Another Kind of Peace Corps Adventure - Just a Taste

Everyone's Peace Corps experience is different, but Steve and I envisioned that we would live in a small village, in a hut with no electricity or running water, and hoped to become accepted community members during our 2-year stay. Of course, that is NOT the environment we are in.

I was lucky enough to be invited to help Mallory Begley, a PCV living in Pueblo Viejo, with her kids' summer camp. Pueblo, as it's called by Mallory, is a small Mayan village of about 600 people. It's located in south Toledo district, close to Guatemala. I took the James Bus Line to the village of Dump (yes), then completed the trip on a local village busline - Bol's to Pueblo Viejo. The ride to PV is quite rugged, and slow, but the view is so beautiful that I didn't notice that it took so long to go 16 miles.

From Dangriga to Pueblo Viejo by bus - about 5 hours

The climate is delightful - warm, but not hot, cool in the evening.Mallory was waiting for me. Her house is right on the village road. I guesstimate her house at 300 square feet, with one very large room and two tiny bedrooms. The good latrine is out back down the hill a bit. One of the village wells is right across from her house, so it's easy to "back water" (carry water on your back) when she needs it. There is no electricity. There are wood sides and a thatch roof about 25 feet high. Very picturesque.

Beautiful countryside

It was almost dark when I arrived. She wanted to visit a family before it was too late, so we went to Miss Antonia's house. Just like here in Dangriga, visiting etiquette requires that you hail the people as you approach the house. Nobody knocks or touches a house without being invited to enter. Mallory will be the godmother of Miss Antonia's youngest baby, and she wanted to chat with her about the christening and some other matters. They fed us with a specialty of the area, green corn. The corn is ripe, but it's boiled in the green husks, and thus the name. It was very dark by then, but they had a little light coming from another room, a fluorescent bulb powered by a stored energy from a solar panel. All the other children were there, and one of the daughters I had met already at the GLOW camp last month.

When we arrived back at Mallory's house, two boys were waiting for us. The older boy, Filamon (that's a phonetic spelling), about 14, wanted help with his homework. His brother Joshua was about 7, and he was just along for the fun. He and I played cards while Mallory and Filamon worked on the science homework.

Homework help. Mallory has 2 chairs and some buckets for
seating. Small homemade kerosene lamps provide some light,
often supplemented with flashlights and headlamps.

It was 10:30 by the time we got to bed - LATE. She carefully checked around the mosquito netting and under the mattress to make sure there were no scorpions. It rained hard during the night, so getting up to pee was not even close to fun. Otherwise, I slept very soundly in the quiet of the countryside.

The next morning, I tried several new things. First we bathed in the river, in our clothes. Mallory also washed some clothes - with laundry detergent and a rough brush. Underwear, skirts, socks all get the same treatment. There is no such cycle as "delicate." She was able to change into clean clothes there at the riverside. I could not manage it - everything was sticking and I couldn't maintain modesty. So I just left on the clothes I bathed in and planned to change back at the house. On the way back, we stopped at another family's home, the Salams, and they gave us a delicious breakfast of beans, tortilla, boiled egg, salsa, and avocado (pear). They also served a very weak coffee with lots of milk and sugar. Even kids drink the coffee drink.

By 8:00 o'clock we were back at Mallory's home doing other morning preparations. Two other Peace Corps volunteers arrived to help with the camp for the day. Jay Schultz lives in a nearby village, Forest Home, in Toledo, and works with education. PCV Ellen came all the way from Belize City where she also works with education, special needs children.

Mallory had planned the summer camp with very full days, and it was very well-organized. But as with any big project such as this was, there were some snags. The man who was to talk about recycling, clean earth and organic gardening was not able to be there by 8:30. I started the day for them with some fun Zumba. They were hesitant at first, but as they heard the music and saw how easy and fun it was, they joined in - con gusto! I really hammed it up and so did the other PCVs, so the activity was a great success!

Mueve la Colita!

Gasolina

Santa Maria (stretch)

After Zumba and the morning presentation, we had a little time to kill, so we had some fun icebreakers and games.

Musical Chairs

Princess Pat - a real favorite with the kids.

We dined in style at lunch with Mallory's special pad thai rice!

After lunch, it seemed like the afternoon flew by. Ellen entertained the kids with magic card tricks, and gave them a very active lesson in self-defense.

HOW does she do it?

We finished off the day (for the campers) with a visit to the falls where they could have a fun swim.

