Electronic Entertainment in Belize

I recently received an email from my friend Charlie. He said he was sending 20 (TWENTY!!) DVDs, some of which were items from HBO which he is judging for the Emmys. Now Charlie knows a lot about Emmys. See here -

Anyway, he's a great friend from high school and college days, who I recently rediscovered through Facebook (yay!), and it's been wonderful reconnecting via FB and email. Of course, I was overwhelmed and grateful - big time - and excited to know we'd be enjoying some quality entertainment soon. Then I thought this topic about what we have available in the realm of DVDs, TV and music might make a good one for our blog. So here goes.

There are NO legitimate or authentic DVDs here in Belize, at least not that I've been able to find. They are all pirated. Most are made by amateurs who have access to a computer and a little bit of pirating software. One guy we met in the market in Belmopan told us that all his DVDs were originals, that he had his own burner. So what he meant was they were copies of originals. They were being sold 5 for $20 BZD (that's $10 US).

We've bought a few DVDs from various sources. We are often disappointed. Here are a few examples of what we've seen:

• Volume so low it can barely be heard
• Aspect ratio bolluxed up so everybody is squashed flat (a real pet peeve of mine, and I see it often with TVs where people want to see a square picture filled out on a rectangle screen.)
• Sound not synced with the picture. On one movie, the sound was ahead of the picture by about 10 seconds at the beginning. By the end of the show, there was was more than a minute gap from when the sound played the dialog to when the picture showed them speaking it.
• Videos taken by a camera set up in the movie theater, so you get to see everybody getting up to get popcorn and go to the bathroom. Can hear them laughing.
• Subtitles for various languages. Since there's never a menu on the DVD, we can't remove them.
• DVDs that just die in the middle, or worse, near the end of the movie.

Steve and I went without television for a long time here in Belize. But then basketball season came along and I really wanted to see how our Tar Heels played. We bit the bullet and bought a television. We already had cable so we could have internet access. So the TV part was already paid for; we just had to plug it up and go! Now that the NCAA tournament is over, I just watch an occasional Law & Order rerun. But I LOVE movies.

Turns out that many of the shows we see on 125 channels we get for $42BZ/month are also pirated. The local channels - I think there are 5 - often broadcast first run movies. I mean movies that are still in the theaters in the US. They often exhibit the same characteristics as the DVDs I described above.

We also have about 30 premium channels, HBO, Showtime, Starz, etc., all for that same $42 dollars. There's no guide for the channel lineup, and they change numbers frequently, so it's tough to plan for a specific movie or show. 

Below are a few screens that we see as we surf the channel line-up. I don't really understand it, but I think our cable company subscribes to DirecTV, Dish and Sky networks (as an individual??), and then broadcasts the channels out to us. Maybe that's what all cable companies do. All I know is these message aren't anything we can respond to.

DirecTV screen saver

Yes! We have American shows, Mexican, Indian, Nigerian
and Chinese programming!

No or bad signal.

Internet is very expensive - We get 600Kb/second for a monthly fee of $138 BZ. Once we worked through the initial connection kinks, it's been reasonably reliable. No good for YouTube or any streaming video. Belize blocks certain things, too. For instance, no Skyping without a VPN. And Pandora radio won't work without a VPN. Otherwise, we can do most of what we want.

A lot of people play their music from their computers, and they use the dubbing/DJ software so that they play sirens, laser gun, and other sounds over the music. So even if it does happen to be a good song that they're playing at 100 dB, you can't really hear it because of all the special effects that are laid on top of it (at 110 dB).

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

New Subject!! Our vacation with my dad and stepmother, Joyce. They came for a week to visit. The previous week they spent in Costa Rica, where they went zip lining through the Cloud Forest. This vacation was a little more low key than previous family visits (Dad's 85), but we definitely did some fun things and ATE WELL.  Here are a few pictures from their visit.

Drumming and dancing in Dangriga

Everybody dances

Dad and Joyce with Carla and Des (They are both friends of
mine. They love to do Zumba, too!)

Dad and Joyce doing ballroom dance in the Caribbean Sea

Joyce bought a BIG drum. With Norielee Rodriguez.

The Wheels on the Bus

Time marches on, and we have less than 13 months to go in our service here in Dangriga, Belize. The group that arrived a year before we did has now completed its service and most have left. In an effort to get matters "cleaned up" here in PC Belize, there will not be a new group brought in for 2012. Management will decide what will be done with the Peace Corps mission for this country. TOTAL SPECULATION - I think we will be the last group here for a long time. I will be happy to be proved wrong.

