hardly feels like Christmas time here in Belize.... I walk around in shorts and tank tops; none of the shops have Christmas ads, candy, or decorations; I have not seen one person dressed up as Santa, and even more strange I haven't seen anyone dressed as Santa ringing bells outside of local supermarkets for the Salvation Army; and I hardly ever hear Christmas carols (even though I think they do play on Love FM-- I just don't have a radio!) It's hard to feel like the Christmas season has really started-- or maybe I'm just finally adjusting to the non-commercial Christmas season! (breath of fresh air?)

Anyway, in the spirit of the holidays, I'll put out my general Christmas list for the world to read.... haha. (Email or facebook me for my current address!)

My Jungle Christmas Wish List:

• Tapestry for my walls
• Cookbooks (easy ones)
• Belts
• Facewash
• Biore Strips (the jungle is terrible for my face!)
• V05 hot oil hair treatment
• Tank tops
• Pictures and frames! –(I need some familiar faces in my home)
• Flashdrive
• IPod
• Wallet (the clutch kind, preferably)
• Bananagrams
• Cleats
• Gatorade/crystal light packets
• Aussie leave-in conditioner
• Agenda –good one!
• Baseball mitts (for kids)
• Soccer balls (for my football team)
• Yoga & Workout dvds
• Tic Tacs
• Razors
• Quick-dry towels
• String (to make bracelets with children)
• Belize, NY, and SC maps


Some things are just more necessity-type items, as always! haha Who really WANTS razors for Christmas?? And for those of you who love me, but just feel you may be too lazy to put the effort in for an international package, you can always donate money to the Mopaneers La Ruta Maya fund! Matt, Dan, and I are officially racing in La Ruta Maya-- a 4 day, 175 mile canoe race from San Ignacio to Belize City. We have to find mulah for a fast canoe, paddles, life jackets, registration, food, water, rehydration salts, sleep stuff, gas for our support crew, and truck rental!

To see the route we are canoeing (and take pity on us) go to: http://www.larutamayabelize.com/main/Portals/0/route_map.jpg

I'm planning to set up a PayPal account or something of the sort, so contact me for details!

Anyway, hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! It will be weird spending my first Christmas away from my family, but luckily I have an amazing Belizean family of friends down here.

Thank you in advance for any packages! I promise to be a better blogger in 2011!

Red Wine, Catamaran, and a Wedding

This past weekend turned out to be a quite eventful pre-holiday event!

It all began on Thursday, when we had our Christmas party for the Rovers and Toledo staff. It was a nice luncheon, and they even had rum and beer for everyone! Even though hardly any of the Rovers drank, being noon on a weekday and them being Mayan women...it's not their culture. But the food was a nice change of pace and it was good to be out of the office for the afternoon.

Then the real party started on Friday! I was lucky enough to be invited to the Ministry of Human Development's Christmas party. The event left from Tourist Village in Belize City on a big Catamaran boat! It was all government employees under the Human Service's Dept, plus two PCVs, (I was allowed to bring a guest). Unlike most things I go to in Belize, this was a pretty elegant affair- probably the nicest thing I've been to in this country thus far! I even had to have my mom ship down one of my cocktail dresses from my closet just for the occasion, having nothing suitable for the event in my wardrobe down here!

So the adventure began about noon-ish Friday, as we headed up in the Ministry's truck with our driver, Fido. The deal for the party was the Ministry provided transportation but not lodging in Belize City, which was huge because it saved us $50 a piece and we just stayed with another PCV in the city. We got into Belize in record time, heading to a fellow PCVs house to make Christmas cookies and get ready for the boat. Around 7pm we headed to Tourist Village, all spiffy in our elegant-wear. Of course we were one of the first few people there, because we should've known the boat was leaving 7:30 sharp, Belize time. People wandered in anywhere from 7:30-8-ish, and the boat didn't actually pull out til a little after 8:30. It was a nice boat, decorated in Christmas lights and red ribbons, and PACKED with people. I had my doubts that all the people on the dock would fit on the boat, but I it was deceptively smaller from outside. The PG Vibes, a local band, played for the evening. They threw down some Beliezan punta-renditions of classic Christmas carols along with a lot of the popular Belizean music. During their breaks, the dj blasted wedding-style old school music, which is always my favorite. Even though, I must admit I thought I was an expert in "wedding/old school music" knowledge, but these Belizeans gave me a run for my money! It would be the first beat of a song and they were already yelling and singing along! It was truly amazing-- I felt like a failure! haha

But overall the event was really nice. We had a delicious ham and turkey Christmas dinner, with dessert and tamales to go, lol. There was also an open bar with RED WINE--yes, you head right--WINE! We danced with some important Ministry staff, even trying to get some moves in with the Minister, who started the night by saying, "Tonight I am not the Minister... I am here to party!" He even jumped in and sang with the band, (but his son IS the lead singer, so he has some pull...haha) It was quite spectacular... a night sailing under the brightly lit up Caribbean sky! Awesome...

We finally rolled back into Tourist Village around 1am, and our partying shoes were ready to be hung up. It was a great night!

Saturday, the Ministry brought us back to PG, again in record timing. I was exhausted from the night before, so I called it an early night.

Sunday morning I woke up at the crack of dawn to catch Bol's bus into Crique Jute to attend a Mayan wedding! I was pretty psyched for the event--I even wore my Maya blouse and a long black skirt to match-- I'm practically a Maya gyal already.

I met Dan by his hill before walking to the church. The service was Baptist and lone Maya-- aka, there was 3 hour of clapping and very little dialogue that I understood. But it was a very nice and lively ceremony. The bride had a beautiful dress and there were cohune leaf arches framing the doorways of the church. Contrary to the very elegant attire of the boat ride event, the wedding consisted of women in mostly traditional wear and men in jeans, though that was still pretty calssy. The mother of the bride was even barefoot in the church, which made me smile in appreciation of this culture. Overall, it was a nice, nice ceremony.