Boys get to strip down to their underwear. Girls go swimming
in their dresses.

One of a series of waterfalls in this area.

The day didn't stop for us at 4:00 when camp was over. Back at the house, I took a bucket bath in her little bath house; it was very refreshing, and definitely the way I would go if that were my permanent place to live. LOTS of people came by the house. Low key visiting.

Then we went to visit her old host family. As soon as we went in, we sat down to make corn tortillas. I joined in, and did a lousy job, looks-wise, but they tasted OK. Scrambled eggs, beans, tortilla, hot sauce (Marie Sharpe's and some homemade), and pear! Also coffee drink. We sat around for awhile after eating and I looked at a picture album - parents and 11 kids - then we left. The 2 boys were waiting again for homework help. Replay of night before, except it was math help.

We fell in the bed after 10:30 and slept HARD till 6:00-ish. We at breakfast AT HOME - toast and pear. Kids were at the house by 7:00, so it was hard to do everything since there was NO privacy.

Time to start Day 2 of the camp week. The principal of the school taught the kids how to sing the Belize National anthem in Mayan. Well, some of them already knew the words, but other's didn't know it at all. I believe there will be something on television with the kids singing.

Then they made sock puppets. SO cute!

Lunch was back at the Salams' house, the people who fed us the first morning. It was the 2nd birthday for their 2nd youngest baby, and they cooked big-time to celebrate. Rice and beans, cole slaw, stew chicken, tortilla, COLA (now that is very special for these folks) and something else I can't remember. There was a houseful of people for lunch, including several teachers from the school where the camp was being held.

Domingo Salam and his family (one of the son's is not in the
picture). The boy in yellow, Imer, is the birthday boy.

Afternoon was more Zumba (the kids were VERY enthusiastic this time), and water balloon fights. We made more than 100 water balloons which disappeared in a nano-second. Not really. Mallory made up some crazy game that the kids understood, and they played with them for at least 20 minutes. Even Mallory couldn't believe that they figured out the game. SHE didn't even understand it ;-)

Just a few other things to describe.

• Pigs are kept by people, but they don't do a very good job of keeping them penned. Here's a picture of a sow and her piglets as they got caught in the school fence.

Pigs lost inside the school fence. In the background you can
see Mallory's house.

• We had MORE visits at Mallory's house and ANOTHER meal with a family on that same night. Shame on us - we turned the lights off so that the boy who wanted homework help would have to go home to get help. I guess Mallory didn't think that offering to help him was going to be a full-time job.
• I saw a scorpion crawl out from under the mattress, and didn't have a heart attack.
• Throughout the time I was there, I tried to place myself in that situation. I think I would be really happy to work in a setting such as that one - muddy, slippery footing, always wet, living in the fishbowl, afraid to go to the bathroom. I believe I could acclimate and enjoy!
• The Mayan people I met a beautiful people, proud of their heritage (as are the Kriols, Garifuna, Mestizo, etc.), and they seem to be very cordial and polite.

Finally, I admire Mallory SO much for her initiative in this project. She wound up with very little help from the school faculty (there WERE some who helped). She was everything that a PCV is supposed to be - flexible, enthusiastic, integrated in the community, resourceful, concerned about people's well-being. 

I can barely keep my eyes open this evening. It was a great trip.

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.

We Were Hoping It Would Be HURRICANE Harvey

In the Peace Corps safety world, there are four status levels – All Clear, Alert, Stand Fast, and Consolidation. We have just returned from two days in Belmopan where all PCVs in the southern half of Belize were consolidated.

Steve and I had been planning a fun trip to Corozal Town – our first trip out of our site since we arrived! As a little background, during our preparations for deployment to Belize, a friend of mine from Zumba classes told me of her friend Rachel who served as a PCV in Belize 1999-2001. Rachel is a wonderful woman who now lives in Boston. She shared with us all her wisdom and advice via telephone and email. She also told us that she came back to Corozal Town, Belize, for about a month every year, and invited us up to meet her this August. As the weekend approached, Rachel coincidentally met several of the PCVs who went through training with us, who are posted to Corozal. We were planning lots of great visits with everybody, and some good getting acquainted time with Rachel.

Enter Tropical Storm Harvey. 