In the meantime, we celebrate Peace Corps 50 years in this country. Last year was the 50th anniversary for the Peace Corps organization world-wide. When PC started here it was British Honduras!

It's been awhile since we wrote about anything other than our day-to-day work. Maybe a little write-up on how Belizeans get around would be interesting. There are three main highways in the country. The first is the Western Highway which goes from Belize City to Belmopan City to San Ignatio Town (and a little bit beyond to Benque Village).The Northern Highway goes from Belize City to Orange Walk Town and on to Corozal Town. The third highway is a combination. Hummingbird Highway goes from Belmopan City south toward Dangriga, then branches off to go further south and is called the Southern Highway. It goes all the way to Punta Gorda Town.

Ignore that "Coastal Road" you see in this picture.
It's a death trap. NOBODY drives it except the
bad guys from Belize City trying to escape the police.

The primary form of transportation for Belizeans is the bus. The largest companies make the long runs, along the large highways, and are subsidized by the government. Those companies and how they win the right to make those big runs is highly politicized (surprise!). Last year, one of the companies that had been making the runs up north lost to another company. But the government gave the first company a concession - they could make a few runs west. Problem is, all the bus drivers lived up north, so they would have to travel a hundred miles at 2 in the morning to get to the starting point for the 4 o'clock run.

There are also a LOT of entrepreneurs who run buses in smaller geographic areas. These guys have a nice little niche business going, and a very loyal (well, captive) clientèle. They ALL work very well together. Let's say someone lives in Hopkins Village. The bus there goes to Dangriga twice a day and returns twice a day. If someone wants to go to Belmopan, they have to take the Hopkins bus to Dangriga, and then get on the James bus to Belmopan. Most of the time, as the Hopkins bus is headed into Dangriga, the James bus is leaving, usually two or three miles out of Dangriga when they pass. The James bus stops (pulls over to the LEFT shoulder) nose to nose with the Hopkins bus, and lets all the northern-bound passengers from the Hopkins bus get on. If they didn't do that, the Hopkins people would have to wait an hour at the Dangriga bus station for the next James bus. This easy exchange of passengers happens all over Belize.

We use the James Bus most of the time

There are rules about how many people may ride on a bus, that is, there must be a seat for every passenger. That rule is followed for as long as the bus is in the confines of a bus station with Department of Transportation employees. Here's how it works. The conductor "kinda" counts as people get on, and if there are too many, he tells everybody to squinge up and make room so all can sit. They drive out of the station. As soon as they are out, the extras stand up and hang on. Not only that, the savvy people who could tell that they wouldn't get a seat AT the station go wait at the next corner and get on there. And so forth. Because most of the buses are local, people are constantly getting on and off. I've been on 84-person buses that easily had 150 people on them.

There are other rules. A kid doesn't count as a person for a seat as long as the mom can hold the kid on her lap. I've seen mothers with 4 kids pay one fare. Makes it really tight for the person sharing that seat. Not too many stand up to give their seat to a "lady" or elderly person. Sometimes a pregnant woman will pique someone's pity.

The Belmopan Bus Station

The conductors work hard! Those guys help with bags, babies and kids, and serve as a bouncer on rare occasions. They also collect all the money and hand out receipts. How they keep in their heads who's who is beyond me. They let everybody get on in a town or village, and then head down the aisle to collect - a different amount for everybody, different destinations. They are so helpful to anybody with questions, too.

Last thing I'll say about the buses and the people who drive them, is that they have a great relationship with vendors and individuals, and they do a LOT of favors for people. They'll pick up a bag or box from somebody standing next to the road, maybe in a little village. Then somewhere down the road, who knows how many miles, there will be somebody else standing by the road or waiting nearby. The driver knows where to stop, and somebody comes running out to pick up the package. There's a lady who bakes delicious breads who lives along the Hummingbird Highway. She or one of her kids gets on the bus going south every afternoon carrying a large tupperware container of bread. We always buy at least two loaves. She sells the bread to those on the bus for about 10 or 12 miles, then gets off. Catches the next bus north and sells bread till she gets back to her house. I think she makes at least a couple runs each day. She's putting her kids through school that way. She's the one I know the most about, but I'm pretty sure that other people take advantage of the retail opportunities on other buses.

Things I don't like too much:

• Very few of the buses have air conditioning (only the express buses - no locals). It's AWFUL to be on a bus when it's raining. They close all windows, and it becomes a steam bath. Arghhh.
• Getting on the bus at a station is pandemonium. Everybody shoves and stomps their way forward like they never learned about standing in a line and being polite and civilized about taking turns. I'd much rather go out to the corner to catch the bus.

