Happy Holidays Everyone!!!!


Have some turkey and stuffing for us!!!

This year we chose a more civilized Thanksgiving. If you didn't see it, this is our turkey from last year.

We hear the holidays creeping up have brought cold upon most of you especially in the northwest. We are now putting on long pants at 70 degrees instead of shorts! What will we do when we come home YIKES! We are trying to miss the cold as we are currently enjoying sweatless days of sunshine and sea breezes averaging around 80 degrees with a rain shower or two in the mix.

Recently we were invited back to our original permanent home San Marcos Village for a baptism. Our host family the Chubs - a family of now 11 children and four grandchildren were having a gathering for the christening of the 4th grandchild Malanda Kairy (yes that is the new spelling of Kerry, Karey, Keri, Carrie etc.) Malanda Kairy has an aunt just four months "younger" than her. Although the baptism should have been the main attraction, it was actually the 2 white people in church that held most of the kids attention. Then we had Caldo at the house with bunches of other people, chickens, dogs, ducks and the usual village fauna.

Michael has procured a grant of $2000BZD from the International Friends of Belize to build toilet facilities at the San Marcos Community Center that is also the hurricane shelter, third grade classroom and healthpost. The community is very excited for this project to happen. This will also encourage visiting medical and dental teams to stop there now that they will have a place to pee! Some we guess are just too fussy about the Mayan sized latrines.

Thanksgiving Day we were going to have local chickens for dinner but Michael McGuire another PCV found a turkey. So, a few of us gathered for good grits at the Manley Manor and had TG Day dinner on our "veranda". It looks like a big crowd will be gathering at our house for the Xmas holiday as well.

Our good friend, Ms Deeta is back and we are going out to her house tonight for what will become a solstice event. Deeta's interesting husband Zack, who we have not met is with her now. We will send news on this one.

Today is Thomasita's birthday so we will take a batch of brownies to her and Alane. Then TOLCA office party on Tuesday. Then a possible Christmas Eve gathering. Then our house for Christmas dinner. Then going to Thomasitas' church for Boxing Day. Then a News Years Party is forming at Brian and Anne's 'Dog House'. Just can't get any better than this.

We miss our lightening bugs we had last year as Christmas lights. We still have some egrets floating down for our snow scene. Our green colors are all around and this guy stopped by for some vibrant green.

After all these seemingly non-stop celebrations since September we will be glad to get back to something resembling 'normal'. Garifuna Settlement Day was another party. We went down to the park and Thomasita badgered Michael into dancing the Punta with her. He actually got some compliments for a decent performance for a white guy.

A great friend Karey made at the hospital, Yvonne, her kids actually chop our yard, asked us to go with her and some kids up Cerro Hill. We walked a bit more than a mile from her house to the base of the hill and headed up. The climb took about 45 minutes with the frequent breaks. Luckily a young Mayan neighbor teenager came with us and brought the machete. He lead the way and chopped the encroaching flora from the path. If we would have been alone we would just be getting back. The view was
great. The kids ranged from 10 to 18 years old and they were a bunch of fun. Yvonne said we are the oldest people she has taken up the hill. There was a radio tower on the top at one time and the old cable was still laying on the path. It helped when going up the rock sections. Yes, we did feel it for a few days. Haven't gotten much hiking in for awhile.

Well that's a wrap for now. Hope everyone slows down and truly enjoys their families and friends during the Holidays. Look around you, we are truly blessed to be living in the states. If you have trouble finding the reasons for your happiness, come down for a visit.


Love You All,

Michael and Karey

Dios to all our family and friends,

We know it has been a long time since we have been in touch but our time is being consumed. Being in the small town of Punta Gorda we find ourselves very busy. Everyone knows everyone and we are all "hailed" out to be of service.

Michael is involved in Red Cross Disaster Preparedness work, HIV/AIDS work and various development projects in villages.
"Me works" with the hospital in many areas, computer training and work, nutrition training at the hospital (would think they would have that knowledge??), a pharmacy database for a free medical clinic staffed by a monthly rotating group of med-students both from the US and from the UK. We both continue our work on the UNICEF funded WASH project in water, sanitation and hygiene. Working with the hospital and clinic has led to the impression that I am a nurse or doctor and people are starting to show up at our door looking for help.