After the service, everyone packed on a bus to San Antonio village, which is only the next village over, to go to the reception. San Antonio was where the groom's family was from. We got served eken (pig) and it was so nice! Pig, rice, beans, and red fanta- the combo of champs! We hung out talking to Dan's villagers and meeting new ones from San Antonio.

After a long period of repetitive conversations, we decided to take a walk around the village. There was a football marathon down at the field where 21 teams were participating in! It was huge! There were tons of people and music playing and it was a big party vibe from down there. We saw some of our friends from the Indian Ville team, and watched their team win the first game. (They ended up winning the whole tournament after we left). San Antonio was a hopping place! Not only was there a big marathon going on, but up the hill the school was having a bizarre. They were selling tons of food and had various prizes for people. I couldn't believe how much activity was happening in this village on a Sunday! It was busy for ANY day of the week, for that matter!

We headed back to the wedding after hanging out for a bit and ran into one of Dan's villagers on the road. I know the man because he works at ITVET, where we ran both the computer and chess camps. He just told me how his son had a baby and they named her Mallory! I have officially made my mark on Belize! hahaha I left a legacy.... in Dan's village, hahaha. How random! Anyway, we danced a little merimba at the wedding before expressing our gratitude to the family and heading out.

What a pleasant (& quite diverse) weekend!!

Wondering What's Kept Me From Blogging These Past Few Months??

Hello people of the world!

First of all, it's been way ridiculously long since I last posted.... sorry! Maybe my New Year's resolution will be to post regularly! I cannot believe it's DECEMBER already!! This is going on my 9th month here in Belize!! Can you Belize it??!

Time seems to FLY by here! (well, I guess that's true of anywhere-- but it seems to be going by extra fast lately!)

Things have been really good in Belize! Let me fill you in on some of the exciting happenings in my life in recent months! (since I have been TERRIBLE at keeping you informed!!)

I recently finished my first grant to help fund for a girls camp we our holding in July 2011. It's called Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and it's for teen girls from all over the country. It's a weeklong camp put on by the Peace Corps WID/GAD committee, which focuses on gender equality and women's empowerment. I'm also the Fundraising Coordinator and Public Relations Coordinator for the club, so I've got my hands full in that project!

In other news, December 1st was World AIDS Day. The Peace Corps HIV/AIDS Committee collaborated with the Toledo HIV/AIDS Committee and we put on a very productive 2 day event. On Nov 30th we held a candlelight vigil at central park in PG town. Students and adults came to hear speakers, poetry, music, and to light the candles. We even got a bonus because PG's "dancing bum" gave his own little performance after the event! He's always a source of entertainment on the streets of PG... Then on Dec 1st, we held a torch run--which basically was the local high school men's football team plus me and Taylor. So we were the only girls and the only PC reps. It was interesting! We just did a loop around town... not a very long run. But it was fun. The kid in front held a torch that actually had the Olympic rings on it-- I felt pretty legit! hahaha Following the run, we had a full day's event with 8 different high schools from Toledo. There were skits, songs, a rap contest (which I judged--because clearly, I'm qualified for that sort of thing!), speakers, and HIV testing. Our PC committee along with other organizations had booths where students could walk around and ask questions and get information about HIV/AIDS and related topics. It was a very productive day!

In relation to HIV/AIDS and testing, I've become friends with the nurse of BFLA (Belize Family Life Association) and will be helping her both out in the villages and in town, promoting safe sex talks and offering HIV testing and PAP smears. I'm very excited to have this opportunity! The women in rural villages don't always get into town or are too afraid to come forward to be tested or have proper check ups. So BFLA is going to bring the check ups and testing to THEM by going home to home! It eliminates both the embarrassment and inconvenience associated with coming into town.

As far as my organization and primary project go, I recently gave a "Designing for Behavior Change: Conflict Resolution" seminar to our supervisors from Toledo and Belize. It was a successful presentation and I went on to present a modified version to our Rovers at the last Fourthnightly Session we had (our bi-weekly staff meetings). Both seemed productive and I was glad to put some of my PC training to use! Now my Belize City supervisor wants me to set up a workshop with the Rovers in Belize and Toledo focused on Conflict Resolution. In addition, I gave a talk on "Professionalism in the Workplace" with the Toledo Rovers, which also went very well. I am working with another PCV in the north to organize the workshop on Conflict Resolution and I think it will be extremely beneficial to our organization. Petty fighting tends to be one of the major issues we face when dealing with these girls. So work has been busy and good! I spend a lot of time in the office, which I hope to change in the new year, but for now it works!

The final major project news I have is my women's football initiative! I went to a meeting with the Ministry of Sports last week in which I was not only the only white person present, but also the only female present. I have to admit it was a little intimidating-- football is a guy's thing here and I felt out of place in more than one way. But I was glad I stuck it out... I definitely made an impact by just being present because people on the streets recognize me from that night. So it only brought about positives! My main reasoning for attending the meeting is that I want to start a women's football team in PG. In the north football is much more equal, (the majority of populations being kriol or mestizo)...but in the south things are still very different. I decided going to town is not the best way, so I'm now getting my foot in the door by working with the local high school: Toledo Technical College. TCC supposedly has a women's football team, though they don't practice and I'm not sure if they actually have a season. But last Friday I forced myself into a meeting with the director of sports at the school, (since I had given a Role Models talk to one of the classes earlier that day), and he was able to set me up with the coach and deemed me essentially the assistant coach for the team, starting Monday! I'm excited to work with them-- I feel like I'll get really frustrated in this role, but it will definitely be worth it.

So that's basically my "work life" as of lately.... I'm busy in weird ways, but I like the randomness of it all! Variety is essential to my sanity!

