Fix It

(Hey - we have two blog entries this week, so be sure to check out the one right after this for a taste of "real" Peace Corps life.)

Sunday was a fun day for the fix-it man hidden inside me. I went with our neighbors, Rafaela and her son Anthony, to her home village, Big Falls, near Punta Gorda. She owns property there, and she is renovating her building in hope of renting it as a commercial site. It has a good location right by the road.

The future Copa Cabana of Big Falls

It has a distinctive red zinc roof. There is a large room that could be a store or restaurant or night club and an adjoining kitchen, bath, and storage room.

The current project is electricity - no pun. The meter was tacked to the cinder block building with concrete nails and doesn't meet code. We used U-brackets and concrete anchors to screw it to the building. When we finished I thought it was ready to be hurricane-tested.

After the work was completed

They have not yet hooked up the water connection, so Anthony went across the road to pump a bucket of water to flush the toilet.

In Belize, it's usually the women who pump and carry the water.
We enlisted Anthony's help for this special situation - his mom is
8 months pregnant!

We went into Punta Gorda town to get larger brackets and more screws and also got lunch. It was spicy fried chicken in a place that was air conditioned. Wow!

I like the "timeless" clock tower in PG. None of the four clocks work, they all tell different times, and none of them are correct - except each is correct for one minute twice a day.

The clock tower and the town center

Back in Big Falls, Rafaela also owns a house across the creek, and we went to see it after finishing the electrical work. She has a renter there who was baking journey cakes (pronounced johnny cakes) to take and sell. The woman and her daughter (or granddaughter?) rode with us to Bella Vista (it's on the way back to Dangriga) where her son lives. We also visited with Rafaela’s brother before heading back home. I am not sure what her next project will be. She does parts as money becomes available for the work.

Rafi's house in Big Falls

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Weekly Dose of Pet Pictures

Murusun Mesu is growing! He seems to be the catalyst for a lot of interaction between dog, cat, Steve and Cathy!

Little Update

We have had a light week, but things are starting to pick up!

I gave Steve a haircut last week. This past weekend, he went to
work on highlighting my hair. MUCH more advanced than the last
time. We worked with FOILS!

Anthony brought us some bananas from the tree right here in our yard!
They are smaller and much sweeter than the Dole
bananas we usually get at the store. They're called apple
bananas, and they DO taste a little apple-y.

We made T-shirts with spray paint. It took me about two hours
to cut out the stencil. Each girl's shirt is a little different, because
the "glow" behind the letters is unique :-)

Murusun Mesu and Fu We Dog seem to be doing very well together. Poor Fu We puts forward a stoic face to the constant onslaught from the kitten.

Note how much BIGGER the cat has gotten relative to Fu We.

He's climbing a lot, too. Not quite brave enough for some places,
but it won't be long till he's up on the kitchen cabinets :-(

If you've been following this whole thing with the cat, you may have noticed that over the past few weeks I have called the cat a "he," then a "she," and now I'm back to "he." Well, it's tough to determine the sex of a cat, darn it! I looked online and found an article and pictures that told us how to locate body parts, with just a little bit of difference between the two. Well, I thought I had it figured out, but then Steve told me that the thing I thought was the vagina was really a mole . . . .

I leave in the morning for two days in Pueblo Viejo, a village in the Toledo District. I'm going down to help Mallory (the very first Belize PCV that we "discovered" once we knew we were coming to Belize) with her summer camp. We'll do Zumba each day, and then I'll just help with stuff. I told her, "Mallory, I don't really know anything about kids, you know." She said, "That's OK, I'm no good with 'em either." Maybe I'll get some pictures.

I do know that it's pretty rustic living down there - no "current," running water, or any kind of plumbing. So I'll get a little mini-taste of what a "real" Peace Corps Volunteer should experience.

Steve got a call today from PC Staff. They want him to give a speech at our 50th anniversary celebration - in Garifuna! Yay! He finally gets to show his stuff.

These are the pictures I couldn't find last week.
This is Steve's presentation to the teachers.

Well, not really HIS presentation. It was the Ministry's
PPT that he didn't see until about 90 seconds before beginning.

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.

Tag Team Blog Entry

Cathy: Every so often, we don't have a lot to write about - HA! very often. That gives us a few choices -

1. Don't write anything, but then we'd lose track of those little everyday things that make this adventure SO very wonderful ;-)
2. Write something with a theme - about the culture or an economic or health situation or some other meaningful issue.
3. Or filler. Steve and I both scribble down some things and let that pass for blog entry. 