I spend time getting people the help they need and or getting them to the clinic for help and assistance...anything from illness to dental health.

One of the biggest areas of our health work has to do with maternal and child health. There is momentum growing on the part of the women getting to the hospital for deliveries. Due to a high instance of hypertension (high blood pressure) and urinary tract infections (due to lack of sanitation) many pregnancies are at risk. Our local hospital can only handle simple pregnancies and simple fractures and stitches everything else has to be ambulanced to another area for higher level care.

This is a very patriarchal society and men still have the majority of say for the whole household. In many of the village households women are only allowed to speak anyone outside their home with the permission of their husband. He may also not allow them to get medical care at the hospital either due to custom/tradition, prejudice towards the medical personnel or who knows what. There is a wonderful existence here between many ethnic groups but 99.9% of the doctors are Nigerian or Cuban and the Mayan men don't want their women "open" to these doctors. There recently was a woman from one of the villages near by who tried to get to the hospital for delivery but her husband found her, returned her home - they delivered the baby and there was an infant mortality 2 days later. Heartbreaking.

Recently, we tried to get a Mayan mother, Carmelita to take her seven year old son to the doctor for an infected tooth that was causing serious infection in his gums and moving onto his inner lip. We gave her passage for the first visit but after that her husband forbade her to seek further help. He believes it is the spirit of a person or animal that the mother saw during her pregnancy that needs to leave the body before healing can begin. In some instances if they know the person or animal they will cut a lock of hair and burn it around the individual to inhale to release the spirit. Challenges exist.

Currently, we are in evacuation mode. We have been stuck in Belmopan due to a tropical storm that passed thru. We are all stuck in a the Peace Corps hotel that breeds mold faster than...It has been six days and we are all begging for release...it may be today!!! This is the most rain we have seen all season...and the early rain did take out a bridge that keeps us from taking the bus to the North when we are in our southern living region. We wait for news as to the condition of the temporary bridge at this crossing.

It wasn't easy, but we made it through the month of September. Wish we collected as much money as Obama did that month but at least we didn't work very hard because every other day is a holiday. School is seldom in session. The 3 day weekends were welcome. The parades and festival gatherings broke up any monotonous ruts we have developed with regular working days.

Trips are planned to places we have not taken the time to go see. With the projects we have going on the next 10 months seem like they are going to fly by. We will have a house to go back to but we need to figure out how soon we want to get there. There are now a few places to stop and see people on the way home.

Since we are not at our usual computer we don't have pictures to enter. We will post another blog before the end of the year and add some pic's.


Love to All,

Michael & Karey

Come the Rainy Season.........

We continue the ardent watch for the Nim li Ick, The Big Wind in Ke'kchi. So far the hurricane season has treated us well, can't say as much for Texas but they have more room. After the first deluge that flooded the north the weather now is a return of the dry season, it has been hot and, for the most part, dry. One night of exception brought us some back-up in the drains at the house but the flood waters receded quickly.

Apparently the weather is good for commerce. While Michael was finishing some work on our favorite single mothers food booth,(pictured with Thomasita), he saw a pick-up truck from a village going by. The truck pulled up at the store next door. As his son waited by the truck, the driver, Marcos, went inside and soon returned with 2 Cokes and the woman who runs the store following behind. Leaning over the bed of the truck he pulled back the cahune palms and a sheet of plastic. Reaching in and gathering up a chunk of red meat, he proudly displayed his product to his customer.

Approving of the quality, she pointed to several other pieces and Marcos' son promptly got out the scale, the tin dish to place the meat in for weighing, loaded the desired chunks of flesh and weighed up the sale. Finding a plastic bag he loaded the purchase into it, handed it to their customer, wipe his hands on the properly designated 'cleaning rag' and proceeded to open his coke.

Yes, of course they put the plastic sheet and cahune fronds back. Do you think they care nothing about food handling? They may not have, a food license from Public Health, education in proper hygiene, ever heard of ecoli, ever considered refrigeration but they do know how to butcher a beef steer. And after all, it's only 15 miles to town from their place. What could grow in that time? Needless to say, we don't buy beef locally.

We also enjoyed our second trip to Belize City. Not that we ever really want to go there but that is where the doctors and dentist are the Peace Corps wants to use. Michael lost a filling and had a wonderful experience with a Cuban dentist.

