Settlement Day 2012 - NGC Health Fair

Steve and I are so thrilled to be busy this November with many of the activities of Settlement Day. Last year,  we attended some of the events - Miss Garifuna Pageant, traditional dance performances, youth presentations, the Re-enactment, and the parade - but only as a tourist would experience them. This year we are in the thick of things.

Felicia Nunez
She is "Fel" to some, "Nen" to others

Back in August, we wrote about our meeting with the National Garifuna Council. The meeting served as a brainstorming session to create ideas and recruit volunteers for a long line-up of events in November leading up to the 19th, Settlement Day. Steve and I agreed to organize a health fair for them. Other than some broad guidelines as to which days would be appropriate, and a promise that we could use that same meeting place as the venue, we had a blank slate to create the fair.

We didn't do much before we left for our vacation in the U.S. Because a commitment from the Polyclinic was foremost in our minds as key to the success of the health fair, Steve got them locked in. I talked with one of the POWA women, and they also agreed to participate. So - we had a start, both of them based on who we worked with. YAY! We had a chat with our NGC liason, Ms. Felicia Nunez, about what issues we needed answers to. She promised to carry those concerns to the NGC at their next meeting while we were in the States.

Phyllis Cayetano
Ms. Caye

Then we visited family and friends and forgot all about it for two fun-filled weeks. (STILL miss you all SO MUCH!)

Once we returned, we had about a week and a half to pull it all together. I was right in my element. I love organizing events, especially tending to all the details. Ms. Nen had gone to Surinam (!) for a leadership and women's rights conference, so we worked directly with Ms. Phyllis Cayetano, the chairman of the Dangriga NGC. She is a mover and a shaker, has been an activist in the community for years.

On Wednesday before the fair, we joined Ms. Caye and two other men in charge of other activities at the studios of Hamalali Radio. Steve and I each had a chance to talk about the health fair and invite people to "come on out" to our event.

With Ms. Caye.
The two guys in the foreground are DJs for the station. The one
on the right is named Rugged.

We thought you might enjoy hearing Mr. Francis Marin speak. He is the principal of the ANRI High School (Agricultural emphasis high school). In this clip, he is talking about the three "hats" that he wears.

Everybody got a sticker

The rest of the week was taken up with making signs and banners, stickers, handouts, 200 small bags of popcorn to give the kids, running around to some of the different participants and several schools to make sure all those ducks were lined up. I also went back to the radio station to get several hours worth of Garifuna music to play on my big Block Rocker. Steve managed the logistics for the tables and chairs, and liaised with some of the other participants. Of course, Steve and I were also WORKING at our own tables at the fair, too. So that meant pulling that stuff together, too.

The day arrives! We were up early (we always get up early), with all our materials ready, and Ms. Caye picked us up in her husband's pickup truck.

Setup was fun!

Deluxe decorations for the outdoor tent

Steve figured out how to  hang the sign so it wouldn't
"bust up" from the wind

Mr. Roy Cayetano helped us haul stuff

We had a surprise visit from TWO carloads of Peace Corps staff. They arrived just at start time and stayed about an hour. That really gave us a boost!

Denise Diaz

Nina Hernandez, Country Director

Ellen, PCV from Belize City, came to help us. She joined up with me at our Healthy Lifestyle table.

Ellen

Once we got under way, we had a few adults and LOTS of school kids.

Steve explains Incaparina to kids from
Epworth Methodist Primary School

Kids from Gulisi Community School at one of the booths

Nurse Laverne, from the Polyclinic, demonstrates how to
take someone's blood pressure to students from
Sacred Heart Primary School

Ellen came up with a fun game for all the kids. It was a relay race with two teams competing. Players run up to a judge and answer a true/false question about exercise. If they get it right, they run back right away and tag the next person in line to run. If they get it wrong, they have to spin around 3 times (or so) before they can run back. Here's a little sample.

Here are just a couple more pictures. We had a great time, and got home very tired but feeling satisfied with the event.

Nella (from POWA) and Ms. Nen talking about herbs and
natural medicine

Aidra came to see us, too. Here she is with Ellen at our
Lifestyle table. In the foreground you can see the nutrition
basket I made to help illustrate examples of a healthy diet.

And . . . winding down.

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. 

Anniversary!