I was going to write more, but I think I'll save my dually hectic social life for another entry!!

A Toledo Thanksgiving Celebration

Since everyone knows Thanksgiving is my most favorite holiday (yum, yum), some of the PCVs down in PG and I decided to make as big of a deal as we could of it! So we formed the Toledo Thanksgiving Party Planning Committee! (yes, I now have every season of the Office on my computer, so this is my latest addiction! haha) Anyway, we invited Belizeans, staff, and volunteers from all over the country to come celebrate with us and it was a HUGE turn out! We had roughly 50 people come celebrate the holiday with us! We had every kind of traditional American Thanksgiving dish, along with some Belizean dishes as well! And-- get this-- I cooked the turkey!!! No joke!!! Now, I can't take all the credit-- Dan did spend 5 hours in the kitchen at my office helping me baste this bad boy-- & solving minor obstacles as they came our way! First the gas wouldn't light, then the aluminum pan cracked and all the juice leaked out, then the juice burned everywhere and it was a smoky disaster..... but after those minor speed bumps, we ended up with a juicy, delicious bird! It was a big hit at dinner and I was so proud of myself!!! Only a few weeks before this cooking triumph, I messed up making hard boiled eggs for breakfast--- true story! hahaha

We started the holiday off with a traditional American football game at Union Field in PG town. It was a fun morning event-- and I actually got sunburned without even realizing it! haha November and still in the heat-- oh Belize! My team won.... I think.... even if they didn't, I refuse to admit anything else! haha. But I did jam my finer pretty badly! So I'm typing to you with a sore finger.... and I keep trying to quote Gretyl from the Sound of Music and saying "I have a sore finger" in my best Austrian accent, but I've been told my accents just aren't really that good! shocking! After football, we cooked and showered all afternoon before the big dinner event! We held everything in Parish Hall-- we were legit with these Turkey Day festivities! Everyone ate lots and we took pics and had a general fun time! It was really nice to spend the holiday with my favorite people from Belize-- made me miss home a little bit less that day!!

Thanksgiving seemed to last from the Tuesday before til the Sunday after! It was tiring by the weekend! People were trickling in and out all week long-- but it was a fun time! My house was a BIG disaster-- it was traffic central. But it was totally worth it!

We got to celebrate Dan's birthday early, which was just another excuse to make more food and party! haha We ate some nice vegetarian food and made him a cake with homemade icing! (courtesy of Amy!) And we found trick candles at the Chini!! It was hilarious! My new favorite Canadian, Marina, had never seen trick candles before and basically flipped out when they kept relighting!! It was amazing! hahaha.

Having had the serious responsibility of cooking the turkey--the most important part of Thanksgiving-- for a party of 50, I now consider myself an expert chef. haha. So I decided to try my hand at one next cooking experience: breakfast! On Wed I made French Toast for the first time! It was delicious-- if I do say so myself! (& I cooked for 2 other people-- they said so too!) hahaha. I'm pretty much the next, cuter, slightly more feminine, Emeril! Bazinga!

And I'm gonna learn how to make latkes on Friday! I'm pretty pumped about it, too!

Welcome to the holiday season!!

Meh-hee-cooooo!!!

The following week my Belizean “boss” took me and the intern to Chetamul, Mexico! My first time to Mexico ever!! It was so cool! He brought us in to Belize City and put us up in a hotel. I hung out with the Belize City PCVs all day because I almost never see them. I also tried Lebanese food, which was awesome, for the first time! Early the next morning, Shawn picked us up for our big Chet excursion! Lucky for us, we got to take his car across the border, which was the best way to experience Chet for the first time. (Otherwise, you take a bus). On our way to Chet, we passed through OrangeWalk and Corozal, picking up other staff members for the journey as well. This was my first time in all these northern towns! I had never been past Belize or Cayo! Every minute was exciting! At first I was a bit skeptical about going to Mexico with work people, who I barely knew and didn’t have much in common with, but it ended up being such a fun and awesome day!

Once we crossed the border, we had to fill out all the immigration stuff and exchange some money. Then Shawn just drove us around Chet to see the general feel of the city. It was so clean!!! Much cleaner than I imagined Mexico to be! And it was so….westernized! So unlike Belize, basically!

Our next adventure was…brace yourself…Sam’s Club!!! I was in awe!!! I felt like I was at home!! Craziness!! It was fantastic! I got so excited I almost forgot I was in Mexico! The walked in and was like “Hey!!!” And he said Buenos Tardes and I felt stupid… Sam’s Club was so awesome! Except everything was in Spanish and in pesos, so it seemed ridiculously expensive and I was confused most of the trip. I got overwhelmed with my options and ended up coming out of there with only a bottle of conditioner to show for it.

After Sam’s Club, we went to the actual MALL!!! Hello, USA!!! I literally felt like I was at the Galleria at Crystal Run. Oh man! But I embraced the familiar environment! I bought a pair of earrings and a headband. I shopped! Oh man! I even ate a Big Mac at McDonald’s in the food court! (Which I can officially go the next 2 years without! My stomach hated me!) It was madness! After a fun afternoon of Americanism, we headed to the Free Zone to make some last minute purchases—mostly everyone wanted to get liquor, hahaha. And the guys bought Mexican beer. But I was able to buy a cute dress for cheap! It was a great day!

On the way home we belted out some Celine Dion: It's All Coming Back To Me, (I thought of Britt and Converse soccer bus rides--oh, and i DID the choreography!). It was really fun… I bonded with my Belizean co-workers. Sadly, the trip ended and I was back on my way to PG on the 5:15am bus the next morning.

Belize Meets Cornhole...

My blog has had over 1,000 hits! How exciting! So thanks for reading my random PC life story!!

