Our address has changed again...
Michael and Karey Manley
Peace Corps
San Marcos
Toledo District
Belize
Central America
Mostly needed - Emergen-C and M&M's :-) ....it's that simple!
Also, if you have it in your holiday spirit to send an inexpensive chess set to us it would be greatly appreciated. There is an initiative to start chess clubs in the village schools to provide activity, focus and challenging strategizing for the Toledo youth. This project in the north of Belize has had great success.
The resources for the Toledo youth have been very scant compared to the north of Belize. TOLCA (Toledo Children and Adolescents) is a consortium to get equal benefits for the children in the south. With the changing of modern times - the Toledo youth need to learn focus and direction. Without a long explanation of the life of youth down here....chess has proved a great learning and strategy tool for youth here.
OK...you've heard enough blah blah blogging from us the past couple of days.
Happy Halloween (they do celebrate it here)
luff
us
Monday, October 29, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Dios
We know it has been a long time since we blah blah blogged! How to explain all that is happening is somewhat cumbersome by a virtual medium.
We moved to our village after all hurricane evacuations at the beginnng of September. After two weeks there, as we think we mentioned the living conditions were quite sub-standard. We house sat for a almost a month near an eco-tourist lodge. The house was owned by the parents of the owner of the lodge. Follow that?? The father (from Germany) passed away in February and around here places can't remain empty for too long or the bush and critters take over.
During our first village council meeting back in September the village said they would help build us a place on village community property but they weren't sure where that would be just yet. The identified a sight in the village but the PC didn't approve it as it was not near other people, too wide open, not safe, no drainage...etc.etc. With our Associate PC Director (APCD) we negotiated to build the house on our host family's property. Everything in a village has to be approved by the village leaders. This was approved by the two main leaders, the village chairmand and the 1st Alcalde and we moved forward building the thatch. The deal was we would basically pay rent up front to build the house and there would be no subsequent payments after the house was built. The PC would then use it after our stay of two years for the following four years. Our Healthy Community project is a six year project.
So, construction began...we got the cement floor poured (most houses have packed mud floors) and the main posts constructed, also cement. By this time other villagers who weren't in on the decision were heating up. As the last of the cement was being poured the village 2nd Alcalde said the villagers were "vexed" about the location of the PC volunteer home and a town meeting was called for the next day at 6:00pm. We were hearing all kinds of stories...we would be chased out of town...PC had raised monies for the village and were using it to build a house instead of using the money to better the village....who knows
Now, how do we explain all we have learned and been told about village politics and the village mindset???? From the beginning we have been "educated" about following procedure in the village. Also, not everyone participates or doesn't care about what's going on until they may see someone's life being bettered more than theirs. We have been "educated" that many petty jealousies exist in villages...people don't always work together...there is no volunteerism...any requests for assistance must be paid requests. We have also been "educated" on the fact the NGO's come in and contribute to some betterment to a community i.e. building latrines, fixing up schools etc. After that they leave - if any part of the project falls apart that is the way it remains and the villagers expect someone to come and "fixit". Their is no sustainability. Our village, we are learning has a reputation that fits all these categories. There is always so much more to explain but that will have to do.
So, we halt the building process two Sundays ago and Oct 15th at 6:00pm at the local basketball court in the dark, we attend a wild village meeting. Most of it was in K'ekchi but it wasn't hard to understand the body language and the shouting. We had already decided to just remain balanced and let what happens happen. There were wonderful people there who interpreted for us. We found out that it was only a small faction of people who were "vexed"...but that is the same as having a "bad apple" in the bunch. After all was said and done (including them wanting to cancel the PC contract) there were actually more good apples than bad and some came up to us and were grateful we were there in their village.
There was another meeting scheduled with our APCD for the following Thursday. We actually were uplifted after the first meeting even though it was intense. We have begun working on projects for the village and admist the chaos we found like minded souls. We called our APCD and he thought he could handle the situation and all would be well. We were again positive it would. Thursday nite however, did not go so well. We still got together with some of the positive folk and scheduled another meeting regarding upgrading the school for the following Sunday. Only the "nay-sayers" attended the Thursday nite meeting. After all that being said our living situation is still in flux. Our APCD isn't sure this village can get it together. He is very concerned because the some of the main village leaders do not get along or like eachother. Again, our village's reputation holds. The PC is in a decision making mode right now and we are in limbo. We remain positive!!! except we are tired of moving...one of the options is to move us to another village. In this modern world of computers e-mail etc. and beaurocracies needing to be contacted, most of our work takes us into PG to make connections with the powers that be. Therefore, it takes us out of the village and the some people don't understand the process and don't want to. They only see things one way. So, that is another issue. Other villagers have tried to communicate these issues but jealousy blinds.
Again, we move forward with the Sunday nite meeting. Not great attendance but most of the people who care about the village and most of the main leaders showed up. The housing issue was not brought up, only the school upgrade issue and the projects we have been working on. Today we have a scheduled meeting with all the village leaders. The village council, the Alacaldes, the PTA and the Water Board. This is a first in a long time. We will only be dealing with the project issues and we are very excited that maybe out of chaos comes good. While waiting for the bus yesterday, a friend from the village, Domingo says he realizes that if a community does not unite there will never be positive development for the villagers. A wise young man....probably early 20's, married and three children.
