The Beautiful Plants of Belize

The rainy season brings more than just mildew and blue crabs. All the trees and shrubs that were just staggering along have awakened to Belize's "spring" season. I'm feeling pretty lazy today, so it seems like a good day for PICTURES. We've accumulated quite a few, so we'll share!

For your viewing pleasure.  Please do click on the pictures so you can see them at full size. Sorry, sorry, sorry, Aunt Jean. I know this is going to wreak havoc on your dial-up connection.

Everybody's favorite, the Flamboyant Tree (sometimes called the Royal Poinciana), are everywhere in Belize. Main flower color is orange, but sometimes we see them in yellow, white and purple.

 Banana trees and coconut palms.

In our front yard

Other palms.

Cohune tree. Provides fronds for thatching, and fruit
for very high cholesterol oil. Wood for furniture and
carving.

Decorative shrubs and bushes.

Hibiscus

Every kind of hibiscus you can imagine

Bougainvillea. The "bountiful" time for bougainvillea is still ahead
of us. Sometimes the spiky vines look like they are taking over the
front of a building.

Don't know what this is, but ain't it pretty? Some kind of coleus?

Looks like clematis

Crape myrtles are popular, but they have trouble with so much rain.
They don't like "wet feet." (See the flamboyant tree behind?)

Crape myrtle and a mix of others

 And just some plain old flowers.

Vinca (periwinkle) is very popular

Everybody has some of these, but I don't know what they are.

White lilies grow wild everywhere

 Ornamental trees.

Camouflaging the outhouse??

And MANGOS. Belizeans loves mango and children gleefully climb the trees to retrieve them. Or find something to reach with.

This is our neighbor's tree, heavily laden. And the reason there is
fruit still there is because they have a really mean pit bull to protect it.

He got several mangos from this effort :-)

Happy Father's Day, everybody!

Leap Year Day - Save our Barrier Reef!

Belize, the "Jewel of Central America," is rich in resources. At the top of the list is its natural beauty, including the coral reef situated off the coast, the second longest reef in the world. Every year thousands of tourists come from all over the world to explore the reef and enjoy the hospitality of Belize. Tourism is one of the country's largest industries. As the country's infrastructure improves and grows, tourism will continue to grow in importance.

Pumping station at Spanish Lookout

Another resource, although not so plentiful, is petroleum. One company, Belize Natural Energy, began exploring in the Spanish Lookout area in 2002, and now produces about 5,000 barrels a day. Before that, many companies had unsuccessfully explored for 50 years. The crude is processed here, but all of the oil is exported. None of the owners of the company are Belizean and they hire very few Belizeans. The sole benefit of BNE (other than some small grants to various local groups, such as POWA) to the country are the corporate revenue taxes.

According to an article on Belize.com, "Most of Belize’s 8,867 square miles of territory and much of the waters offshore have been allocated out in petroleum concessions to 18 different companies with a range of foreign shareholders from as close as the USA and as far off as Taiwan and even a local gambling den," and "Princess Petroleum Limited, belonging to the owners of the Princess Casino, has a contract to explore 1 million plus acres of Belize for oil. The license is mostly offshore, but also some inland exploration. The company is allegedly well connected with local politicians of the ruling United Democratic Party." (Read the entire article.)




So now to get to the focus of this blog entry - offshore drilling. The government is promoting offshore exploration and drilling "for the benefit of the people of Belize." Enter Oceana, an international organization dedicated to protecting the oceans and natural oceanic resources of the earth. They have been present in Belize for a long time, focussing on overfishing, habitat destruction, pollution and climate change. Barrier reef protection is at the top of the list. More than 20% of the Belizean population derive revenues because of the barrier reef. Regarding offshore drilling, Oceana, in partnership with the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage, has been advertising vigorously since before Steve and I arrived in Belize last March via posters, radio and TV commercials, newspaper articles and canvassing to spread the word about the issue, and the dangers to the barrier reef. (Read Oceana's overview.)

In 2008, the Belize legislature passed a law allowing people to bring issues to a referendum. The petitioners for a referendum must collect signatures from at least 10% of the registered voters (about 18,000 people) for the issue to be allowed on the government ballot. This is the first time the new law has been tested. Oceana turned in close to 21,000 signatures. When the signatures were reviewed by the ministry in charge of elections, more than 8,000 signatures were rejected.

This was, of course, a big setback. They were expecting some problems with duplicates or some whose voter registration was in doubt, perhaps up to 1,000, but not with almost 40% of the names. The group is following up by requesting documentation on why each signature was rejected. In the meantime, Oceana's next step was to announce that a People's Referendum would be held on Wednesday, February 29. The vote would be funded completely by Oceana and the Belize Coalition to Save Our Natural Heritage.

One of the polling locations in Dangriga. More than 3700 people
voted from Stann Creek District.