After my week in San Miguel, it was a big party weekend: Michelle’s 30th Birthday! (Michelle is another PCV in Punta Gorda.) She and her husband, Nate planned a big party weekend for it all. Nate even made a cornhole board, for some good ole fashioned American fun! It was a huge hit! (& cool to play with all the Belizeans who came to the party!) It was kind of a potluck on Friday night, everyone brought food and different things to cook and we made punch. It was really fun! The food was awesome! We had music and hung out outside… it was great! Plus, a bunch of people from the North came down for the celebration! It was good to see people! After it got too late to run the music from their house, we moved the party to Sports Bar to go dancing for a little while. It was a fun night.

Saturday morning I woke up and headed to Cayo for a football match. It was the first game of our 2-series finals. We played Belize City and won 2-1! I played so crappy in the first half, but really stepped it up in the 2nd. Thank goodness! It would’ve been a waste to travel 7 hours on a school bus and not even played well!!! Midway through the game is downpoured on us. It was such a fun game. And when we won, the celebration after the game was INSANE!!! My team and our fans went crazy! We had about 75+ fans there! They had a little bar stand set-up too, and people were drinking and having a blast… it was such a cool experience! After the game everyone was squirting our team with shilling bags of water—kinda what they do after racecar wins with champagne? It was like that, but with these little square bags of water. Hahaha It was great!! Everyone was taking pictures and making comments like, “you can do it, white gyal!” Because they like to make fun of me and I usually get that joke or “run, white gyal, run” hahaha. It’s all fun though!! I really love my team!!!

After the game I got a ride back w/one of the girl’s family to Belmopan. I got dropped off at Bryan Dwyer’s house for his going away party, he’s our PTSO (which I’m not sure what the acronym stands for….but he’s important). He’s leaving for PC Honduras…. We will miss him so much!!!

Anyway, I showed up smelly and sweaty and soaked to the bone, thinking it was only he and his family and other PCVs going to be present…..wrong! Almost ALL Peace Corps staff and PCVs were there—dressed up!! It was a nice, classy party! WHAT!!!! DID NOT GET THAT MEMO!!! AH! I was so embarrassed! And I stunk! I was only going to pop in for a brief appearance and then I ended up making a grand embarrassing entrance! Yikes! Luckily, the Dwyer family is ridiculously nice, and Bryan’s 13 year old daughter gave me some clothes to borrow. Confidence booster: I fit into a 13 year old’s clothes; confidence killer: I also borrowed a bra from her…and it fit. Sad.

The party was really fun after I didn’t stink anymore! They had hummus, and all kinds of amazing food, and wine! Yum! But I was glad to leave because I was exhausted that night!

The following day we were supposed to have a tournament in Esperanza, and I went all the way back out there only to learn that it was cancelled. Epic fail. But it ended up being a good day because I got to eat fried chicken and mash potatoes at my coach’s house and hang out with him for awhile. Then we went to support our teammates who were playing in a softball game down the road, which was cool. It was a relaxing Belizean afternoon and I enjoyed myself. Around early evening time, I headed back home.

The Daring Adventures of San Miguel Village

After computer camp in Crique Jute, I just did NOT have enough village time in my life!! So I headed over to San Miguel village, which is one of the villages our RCP program is in. I was there for a week doing full-day supervisions with our Rovers, while staying with my new PCV pal, Tracy!

I got abandoned for a ride by my organization...again.... so I took the noon bus into San Miguel on Monday morning. When I arrived in at Tracy's, she had made guacamole and cake--instant friends!!!! It was DELICIOUS. We ate and then headed up to work on her World Map project at the school. Pretty much as soon as we started painting with the kids, it started to downpour.... oy vey! So not much got accomplished as far as helping her out that day!

We headed back to Tracy's and Greg came to hang out w/us. (He lives in the next village over). We hung out for awhile before deciding to go to Greg's house for the evening. Tracy brought over dinner she had made and frozen and we went to Silver Creek to stay at Greg and Kevina's. Their house is SO nice! It's a really neat thatch house that's in a compound along with other families--so cool! We had a delicious shrimp scampi meal and then played bananagrams all night--which I had never played before and am now officially addicted to!!

The next morning Tracy and I headed back early to shower and get ready before I met the first Rover, Guadalupe. I had a productive day of supervisions and stimulations, a PB&J lunch, followed by the most amazing and dramatic adventure of my time here in PC.

So Tracy tells me about these caves that are just outside San Miguel village. Loving any kind of adventurous activity, I was immediately on board with the idea. We borrowed a bike from her host family, and I borrowed clothes and sneakers from Tracy, and we headed into the bush to see this awesome cave. Now, let me preface this story by telling you that Tracy is a huge animal lover. She has a dog that stays in her house, Blackie, who she takes care of, as well as two of the neighbors' dogs who hang out looking for food and attention: Mickey and Sleepy. When we walked to the school for the World Map, they followed...and when we biked out to the bush, they followed again. Quite loyal, these potlickas. So anyway, we 2 gringas and 3 potlickas go biking out of town on our little adventure. It's about an hour bike ride or so til we get to the Maya Dam. We have to climb down the side of the dam, cross over the dry rock area, hike in a little bit of jungle, until we finally reach the caves. Quite exciting!

So we get up to the cave mouth and I'm videoing and taking pictures...it's absolutely beautiful! Tracy has her headlamp on and I'm trying to get close to her light to make my way through the cave. The beginning part is just dark and damp, and I'm stepping in puddles and bumping into things. All of a sudden I see a bat fly past me! We're in the dark and this thing starts swooshing by, dive-bombing us! We freak out like 2 little girls, assuming upward fetal positions on the ground...oh boy! There was screaming and grabbing on to each other, but we finally gained our composure and headed onward. Next we reach a small opening, about the size of a manhole, that we had to climb up through to get to the major part of the cave. It's a difficult climb, but once we made it through the cave becomes lighter in the wide-open space. It was amazing! We are exploring the cave and looking around all the different areas, while we hear the 3 dogs whimpering from outside. They could not figure out how to get in! Tracy and I continue walking around and climbing different areas, just taking in the scenery. All of a sudden, Mickey shows up inside! The brave little dog made it into the cave! Not long after, we once again had 3 dogs at our heels as we explored the cave.