We are currently house sitting next door to where we were before. There is a lovely retired British couple that needed their two 5 month old rotweiller pups cared for while they returned to England to get some affairs taken care of. There are two thatches on the property - one is their storage shed but it is a nice one room thatch with screened window all around. There is even a flush toilet outside in another thatch covered room. Showers are still cold...and we sleep in hammocks again. Not the best on these bones but soon we hope our lives will settle soon and we will get a bed.
Believe it or not...it is cooling off down here. We look like weebles when we go to bed wearing many layers of clothes to stay warm. We just look at eachother and laugh. We have an addition to our family. A 7 week old kitten named Pema. She is so cute she looks like a toy. We are raising her to be an efficient critter getter. She is feisty and fun. Pets around here are rarely cared for. It is the saddest thing. There is no consciousness of spaying and neutering...there is no consideration of feeding household animals...they are all stunted, emaciated and sometimes hairless. Everyone has 2 - 4 dogs and cats...as well as any number of fowl and pigs...who are cared for the same way. The chickens have no meat on them...they are almost featherless. Just now there are movements to change this situation but it will be a long time coming.
We will keep you posted. We are excited about our projects with the village...let's hope they will be too. We currently work in the school library three days a week and read with the children. It did have a computer with Encarta (very dated) but it has since broken down. Michael has been trying to fix it, hoping it is just a switch issue but we are not sure. We are helping the village put together a proposal to add four classrooms...one will be a computer lab. If that comes together we will be searching for computers and hope to get them internet. The school population has grown from 186 last year to 231 this year. The need for good education is high. As with most places the hope lies within the youth. They are starving for information. We are also working with an ex PC volunteer that has a foundation that builds latrines in villages around the world. We are hoping to get on that list as our village has 89 households..only 20 - 25 with latrines. We are also working on trying to get health education off the ground. There is much to do! We just don't know where we will be doing it!!!
Send good thoughts
hugs to all
We know it has been a long time since we blah blah blogged! How to explain all that is happening is somewhat cumbersome by a virtual medium.
We moved to our village after all hurricane evacuations at the beginnng of September. After two weeks there, as we think we mentioned the living conditions were quite sub-standard. We house sat for a almost a month near an eco-tourist lodge. The house was owned by the parents of the owner of the lodge. Follow that?? The father (from Germany) passed away in February and around here places can't remain empty for too long or the bush and critters take over.
During our first village council meeting back in September the village said they would help build us a place on village community property but they weren't sure where that would be just yet. The identified a sight in the village but the PC didn't approve it as it was not near other people, too wide open, not safe, no drainage...etc.etc. With our Associate PC Director (APCD) we negotiated to build the house on our host family's property. Everything in a village has to be approved by the village leaders. This was approved by the two main leaders, the village chairmand and the 1st Alcalde and we moved forward building the thatch. The deal was we would basically pay rent up front to build the house and there would be no subsequent payments after the house was built. The PC would then use it after our stay of two years for the following four years. Our Healthy Community project is a six year project.
So, construction began...we got the cement floor poured (most houses have packed mud floors) and the main posts constructed, also cement. By this time other villagers who weren't in on the decision were heating up. As the last of the cement was being poured the village 2nd Alcalde said the villagers were "vexed" about the location of the PC volunteer home and a town meeting was called for the next day at 6:00pm. We were hearing all kinds of stories...we would be chased out of town...PC had raised monies for the village and were using it to build a house instead of using the money to better the village....who knows
Now, how do we explain all we have learned and been told about village politics and the village mindset???? From the beginning we have been "educated" about following procedure in the village. Also, not everyone participates or doesn't care about what's going on until they may see someone's life being bettered more than theirs. We have been "educated" that many petty jealousies exist in villages...people don't always work together...there is no volunteerism...any requests for assistance must be paid requests. We have also been "educated" on the fact the NGO's come in and contribute to some betterment to a community i.e. building latrines, fixing up schools etc. After that they leave - if any part of the project falls apart that is the way it remains and the villagers expect someone to come and "fixit". Their is no sustainability. Our village, we are learning has a reputation that fits all these categories. There is always so much more to explain but that will have to do.
So, we halt the building process two Sundays ago and Oct 15th at 6:00pm at the local basketball court in the dark, we attend a wild village meeting. Most of it was in K'ekchi but it wasn't hard to understand the body language and the shouting. We had already decided to just remain balanced and let what happens happen. There were wonderful people there who interpreted for us. We found out that it was only a small faction of people who were "vexed"...but that is the same as having a "bad apple" in the bunch. After all was said and done (including them wanting to cancel the PC contract) there were actually more good apples than bad and some came up to us and were grateful we were there in their village.