Fu We Dog says HELLO

March 24 marked the one-year anniversary of our arrival in Belize. Bright-eyed with hope and wet behind the ears (even at our ages of 61 and 63), we stepped onto the tarmac at Goldston International Airport near Belize City.We had already spent a year and a half going through the application process, pushing, pushing, waiting, waiting for faster processing and admittance into the ranks of the elite few who are chosen for Peace Corps duty. I think that all of us in the group had high expectations and plans to save the world. Even though we had been told during orientation and through various emails, "You should not have expectations of what you can do in Belize," it is human nature for someone in our position to want to feel useful and needed.

One year later, here we are with a VERY different outlook. We have been through the "honeymoon" phase of service early on, and we've had some pretty deep low points, too. At the risk of jinxing our situation, I do believe that we are on a long-term upswing now, one that will last us our last 441 days of service (but who's counting?). We have integrated well into our community, with more than just a nodding acquaintance with many people, and a close relationship with a few special friends. Our neighbors treat us like . . . neighbors! We still get some folks who think we're tourists, but that's rare. As for our outlook on work in the Peace Corps, we have met with reality and survived.

Steve is such a disciplined and positive person that he just forced himself to carry on, even while we drifted in the doldrums of the PC seas. (Oh, I worry about my imagery here. Are you gagging yet?) I have always used the "One Day at a Time" philosophy when confronted by a bad situation. However, I did set myself a deadline for improvement in the work situation (as in - OK, I'm outta here), and would have acted upon it if there were no change. We are pleased to say that all the waiting has paid off!

Our project assignment is to update and revise the training manual for Community Health Workers, and to insure that they have an effective training methodology and workable delivery system. The Community Health Workers are essentially volunteers in the community, mostly women, who educate and serve as a local resource for residents in small villages. They are given a very small stipend, $100BZ per  month, which is typically used for transportation. Training for these CHWs is provided by HECOPAB - The Health Education and Community Participation Bureau (of Belize) - and other NGOs, such as UNDP, World Bank, and MedicForce.

On the local level, they have been using a training manual that was created in the early 70s. Peace Corps management was approached by Ms. Arlette Sheppard, the director with the Ministry of Health in charge of the Community Health Workers. She asked if PC could help to revise and update their training manual. With Steve as the team leader, and I as the primary writer/production person, we will have meaningful, important work that will carry on past our stay here in Belize. And we believe it will have such a positive impact on the health of the people of Belize!

Planning has already begun, we are recruiting team members, and Ms. Sheppard will conduct a needs assessment. We have a rough outline that has been approved, so there's nothing to stop us from moving forward. Needless to say, we are both thrilled.

I will be thinking of this as my day job, with secondary projects teaching HFLE, and helping Dangriga Youth Alive with their fund-raiser event over the Easter holiday. There is also a possibility that I will help establish a girl's GLOW (Girls Lead Our World) club here in Dangriga. More about that in the next exciting installment!

Fu We Dog is getting BIG. Age 14 Weeks. I've expanded the collar twice.

Quickie Update on Peace Corps Stuff

Vacations are great, but we ARE here for a purpose, right?

Steve continues to go to the Polyclinic every day. Sometimes he goes with the social worker or the community health care workers to teach about hygiene or other topics. Yesterday he went to Hopkins door-to-door to warn about their water source. Fecal matter had been found in the water, and everyone needed to be taught about boiling water or using "purified" (bottled) water for drinking, cooking, washing hands and brushing teeth.

Steve is a great teacher. He's helping the neighbor boy downstairs with his homework several days a week. He also helped one of the POWA women with her high school homework recently. It was a marathon session to prepare her for a big-time math exam. She said he really helped her to understand all the different types of math. Kudos to Steve!

I am still teaching HFLE (sex ed) and life skills to elementary schools. Just got "fired" from one school yesterday. I guess I stepped over the line when I showed them how to put on a condom. The kids are 12 and 13 years old, and already know A LOT about puberty and other sexual health and reproduction topics. They have a very healthy sexual curiosity, too. But the parents felt that I was teaching them too much, that impregnation and safe sex were too much in depth. Here are some of the quotes: "They know more than I do." "They shouldn't be learning these topics until 6th Form (Junior college)." "They don't need to know about safe sex because they will wait until they are married to have sex." One parent threatened that if I kept teaching there, that she would keep her child out of school on those days. The book the teacher had been using before I started teaching was a Bible-based text called Love, Romance, and Marriage.

