I appreciate friends who have noted the lack of updates since August and asked "what's happening?" The short answer is quite a bit has happened over the last few months in Belize and the following gives a recap.
I believe that last update I ended my recounting my "flying adventure", the trip on the small local plane to Placencia followed by a weekend visit to Hopkins Village to visit my friend and fellow Peace Corps colleague. Just a few short weeks following that visit a received a strange phone call followed by news that my friend had died. The death of someone you care about is always upsetting, but it was a exacerbated by a series of circumstances. I received a telephone call on my cell phone on a Monday, while at NAVCO. My friend's number was saved in my phone and her name popped up when the phone rang. However, the voice that responded when I said "Hi Bertie" was male. I ultimately extracted from the caller that he had found the phone on the beach in Hopkins and I urged him to return the phone to the school where my friend volunteered. The next day, around noon, I received a call from another volunteer at around noon advising that she had been instructed by the Peace Corps to call all of the volunteers in the Cayo District to notify them that a Peace Corps volunteer had died and that there had been some reports on the news. When I asked her for details, she said that she had none (not even what exactly might have been broadcast on the radio) but the Peace Corps was instructing us not to talk with anyone. A couple of hours later, I received a call from a Peace Corps staff member advising me that the volunteer who had died was in fact my friend Bertie, that the nurse and security officer at Peace Corps had gone to Hopkins to investigate and had preliminarily determined that the death was natural causes and that the Peace Corps had picked up another friend/volunteer from the nearby village of Seine Bight who was being driven to Belmopan and had asked to stay at my house. I was not able to get any further details from Peace Corps at that time. My friend from Seine Bight arrived a bit later. She had heard from a call from one of her acquaintances in her village that the radio reported that a Peace Corps volunteer in Hopkins had been found dead that morning in her house possibly sexually assaulted and murdered. The Peace Corps had provided her with no further information other than they believed she had died of natural causes but an autopsy would be performed on Wednesday. They had also advised her that it was believed that Bertie had died on Friday night or Saturday morning, but her body had not been discovered until Tuesday morning when the school reported that she had not arrived for work. Needless to say my friend Mary and I agonized until Friday, when the Peace Corps scheduled a meeting to disclose the results of the autopsy. We imagined all manner of horrible scenarios and the limited facts that we had about the scene - only that the police had to break down her door and that she was found partially clothed. We were very saddened but relieved finally on Friday to receive an account of the autopsy results along with impressions and evidence collected at the scene that reinforced the autopsy conclusion that death was due to natural causes, possibly an aneurysm or stroke. There was a lovely Memorial Service held in Hopkins weeks after the death in which the library which Bertie had worked to establish was renamed in her honor. Bertie's daughter has indicated that she may visit Belize around April of next year and I am hopeful that I will get the opportunity to meet her. Bertie talked quite a bit about her daughter and was close to her.
The last few months have not been consumed by bad news. My sister from Mississippi came for a short visit during this period and we had a great time. I had been a little concerned because my sister is not one to like "roughing it". She is a travel agent by trade and has visited many parts of the world. Pat was a trouper. She stayed at my little house and slept on a mattress on the floor. We had some great talks because we had not seen each other in quite a while. We had a fun dinner with one of my friends in San Ignacio. And, we went zip-lining. For the uninitiated, zip lining is an activity where you climb up onto a platform built around a tree in the bush/jungle. The platform is one of several placed at intervals in the jungle with each platform connected by cable wires. You are strapped into a light harness and "zip" from platform to platform along the cable wires. It is a bit like playing monkey in the tree tops and it was great fun. At the end, the operators lower you down via a pulley system.
The zip-lining is the only adventure to report during this time period. In terms of weather, Belize has had quite a bit of rain over this period. The bad news is that the rain caused more flooding in several areas which has caused bridge outages, livestock and crop damage and homes partially or nearly totally under water in a few areas. I went out one day with a couple of the board members to look over some of the damage. We drove up to a point in the roadway where the water had covered the roadway and canoed a short way out to a Belize coast guard boat (along with several people from government agencies). We climbed aboard the boat via a ladder propped in the water and did a tour of some areas in which only a few roof tops and tree tops were visible and stopped to walk thru a village on higher ground that was running out of food and water because it was cut off due to the surrounding water. The waters have receded and the rain has abated somewhat. The good news is that the weather has gotten cooler than I have ever before experienced in Belize over the last 3-4 weeks, I actually sleep under a blanket sometimes (rather than giving thought to whether I will run the fan). It is often cool in the morning until about 10 (often requiring a long sleeve shirt and sometimes even a light sweater) and tends to cool off again around 5 or so when the sun starts setting. The days frequently warm back up to the 80s (better than the 90s and low 100s that were were experiencing) and there have been a vew wonderful days where it is has stayed somewhat cool all day long.