There was another meeting scheduled with our APCD for the following Thursday. We actually were uplifted after the first meeting even though it was intense. We have begun working on projects for the village and admist the chaos we found like minded souls. We called our APCD and he thought he could handle the situation and all would be well. We were again positive it would. Thursday nite however, did not go so well. We still got together with some of the positive folk and scheduled another meeting regarding upgrading the school for the following Sunday. Only the "nay-sayers" attended the Thursday nite meeting. After all that being said our living situation is still in flux. Our APCD isn't sure this village can get it together. He is very concerned because the some of the main village leaders do not get along or like eachother. Again, our village's reputation holds. The PC is in a decision making mode right now and we are in limbo. We remain positive!!! except we are tired of moving...one of the options is to move us to another village. In this modern world of computers e-mail etc. and beaurocracies needing to be contacted, most of our work takes us into PG to make connections with the powers that be. Therefore, it takes us out of the village and the some people don't understand the process and don't want to. They only see things one way. So, that is another issue. Other villagers have tried to communicate these issues but jealousy blinds.
Again, we move forward with the Sunday nite meeting. Not great attendance but most of the people who care about the village and most of the main leaders showed up. The housing issue was not brought up, only the school upgrade issue and the projects we have been working on. Today we have a scheduled meeting with all the village leaders. The village council, the Alacaldes, the PTA and the Water Board. This is a first in a long time. We will only be dealing with the project issues and we are very excited that maybe out of chaos comes good. While waiting for the bus yesterday, a friend from the village, Domingo says he realizes that if a community does not unite there will never be positive development for the villagers. A wise young man....probably early 20's, married and three children.
We are currently house sitting next door to where we were before. There is a lovely retired British couple that needed their two 5 month old rotweiller pups cared for while they returned to England to get some affairs taken care of. There are two thatches on the property - one is their storage shed but it is a nice one room thatch with screened window all around. There is even a flush toilet outside in another thatch covered room. Showers are still cold...and we sleep in hammocks again. Not the best on these bones but soon we hope our lives will settle soon and we will get a bed.
Believe it or not...it is cooling off down here. We look like weebles when we go to bed wearing many layers of clothes to stay warm. We just look at eachother and laugh. We have an addition to our family. A 7 week old kitten named Pema. She is so cute she looks like a toy. We are raising her to be an efficient critter getter. She is feisty and fun. Pets around here are rarely cared for. It is the saddest thing. There is no consciousness of spaying and neutering...there is no consideration of feeding household animals...they are all stunted, emaciated and sometimes hairless. Everyone has 2 - 4 dogs and cats...as well as any number of fowl and pigs...who are cared for the same way. The chickens have no meat on them...they are almost featherless. Just now there are movements to change this situation but it will be a long time coming.
We will keep you posted. We are excited about our projects with the village...let's hope they will be too. We currently work in the school library three days a week and read with the children. It did have a computer with Encarta (very dated) but it has since broken down. Michael has been trying to fix it, hoping it is just a switch issue but we are not sure. We are helping the village put together a proposal to add four classrooms...one will be a computer lab. If that comes together we will be searching for computers and hope to get them internet. The school population has grown from 186 last year to 231 this year. The need for good education is high. As with most places the hope lies within the youth. They are starving for information. We are also working with an ex PC volunteer that has a foundation that builds latrines in villages around the world. We are hoping to get on that list as our village has 89 households..only 20 - 25 with latrines. We are also working on trying to get health education off the ground. There is much to do! We just don't know where we will be doing it!!!
Send good thoughts
hugs to all
Monday, September 24, 2007
Dios
Have been trying to get a blog on for awhile now but have not had opportunity.
We have been challenged by living conditions as we talked about in the last blog. Our wonderful Associate Peace Corps Director saw the real challenge of our living conditions and we have made a change.
We have been moved to a one bedroom cabana complete with flush toilet. We don't even know what to think as it is quite surreal after living in villages for three months. We will be moving forward with building our own thatch in the village. Even with flush toilet we are very excited to have our own place and start working in the village. Yes, we will give up the flushing excitement but we will also be able to have a place of our own.
Our village changed administrations last May after Peace Corps volunteers were requested. Now the current village leaders really don't know what to do with us. We have been told this is very common. Even though we are there for the benefit of their health and hygiene their main concern is a village telephone and school expansion.
We have tried to make in roads into working at the school. Again, even the principal and teachers seem very very passive about assistance. We went to the school to help cover government provided textbooks. An interesting program....up til now students in school...primary or secondary...have had to pay for their texts. There is much uproar about these truly paperback texts that must be in perfect condition at the end of the school year or they must be paid for. In this humid climate anything paper is subject to deterioration.
But cover the books we did. Since we are quite an anomaly in this community we attract way more than our share of attention...and it is attention these children crave. At times children were five deep hovering over us to the point we couldn't move and creating quite some chaos. Their curiosity is boundless and to sit and stare at us for an unprecedented amount of time. They don't care if you have to "knock" them out of the way (which we didn't). It is not only the children the adults will stop and stare also. It is something that we have become used to but the leaving no breathing room went over the top. We have learned to make boundaries. Just our walking by classes in session can disrupt the learning process. Peace Corps teacher trainers say the lack of classroom control/discipline is a very common occurrence. These children are basically allowed to do whatever they want.
Our living situation in the village was interesting. We were living on the second story over a store/pool hall owned by our host family. There was a cement deck with no railing. Children of all ages from 1 - 17 came up to be in our presence. The little ones sometimes not only carrying machetes and or knives and coming precariously close to the drop off point. There is no concern among the adults or very young caretakers....one child had already fallen off down to the washing stones two weeks before we moved in. Children play with these sharp tools, crawl in animal excrement and it isn't given a second thought except by us.