After a good while, we decided it was time to head out. I was hungry and ready to dig into the next amazing dish Tracy had prepared. We make our way back out of the cave--very carefully. We get to the outside and rest on some rocks, once again hearing the whimpers of 3 pitiful dogs. It's kind of amusing, because we know they can get out, but they are just being babies! So Tracy and I are giggling as we wait on the rock for the dogs to find their way. After about 10 minutes or so, brave ole Mickey gets out and is back along with us. It takes Blackie a good number of minutes after Mickey, but he soon makes it out too. So now we only hear Sleepy crying inside, unable to make the trek. At this point, Tracy and I can't see him but we are looking at this giant cave mouth while his whimper echoes out it. If a stranger were to approach the cave right now, they would probably freak out! So I take a video and Tracy is cracking up--it's hysterical!

Finally, we decided we have to go get this mutt or we'll never reach home before dark. Right as Tracy is about to head back in, I see Sleepy come out on a high ledge near the front of the cave mouth! We have no idea how he got that high! But he is still crying. So we think that maybe we can scale the outside on the cave mouth and get up to the ledge he is on. I climb up and get to about the equal height of Mickey, but there is a large gap between his ledge and mine, and only a steep drop in between us. So I scale back down the side and we decide it's time to head back inside. We are able to get all the way up to the ledge Sleepy is on. I was up first, while Trace waited. But Sleepy didn't trust me and wouldn't come down, and I was too nervous that he would bite me, that I didn't try to grab him. So Tracy got up and was able to get him down the first really high ledge.

We're all happy and glad we saved him and we get to the next sort of difficult ledge, and Sleepy freaks and runs back up to the top! At this point, it's starting to get dark and we can't be out in the bush in the dark-- it's too dangerous. So we figure that he's just being a big wimp...if he wanted to make it out, he could. He got down the hardest ledge, the rest was easy. He will surely follow once he realizes we are definitely leaving.

We head home and are confident that this dog will find his way.He's a Mayan potlicka, for crying out loud! Meanwhile, we are cracking up hysterically at the ridiculous afternoon we just had!

We eat lasagna and laugh pretty much the whole night. Officially the best ab workout I've had in country thus far. haha.

That night, there were weird sounds coming from the spare room I was staying in at Tracy's. I wasn't sure what the sound was, but it woke me up a couple of times. Tracy mentioned earlier that she may have rats, which I'm used to, but it didn't sound like rats. I woke up in the morning and we were talking about rats and rat poop, etc. I looked upstairs under Tracy's spare bed and saw there was a MASSIVE amount of poop. Now I know rat poop and gecko poop look similar, but Tracy said she swept under the bed before I came and rats and geckos don't poop that much unless there are millions of them! I shine a flashlight around the ceiling and realize there are bats up there! She has a bat nest in her house! No wonder I heard weird sounds all night!! (She's all clear now though, her landlord took care of them).

Meanwhile, still so sign of Sleepy that morning. The hilarious story was suddenly becoming less funny by the minute. Tracy went into town for the day and I went on supervisions with another Rover, Wilhemenia. During the afternoon, one of Tracy's neighbors comes asking about the dogs and if I knew where they were. I played dumb and pointed to Blackie, asking if she meant that dog. I felt terrible! Tracy was feeling guilty too, texting me to hear if any positive updates happened in the village.

I went to Guadalupe's house during the afternoon and stayed over for dinner. She made some amazing escabeche, which is a chicken soup with noodles and tortillas and potatoes. It's like kaldo, but not red and different spices--hard to describe.
I had a relaxing evening with her family. They were very nice and made amazing food. I left around 7 and her brothers rode me home so I wouldn't walk alone in the dark.

When I got back to Tracy's, the Sleepy tale was now a sad story. We realized that we were going to have to go back to the cave to rescue that dog.

Thursday morning we woke up and Tracy made a hearty breakfast of eggs and hash browns, which I know she was really just buttering me up because she convinced me to stay an extra night to come rescue Sleepy with her.

I did my RCP supervisions that morning with Florita, the final Rover in the village. Then I had been invited to lunch by Wilhemenia's family, but Florita told them I wasn't coming because I was going to her house for lunch. Typical village drama. So Florita was jealous and mad, even though she never actually asked me, just assumed. Ey yey yey... these girls. Basically, there is a lot of drama because there is a spirit curse in San Miguel. It possesses people apparently. So families have been falling victim to it and thus leaving the Catholic church. So now there are feuds between the Catholic villagers and the villagers who are members ofthe House of Prayer. It's very dramatic, esp for a village where there are only 2 last names!! (In other words, EVERYBODY is related!!) Madness! Nonetheless, I was glad to have lunch at Wilhemenia's. We had kaldo kax with cassava in it! Cassava is soooo good!! It was a delicious meal! And her family was extremely nice and welcoming. I really enjoyed myself.

After work stuff was done, Tracy and I gathered our gear for the hike ahead of us. Tracy had been telling Roger the story throughout the past few days, so he knew all that was happening. He starts telling us to be careful, that there's a chance the dog is already dead, maybe an animal like a jaguar is eating it, etc. (Which San Miguel has had jaguar incidents recently). So we pack a hunting knife, a large kitchen knife, rope, dog food, a bowl, water, flashlight, headlamp, etc. We were READY! So I'm kind of excited to go on another adventure, ready to go! And as we;re biking over, Tracy is telling me all the stuff Roger has said to her. As we get closer and closer, I start to panic. Tracy says,"I feel confident that if a jaguar pounces on me that I could stab it and get it off me." And I respond with, "I don't!" I started to freak out a little as we made our way! I even made Tracy change the subject! hahaha. So we headed back in, past the dam, over the rocks, through the bush, and towards the cave. Every 5 steps I'm looking over my shoulder and saying, "what's that?/did you hear that??" Completely FREAKED at this point! Keep in mind this dog has been alone in a cave for over 48 hours now... For all we know, he could've fallen, been attacked, currently being attacked, etc...The chances of him being alive, let alone completely unharmed were not in his favor. But finally, as we near the cave mouth, a howling cry starts....the best whimpering cry I've ever heard! Sleepy was alive! And fine!! We were elated!