OK, so I learned my lesson, and will tread lightly at my other schools. I HAVE been teaching these same topics in the same way to other youth groups, but they were a little older. Anyway, I am a little worried that this could cause trouble for Peace Corps and reinforce some Belizeans' opinion that the US is trying to corrupt the people.

My Belizean friends sided with me and said the kids NEED to have the information, maybe even younger.  The other classes are going along fine, but I'm scared now, so I may not continue teaching the young ones after I meet my commitment through May.

I was officially put on a Pause status with POWA, meaning that I would not work them until things could be ironed out regarding my role and my relationship with my work partner. In the meantime, I certainly do not want to lose my friendships with the POWA members, so I have been visiting with them socially. In one case, I learned about an additional work project.

A little logo I made for their event

A small group of citizens (two of whom are POWA members) has formed Dangriga Youth Alive. Their focus is on raising funds for high school scholarships. They will hold a beach bash over the Easter weekend toward that end. Members of the organizing committee include the Community Relations Officer of the Police Department. He runs a group of kids called Police Cadets. There is another guy who runs the BDF (Belize Defense Force) Cadets. There is a woman who is a Girl Guides leader, and three parents. I will help them, and have done a few things already.

For one thing, they did a great job of keeping expenses down by getting contributions of supplies and prizes, but they needed more ideas for raising cash. Other than a fee from the food/snack vendors, and a percentage of the beer sales, they were basically providing free music and games for everybody for the gate admission of $1BZ.
I suggested some additional games that will appeal to kids and adults. They will pay to play them and have a chance to win prizes. The ever-popular CornHole, Fishing for Treasure, and others. We may have face painting for a shilling - $.25 BZ. That event is scheduled for April 8 and 9, Easter and Easter Monday.



Steve and I both will work at a health fair in Maya Center Village on March 9. It's an all-day fair focussed on senior citizens.

We need some pictures, right? How about puppies?! By this Friday I should have all them adopted out. Thank goodness. They are a LOT of work, and feeding them is expensive!

Sex is Just a Math Lesson

I can promise no redeeming social value NOR cohesiveness to this blog entry, Folks. Just some pictures and a hodge-podge of items :-)

• I have had two weeks of teaching HFLE (Health and Family Life Education) since our last entry. I am enjoying my time in the classroom, even the trying times. For 3 of the 5 different groups I am teaching basic Sex Ed - that is, puberty, anatomy, safe sex, HIV, and relationship skills. When we start into this track, we have one lesson where we ask the class to work in three groups to create a list of what they have learned about sexuality - one from their families, one from their friends, and one from the media. The highlight of my first class, from a 13-year-old girl:
  
  Sex is just a math lesson. Add the bed, subtract the clothes, divide the legs, and multiply the cells."
  Love it!

• Steve has been busy lately, working with a young woman from HECOPAB (Health Education and Community Participation Bureau). He and other PolyClinic people and PCVs have gone out to villages (house to house) and schools, primarily to talk about hepatitis and hygiene. He also presented at a workshop for Community Health Workers. This is work that he loves! Because he's always the one taking pictures, he's not in these snapshots.

KC Mcauliffe, PCV from Independence Village, teaching about
hepatitis.

This is Mariza Allamilla, the HECOPAB director for Stann Creek
District. She's teaching about washing hands. Wash your hands for
as long as it takes to sing the Birthday Song TWO times.

• Last weekend, our host mom, Sala Longsworth, and her best friend Beka Jones and two daughters came to visit us in Dangriga. Good times!

Beka standing, Jadyn, Haley and Sala

Glitter eyes - Jadyn

Face Painting - Haley

• This week Steve and I attended a meeting at HelpAge, an NGO supporting seniors in Belize. After the meeting, I gave them a sample of Zumba! We may decide to have a regular class for the members starting next month.

Waka Waka

• The puppies are getting SO big -  some of them over 6 pounds. They were all about 1/2 pound when born six weeks ago. I've given names to them just so I can keep track when I'm giving them special attention, like holding, deworming medicine, walks. Our dog, Fu We Dog, is the cutest (I felt compelled to include that observation) and smallest.
  
  One of the puppies has been given away - the big male, Africa. Not my choice to do it so early, but it happened. Good luck, Africa!
  