We lived in a 10x10 cement room with barred windows with wood shutters. A double bed filled most of the room. As we were moving in the whole family would try and cram into the room to watch our every movement. In the evenings we shut the windows to keep the flying critters out and in the morning upon opening there would be faces waiting for us. It is considered impolite to close windows and doors during the day as the Mayans will be suspicious of what is going on. If it started raining and we had to retreat from the "deck" to our room the children would get umbrellas and watch us from outside as we did finally give them outside boundaries to our space.
These are just "isms" and despite the challenges we will be happy to build our own thatch next to our host family. We did notice a little of our novelty was wearing off but we have been told that all PCV's have to be assertive and set parameters. Since the Mayans don't even have sealed homes we have been told to make sure our space is not peep proof.
We are learning about the local inhabitants of our area. We do have a black tailed snake currently living under our house. We are told that is a good thing as they eat the venomous tommy goff (sp?) snake in these surroundings. Two coral snakes have been found near our current abode. We have asked the animal spirits to spare us the visit! We have seen beautiful blue butterflies the size of our hands or bigger. There are many beautiful flying species around here and we love to wake up to their music. Bats fly in an out of the house...only to hunt and leave. Still remember we currently have a flush toilet...not only flushing but clean!!!
That's all for now
til later
keep looking for photos as our wonderful Nathan will get them attached to the website. Hopefully with the captions
all our love
m&k
Have been trying to get a blog on for awhile now but have not had opportunity.
We have been challenged by living conditions as we talked about in the last blog. Our wonderful Associate Peace Corps Director saw the real challenge of our living conditions and we have made a change.
We have been moved to a one bedroom cabana complete with flush toilet. We don't even know what to think as it is quite surreal after living in villages for three months. We will be moving forward with building our own thatch in the village. Even with flush toilet we are very excited to have our own place and start working in the village. Yes, we will give up the flushing excitement but we will also be able to have a place of our own.
Our village changed administrations last May after Peace Corps volunteers were requested. Now the current village leaders really don't know what to do with us. We have been told this is very common. Even though we are there for the benefit of their health and hygiene their main concern is a village telephone and school expansion.
We have tried to make in roads into working at the school. Again, even the principal and teachers seem very very passive about assistance. We went to the school to help cover government provided textbooks. An interesting program....up til now students in school...primary or secondary...have had to pay for their texts. There is much uproar about these truly paperback texts that must be in perfect condition at the end of the school year or they must be paid for. In this humid climate anything paper is subject to deterioration.
But cover the books we did. Since we are quite an anomaly in this community we attract way more than our share of attention...and it is attention these children crave. At times children were five deep hovering over us to the point we couldn't move and creating quite some chaos. Their curiosity is boundless and to sit and stare at us for an unprecedented amount of time. They don't care if you have to "knock" them out of the way (which we didn't). It is not only the children the adults will stop and stare also. It is something that we have become used to but the leaving no breathing room went over the top. We have learned to make boundaries. Just our walking by classes in session can disrupt the learning process. Peace Corps teacher trainers say the lack of classroom control/discipline is a very common occurrence. These children are basically allowed to do whatever they want.
Our living situation in the village was interesting. We were living on the second story over a store/pool hall owned by our host family. There was a cement deck with no railing. Children of all ages from 1 - 17 came up to be in our presence. The little ones sometimes not only carrying machetes and or knives and coming precariously close to the drop off point. There is no concern among the adults or very young caretakers....one child had already fallen off down to the washing stones two weeks before we moved in. Children play with these sharp tools, crawl in animal excrement and it isn't given a second thought except by us.
We lived in a 10x10 cement room with barred windows with wood shutters. A double bed filled most of the room. As we were moving in the whole family would try and cram into the room to watch our every movement. In the evenings we shut the windows to keep the flying critters out and in the morning upon opening there would be faces waiting for us. It is considered impolite to close windows and doors during the day as the Mayans will be suspicious of what is going on. If it started raining and we had to retreat from the "deck" to our room the children would get umbrellas and watch us from outside as we did finally give them outside boundaries to our space.
These are just "isms" and despite the challenges we will be happy to build our own thatch next to our host family. We did notice a little of our novelty was wearing off but we have been told that all PCV's have to be assertive and set parameters. Since the Mayans don't even have sealed homes we have been told to make sure our space is not peep proof.
We are learning about the local inhabitants of our area. We do have a black tailed snake currently living under our house. We are told that is a good thing as they eat the venomous tommy goff (sp?) snake in these surroundings. Two coral snakes have been found near our current abode. We have asked the animal spirits to spare us the visit! We have seen beautiful blue butterflies the size of our hands or bigger. There are many beautiful flying species around here and we love to wake up to their music. Bats fly in an out of the house...only to hunt and leave. Still remember we currently have a flush toilet...not only flushing but clean!!!
That's all for now
til later
keep looking for photos as our wonderful Nathan will get them attached to the website. Hopefully with the captions
all our love
m&k
Friday, August 24, 2007
Dios Dear Friends,
It is hard to know where to begin this blog as so much has happened and not happened.