OK, like most of the time when I get on these long drawn-out descriptions, I fear I've included TOO many details. How can I possibly tell you all the cool stuff? Sorry if you're snoozin'.

Next time we'll have pictures and stories of our vacation with my dad and stepmother. They are here to visit for a week, and we are doing the easy life thing.

Mothers Day in Belize

This is my second Mothers Day away from home. They celebrate Mothers Day here, same as in the States. I had a wonderful phone call with Jeff this morning. The rest of the day has been very low key. I'm nursing some gastric "unrest" and some bug bite blues, so I haven't been very active. A little bit of painting, and a WHOLE LOT of Law & Order SVU. They're having the "Mother of all Marathons" with mother-themed stories - HOURS of them!

So the whole work week was a little bit like today. Very low key. EXCEPT

• We passed our halfway point! As of May 3, we have been here 406 days, and we have 405 to go!

• There was a murder very close to our house on Thursday night. Like a "professional" hit with seven shots in this one guy. They drove up, jumped out of the car, shot the guy and drove away. I was standing right next door to where it happened less than five minutes before. Thankfully, this is not typical of Dangriga (not that we don't have a knifing or rape now and again). Generally it's a pretty peaceful town.  Here's a link to the story. Enjoy the Kriol!    http://edition.channel5belize.com/archives/70289    AND here  http://www.lovefm.com/local_news.php?item=230
• I finished the first chapter for the CHW training manual - THREE DAYS EARLY.

Those were the highlights. Steve and I also went over to Hopkins for the grand opening of the Sandy Beach Restaurant yesterday. It's going to be a success, I'm sure. They'll really get going when they get their liquor license!

Sorry, that's all there is. Here are some pictures:

These are some that I painted for the restaurant.

Young Garifuna girl - about 9"X9"

Garifuna drummer - about 5"X4"

These were taken yesterday at the grand opening of the restaurant.

Steve in the kitchen at Sandy Beach

Miss Marlene, one of the ladies who run the restaurant. She is a
VERY good cook.

Meghan was the Jill of all Trades - bartender, money manager,
sign maker

Here's one of the signs she made

Steve put up one of the pictures I made - on the women's bathroom

And on the men's bathroom

Steve is Helping Underfed and Malnourished Children

Steve here:

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Red Bank village about 45 minutes south of here. I went with my work partner, Tylon, who is a social worker leading the child nutrition project for our district. We pulled up benches and plastic chairs in the shade of the health post and had a wonderful audience of about thirty mothers and at least that many children. We talked about the nutritional benefits of Incaparina for children, especially during the first two years of life. We also worked with the visiting nurse who talked to the mothers about food preparation for children after weaning.

Community Health Worker is teaching mothers about weaning to
solid food. Mothers in Belize are encouraged to use breast feeding
for at least six months after birth.

We had cookies made from Incaparina to give away at the end of the session, and they were a really big hit. The mothers were hesitant to try the cookies until they saw how popular they were with their kids. We were also able to convince the mothers that the food supplement provided by the nutrition project was a good thing, and we convinced them to accept samples to use in their cooking at home. It wasn't an automatic sell. Just as with the cookies, the moms didn't jump to take the Incaparina. So I stepped up to someone and said, "Would you like to take it home and try it?" She took it, and then others joined in. they all took one, then came back for more. "I have a sister. Maybe I could take one to her." "My neighbor could not come today, but I will take one to her." Some of the mothers took four packages. So we're confident that the program got off to a good start.

On Saturday I was invited to a work project in Hopkins village where a fellow volunteer is assisting a co-op of women to prepare the Sandy Beach Restaurant for re-opening. The women cooked a sit-down lunch for all of us. The meal tells me that the restaurant should do well.

I got to do some woodworking and use my tools! I helped one of their children attach a new brace to a broken picnic table, and I cut boards and helped the ladies put a new top on the table. One of the best parts was getting to speak Garifuna with the women who were all good and patient teachers. 

This is Cathy here with my two-cents worth:

I spent the week at my computer working on the CHW manual. If I do this a lot, that's gonna be a sure-fire way to a BIG BUTT. I make myself get up every hour or so, but it's not enough! My brain gets pretty fried. OK, I'm through with the whining.