  We have begun the weaning process, and it's a LOT of work! The mother, Princess, wants to eat the puppies' food, so I have to tie her while they eat. She yelps and yodels the whole time. IF there is any left over, she gets it, but that's pretty rare these days.
  
• Beginning Friday, the puppies became bold enough to climb the long tall staircase to our back door (where Princess hides from them when she needs a rest). I was NOT happy about it, because the side of the staircase is open and they could easily fall off. At the beginning, we just pulled across a wooden gate that was already there to block off the stairs near the bottom. That worked until today when most of them made it to the top and the others were on their way up. They were outside the door crying.
  
  SO - Steve went to work trying to block them. The first attempt held them back for about 20 minutes. Readjust our thinking - just improve the existing gate, right? No luck. They were back up within a half-hour. This time, Steve went down with all his tools, and extra boards, and I don't know what-all. He came back with a self-satisfied smile. I felt confident that I could take my shower and not worry about getting dirty hauling puppies around again.
  
  By the time I got out of the shower, the puppies were yelping. Steve and I went out on the side porch and looked out on the back steps. There were two puppies trying to get through the gate. There was one puppy inside the gate, and looking back at the other two. We looked all the way to the left, and saw another one all the way at the top, looking back at us and wagging. Steve said with a sigh, "Puppies 3, Steve 0."

Anthony and Princess

Steve and a pile of puppies

Change of Plans, Saying Goodbye to Kirstin, and Puppies (of course)

There's been a change of plans - my plans, Peace Corps' plans for me. My original assignment was to work with POWA, a women's advocacy and empowerment group. I thought it was a dream come true, made to order for me.

I was the only one dreaming. To put it in the most positive light, they do not need a PCV. Their organization is well-developed and runs smoothly. I had very little to do and the connection seems to have dried up.

So I have spent the last two or three months trying to decide what to do. I'm not sure if PC management will try to find another official assignment for me. Some might think that it's a pretty nice situation to have expenses paid just to laze around in this tropical land. Many people say, "Well, part of your assignment is cultural. You get to know the people and they get to know you." That's true; the Peace Corps' mission has three simple goals:

1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of the Americans.

So the project stuff is only one-third of the work. I feel like I have done a halfway decent job of getting to know the POWA women, our neighbors, and others here in Dangriga. According to my friend, Kirstin, who just finished her service, I can make a difference in people's health just by being a friend and setting examples. WOW - that sounds easy! She told me that in her first two years of service Burkina Faso (she was here in Belize for her 3rd year extension), that she had very little "work," per se. So she spent lots of time "hanging out" with the women in the village. As they talked, inevitably health topics arose in the conversation, and she used that opportunity to provide little tidbits of information. She said that over the two-year time she saw behavior change, an occurrence which makes every health sector volunteer's heart go pitter-patter.

But my type-A personality won't let me settle for living life as a retired person and setting a good example. I want to be "working."

So I've been job hunting. Kirstin is the one who suggested that I find schools that would like help teaching HFLE, Health and Family Life Education. Now this part of the school curriculum is intended to be taught by the regular classroom teachers, typically in Standards IV, V, and VI (that's middle school,  6th, 7th and 8th grades in the States). However, the topics within the curriculum make some teachers uncomfortable - sexual and reproductive health and puberty, sexuality, intercourse, HIV/AIDS and STIs.

I have easily located three schools that welcome my help. I might venture that I could offer my teaching services at any school, and the teachers would love to have an hour off once in awhile.

• Kids First is a small private school. I will be teaching Stds. IV-VI all in one class, about 18 kids.
• Gulisi is a relatively new school, managed by the Garifuna National Council (Read about them at http://www.ngcbelize.org/index.php). I will teach three separate classes, Stds. III-V, on three separate days. Each class has 18-21 students. They will not have a Standard VI class until next year as the kids age up.
• Solid Rock is a church-based school. I will teach Standard VI only, 21 kids, two days a week.

I start this coming Monday, January 16. Now some people would argue that teaching this way is not "sustainable," another term you will hear over and over if you hang around Peace Corps purists. We should be teaching the teachers how to do it, so they can carry on after we leave. Two ways to look at this. First, the Ministry of Education and Peace Corps have held multiple-day workshops over the past several years to train teachers in HFLE curriculum. That's the ideal way to handle this need, but so far it doesn't seem to be taking hold very well, at least not in any schools I have visited. Second, in the meantime, I can teach the kids directly and most likely WILL effect behavior change because they are hungry for any knowledge especially about SEX. These kids will go on to lead healthier lives, and serve as examples to their peers and teach their children, too. Maybe. So that sounds pretty sustainable to me.