Our last days in Medina Bank were fun filled. We (the volunteers) held a health fair for the villagers. Almost the whole village put on their Sunday best and showed up for fun and games - mostly for the children. We had self-esteem building activities, a nutrition store and the Manleys had the race from the pigpen to the cotelebal (latrine) with a handwashing event between each stage. It was a crowd pleaser. We were all so pleased at the turnout of the villagers. Much laughter was shared by all.
We left our village almost 3 weeks ago. We will miss our host families very much as they are now part of us. The past couple of weeks were there,the other volunteers as well as many of their family members joined us for nights of spades and hearts. Our little plywood home would be full of us sac i quinks (basically white folk) and many more Mayans. We played in the candlelight til late nite...at least 9:00pm or later. Woohoo!
Our village thru us a good-bye part in the form of a Mayan Marimba evening in traditional garb. The instruments were all hand hewn. A "guitar", "harp" and "fiddle". The music started and a young couple in Mayan colors began the dance. After that it was time for the village to watch the white folks dance and sweat. Many of the elder woman would join in but it took about an hour and a half for the shyness to wear away and then we were all dancing. By that time we were literally dripping and wringing water out of sweat rags. The gathering lasted about two and a half hours and we all gave in before they did.
The sac i cuinks threw a dinner for the host families. We made fajitas for 65 people. All of us gathered in one thatch - made cua(tortillas) - cooked chickens, peppers and onions over the fires. We also made guacamole and beans. They did seem to enjoy it but one never knows as there is very little emotion ever shown. Still it was fun. Again they wanted the white folk to dance to music but none of them participated. We had learned our lesson and that particular fiesta didn't last as long. We left this village with a little tear in our eye.
Since then basically our backpacks have rarely been off our backs. We spent three days in our new village before the first evacuation. Off to Belmopan to ride out "Dean". After that we were sworn in as official volunteers. We headed back to Punta Gorda on Friday (couldn't begin to know what date) and spent the night. We had much business to attend to such as opening a bank account and gathering some essentials for our permanent stay.
After our first three days at our new home we had to discuss the food situation as we were not going to maintain well at the level of lard we had been receiving. One egg would be scrambled and cooked in three inches of oil. Won't bore you with other eating dishes as it is all basically the same. After what we thought was a positive gathering which culminated in lets cook together (18 people and no less at a meal) and share what we eat and teach nutrition. This resulted in confusion and then no food! So, that didn't work. Meanwhile, we hooked up with TOLCA (Toledo Children and Adolescents) and have begun to go to other villages as well as our own and teach nutrition and hygiene. Much inspired we returned to our home and have attempted to cook meals with our family in very small quarters with multiple species of animals biting and eliminating in the same arena...from pigs, ducks to children. We will just say "challenge". ....Michael has came up with a way to rat proof our sleeping area and we think we have it conquered. "challenge"...want to say all in a day's work .... since our village has the highest rate of worms the head of our PC project is going to help us facilitate a change. xoxoxoxxoxox
This past Monday as you know we were evacuated again...just as we had fixed a breadfruit salad for dinner that night. (sort of a potato salad with lots of veggies) We will never know if they liked it. Did get a few duck bites cooking over the fire and piglets nibbling on the toes!!!!!!????
Off to Belmopan we go again. As Felix "Petered" out it did flood a few areas in the Toledo district where some of us live so, those of us living in that area didn't get to leave Belmopan until yesterday.
We have stopped along the way and are spending two days in Hopkins with Bertie one of the volunteers. We are in a little cabana watching the manatees float by in the blue green Carribean Sea. This morning a "flotilla" of dolphins silently passed by. A welcome relief. We will be heading home tomorrow and waiting out the change that must be made. Will fill you in later.
Meanwhile, we have made many friends and are anxious to be working and productive. It was very fun going out to the villages deep in the jungle to teach the nutrition classes. Heard the howler monkeys from Aguacate. Very cool. Overall, our job is to teach nutrition, hygiene and help with latrine building. Seventy-five percent of the homes in our village do not have latrines. They use the bush. It will take time to effect change...as they don't see that as an issue but request help with adding on to the school. Time............
Much love to all
us
It is hard to know where to begin this blog as so much has happened and not happened.
Our last days in Medina Bank were fun filled. We (the volunteers) held a health fair for the villagers. Almost the whole village put on their Sunday best and showed up for fun and games - mostly for the children. We had self-esteem building activities, a nutrition store and the Manleys had the race from the pigpen to the cotelebal (latrine) with a handwashing event between each stage. It was a crowd pleaser. We were all so pleased at the turnout of the villagers. Much laughter was shared by all.
We left our village almost 3 weeks ago. We will miss our host families very much as they are now part of us. The past couple of weeks were there,the other volunteers as well as many of their family members joined us for nights of spades and hearts. Our little plywood home would be full of us sac i quinks (basically white folk) and many more Mayans. We played in the candlelight til late nite...at least 9:00pm or later. Woohoo!
Our village thru us a good-bye part in the form of a Mayan Marimba evening in traditional garb. The instruments were all hand hewn. A "guitar", "harp" and "fiddle". The music started and a young couple in Mayan colors began the dance. After that it was time for the village to watch the white folks dance and sweat. Many of the elder woman would join in but it took about an hour and a half for the shyness to wear away and then we were all dancing. By that time we were literally dripping and wringing water out of sweat rags. The gathering lasted about two and a half hours and we all gave in before they did.