One thing I did for fun, was create some paintings for the Sandy Beach Restaurant. They are meant to be crude, rustic looking. I used rough cut board, and put latex wall paint as a background. Then used poster paint to paint in the simple pictures.  Here are a couple. More on the way.

This one will get trimmed and put on the door
of the women's bathroom

Garifuna woman clapping

Last blog entry, I mentioned that my Zumba class is doing well. Mondays we have more than 20, and we dance outside in the school yard. Thursday nights, there are fewer so we can workout/dance inside. Ava took some pictures of our last session. They are a fun bunch - really get into it.

All the Latest from Your Friends, Steve and Cathy

Steve’s news

After Easter I had a quick visit to the US to see my adult children and the grandkids. It was a wonderful trip. I was there for my granddaughter Olivia’s birthday, and took cupcakes to her class at school, and went out for her birthday dinner. My daughter Laura took me to see my dentist, which was a real treat. It’s the small things ;-)

With Olivia, 9 years old

My sister Nancy took me to Huntersville to stay with my son Chris for the other half of my vacation. She and I caught up on stuff during the trip. With Chris, I got to see two of Jim’s baseball games. He was the team’s MVP for one of the games. Chris took me to get a real haircut before I got my driver’s license picture made. We also shopped for some things not available here.

Chris, Kaleigh, me, and Jim

[From Cathy - When Steve got back, I asked him what the most striking thing about the visit was. He said, “It was cold – 58 degrees and I had to wear four layers.” Well, admittedly that was in part because he took only a very light jacket. But he needed three shirts under the jacket to be comfortable. Now that’s proof that he’s truly acclimated to Belize.]

Last week Cathy and I went to the Peace Corps office for two days of in-service training and got re-energized for the coming year. On the last evening we participated in a forum on “site challenges.” [From Cathy - The PCVs who have been disconnected from their original assignments participated. There were 15 of the remaining 35 in this forum who participated. Granted that’s a hefty percentage, and not typical of other Peace Corps installations. They are working hard to repair the situation so that we all can have a “true Peace Corps experience.”]

After the forum, were invited to a dinner event at the ambassador’s residence. He is a very impressive person. [From Cathy - His name is Vinai Thummalapally (rhymes with monopoly). He was Barack Obama's roommate at Occidental Collage one summer! He was SO charming. Went around serving wine and chatting with everyone.]

With the Ambassador (P.S. That's water I'm drinking.)

After the dinner we were hosted overnight by Donna and Barry who are career foreign service people. [From Cathy - Donna is from Goldsboro, so we felt a connection with our home state. Barry, from Oklahoma, looked the part with his crisp black cowboy hat and boots. He is involved with law enforcement in his current assignment. He regaled us with funny, and scary, stories about the goings on in Belize. What a treat to be back in a beautifully furnished home, air conditioning, and – get ready for this – a real bathtub. I took my first real bath in a year. (Bucket baths don’t count.) For breakfast, we had individually-baked asparagus quiche that Barry whipped up. Well, shame on us for not getting a snapshot of them. Here are their Facebook pictures. Thank you, thank you, Donna and Barry!]

Donna and Barry

Now we are back to work. The revision of the training manual for the community health workers is shaping up to be a big deal, and we are really enthused about this project.

Next month we are looking forward to a visit by Cathy’s dad and his wife.

The super big news is that Cathy’s son Jeff and his wife Stephanie have announced they are expecting a baby in October. So that means a trip to North Carolina for us. This will be the first grandchild on Cathy’s side of the family.

[From Cathy – Just a couple other things from me.

We felt our first earthquake on Sunday, April 22. It was such a little rocking sensation, just two separate tremors, but there was no mistaking what it was. One of the pictures hanging on the wall was barely swaying, but that’s about the only visible sign I saw. The next day I found a website (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/)  that pinpointed the epicenter in Guatemala. It was a 4.4 on the Richter scale. At first we doubted ourselves, but the next day when Steve went to the clinic, people were talking about it. I asked our downstairs neighbor Rafi if she had felt it. She showed me a new BIG crack in the wall next to the shower. People here just take it in stride.

Last Friday I gave a short presentation to our Business Organization sector PCVs. It was an hour of tips and shortcuts using Excel as a database. I was pretty skeptical that they would be receptive to such a topic. It had been requested by one of their group, but I assumed that most would be experienced on the topic. That wasn’t the case, however, and the presentation went very well. Some said it was the best of the two days. Go figure?!