The appointment being a 8:00AM, he arrived a little early and sat in the shade until 8:20; not bad, could have been longer. The doors were opened and an older gringo, even older than Michael, who had been waiting in a Chevy Tahoe out front went in first. Soon becoming the second appointment for the day, Michael settled in to a undetermined wait in a 16'x16' room with a Chinese girl who had come in without an appointment.

Only 50 minutes later it was his turn. First being asked to try to adjust the air conditioner, he was able to at least get the fan going. The furnishings were of an earlier design but looking very professional. The doctor took her first look with gloves and mask in place.

Returning with the injection and the remote for the air conditioner, he was asked one more time to see if he could get the compressor to operate on the unit. Attempt failed; a reenforcement fan was brought in by her able assistant.

Still with the gloves on she began her work. At one point the assistant came in to ask about the items she wanted to order. Able to understand only a little Spanish when spoken at that velocity, Michael was unable to figure out everything that was being ordered. And apparently the assistant was having trouble as well because she had to hand the clipboard to the doc. Holding the board in her gloved left hand she punctuated her instructions with the drill by tapping the sheet with it while she reiterated the order list. Michael, breathing deeply, offered a small prayer for protection from germs. O.K., back to work.

Almost done drilling it was time out for a phone call, remove gloves. Returning while putting gloves on, Michael could not determine if they were new gloves or the old pair, time for one more quick prayer, the work began again in earnest until another question came in from the able assistant. The note book she carried came to the doctor, and grabbing it again with the left hand, more prayer, pointed out the correct selection with the drill once more.

OK, enough, the filling finally replaced and leveled to satisfaction Michael took his leave. Through the door and into the waiting room, now jammed with possibly 20 people, he exited with haste. Not knowing how many of those people had appointments, we will never know the fate of that poor Chinese girl with the tooth ache.

Karey had to go to have her foot looked x-rayed. She sprang it some time ago at the Dog House when we were house sitting. The picture is of the Dog House from the sea that Michael took on a quick morning kayak. She stepped of the spiral staircase in the back that leads up to the roof deck. The deck looks out over the sea and in back over the pool. Thanks Peace Corps.



But I digress, Karey's foot........No visable breaks, just damn sore. We are hoping they will send us to Cuba for an MRI.

Karey continues to work with Vinel on her reading. A whole NGO program could be developed just to increase the reading level of the majority of primary students. Thomasita's Alane is just back from a trip to Guatemala to see her grandma and she too will begin Karey's ready program. (Pic - Vinel and Alane feelin' saucy)




Our computer class just keeps growing. There are 2 more computer programs getting started. One from EU funding and the other from Canada. As if we don't have enough on our plate, Michael is offering to help with those projects also. One must realize, even though we have our fingers in many pies, the baking time for these pies in Belize is quite long and requires patience waiting for things to heat up.


Other than that, a marvelous trip and learning experience in Guatemala, finding out there are even more NGOs than we thought and some project money showing up so we are busy again, we continue "livin' the dream".

Come see us, we can put you to work. Won't that be fun?!?

All Our Love and Best Wishes to Everyone,

Michael & Karey

Dios

We are settling in but yet life never seems to hold very still for us. We are either traveling to villages, house sitting for expats or back and forth between Belmopan and Punta Gorda for Peace Corps activities.

Last month Jody and Mark (Karey’s sister and brother-in-law) came to visit for too short of a time. They got to be involved somewhat in our daily activities. We traveled to Dolores a remote village in the southwest corner of Belize to be part of a health fair and brand new school/hurricane shelter dedication. It was our first time also visiting the village and we all found it very beautiful.

Jody and Mark also got to attend an annual Mayan celebration in Tumulkin where the children in high school (small boarding school in a village) still learn current curriculums but observe traditional Mayan practices. A shaman opened the day with traditional burning of herbs and incenses giving thanks to all four corners of the earth. After that people came forward for traditional healings by the shaman. There were traditional foods being served and games for both adults and children. Corn grinding and tortilla making competitions….catch the greased pig or climb the greased pole…all had a good time. Photos are on the way but we were not allowed during the shaman’s ceremony to take pics.

Mark and Jody treated us to a lovely dinner at Machaca Hill Lodge. Can check it online. It is located up a hill high in the canopy of the bush. The biggest thrill for us all was the visitation of howler monkeys in the trees including a mama and her baby. We all got photos and hope to get them to you soon.