Thursday morning we were put on Alert, and Friday morning notified of Stand Fast status. That means Don’t Go Anywhere. We scooted around to make sure our Emergency Bag was packed, and sure enough, right after lunch we got a call that they were on their way to pick us up for consolidation. Now, most people had to get to Belmopan via bus, but we lucked out. Some might have considered it a little crowded – seven of us plus the driver in a PC SUV, including all the backpacks and other bags. Luckily, most everybody was pretty efficient with their packing.

On the way to Belmopan, Mr. Stanley, our driver, stopped so we could all get ice cream cones. You have no idea how special it was. A little luxury in the middle of some stress.

Once we arrived in Bpan, we went straight to the PC office. The bigwigs were in the conference room looking at the projected screen of several websites – all storm tracking sites. I think in addition to the ones that anyone can look at, they also have some subscription sites. That storm was headed smack dab for Dangriga. It was projected to hit about 4pm on Saturday with hurricane force winds.

So far, no real rain or wind. So once we got checked into – guess where? – the Garden City Hotel, we spent most of the time talking to everybody else and shopping at the Belize version of WalMart. Didn’t need anything (bought salt and pepper shakers), but it was something to do. We knew we’d be stuck in the room for a long time.

Once back from our shopping "spree," I spent a fair amount of time meeting and getting to know PCVs who started a year ago. They’ll be leaving next June 2012. I continue to be so impressed with the caliber of the people stationed here.

Friday night we fell asleep to cloudy skies, but no "weather."

Saturday morning was overcast and drizzly, but still calm. So we shopped some more, this time for food, in case we couldn't go out to eat.

We had a short status meeting at 10 o'clock Saturday morning, and I announced that if anyone was interested, we’d have a Zumba class. Luckily I had brought our little iPod speakers. I figured everybody would be going stir crazy. 

By then the rain and winds were getting pretty hard – and sideways. The storm arrived much sooner than originally forecast – about 12 noon. By 2:30 it was all over and just super muggy. We didn't get a picture of the heavy rain and wind. Here's one just after it passed. In fact, we thought it was the calm of the eye. The storm was a bust! Just a big inconvenience. 

View from the balcony of the Garden City Hotel

Zumba class at 4:30 was a big success – maybe 16 or so (including Steve!). Nobody had brought the right shoes, myself included, so we did the whole class barefooted on the carpet. A lot of the carpet was really soaked. Such enthusiasm and energy! and FUN! As the class wound toward the finish, people kept saying, “Let’s do one more.” Not surprising, since we all knew there was nothing to do afterward.

We're so lucky to have a place to do Zumba at the hotel!

Right at the end of class our “warden” came up to tell us that the storm had passed and that some of the people could go home first thing Sunday morning. Those of us from Dangriga and further south would have to wait for damage to be checked and to make sure that buses were travelling.

Steve and I went out for pizza.

So anyway, Tropical Storm Harvey turned out to be not much danger or excitement (I’m getting bored – as I often do with some of these blog entries – just writing about it), and it ruined our chance at a fun weekend with friends. AND, because it never got up enough umphhh to boost the winds to 75, we were deprived of an alliterative storm name.     :--(

OKAY, on to other topics. 

• On August 11, the ladies from Vinegarville graduated from their training. The ceremony was first class, with speakers from Belize City and Belmopan and national TV coverage (Yes!). Thirty women received their completion certificates. Keep your fingers crossed that the enthusiasm that kept them coming for 12 weeks of training with carry through to make it a money-making cooperative. 

• Steve continues to create educational fliers and pamphlets to help the people who are served by the Polyclinic.
• He may have bottomed out on the weight loss. We hope so. Looks like he may have stabilized.
• He has accumulated a tool or two, so he smiles more now. The beautiful built-in mahogany bar that you may have noticed in one of the apartment pictures is actually the tool shed. But there’s still a lot of empty space that needs to be filled with “useful” gadgets.
• The Train the Trainer for the POWA women continues.
• I also participated in training Youth for the Future kids in HIV outreach.
• And I’m doing a session for a summer camp at the library. Six through 12-year-olds. Treasure Hunt to learn fun facts about fruits and vegetables (arghhh!), including TWO Zumba dances, some fun games, putting together the treasure map, the treasure hunt itself, AND making salsa. I just have to say, I don’t mind dreaming up some of this stuff, but I’d love to hand it over to somebody else to do. I KNOW I’m going to louse up the delivery/participation part with the kids. Oh, well, at least there’s food, so they might like that part.
• Just watched The Big Lebowski again last weekend – on my little netbook with my earbuds. Couldn’t breathe, I was laughing so hard. It’s good to escape.