I’m working on one of the modules of the CHW (Community Health Worker) training manual in anticipation of our first team meeting next Friday, May 4^th (MAY? How did it get to be May?) So far we have Steve and me and another woman from the PC office on the PC side. From the Ministry of Health side there will be two HECOPAB educators, a public health nurse, and the Director of HECOPAB. Yes, I am nervous about how my work will be viewed. Oh, well, you have to start somewhere . . .

Oh, yeah. Last Monday my Zumba class had 30 people!

FuWe Dog is getting big!

Back to Work!

After celebrating for two weeks, Belize has settled back down to its regular routine. Kids are back in school, businesses are back to their regular schedules. A lot of people leave on holiday, but the majority have returned.

And Steve is BACK from the States. He returned Monday, the 16th (is that tax day back home?) from a fun visit with kids, grandkids, and his sister, Nancy. I asked him what he thought about the differences between here and there. He said it was cold (down to 58 degrees, and he was wearing four layers), and it was hard to find things in the store because there was so much in the stores.

Well, I felt like I worked a lot during the two Easter weeks. Dangriga Youth Alive (DYA) beach bash took a lot of effort and time. I also helped one of the DYA members apply for a training in cultural tourism (which she won!). DYA had a debriefing meeting to talk about what worked and didn't, how much money was spent and how much was earned. Ah, me, there wasn't a very large net - just a couple hundred dollars :-( But several to-dos (big ones) came out of the meeting, and I will have a role in helping them with all those things. I'll write about them as they come up.

What we're working on now is Thank You's to the sponsors and donors of the event. I wrote a message text that will be put on cable TV which included the names of them all. I think it's $16BZ to have a message played all day. There are one or two channels that run them - obits, job opportunities, happy birthdays, etc. I personally don't watch those channels, but some people keep their TVs on those stations most of the day, listening to the music and reading the messages. We are also going to make handwritten thank you notes for each sponsor. Steve brought back a PRINTER!!!! and I will make some nice note cards with the DYA logo (which I created for them). Yeah, that's the Drums of Our Fathers sculpture in the middle there, recognized easily by all Dangrigans.

On the day that Steve flew back, I was in Belmopan attending a meeting with the HECOPAB (Health Education and Community Participation Bureau) health educators. These are the people, like Mariza with whom Steve works, who train Community Health Workers. There are eight of them right now, with two more to be hired in the next few months. My purpose at the meeting was to meet them and discuss the training manual/training plan that is our current project. They are a very dedicated and enthusiastic group, and I feel that we'll get a lot of help from them.

The leader of this group is Arlette Sheppard. I am so impressed with this woman. She is new to the position as director of HECOPAB. I found out she was one of 10 nominees for Belize's Woman of the Year for 2012, an award sponsored by the US Embassy. Here's a little write-up I took from the awards speech made by Ambassador Vinai K. Thummalapally.

Arlette Sheppard serves as Director and Health Education Officer of the Health Education and Community Participation Bureau.  Her work at the Ministry of Health consistently reflects her professionalism, enthusiasm and humanity.  She oversees some 250 community health workers who provide health education, services and care to towns and villages which have little or no access and which otherwise would have to do without.

Well, this group has a very ambitious schedule for the project, and we're looking at just three months to produce the first four chapters, and do a trial run with a group of Community Health Workers (everybody here says "CHWs"). There are currently 247 CHWs in the country, all of whom they want to retrain. But the plan is to have one CHW for every 250 people in a village, and that's going to mean recruiting A LOT more people. For instance, the village Steve and I lived in during pre-service training, Camalote, has one CHW now. The population is about 1500, so theoretically they would add another five CHWs.

There is to be an inflow of funds from the World Bank and a Japanese NGO that will be focussed on children's health. To carry out the project, they need trained CHWs. That money starts flowing in September. Yikes!!

Needless to say, I'm writing, I'm editing, I'm working on graphics. Steve is the team leader. He is recruiting writers, short- and long-terms team members. Our big need is someone who can do the illustrations. HECOPAB members really want the pictures to be culturally appropriate, not just some random graphic from the Internet. And we don't have any money to pay an illustrator, so we need an altruistic illustrator. Please ask your friends. Anybody in the world (who has access to Internet) can do this job; it doesn't have to be someone in Belize.

New topic: I'm so glad to be back teaching Zumba after a two-week break. Feels so good, and the group still grows - routinely more than 20 at each class :-)

OK, I'm done wrote-out. Sorry we don't have art this time, not even any new puppy pictures. The next two weeks promise to be extremely busy with meetings in Belmopan, so it will probably be awhile till our next entry. Everybody take care.

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.