The sac i cuinks threw a dinner for the host families. We made fajitas for 65 people. All of us gathered in one thatch - made cua(tortillas) - cooked chickens, peppers and onions over the fires. We also made guacamole and beans. They did seem to enjoy it but one never knows as there is very little emotion ever shown. Still it was fun. Again they wanted the white folk to dance to music but none of them participated. We had learned our lesson and that particular fiesta didn't last as long. We left this village with a little tear in our eye.
Since then basically our backpacks have rarely been off our backs. We spent three days in our new village before the first evacuation. Off to Belmopan to ride out "Dean". After that we were sworn in as official volunteers. We headed back to Punta Gorda on Friday (couldn't begin to know what date) and spent the night. We had much business to attend to such as opening a bank account and gathering some essentials for our permanent stay.
After our first three days at our new home we had to discuss the food situation as we were not going to maintain well at the level of lard we had been receiving. One egg would be scrambled and cooked in three inches of oil. Won't bore you with other eating dishes as it is all basically the same. After what we thought was a positive gathering which culminated in lets cook together (18 people and no less at a meal) and share what we eat and teach nutrition. This resulted in confusion and then no food! So, that didn't work. Meanwhile, we hooked up with TOLCA (Toledo Children and Adolescents) and have begun to go to other villages as well as our own and teach nutrition and hygiene. Much inspired we returned to our home and have attempted to cook meals with our family in very small quarters with multiple species of animals biting and eliminating in the same arena...from pigs, ducks to children. We will just say "challenge". ....Michael has came up with a way to rat proof our sleeping area and we think we have it conquered. "challenge"...want to say all in a day's work .... since our village has the highest rate of worms the head of our PC project is going to help us facilitate a change. xoxoxoxxoxox
This past Monday as you know we were evacuated again...just as we had fixed a breadfruit salad for dinner that night. (sort of a potato salad with lots of veggies) We will never know if they liked it. Did get a few duck bites cooking over the fire and piglets nibbling on the toes!!!!!!????
Off to Belmopan we go again. As Felix "Petered" out it did flood a few areas in the Toledo district where some of us live so, those of us living in that area didn't get to leave Belmopan until yesterday.
We have stopped along the way and are spending two days in Hopkins with Bertie one of the volunteers. We are in a little cabana watching the manatees float by in the blue green Carribean Sea. This morning a "flotilla" of dolphins silently passed by. A welcome relief. We will be heading home tomorrow and waiting out the change that must be made. Will fill you in later.
Meanwhile, we have made many friends and are anxious to be working and productive. It was very fun going out to the villages deep in the jungle to teach the nutrition classes. Heard the howler monkeys from Aguacate. Very cool. Overall, our job is to teach nutrition, hygiene and help with latrine building. Seventy-five percent of the homes in our village do not have latrines. They use the bush. It will take time to effect change...as they don't see that as an issue but request help with adding on to the school. Time............
Much love to all
us
Friday, August 10, 2007
Dios
We have just met our Peace Corps counterparts from the village we will be living in. We met the village chairman and the alcalde.
Village politics:
There is a village council
Village Chairman
Vice Chairman
Village Secretary
Vice Secretary
Village Treasurer
Vice Treasurer
These people handle all the non-judicial issues of the village.
Alcalde
Deputy Alcalde
3-4 policeman
These folks handle all the judicial issues...fights..."thieving"...etc. If it is very serious the erroring parties are sent to P.G. to jail/court.
There is a village waterboard that takes care of the village water supply if there is one.
These entities are not always functional but good news!!!
We will have running water and electricity in our new village. We don't know if it will be all working all the time...but it will be a first for us since we have come to Belize. We are very hopeful!!
In our current village the rains last weekend raised the river almost 15 feet. Even the spring was flooded out and muddy. Since the waterboard at this village is dysfunctional the whole village was without any clean water for several days. Fortunately, the spring became clear within a couple days and we were at least able to get a river bath and some laundry done. The PC is great about supplying us with drinking water. It does however, suck to be without water.
We will be leaving this village next Thursday and despite the hassles we will greatly miss our family. There have been nightly card games with them and the other volunteers. All quite fun. Had a visitor last nite....SNAKE (c'anchi) coming up the wall in our abode. Long and skinny...never saw the end of him before he went back to his hiding place. He was searching for pelpels (frogs). All is well...never saw him again. We have been lucky on that front...everyone else has had rats(cho'), scorpions (xooc) and turantulas (??? can't remember).
Signing off...we are getting a gourmet vegetarian meal tonite compliments of the PC. Can't miss it.
Anyone wanting to send some CUTTER's ADVANCED down to us we would be most grateful. If we had 20 - 25 bottles of it - it wouldn't be too much.
Flush a toilet for us!
howan chic
We have just met our Peace Corps counterparts from the village we will be living in. We met the village chairman and the alcalde.
Village politics:
There is a village council
Village Chairman
Vice Chairman
Village Secretary
Vice Secretary
Village Treasurer
Vice Treasurer
These people handle all the non-judicial issues of the village.