I'm pretty passionate about the non-sex topics as well. All those life skills  that I've been talking about in earlier blog entries are important in a healthy and productive life (communication, relationship, and decision-making skills, knowing how to cope with stress and grief, dealing with peer pressure). I've got one heck of a good lesson I wrote on Respect. Can't wait to try it out.

So I'll keep everyone posted on how things go. Wish me luck!

As a related issue, I will include this letter to the editor of The Amandala, from an irate parent, someone who thinks that we are not teaching correctly.

Dear Editor,

 

I am extremely furious that the school curriculum in Belize is teaching our children to be homosexuals. As a parent, I blame myself for not being vigilant enough to know the content of my child’s classes.

  

But I direct the weight of my anger at the Ministry of Education, which portrays innocence when this immorality is brought to light. Who gave the Peace Corps the authority to dictate our school content?

  

It is clear today that the Peace Corps are indeed spies that are here to carry out an American agenda of God knows what all. These things are being brought to light bit by bit, and those of us who were happy that America voted in its first Black President are now seeing what the white Americans knew. He is indeed the Antichrist!

  

But coming back to the reason for my rage: I, like many other parents, demand answers. We must call the Ministry of Education, even the church-state schools, to task. Didn’t the teachers know the content of this course? Can’t they read and comprehend?

  

If the answer to these questions is “no”, I will believe the report that several of our teachers failed the PSE a few years aback. This, too, explains why many young adults cannot read and can barely think after leaving school.

  

The Ministry of Education is doing us an injustice! Our education should conform with the societal needs, business demands, and capacity-building technologies. Indeed, we are far from developing our Third World country constructively.

  

Instead, we are more progressive in teaching children how to admire the physical attributes of their same-sex classmates, and how to prepare for sexual intercourse. How pitiful, distasteful and criminal.

  

May I remind parents and the Ministry of Education that this curriculum content is illegal because homosexuality is, at this time, still illegal in Belize. An urgent commission of inquiry is in order!

  

If Faber sees no need for this, we can file a lawsuit.

 

(Signed) Jasmine Orosco

*******************************

Kirstin in the center

We said farewell to a special woman last weekend, Kirstin Krudwig. She helped Steve and me so much as we tried to find our way through Peace Corps Land. AND she and I both love to exercise, so we spent a fair amount of time doing Zumba, strength workouts, jogging and walking. She helped me with different crafts projects, including those bracelets I made for the POWA women. She's now back in the States (Wisconsin - heard that on her first full day back it snowed!) and will be moving to Washington, DC, soon. Her special man is there, too, so she is starting out her new life in a very happy place!  Here are a few pictures from our farewell party.

Steve and me, Kirstin, Meghan V, and Ava

View from the Pelican Resort where we had dinner

I drew this picture as a going-away picture for Kirstin.
This is where we had our Zumba classes, right by the sea.

*******************************
And . . . as promised - MORE PUPPY PICTURES!

Their first day out of the doghouse as a group.
Their eyes had been open about 5 days.
They still stayed in a group for everything.

Same day. With Fu We Dog

Anthony with Fu We's sister

Princess being assaulted by the litter of 7.
Usually once the mother starts nursing them while standing up,
that means it's time to start weaning the pups. We don't have a
picture of her walking away while they try to hang on, but it's a
pretty hilarious sight!

All 7 puppies having their "solid" food. It's actually a mix of softened
puppy chow blended with water and dog milk replacement powder.
Who knew there was such a thing AND that you could get it in
Belize?

There are no words . . .

Of the seven puppies, 5 are female and 2 are male. OR, as Anthony likes to say, "Five are females, and two are a MAN."


*******************************

Here are some random pictures we forgot to post before. And my apologies to my dear Aunt Jean who has a dial-up connection for the Internet. I know these pictures really slow her down :-( but I always get so many comments on the pictures, so I like to include them.

Christmas Eve - Rafi and me

Christmas Eve - Steve and Anthony

Stann Creek leading to the Caribbean Sea. In the center in the
distance is Why Not Island. I'm treated to this view every morning
during my walk.