Belize Independence Day 2012

(Steve here.) This has been an interesting week for us. Friday was Belize Independence Day, and all of us were in the parade in Belmopan. Our friend Daytha and a couple of the young Garifuna GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) Girls also rode on the Peace Corps float.

Aliyah, Shaniah, Daytha and Cathy

The front part of the float was covered with thatch to shade the riders, and the back part had a dove of peace that looked a little like a chicken.

The "Dove" of Peace

Most of us marched out in front of the float. Cathy and I got to carry the banner most of the way. We all danced along the way to the tunes from the float in front of us, but Cathy did Zumba whenever the music permitted. We were exhausted after marching in the tropical heat and humidity, but we all made it without incident.

We have also been preparing for next week’s anniversary event at the US Embassy. The Ministry of Health and Peace Corps will celebrate 50 years in Belize (Peace Corps has been around for 51 years), as well as formalize the invitation to work in Belize. On the day before Independence Day, I was at the embassy to help the audio visual man start preparation for our event. The arrangements will be very professional and will be detailed in next week’s blog entry. I found the security arrangements to be impressive, but some things should not be posted on the internet.

The day after Independence Day a bunch of of us crazy volunteers worked at a nearby school on a number of projects. Jess and Melissa painted a mission statement on the wall outside the gate. So the statement would look good, we made a level. We used a bottle mostly full of water except for a bubble and put it sideways on a straight piece of wood.

Making a level for Jessica

I worked mostly with the team pouring the foundation for a library building. There were half a dozen professionals in charge of the work. We helped with the vapor barrier and the heavy wire mesh over it. Then they cranked up the  cement mixer. We carried hundred-pound sacks of cement mix and buckets of water. The most physically demanding job was shoveling a lot of sand into the mixer. When it was mixed, it was transferred to wheelbarrows to get to the pour site. And I thought marching in the parade in 90 degree tropical humidity was challenging. Ava’s picture of me shows the sweat line down to the lower edge of my shorts. I think all of us guys who thought we were tough enough to work without gloves wound up with blisters on our hands, but everyone survived without heat stroke.

Trying to rehydrate

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Just a little postscript from me. Our GLOW girls are doing another fundraiser - bottle cap Belizean flags. Aidra's idea. The one in this picture has a little fishing line so it can be worn around the neck. Only $2 BZ. We also made earrings for $5 BZ. I made the Belize coat of arms on the computer, using mailing labels that stick when you peel off the backing. One sheet had about 72 of those little suckers. Had to cut every one out and stick it on. They sold "like hotcakes."

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Just a couple more pictures from Independence Day -

Setting up the afternoon before Independence Day

Adding de tatch

No vehicle went undecorated

Some people really get into the spirit

Steve and Nina Hernandez, our Country Director

Something to do while waiting for the parade to start

GLOW girls on the float

National Garifuna Council

Steve and I attended the bi-weekly regional meeting of the National Garifuna Council on Sunday the 19th. With Settlement Day only three months away, we were interested in participating in the preparations.

As background - Ms. Felicia Nunez, better known as Nen, had spoken to us about the meeting, asked us to attend and help with ideas. Nen's granddaughter was one of the GLOW Club girls for the summer, so we saw quite a bit of Nen. She is very active in the community, especially in ways that benefit the Garifuna culture. I would have to say that recently she has taken us under her wing a bit, to make sure we get the complete cultural experience while in Dangriga.

Felicia Nunez - Nen

We went over with Aidra Rodriguez, the co-leader of the girls club. When we arrived at the NGC building, the meeting had just started. We heard singing as we entered. After Steve and I introduced ourselves, the singing resumed. They had a song sheet with about 20 "celebration" songs, only two of which were in English. I did the best I could with the Garifuna, but Steve had no problem with it. Guess all those lessons are paying off! We sang about 5 songs. In Belize, it is traditional to begin a meeting with a prayer. This was the first one we attended that began with singing. Nice!