The turnout was impressive (more than 29,000 voters), and the vote, not surprisingly, was against the offshore drilling by about 96%. Of course, it was an unofficial vote, and so holds no weight with the government. However, Prime Minister Dean Barrow went on record yesterday to say that he can't ignore the fact that so many people made the extra effort to voice their opinion. He said that if re-elected, he "personally would be prepared to support the Government sponsoring the referendum to be held at an appropriate time after we would have allowed for a full-throttle debate during which people will not just hear from one side."
I have met NO one here who is in favor of offshore drilling. Of course, I live here on the coast of Belize, so that's not surprising. I have read some articles quoting some who support the drilling initiative.
General elections will be held this Wednesday, March 7. As Peace Corps Volunteers, we do not get involved in politics. For our safety, we will be in a status of Alert and Stand Fast for March 6-8. Focus this week will be on the politicians, not the barrier reef. But I'll keep you updated on this important issue.

Feels Like Autumn

Girl from a magazine

We're about midway through October, and it definitely has cooled down. Temps range from 75 at night to 88 during the day, and it feels milder. I'm writing this at about 8:15 a.m. The sun is shining brightly, thermometer says it's 82 degrees, but it's quite pleasant with the cool breeze. A couple of times on my morning walks with Miss Patsy I have had to wear a light jacket! I fear we may have to close windows at night soon if it gets much cooler.

However, I don't believe we'll see leaves changing color and dropping off the trees. I'm told that there is one tree, called the Flamboyant tree (and it IS, believe me. Sorry, we don't have a picture.), that loses its leaves for a couple of months in January. I'll try to post a picture next April when they bloom. Other vines, shrubs and trees are still blooming, and the view is lush green. 

A young Steve Burnham

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, it is STILL rainy season. We joke that it's like Camelot here. It mainly rains at night - hard blustery rains - with an occasional daytime shower. It's not unusual for Dangriga to get 25 inches of rain in October, maybe 150 inches for the year!

Only a couple of things happening with my work. The POWA women will begin having workshops for girls - Adolescent Empowerment Workshops. This weekend they'll hold the first one. Nine women were divided up into three groups: one group will teach 10-14-year-olds, another the 15-16s and another the 17-18s. This first series of six sessions will focus on self-esteem, with each group adding another element of life skills into the mix - goal-setting, relationship skills, communication skills. I have been working with each of the three groups as they set up and create their lesson plans. Not only are they putting together the activities, they are also recruiting the girls! Each age group will ideally have 15 girls. This is truly trial by fire for the POWA women, but they are working hard to make it successful.

Rose

All of this work is on weekends, and then I don't do much at all during the week. We both went to a meeting of VOICE, a Senior Advocacy group, on Wednesday. Steve is now on the regional NAC - National AIDS Council. Not sure what they do, but they meet once a month, and there about 11 people representing various groups. It's a good way for Steve to make contacts around town.

I've been taking drawing lessons from another PCV, trying to find some new things to occupy my time. I'm just at the beginning stages - you know, drawing a coffee mug, drilling on certain techniques. However, I've had several friends ask me to post a few things, so here goes.

Another pretty girl from a magazine.
Can't get the eyes right!

And from Stevie. He had fun writing about the

Local Geography

Belize has a wide variety of geographic areas. We live in the southern part where the valley meets the sea. The Hummingbird Highway runs west northwest from here through the valley to somewhat of a gap in the Mayan Mountains and on to Belmopan. When people tell where they live along the highway they say they are from “the valley” at mile whatever. The valley and the flat land south of here between the mountains and the sea has citrus groves and banana plantations. I think the valley must get more rain than we do, since we see dark clouds and rain there at times that we are not getting rain. The weather seems to move east to west, and our breeze is usually from the sea.

We have friends who live in the rain forests of the Mayan Mountains, and they have to think about the rivers and flooding whenever they try to make travel plans. Our town seems to soak up the rainwater quickly so that flooding here does not really hinder transportation. The dirt roads have puddles for a day or so. We have to ride slowly on our bicycles when the roads are wet since bicycles here do not have fenders, and we get little dots of muddy water up the back of our clothes.

Our house is in a great neighborhood. We are between Stann Creek (“the river”) to the north and Havana Creek to the south. Havana Creek is much like a storm drain and usually has an isthmus of sand where it would meet the sea. During the heaviest rains they dug up a trench to drain the creek into the sea. We are also between the sea and “the main”. (The busiest street changes name several times, and people often do not know what the name of the street is).

Havana Creek. You can just barely see people walking
across the isthmus in the distance.

The highest point in town that I have been to is the third level of the town hall. From there one has a nice view of Princess Royal Park, the fire station, the market, and Y-not Island with the great thatch. 

Princess Royal Park

Fire Station

Market and Why Not Island recreation area