The rainy/wet season has surprised us and began last Wednesday in full force. Today is our first day with no rain. The northern and middle parts of the country have taken a big hit. We’ve had two tropical storms hit at once Alma and Arthur. They are saying that this is the worst flooding since Hurricane Mitch in ’89 and Hattie in ’61 when 275 people were killed. So, far we only know of one fatality. Our area, while heavily rained upon remains in pretty good shape. The biggest worry is a bridge that connects us to food and supplies has been destroyed. So, far no one has panicked and the stores haven’t been picked dry - but this is the first day. We will all have to rely on each other as supplies get scarce. We’re just happy for a moments break to get our laundry done. Without a dryer you have to catch those brief moments this time of year. Nothing will ever really feel dry until just past the end of the year. We are “almost” used to that by now.


Our biggest hassle right now are the ants. They don’t like the water so they are trying to take over our house. It’s quite annoying – especially as you try to cook or sleep. You know they would take over the world if it wasn’t for bug spray!! Our natural remedies don’t work on these tenacious little buggers.

All schools have been closed – our computer class has been doing well – we are just running out of working computers and gaining students. We are hoping by tomorrow schools will be back in session. However, all our students come in from the villages via bus. Here, once momentum is broken it is hard to get the action going again. We hope for the best.

The Peace Corps has granted us driving privileges – this will help our WASH project immensely. We anxiously await the UNICEF dollars to take up the project again. Now that the flooding has started clean water education and practices become even more important – it will just be the travel that will be challenging. The rivers do flood a lot but patience is a true practiced virtue here – you wait two hours in your car and then move forward.

We have daily visits from local children. Even in PG town some living situations can be worse than one can imagine. We are going to have to put some rules in place as some of the children stay around expecting/wanting to be fed and entertained. They are very beautiful sweet children but we are not equipped to take it all on. Everyone of them is their own special story.

Well dear family and friends – trust all is well back home – spring blooms and hints of summer breezes.

Love
M&K

Dios

We move forward at a place that is not recognizable in the states and still movement is being made. We have made it thru the first phase of our WASH (water, sanitation & hygiene) project. We will soon be training many people of the 24 villages chosen to train their communities in waste & animal management as well as safe water practices. It is very rewarding to know they have concern for the environment and are willing to make moves to better their situations. It's a lot of work and very time consuming as the travel is very difficult. We have been asking since January for driving privileges and again at a very slow pace they may come thur - lets hope before we leave.

A couple days ago I was travelling into the villages with the public nurse from Punta Gorda Hospital. Nurse Hazel. We were investigating an infant death at 1 yr and 2 mos in a family of 7 children as well as 4 infant deaths in another family of 7.

As we contact the Community Nurses' Aide, CNA, we find out she has been called to deliver a baby. We headed to Teresa Cucul's home. Teresa is 22 and this is her second child. Her first is three years old. The fact that she doesn't already have 4-5+ children and that they are spaced more than a year apart makes her a positive example within the village according to Nurse Hazel. However, Teresa has been in labor for over 12 hours and there is concern on her mother's face as well as Teresa's. Nurse Hazel says she must remain there to "catch this baby". We enter the one room dirt floor thatch. A tarp and blanket have been hung to create a birthing room. There is a twig bed inside and a large loop of some fibre hanging over the bed. Nurse Hazel takes Teresa's hand and brings her out into the daylight to see her coloring. She is very exhausted looking, yet still walking and not one word of complaint leaves her lips. In the next minute Nurse Hazel has her back in the room examining her to see how far along the birth is and we hear - the baby's head is right here. Women are carrying jugs of water slung around their heads and pouring water into a pot on the fire hearth next to the "birthing room". Not one complaint do we hear from Teresa. Teresa's husband comes in and out but for the most part stays outside with a couple of friends. One and half hours later a little boy apprx. 6lbs is born. After the little one is born Teresa lets her hair down and puts some in her mouth. This is believed to initiate contractions to expel the placenta. Nurse Hazel cuts the cord before the placenta has been expelled much to the shock of the Mayan women. They do not cut it until both baby and placenta have been "caught". Not yet bathed he is wrapped in a "clean" thin towel. After Teresa has been cleaned up Nurse Hazel asks me to take pictures of mama nursing here baby for the first time as well as pictures of the birthing room. (She will use these for education purposes)...I feel I am being somewhat obtrusive by doing this but I do believe Teresa felt my awe at letting me part of this little miracle. There was such naturalness and simplicity in this event thankfully. The Hospital is trying to encourage mothers to come into town to birth their babies but the travel is difficult - many fathers still deliver the babies and do not want their wives to come into town for many reasons - all of which we can only guess at.