We climb in and he is back up on the top ledge... but in a matter of seconds he makes it all the way down to the bottom, past the 2nd ledge. I could almost strangle that dog with how easy he was able to get down! Then we got to the manhole part and he freaked. Exhausted from the emotions of this adventure, Tracy and I were NOT letting him escape again. We tied the rope around his neck and I pulled from through the hole and Tracy flat out kicked him down it! Don't worry, he found his footing and was completely fine. Oy geyvult!

We near the opening of the cave, and almost as if the cave wanted to spite me in one last way before leaving, I get knicked by a bat right in the ear as it swooshed past my face! Really? Is this real life? hahaha

So now it's mid afternoon, and we're heading home with Sleepy. Meanwhile, let me remind you that the owner has asked both me and Tracy about the whereabouts of her dog--both of us playing dumb about it. (Can you believe, the one Belizean dog in the WHOLE country who the owner actually CARES about what happens to it! Just our luck!) And Mickey's owner has now tied him up because they think there's a dognapper on the loose. And we are already suspect because everybody saw us leave the village with 3 dogs, and come back with 2. So we are riding home, hoping Sleepy will be glad to be free and run back to the village. Wrong! He is stuck to us like glue! He won't leave our sides! Crap! We're completely screwed!

It's about 4pm, so we decide we'll just wait out the sun before we go back. The sun sets around 530 or so, so as long as we hang out here, nobody will see us with Sleepy. As we are walking around doing nothing, we pass almost EVERY SINGLE person in the village. Two truckloads of men from the farms pass by us, then the young guys come down to the river to bathe while we are sitting there with the dog...everyone! But we still wait it out. The sun doesn't actually set til
around 7! So finally, it gets dark and we make our way home. Right as we walk towards Tracy's house, her neighbor is sitting outside and immediately yells, "Miss Tracy...Sleepy is back!" Tracy smiles and replies with a one word answer and we go into hiding for the rest of the night. Oh MAN!

Basically, we were heroes it what this story comes down to. Even though we had to hide our heroic acts from the people of San Miguel. In a way, that kinda makes us like Batman and Robin... at least, I think!

I ate one last great meal at Tracy's before bed and catching an early bus back to PG in the morning. What an adventurous week!!!


(To read Tracy's version of the story, go here:)
http://tracyhodson.blogspot.com/2010/08/good-story-or-bad-story.html

Crique Jute -the Village that Wants to Adopt Me

In July I did a computer camp in Crique Jute, which is Dan's. The camp was at ITVET, which is a technical school right outside the village, about a 2 mile walk from Dan’s house. This is when I fell in LOVE with Crique Jute village. The people are so nice and friendly! The village is a little untraditional, because instead of people’s houses being close in the valleys of hills, the people of Crique Jute have their houses up in the mountains. It’s almost like each family has their own jungle palace, high on a mountain top. There are, of course, some houses down lower and in between mountains, basically whatever land they can get. But as you walk or ride or drive down the dirt road through Crique Jute, you will see only a small number of houses, because most are hidden in the jungle above. It’s amazing and beautiful! The first week of camp was taking it all in for me. I’ve worked in a lot of villages, but seeing a new village always amazes me, especially in Crique Jute! Dan was still living with his host family that first week, which was one of the first houses as you enter the village, completely in the opposite direction of ITVET. So we were in really good shape after making the trek back and forth several times a day that week! His host family, the Pops, lived up on a very high mountaintop. They are my favorite and their house is definitely why I call the houses palaces. They have pretty much every type of tree you could imagine there! Avocado, (which they call pears), starfruit, pepper, mami, cacao, lime…you name it! They basically never have to come down! They even have their own private creek down the side of their mountain where they bathe and do laundry. It’s awesome down there! Like a paradise! It’s quite a hike down, but amazing once you make it! So beautiful—I don’t even have words to do it justice!

Modesto Pop is the nicest, cutest little Mayan man. He is married to Dolores, who I am determined to challenge in an arm wrestling contest once I get in shape because her guns are HUGE! They have 12 children (yes, you heard right!), which no wonder she has huge guns- washing 14 sets of clothing on the rocks and making tortillas for 14 people a few times a day! It’s hard, HARD work to wash on the rock and flatten tortillas! You’d be surprised how much of an arm workout you get! Anyway, they are the sweetest family. The children are so cute and respectful. They have really become one of my favorite Mayan families! The first day of camp, Dolores prepared a kaldo kax with some amazing lime juice since she knew I would be visiting. Yum! I got to have a few meals with the family that week, and got the kids to come out of their shells a little and play with me—which meant teaching the girls Miss Mary Mack (they LOVED it!) and never hearing the end of it til this day! Whenever I make a random visit over there, at least one of the daughters tries to play it with me! Hahaha.

During that first week, Dan and I fumbled through teaching kids, most of whom had never even touched a computer before, the basics of computers. It was very difficult and frustrating at times. Some of the kids were quick and got it right away, while others were lightyears behind. Having no experience in really teaching kids (or camp for that matter!), it definitely tested my patience and tolerance levels! Luckily, I was the more calm and tolerating one than Dan! (I was also the brains behind the operation…hahahaha). At least the computer lab was air conditioned!!!