In September, NAVCO where I generally spend 3-4 days a week, had its Annual General Meeting and elected a new Board President. The government of Belize has initiated a Decentralization Program whereby it is conducting studies and holding workshops to address to addres "strenghthening" local government. Basically, the focus is to look at what governmental powers can be shared with local governments. The Caribbean organization of countries is also addressing decentralization. The good news is these initiatives fit in rather well with the review and potential updating of laws which I have been helping the Board undertake. I am continuing to talk to various people about organizational structures, laws and regulations and I was allowed to participate in a 2 day Decentralization Workshop that was held in Belize City at the end of November.
Now, I am getting ready to make a trip back to Chicago for the holidays. This will be my first trip back to the States since arriving in Belize in June of 2007 and I am very excited to see my home town again. It is also exciting going back to the hometown of our President elect who will hopefully help to lead us through these tough economic times. Finally, I am even looking forward to cold weather and perhaps a bit of snow. So, I am signing off for now. Warm holiday wishes to all who read this blog. More updates in the New Year.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Monday, August 25, 2008
Labels for photos
I confess that I managed to mess up the photo posting process and erased the labels that I had placed on the first four pictures that I uploaded. The lowest picture is a view in Corazon Creek of the local store and house. Most of the houses have thatched roofs similar to what you see in the picture. The second picture shows a few of the resident animals in Corazon Creek Village. The third picture is the thatched roof covered area on the side of the school where the chess club camp was held. The group is working on the flag that the members made for the Chess club. The fourth picture shows the entrance to Barton Creek cave, which one can canoe through. I didn't get to explore the cave during the brief visit there, but maybe next time.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Update Since Vacation
I have no adventures, in the conventional sense, to report since my family returned to the states. I have traveled around the country a bit, but primarily in connection with my site activities.
Having now spent in excess of a year here, I can affirm that there is truly a rainy season here which typically lasts from around May or June through November. I was fooled last summer because the rains were not heavy over the summer and, in Armenia, where I stayed for several weeks, they actually experienced a drought. That was the period of time during which, as some of you may recall, the family hauled water from the river for baths, etc. and we washed clothes in the river. Well around the first part of June of this year the rainy season hit. During the first heavy onset, I believe that it rained for about 7 or 8 days straight, almost constantly and often a soaking downfall. The country has also experienced flooding a few times during this period, the most serious bout washed out a bridge on the highway south of Dangriga. For about a week, there was no road traffic beyond the bridge going down to the Toledo area and similarly no road traffic going north. A temporary bridge was put in place which eased the situation. That bridge was put out of commission during a subsequent rain fall but was quickly restored to working order. A few of the Peace Corps volunteers living in the South who happened to be in Belmopan during the bridge wash away were ultimately flown back to their area. More rain has come and continues intermittently. Fortunately at this point, much of the rainfall in this area happens at night. I very much appreciate that because riding a bike in heavy rain or immediately following substantial rain is not particularly fun. One tends to get very wet and muddy even with a rain jacket as it is impossible to avoid puddles of water. Thus one experiences healthy splashes of muddy water during the ride and needs to dry out slowly and clean up after arriving at one's destination.
The Southern part of Belize, I have come to learn is much more affected by the rains then the Belmopan area, as I will explain when I move on to talk about some of my trips. Before leaving the subject of weather, let me just tell you that it is hot here, hot almost all of the time, day and night. Thank goodness for my little fan as I use it every night. The rain often only serves to exacerbate the heat. If it rains during the day and the sun comes out following it, the earth becomes like a giant steam bath. I am reconciled to bad hair days everyday for awhile.