The president of the regional council is Phyllis Cayetano, another activist in Belize. She is also the head of Gulisi Primary School, the Garifuna school in Dangriga. Gulisi is Phyllis' passion, and she is very dedicated to the preservation of the Garifuna culture. As she says, "The children of Gulisi are the future of the Garifuna culture." By the way, she was our hostess when all of the PCVs came to Dangriga WAY back in March of 2011. Both of these pictures of Nen and Phyllis were taken on Culture Day.

Phyllis Cayetano

Once the business portion of the meeting got under way, things got very lively. They looked for ways to raise money (dues, raffles, casino night), and events activities to sponsor/raise funds for the next three months. They want to have a Garifuna fair for Belize Independence Day (September 21st) and a CultureFest for all cultures (Mayan, Mestizo, Kriol, Garifuna) in October. Of course, there will be MANY activities associated with Garfuna Settlement day on November 19th.

Steve and I were asked to create and run a health fair in early November. Steve will ask the Polyclinic administrator when we can have the nurses available for the fair to weigh, take blood pressure and blood sugar measurements. We want to pull together some good vendors and organizations that will be of interest and/or service. The POWA women can do HIV/AIDS and STI awareness. There are four primary schools nearby, so we will want to have some fun and interesting things for the kids, too. Not sure if there's room for games. We shall see. Nen told us she would help us with the fair.

By the end of the meeting there were at least 20 people there, some elderly, and some young. It was definitely a who's who of activists, and I loved meeting them for the first time or reacquainting with them. Looks like we will have some fun times with these new connections.

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GLOW Club:  Aidra and I went to the NGC meeting because we wanted to get our Garifuna Glow Girls club name out in front of everybody. That will help us with fund raising for our club, and give us more opportunities for activities for the girls. They will march in the Settlement Day Parade and are very excited.

We are planning for a fund raiser at a "checkpoint" in two weeks. That means we stand at a speed bump and ask for money from people driving by. Most will give a dollar, and it's amazing how much money can be raised in a short time! The girls want to look like an official organization, so this Wednesday we will design a simple t-shirt design and then make them on Saturday.

We've been crafting, too.

Making necklaces from recycled bottle caps

Hammer the cap flat, spray paint it with a background color . . .

. . . and paint a pretty design. String a cord through.

Also, this past weekend, a PCV, Natalie Macias, from Orange Walk came to help us with the graphics for our Community Health Worker manual. Since she was at our house Saturday, she helped with the club meeting. Just so happens that she was a scholarship soccer player in college. So she led the girls in some football. They loved it!

Football at Alejo Beni Park

Natalie

A Typical Peace Corps Day: Steve had an interesting time this week. This is the time of year when all the teachers in the country go to workshops - professional development. To keep the story short, I'll say that there were two aborted attempts at planning meetings, Steve made the conference room reservations, and nobody showed up. No calls, no texts, no mention of the fact that nobody showed up the next time he saw them.

So . . . when the week of the workshops rolled around, his counterpart walked in and said, "The workshops are tomorrow. Are you coming?" Of course, Steve said he would. Walked in the next morning, and Tylon said, "You can present NCDs, right?" That's Non-Communicable Diseases. Steve says, "Yes," and Tylon says, "That's good. It'll be tomorrow at 9:00."

Steve came home that afternoon and pulled together some Powerpoint slides and prepared for the presentation. Walked in the next morning and started to plug in his computer to the projector. Tylon says, "Oh, you're giving the Ministry presentation. The Powerpoint is on THIS computer." Would have been nice if he had mentioned it the day before, don'tcha think?

Anyway, at the end of the day, Steve had a few choice words with them, none of which I can repeat here.

Well, I had some pictures of him at the workshop, but I must have put them in a really safe place . . . .

Peace Corps Core Expectation #3 - Serve where the Peace Corps asks you to go, under conditions of hardship, if necessary, and with the flexibility needed for effective service.

Zumba: We have started back with classes. I will try to get a better place to hold class. For now, we will hold it at Alejo Beni Park on the stage.  I'm going today to talk to the Mayor to see if we can use the Town Hall.

Like No Other Easter Celebration You've Seen in the States!