Alcalde
Deputy Alcalde
3-4 policeman
These folks handle all the judicial issues...fights..."thieving"...etc. If it is very serious the erroring parties are sent to P.G. to jail/court.
There is a village waterboard that takes care of the village water supply if there is one.
These entities are not always functional but good news!!!
We will have running water and electricity in our new village. We don't know if it will be all working all the time...but it will be a first for us since we have come to Belize. We are very hopeful!!
In our current village the rains last weekend raised the river almost 15 feet. Even the spring was flooded out and muddy. Since the waterboard at this village is dysfunctional the whole village was without any clean water for several days. Fortunately, the spring became clear within a couple days and we were at least able to get a river bath and some laundry done. The PC is great about supplying us with drinking water. It does however, suck to be without water.
We will be leaving this village next Thursday and despite the hassles we will greatly miss our family. There have been nightly card games with them and the other volunteers. All quite fun. Had a visitor last nite....SNAKE (c'anchi) coming up the wall in our abode. Long and skinny...never saw the end of him before he went back to his hiding place. He was searching for pelpels (frogs). All is well...never saw him again. We have been lucky on that front...everyone else has had rats(cho'), scorpions (xooc) and turantulas (??? can't remember).
Signing off...we are getting a gourmet vegetarian meal tonite compliments of the PC. Can't miss it.
Anyone wanting to send some CUTTER's ADVANCED down to us we would be most grateful. If we had 20 - 25 bottles of it - it wouldn't be too much.
Flush a toilet for us!
howan chic
Saturday, August 4, 2007
Dios
We are in Belmopan just finding out where we will be stationed for the next two years!!! We are very excited about our placement...it is very close to the ocean!!! We will be working with the local health workers, the school and TOLCA (Toledo Children and Adolescents) A very amitious organization trying to upgrade the schools with such things as flush toilets and play grounds. Around here that is a very ambitious goal. They also want to create "healthy beginnings" for children from 0 - 8 and promote prenatal and post natal care. We have made some great connections to individuals who requested personally that we be involved in this process. Michael will be going into town 1 -2 times a week while I work with the local health worker and school principal. There will be more to tell when we get on the job. We leave for our sites on August 16 for 3 days and then back to Belmopan for a few days to be sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers at the American Embassy on August 22. We then head to our jobs for two years.
Yesterday - we got a playday and went to Hopkins with our tech trainer! We spent an beautiful day in the sun and ocean. A sleepy little Garifuna community where some of our trainee sisters are working. We spent the day at a lovely resort called Parrot Cove! We hope to get back to make a weekend visit there. It was lovely, small, CLEAN and initmate. It even had a small pool but the ocean was our choice. The beautiful Carribean blue was too hard to resist.
One of the trainees within our group of 6 got giardia and ecoli. He was getting rice meals three times a day sometimes with ketchup. YUMMMM! His health went very downhill...he is doing fine now and has moved in with us. As I got a little sun sickness our host parents have worried that they served us something that might have caused it. At the time even I wasn't sure as the food in our household is meager. A chicken neck and chicken feet just don't cut it for us. The whole village went on alert unbeknownst to us when I got ill. It's like an instant telegraph when there is anything changing the status quo. Our food situation still didn't change until Rob moved in with us. Now we get papaya, avocado and vegetable soup for breakfast and lunch. Dinner is very meager however but after breakfast and lunch we don't care. Fruit and Vegetables are provided by the PC weekly for now. Broccoli has now been introduced to the Mayans!!! They are not in love with it. We however, are very greatful for the color green in our diet. Michael has lost 10 pounds.
We are both well and healthy. The bugs are about the only thing that gets tough. We look a little like we have chicken pox. No matter how much we try they seem to help themselves to a meal on our body. We weren't going to use the DEET but it is now our friend. We have however just been introduced to Cutters Advanced...sent especially to one of our volunteers by her family who says it is better than DEET...it is a soldier against chiggers without using the dreaded DEET! It will be our next offense in the battle. If it works we will be asking for buckets of it from back the U.S.
Das all for now folks!
love to hear from ya
howan chic
We are in Belmopan just finding out where we will be stationed for the next two years!!! We are very excited about our placement...it is very close to the ocean!!! We will be working with the local health workers, the school and TOLCA (Toledo Children and Adolescents) A very amitious organization trying to upgrade the schools with such things as flush toilets and play grounds. Around here that is a very ambitious goal. They also want to create "healthy beginnings" for children from 0 - 8 and promote prenatal and post natal care. We have made some great connections to individuals who requested personally that we be involved in this process. Michael will be going into town 1 -2 times a week while I work with the local health worker and school principal. There will be more to tell when we get on the job. We leave for our sites on August 16 for 3 days and then back to Belmopan for a few days to be sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers at the American Embassy on August 22. We then head to our jobs for two years.
Yesterday - we got a playday and went to Hopkins with our tech trainer! We spent an beautiful day in the sun and ocean. A sleepy little Garifuna community where some of our trainee sisters are working. We spent the day at a lovely resort called Parrot Cove! We hope to get back to make a weekend visit there. It was lovely, small, CLEAN and initmate. It even had a small pool but the ocean was our choice. The beautiful Carribean blue was too hard to resist.