After this event we investigate the infant deaths. The little girl that died on the way to the hospital at 1yr & 2mos - her mother is still feeling the pain as Nurse Hazel has to question her. She has seven living children all very close in age. Her living conditions are very meager and food is scarce. The child never gained her proper weight and would not take any solid foods. They did do a post Morton at the time (which was two months ago - there was no transportation until now to do the investigation). During the post-mortem they found brown liquids. The mother at the time said the baby had had nothing to eat. Now the mother says the baby was given coffee and cacao.(chocolate bean)
We move on to another home where the mother has had 7 pregnancies and only two children are living. The second child about 6 and the seventh a newborn. The first child, - babies 3,4 & five did not live past 6 months and it was determined just before they passed that they were blind. The 6th child was stillborn. Nurse Hazel asks many questions. She encourages the mother strongly to come into PG to have the opthamologist now there look at her baby. They are trying to determine whether the children were born blind or become blind It is difficult at this time of the year as the father's are working on their milpas (corn or bean plantations) either harvesting or preparing the soil for the rainy season and the father's have to give permission for the mother to go. It is suspected that these children may have a sibling pair for parents.
It's hard to reconcile this life with the one we all know and are grateful for, especially our beautiful families.

We hope your Easter was wonderful. We spent ours with the wonderful Miss Dita (62 yrs) who took us to San Ignacio for a couple days. There were about 10 of us Peace Corps and otherwise who toured the ATM cave (Actun Tunichil Muknal) It was a 45 minute hike into the bush, stop for lunch then a jump into the river to swim in the mouth of the cave. We traveled (walking & swimming) 1500 meters in. We reached a boulder about 10-12 feet high we had to climb. After that we removed our shoes to enter the dry portion of the cave and experienced the energy of the ancient Maya. I was imagining what our moms would say about walking in our socks. There were many artifacts as well as skeletal remains. Quite awesome.
The archaeologists can not figure exactly what the caves were used for. Caves are entrances to the earth mother and the spirits of rain, clouds, water all reside in caves. It is known that in burial ceremonies the shaman would gaze into the smoke and once the image of the departed was recognized they captured that spirit in pottery and turned it up-side-down. The prayers were said, ceremony performed, communion with the spirit, and once finished the pot was broken so the spirit could be free again. Many of these pots were still in the cave, just as they were last used and had been calcified onto the floor of the cave or altar rock. Skeletal remains were everywhere from 6 mos. to 47 years, possibly a rather old person for the times. Some skulls have signs of a blow to the head, therefore creating the impression of sacrifice. Still.........nobody knows for sure. We just made up our own stories.

Dita also took us to see what is arguably the premier ecotourism lodge in the country. Chaa Creek Lodge was the creation of a couple of 70's hippie societal dropout runaways. They came here the year we got married. Had to be a very different world. We were also treated to a visit to Spanish Lookout. This is an area populated mostly by Mennonites. After a trip down a gravel/rock road, taking a hand-crank ferry across the river, about a 1/4 mile ride up the hill from the river we came out somewhere in the US Midwest! Farmland as far as you could see. Implement and service companies on the corners of section roads. Just about anything you would want to find for farming and a drive through soft ice cream shop. If you got out of the car you could get lunch and a complete array of dairy products. All together a most memorable Easter.

We better get out for now. Hard work today trying to get laundry done. The rain gods from the caves are playing tricks.

We don't have all our photos off to Nathan yet but soon.

Love to all
us

Dios

It has been a long time - we apologize but life has been very busy.

We have moved into Punta Gorda (PG) into a cute little bungalow but in a much busier/noisier area than we had anticipated. If one was to visit you would say "What are you talking about"?? but after living in the bush for 7 months the transition is going to take adjustment.