In the after hours of camp, Dan showed me around the Jute—we went through the trails behind ITVET and swam in the creek. We saw the creek down behind Dan’s future home, and painted some of the walls in his house to try to make it look less cruddy. The house had been vacant for over a year and needed some work. We also took advantage of the Crique Jute movie theater! (aka: the projector in the ITVET computer lab that we could play movies off of in the AC!) I also became friends with the security guard, George, who told me he would miss my face when I left Thursday afternoon!

By Thurs, I had to get back because I had RCP stuff to do on Fri. I hung out w/PG folk at my temporary home at Nate and Michelle’s for the evening. Early morning Friday I had to get up and prepare our agenda for the Fourthnightly session. It was a loooong, long session- an all day workshop. Ugh! It was a little frustrating because one of the supervisor’s didn’t even show up to the meeting, and the Rovers didn’t take things seriously. Luckily, Allyson our intern from Barbados is strict and has her act together, so she laid down the law. I'm a big wimp... hahaha.

I was exhausted by the time the session ended! But I was planning on moving out of Nate and Michelle’s and in with Taylor that evening, so I got a second wind of excitement. The plan was that Taylor’s landlord said she was a building a second story above Taylor, so Peace Corps approved me to live with Taylor while construction was underway. Unfortunately, construction was supposed to start July 1st…. we still have yet to see anything! Anyway, I had some help from people moving me in that day, which was good. Dan came into town and Pedro, a guy who works with Nate, brought me his truck to load stuff into. After out mini-moving party, we hung out after. It was a nice Friday evening! I spent one last night sleeping in Michelle and Nate’s before moving in to Taylor’s for good!

Saturday I was supposed to be out of town with football (as usual) but our game got cancelled, so I was actually in PG town on a good market day! I spent the morning shopping and buying groceries- it was so great! I love the market! Something about it makes me feel so grown up! Hahaha Plus, you pretty much see EVERY Toledo PCV on Saturday market days, so it’s like a big reunion! Haha.

Saturday night was my first night in my next temporary home! (PC vagabond!) Somehow I left my Rainbow sandals on the front step, and when I went to take them in as we closed the door for the night, one was gone! I still can’t find it to this day!! I think maybe I potlicka ran off with it. Sad. Another pair of sandals lost to Belize. Belize: 2, Mallory: 0. So my living situation at Taylor’s was a mattress on the floor. My “room” was separated by a small couch and a dresser. I’m a very classy lady. It was actually quite a cozy corner I had set up there!

The next week I was scheduled to go to San Jose village to do RCP supervisions for the week, along with a parenting session. I was all packed and ready to head out and the other supervisor never came to pick me up. I was scheduled to leave by 7:30am in order to get to the village by 8:30. By 7:45 I was calling and texting people and nobody would answer. So I hopped on my bike and headed to the office. Samuel, the supervisor, was running around doing God knows what! He said we didn’t have the car until noon, then we didn’t have a car at all, then we did again. He basically had no idea what was happening. The Rovers only work til noon for stimulations, so if I left at noon it would be pointless. I got really frustrated and decided I would just show up to Crique Jute to finish the 2nd week of computer camp, (since I really enjoyed my first week there and I was already packed to be gone for a week!) I had some time to kill, so I went to the market with Laura and went to lunch with Matt—since people were in town for the afternoon. I then hopped on the noon bus to San Jose and got off at Dan’s house, since he had moved into his own mountaintop palace over the weekend.

Week 2 in Crique Jute was fun again! This time there were a lot of other PCVs popping in and out to help. Nate came Tues to Wed, Sam and his friend showed up Wed, and Matt and Rion came Fri! It was a full week and so much fun! We visited the Pops a few times, all of which we were fed. One of the days I wore my Mopan dress that my old host family gave to me. The family really appreciated it. Modesto’s parents, (who live in a house at the bottom of Modesto’s mountain), saw me from behind with a braid in my hair and asked Dan where he found the Indian girl! Hahaha I was a huge hit with the Pop family, and I was glad I wore it! Now his village likes me better than him and I’m officially banned from Crique Jute! Hahaha. Just kidding, they love him. But Dolores did tell me she liked having a girl Peace Corps around to help. When Sam and his friend were in town, we did graffiti on Dan’s kitchen walls. It was really relaxing to paint and Sam’s friend did a really cool Mayan drawing! It was awesome! I may take up graffiti-ing as a hobby!!
On Friday, camp ended with us giving the kids certificates and taking pictures with the Dean of ITVET. They loved it! All in all, I think the kids learned a lot and it was a successful computer camp!

After camp, Matt, Dan, and I were heading into the junction to catch the bus to town, when my COMPAR truck drove by and we were able to catch a ride in. Good timing. The perfect way to end a week is in the back of a pickup truck! Since the three of us hadn’t seen each other and been all three together in awhile, we spent the afternoon/evening just chilling at my house with a little, much needed, Mopan reunion. Good times….

Then Saturday was an awesome/depressing day... All the 2nd year PCVs are starting their COS (close of service) process. Saturday night we had Rion's going away party because he was the first one to leave of my 2nd year friends I'm gonna miss! We had a nice time at Nate and Michelle's playing card games and being silly all night. I miss you, Rion Smith!!!

Sunday: Roo, Taylor's cat, pooped all over my bed. That's all I have to say about that.

Holy Toledo!

So Toledo gets the most rain out of all the districts in Belize. And pretty much during rainy season (June through Nov) there are thunderstorms EVERY night! there's a thunderstorm happening right now as I type!