Lucky you - you get option 3 today! Do not expect any cohesiveness whatsoever.

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Last week, our Medical Officer sent us all an email letting us know that she would be in a meeting all week. Thought you'd enjoy reading some of it.

Greetings to all,

Please note that I will out of  office next week August 6-10 as I will be attending  a Peace Corps Medical conference in Belize City.  Peace Corps Belize has the honor this year of hosting about 60 doctors and nurses (Peace Corps medical officers ) from several Peace Corps countries.

Since I will not be in office, please be kind and don’t drink to excess, eat any bad food,  have unprotected sex, ride in back of any trucks or play any sports, ride a bike without helmets or break up with your boyfriends/girlfriends.. smile…although this is would be the time to get sick with all these medical personnel coming.

Dr Craig will have the phone to assist with any medical issues . Kent will be in the office to help with supplies.

Have a great week to all.

Regards,

Jackie

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Steve: Last week, Hurricane Ernesto came and went. On Tuesday, August 7, we were summoned to consolidate in Belmopan. 

It was boring, but we had air conditioning, electricity, running water, and WiFi at the Garden City Hotel. 

The Garden City Hotel got mad at Steve

This picture has nothing whatsoever to do with the next two
paragraphs of the blog entry!

While in Belmopan, I was able to attend a focus group on reporting sexual assault in Belize, facilitated by Peace Corps officials from DC. The emphasis was on finding ways to ensure confidentiality and take appropriate action on behalf of a volunteer who had something to report along those lines. They are still trying to improve their function (and their image) after several horrendous attacks and a murder, most recently reported in 2010 - ABC Investigative News Report.

Hooray for Peace Corps’ concern for volunteer safety.

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Cathy: When I found out we were going to Belmopan, probably staying until Thursday, I called Aidra to let her know we couldn't have GLOW club on Wednesday, asked her to let the girls know. Unfortunately, I neglected to give her the list of telephone numbers.

The Security Officer let us come home a day early. There was NOTHING - no wind, rain, NOTHING - in Dangriga or Belmopan. Which put me here on Wednesday afternoon. Not only did the girls show up, they came an hour and a half early! I had nothing prepared, but the girls didn't care. They played with the pets and made coffee filter flowers (again), and were happy with things. Wanted to do Zumba, but I had to chase them away so I could get work done.

Aidra and I are trying to make some big plans for the fall. We want the girls to have an act in the talent show for Independence Day (mid-September) and march in the Settlement Day parade. More on that later.

On Saturday, only three girls came because there was a lightning rainstorm.

The three girls who braved the storm
This week's project was to make bags that everybody wears to carry their stuff.

Malicka - her own design on the embellishment of the bag.

Shinoah - Malicka's older sister.
She liked the flower so much, that she copied it.

Skylar - She's visiting here from the States. Her grandmother is
our neighbor and a local Garifuna activist. We enjoyed having Skylar
be a part of our club while she's here.

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Steve: In Belize we have a semi-official website PCBelize.com. It was nicely put together by a volunteer, Nate Thompson, who finished his service last June. 

I have been entrusted with maintaining it since then. I had a personal triumph with successful posting of a new article on the “News” page with an image. Nate would be proud of me. I will probably never be a “webmaster”, but I qualify to be a “web amateur” for a site already created. 4th of July Celebration

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At the Dangriga Polyclinic the administrator asked each section to put together an educational DVD to play for patients in the waiting room. The medical chief of staff put his together with minimal help from me, just a little coaching here and there. Both of the nursing units put together videos with help from tech-savvy relatives. 

I think the nutrition section probably has the best video. I was able to ignite the interest and creativity of my work partner, Tylon Tillett. He is the social worker in charge of the malnutrition prevention project for the Southern Health Region. (Cathy: It IS good!)

This weekend I combined all of their DVDs into one movie project, with small transitions between them to make the whole thing cohesive. I burned it to a DVD that will play automatically and will loop back to the beginning to play again. "Look Ma, no hands!" 

It seems like not much when I write it here, but I spent long hours tweaking and perfecting this project. Even so, every time I watch it, I see one more thing that I could improve. 

Tomorrow, it "premiers" on the waiting room TV. Can't wait to hear the feedback.

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Cathy and Steve: We continue to be entertained by the pets. We re-evaluated, and decided the cat is a female. It's tricky.

Our new name for the kitten is Murusun Mesu, which is Garifuna for “a little bit of cat." We call her Murusun (mu-ROO-soo - "N" is silent). She will probably grow out of that name at some point, but I guess we'll stick with it.