Two weeks after moving in our family came down. Seven in total and took over the Coral House Inn. Will send photos to all when we get a chance. It felt like time and space didn't exist while having someone from home to touch and talk to. Tarzan and Jane in the form of our parents along with trekkers Frank, Claire, Stephanie, David and Charlie did some awesome kayaking, trip to the cayes, hike to the waterfalls for some cliff jumping and sightseeing at ruinas. They got to experience some great bird sightings along with iguanas along the river banks. Dad experienced in his words "a two beer moment" when one of the approximately 3 foot beasts jumped in the water right next to his kayak. The scenery was beautiful.... The trekkers did a day trip to Blue Creek River Cave which included cave swimming and spelunking.
Stephanie contributed to the Mayan economy by buying close to a dozen baskets from several of the local Mayan women.

Unfortunately, Michael suffered a nasty flu before and during the family visit. He was able to come about in time for trip to Snake Cayes....called that because it is a boa constrictor habitat. A small island where we were the only inhabitants for the day. We did some snorkeling and had great BBQ provided by our boat captain and tour guide. Saw one boa resting up in a coconut tree. Walked the whole island in search of more but they were hiding.

So far, we have seen a black tailed snake - about 5 feet long, good for killing the tommy gofff - one of the most deadly snakes here. We had one living under our thatch near the village. Karey saw a tiger rat snake -about 5 feet long, good for catching rats - they live in the rafters of the thatch and you leave them there for that purpose. One of Karey's trips to the villages - driving home in the dark the driver spotted a tommy goff on the road. We stopped, backed up to the spot and the car died - no lights, no battery, no nothing...didn't see the snake, the driver tentatively stepped onto the running board afraid to step down. He finally decided to step down to check under the hood. He made it to the front of the car - just released the latch (didn't lift the hood) and the car lit up again. OBEAH! A word used for superstition or spooky happenings. Driver safely back in the car we moved on.

The place we are renting is really quite cute. We have painted a greater part of the inside from bright lime green and bright blue in one room to little subtler colors for quieting the mind. We have a great friend here who gave us all her left over paint - otherwise it would have been a bit spendy for a PC budget. Wish the family could have seen cleaned up. We have had a terrible ant problem and the painting seems to have alleviated the situation A LOT! YEAH!.

Michael has pounded together a couch/daybed of sorts for the "great room". We also had some Guatemalan fabric donated to us so, we bought a piece of foam, covered it and we have soemthing of our own to sit on. It's our first - we are so happy. We have a little veranda that a hammock is set up on - but we are a bit hammocked out after the past 7 months. Still it is nice to rock in occassionally.

Belize may have animal laws, litter laws, residentail codes??, and noise laws but nothing is followed thru on. We clean our front yard weekly from trash blown in - we have a "moat" in front of our yard and it collects trash. We are not willing to step into it to clean it. When it rains hard it raises quite significantly and flows. The water will then clear up and we can see fish. Once even had a small heron in it. Hoping the people will seeset an example by cleaning up - our friend says now the folks just know where to throw out the trash!

There are many many stray animals as few Belizeans consider spay & neuter. At night there must be no less than 50 barking dogs "harmonizing" with the high decibel levels of the competing bars in the neighborhood. We are learning to sleep under any conditions. Good news - we don't have to have a mosquito net in town and we have a REAL bed. We just found out the Public Health Inspector do periodic poisoning of the stray aniamls. They put out poisoned food in the evenings and after that we are not sure..........???

We continue to work hard on the WASH (Water Sanitation & Hygiene) project. It is a UNICEF funded project. Karey travels and travels and travels to the villages and Michael keeps things moving forward from town. It is very hard to meet schedules and agendas here. So, our American "get it done" style is atrophying. Probably not such a bad thing. "Right Now" in Belizean means anything from 1 hour to maybe...it is our favorite joke.

We are attempting by request to start an adult computer class we hope with the help of the local Ministry of Education. Karey has been asked to help with the local girls gymnasatic/tumbling team one of the other PC Volunteers started. The girls bailed once before - they have come back but they need a female present. Also, have been requested to teach a Yoga class. Have to see what I can fit in.

Well that's all the new for now!!! Will try to get here more often. Will attempt to get some pictures out soon. Okay sooner than soon - promise.

much love to all
trust this finds you all well and happy
us