On July 8th, (I made a note of this date!), there was the LOUDEST and scariest thunderstorm I've ever experienced in my life! I was woken up to an earthshattering crack complimented with the brightest lightning show I've ever seen! I jumped with each bolt! Literally, it shook me to the core! I was in a solid, cement house, but I've never felt so scared! I tried to cover my head with the pillow, but alas I decided to appreciate Mother Nature's power.... I went to the front door of Nate and Michelle's and watched the crazy storm. The power blinked in and out with each strike of lightning and crash of thunder. I was really in awe by the sight! It made me feel like a little girl scared in my room at night.... except if I was a little girl, I would've been balling from this storm! Intense! I was in awe of the show, watching the rain pour down over the empty streets of Punta Gorda Town. It was right as I was about to end watching the storm when I saw the most interesting sight! A pack of seven potlickas (local dogs) came walking down the street like a gang. They were all adults, all different types of mutts, all walking together and waiting for each other when one would stop to mark his territory or sniff another.... it was really quite a sight! I couldn't believe in this whirlwind of madness outside, these 7 dogs just strutted down the street like they owned the town.... which, I guess, they do! Anyway, I watched them confidently stroll away in the wicked storm before I returned to my foam padding for bed....Holy Toledo! What an interesting night!

But like most stormy nights, I woke up to another hot and sunny Belizean day....

The following day, I went to San Antonio to visit Rion, a fellow PCV. His village is one of the larger ones in Toledo, so the buses are pretty frequent. It's relatively close by, so it's an easy bus ride. It was a fun adventure. We hung out and made pizza! (real pizza!) and then went to the San Antonio falls for the day. The falls are so beautiful!! It was a nice, random, little get-a-way for the day!

Updates, Updates, Updates!!

So I have been procrastinating on my blogging and it has become a this huge daunting project now.... So here goes on the updates of my life:


Ok, where to begin! These past few months have flown by! I can’t believe I’ve only got ¾ of service left! It seems like yesterday I was stepping off the plane. It’s been an amazing ride so far, and as each day unfolds I cannot wait for what’s in store.


After I got kicked out of my host family's house, I moved in with Nate and Michelle. I lived with them for about 10 days or so.... maybe. (this is all the first week of July, by the way). It was fun!
In the meantime, our security guy, Daniel Mendes, came and approved a new house for me and another PCV, Taylor, to live in. The house is currently one story, but they are extending the top to a second apartment......Temporarily we are allowed to live together in the bottom, and the plan is to then have me move to the top. The only glitch - oh Belize- is that they were supposed to start construction on July 1st and they have yet to start...... oy! So we shall see....

I cooked my first meal in Belize.... the very ethnic spaghetti and meatballs! hahaha BUT for someone who has no cooking skills whatsoever, I did make the meatballs from scratch! go me! Speaking of cooking, I’ve been trying to learn to cook, but failing miserably. Yesterday I tried to hard boil an egg…. The yolk came out all liquidy (yes, it’s a word) and the rest was hard boiled. I’m pretty sure I’m gonna get sick from that! Hahaha. But I DID cook eggplant with pasta and onions, peppers, and garlic the other night…. I was proud of myself. That counts as a legitimate meal! I think I’m gonna need somebody to send me cookbooks…. Preferably cooking for dummies!!! Hahahahaha

I’ve also become quite acclimated to the bugs and rodents of Belize. Call me dirty, but I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor in Taylor’s house for awhile, and I had a cockroach crawl on the mattress in the middle of the night and I was just too tired to even bother knocking it off. Yep, it’s true. I’m much less creeped out by bugs these days. Last night a HUGE cockroach crawled in my hair in the middle of the night. I woke up and brushed it off and thought it was a piece of hair itching me. Then it crawled back on my face and I realized it was a cockroach. So I knocked it off again—very casually. And then got my spray and killed it. And I wasn’t grossed out at all! Weird. I’m officially Belizean.

Throughout most of the summer I spent the majority of my time in the villages of Toledo. I was either working for RCP or doing summer camps in Crique Jute village. So that’s my big excuse for not blogging! Haha Being in the villages makes it hard to get computer/internet access—at least long enough to write a blog!


Meanwhile, I enjoyed a lot of the World Cup in Belize.... everyone-both Belizeans and PC alike- seemed to really get into it! It was exciting! Except every team I rooted for would lose....so I would move on and find a next team and they would lose.... it was a vicious cycle! haha


But, my absolute favorite thing about Belize is the atmosphere of a rural Toledo village. Every village you go to has its own feel, dialect, and little ways to make life work. Some have no running water, some no electricity, and still others have neither. And yet, they get by, day to day. As an American, it’s surprising and hard to get used to this simplistic lifestyle. We tend to try to fill up every second of our days with work or entertainment of some sort. You rarely ever find a family who hang out after dinner in the darkness, just enjoying each other’s company. I sometimes think of Belize as just a few generations behind the States, but in a junglesque environment. When I was in San Jose village for the week, we had no electricity or running water. We bathed in the river around 4 in the evening, just before dinner time. We prepared dinner and by the time we ate it was dark out, so we sat around a kerosene lamp. Once dinner was over, the family gathered around the transistor radio and listened to the news or music for the remainder of the evening before going to bed by at least 8pm. Can you even imagine the last time you went to bed at 8? Most people probably haven’t seen that day in awhile! But then they were up again at the crack of dawn, starting the daily chores all over again. Washing, preparing breakfast, etc. It really gives you time for self-evaluation. That’s what I like the best. You are forced to sit alone with your thoughts, which are easy to avoid in the States. Whenever I get overwhelmed and stressed, watching a movie/tv, surfing the internet, or listening to music is an easy way to avoid what needs to happen and have some mindless enjoyment. In the village, you find plenty of time to read and write and THINK! Oh, to think without distractions! It’s fantastic! Maybe it’s just me, and I have no will power when I’m trying to get something done and a tv or computer screen is in front of me….easy choice! I immediately opt for entertainment! To not have that option is refreshing, really.

Anyway, enough ranting about technology…. Back to my actual life down here!