One of the trainees within our group of 6 got giardia and ecoli. He was getting rice meals three times a day sometimes with ketchup. YUMMMM! His health went very downhill...he is doing fine now and has moved in with us. As I got a little sun sickness our host parents have worried that they served us something that might have caused it. At the time even I wasn't sure as the food in our household is meager. A chicken neck and chicken feet just don't cut it for us. The whole village went on alert unbeknownst to us when I got ill. It's like an instant telegraph when there is anything changing the status quo. Our food situation still didn't change until Rob moved in with us. Now we get papaya, avocado and vegetable soup for breakfast and lunch. Dinner is very meager however but after breakfast and lunch we don't care. Fruit and Vegetables are provided by the PC weekly for now. Broccoli has now been introduced to the Mayans!!! They are not in love with it. We however, are very greatful for the color green in our diet. Michael has lost 10 pounds.
We are both well and healthy. The bugs are about the only thing that gets tough. We look a little like we have chicken pox. No matter how much we try they seem to help themselves to a meal on our body. We weren't going to use the DEET but it is now our friend. We have however just been introduced to Cutters Advanced...sent especially to one of our volunteers by her family who says it is better than DEET...it is a soldier against chiggers without using the dreaded DEET! It will be our next offense in the battle. If it works we will be asking for buckets of it from back the U.S.
Das all for now folks!
love to hear from ya
howan chic
Monday, July 30, 2007
Dios
Here we are again in Punta Gorda. We are still in training and we are getting anxious to be done and move to our permanent sites. We find out where we will be going at the end of this week.
We are working hard on our Ke'ekchi but it is very tough however, a little does seem to be coming thru to the neurons.
It has been very hot all over Belize and the rainy season seems to be lighter than normal according to the locals based on the flooding. Most of the rains hold off until the middle of the nite and the incredible crashing boomers just wake us out of our sleep enough to make us want to head for cover but we go right back to sleep.
The river flooded so bad last week that our fresh water spring was even covered up. It doesn't take long for it to go down enough for the fresh water to flow again thank goodness. We are seldom without children on our heals - anywhere from 3 - 7 little ones needing attention and the curiosity doesn't end. Some can sit and stare at us forever. They follow us to the rok i ha (spring) strip down, slide down the mud into the water laughing and screaming into the water. We try to use the river for our exercise space but some of the older kids will not leave us alone tugging and pulling at us the whole time. SPACE!!!!
Our diets are still challenged but the PC continues to bring us a supply of greens and fruits weekly. The other day we were served cua (tortillas) with a bowl of broth containing a chicken neck and chicken feet. We couldn't do it - it was like looking at the Wicked Witch of the West's hand coming out of the soup. The good news is the rest of the chicken was BBQ'd the next day and it is some of the best we have ever had.
The bugs are loving us and we look like we have chicken pox. We are working on different solutions and it is really the only thing that is frustrating. OK the toilet situation will always be an issue but it doesn't leave marks!
The jungle blooms all the time - right now we enjoy birds of paradise. It is forever green and very beautiful. We want to learn the names of all the plants but the locals don't seem to know. We have eaten hearts of palm (koon cabbage in these parts) and a dubious protein but sometimes it is better to leave it unidentified.
Gotta run
Trust all is well with ya'll
luff
us
Here we are again in Punta Gorda. We are still in training and we are getting anxious to be done and move to our permanent sites. We find out where we will be going at the end of this week.
We are working hard on our Ke'ekchi but it is very tough however, a little does seem to be coming thru to the neurons.
It has been very hot all over Belize and the rainy season seems to be lighter than normal according to the locals based on the flooding. Most of the rains hold off until the middle of the nite and the incredible crashing boomers just wake us out of our sleep enough to make us want to head for cover but we go right back to sleep.
The river flooded so bad last week that our fresh water spring was even covered up. It doesn't take long for it to go down enough for the fresh water to flow again thank goodness. We are seldom without children on our heals - anywhere from 3 - 7 little ones needing attention and the curiosity doesn't end. Some can sit and stare at us forever. They follow us to the rok i ha (spring) strip down, slide down the mud into the water laughing and screaming into the water. We try to use the river for our exercise space but some of the older kids will not leave us alone tugging and pulling at us the whole time. SPACE!!!!
Our diets are still challenged but the PC continues to bring us a supply of greens and fruits weekly. The other day we were served cua (tortillas) with a bowl of broth containing a chicken neck and chicken feet. We couldn't do it - it was like looking at the Wicked Witch of the West's hand coming out of the soup. The good news is the rest of the chicken was BBQ'd the next day and it is some of the best we have ever had.
The bugs are loving us and we look like we have chicken pox. We are working on different solutions and it is really the only thing that is frustrating. OK the toilet situation will always be an issue but it doesn't leave marks!
The jungle blooms all the time - right now we enjoy birds of paradise. It is forever green and very beautiful. We want to learn the names of all the plants but the locals don't seem to know. We have eaten hearts of palm (koon cabbage in these parts) and a dubious protein but sometimes it is better to leave it unidentified.
Gotta run
Trust all is well with ya'll
luff
us
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