I hate it when I wait so long to write in the blog. I'm sure I'll leave our some "good" stuff. Here goes -

It's been a very busy two weeks. Steve spent a good amount of time working on plans for the Community Health Workers' training manual, and I put together an outline and gathered graphics for one of the first chapters. Mix that in with Peace Corps (Volunteer Advocacy Committee and WID/GAD - that a gender issues committee) and training manual meetings. Steve and I made four bus rides to Belmopan in five days! I also taught Zumba and some aerobics classes, HFLE classes, too. (See, right there in a couple sentences I covered a week's worth of activities. Details have flown from my head!)

The week before Easter really heated up. As I mentioned, the Dangriga Youth Alive group was planning a big carnival-type event on the beach at WhyNot Island for Easter Sunday and Monday. In Belize they observe Good Friday, often called Holy Friday. But THEN, I guess because Lent is over, they celebrate like it's New Year's Eve.


Steve launched into making some of the "money" games. Some of the wood he used was what we call Masonite. Belizeans call it beaverboard. We needed one board that was punched full of holes. Back in the States, we'd run over to Home Depot to buy some pegboard. Here he used his drill on the beaverboard to make punchboard. I painted it, drew swirls and a sign for the name. Aidra made the little rolled up pieces of paper which indicated what prize the kids would win. Voila!

He also used more beaverboard and the ever-present mahogany 2X4s to make a cornhole game (we called it Bean Bag Toss) and a mini-backboard for basketball. Aidra made beanbags. (Actually they were bags filled with with dried corn. She called me up to ask if we could use something besides beans because she liked the beans and wanted to eat them. Made sense to me! I like beans, too. Seems a shame to waste them for a game.) We used a laundry basket and colorful bouncy rubber balls for the basketballs. Remarkably all beanbags and balls made it through lots of use in two very active days.

Adding the name to the cornhole board

Note the T-shirt. It was supposed to look like
the graphic above.

We were operating on NO budget. Uncle Harry's Hardware and everything else store donated paint (used for the games AND the T-shirts). Aidra's sister, Daytha, went all over town to get companies and individuals to donate prizes for all the non-money games. (They also donated money; this was, after all a fund-raising event.) And she got some GOOD stuff - night for two on one of the Cayes, cases of drinks (Guinness, Fanta, other), bottles of rum for the "carrot" at the top of the greasy pole, gift certificates for different services. BTL gave several cards worth $20 each for use on cell phones. What a go-getter.

Aaron Ferguson, the Community Liaison officer and leader of the Police Cadets, pulled together the sports games - Greasy Pole, Water Pyramid, Tug 'n War (Belizeans don't say Tug of War) Kayak races. He also arranged for the DJ, our only expense. I'm hoping they won't pay him the entire negotiated price since he was four hours late for the first 8-hour day !@#$#%#!$

Greasy Pole. Can you see the bottle of rum at the
top? Actually there are two! It took the 8 different
teams an hour and a half to finally retrieve the prizes.

Two Girl Guides leaders, Tanisia and Paula, organized the kids' games, MORE Tug 'n War, watermelon eating contest, sack race, the ever-popular Lime and Spoon, among others!

Both days were very successful, with hundreds of people coming out for the festivities. Enterprising food and drink vendors provided snacks. Some of them paid a daily fee to sell at the beach bash. The beer distributor (who provided a huge tent for free, also gave us 20% of their profit. Yay, Bowen and Bowen, the distributor - and Belikin Beer!

I won't know what the take was until our debriefing meeting on Friday. Will report in the next blog entry.

Steve is in the States for a week, left on Monday. He's there visiting his kids and grandkids. Shout out to Chris, Jim and Kaleigh, and Laura, Jason, Jack and Olivia!

Here are a few pictures to give you a flavor of the Beach Bash.

Kids' games

Fergie. Nobody calls him Aaron - either Fergie or Ferguson.

Steve worked ALL DAY Sunday. I'm such a lousy photographer,
it's a shame that the only picture I have of him he's sitting down.
Yes, that's Rafi and Anthony, our neighbors.

Swimming at the mouth of the river, right beside WhyNot island,
where the Beach Bash was held.

Best friends, Jada and Filippa, just got their faces painted :-)

Aidra and Daytha, with Daytha's daughters, Shinoah and Malicka

Meghan VanDeventer, another PCV, helped manage the
money games.

At my post with the poster paints.