On to what I have been up to over the last 3 months or so. With respect to NAVCO, I am still working on researching and drafting amendments to statutes and regulations. It is a slow process and entails Legal Advisory Committee meetings and Board meetings as everyone weighs in and another round of revisions are needed. The activity in this regard should soon become more intense because there are currently Decentralization Projects happening, one sponsored by the Government of Belize and one by CALGA which is a Caribbean Assn. of Local Governments. You might ask what is "decentralization". It is an examination of governmental structures to give consideration to what authority and responsibility can be passed down to local government authorities and how those governmental entities can be strengthened. It entails in the process reviewing existing laws and regulations and considering changes or new provisions. There are many groups and constituencies involved in these projects. Thus far, I have only had the opportunity to read some of the reports, but with a little luck I am hoping to attend (as an observer) some of the meetings.
The activity thus far has come in ebbs and flows and, in the interim, I have tagged only with the Training officer at NAVCO to assist in some basic bookkeeping training with groups of village council members. I have found it pretty cool to meet and talk with village councils and hear about life in their villages and some of their economic and other hurdles which they confront. Travel is quite challenging here, especially to a number of the more remote villages that do not have direct access to paved roads. In the process of this training, I have spent a little time in all of the 6 districts, mostly at community centers where the trainings were held. The people that I have met have been very friendly and very appreciative of the training. Fortunately for me, language has not been too much of a barrier. Many of the attendees spoke some English even if they had some difficulty reading and writing in English. Even when language was a bit of a barrier, often others in attendance could help interpret. The sessions were all conducted in English, which is the official language in Belize.
I also continue to spend time regularly at the Institute of Archaeology. The Institute held its annual Symposium this summer in Belize City and I was able to attend one of the sessions. The Symposium draws attendees from other countries and had an impressive group of archaeologists who gave presentations on their activities and papers. Belize is quite a hub for Mayan archaeological research. Having spent time reading about excavation of caves and findings as part of my work at the Institute (coupled with a little reading of my own on the side), I actually could appreciate some of the presentations. Recently, I have moved on to studying antique bottles. The Institute has a collection of a little over 100 bottles that have been recovered in various areas in the country. Some of the bottles, as confirmed by my readings, appear to be quite old, as in earlier than the 19th century. I've actually found the history of glass making to be fascinating and feel pleased to have some clue of what I am seeing while looking for lines created by molds (which have been used for quite a long time as compared to free form blown glass) and "pontil" marks, etc. Anyway, I am still reading up on the subject as there are a number of web sites on the topic, in addition to the books at the Institute. I have started sorting bottles by size, color and characteristics, and measuring and cataloguing the bottles. Lest you think that I have spent all of my time at the Institute buried in books and artifacts, I did undertake a day road trip with one of the staff at the Institute recently. Several of the staff regularly visit the sites to check out conditions, interface with the workers who safeguard and maintain the sites, etc. I tailed along with Wayne one Friday and got to rather quickly see Barton Creek (a stream and cave site), El Pilar (a Mayan excavation), and a couple of other sites that I had already visited. We also stopped at Caracol, a very large Mayan site that had warred with, and at one point, conquered Tikal during the first century AD. Unfortunately, I was only able to quickly walk around and climb around 2 of the 5 plazas at Caracol because the day was quite busy for Wayne. However, he has said that I can plan to go back to Caracol one Friday, stay the weekend with the rangers who are stationed there, and he will retrieve me when he returns to the site the following Monday. How exciting is that! I can explore Caracol at my leisure over a whole weekend.
I have done a few other things over this period, just for fun. For one, I went down to the Toledo area to help one of the Peace Corps volunteers living in Corazon Creek (a little Maya village of about 165 people) conduct a chess club for some of the children in the village. Chess is very big in Belize. Many of the students are learning chess and tournaments are often held. The trip was an adventure. I left very early on a Friday morning by bus from Belmopan. Fortunately, I caught an express bus which left around 6:45 or 7 a.m and arrived in Punta Gorda around 11:15 or a bit later. I then had to locate my friend Rob at the Snack Shop in PG and go with him to catch a bus to his village which left at 12. We met up, gathered all of the supplies which he had purchased for the weekend, and wandered over to the bus, for another projected 2 1/2 hour ride. Before continuing let me take just a moment to describe the typical bus here. It is an old school bus, most of them date back to the 1980s or so, with torn vinyl seats, windows that open from the top down and no air conditioning or fans. Often the buses are crowded, because this is the primary mode of transportation for a majority of people in the country. So getting back to the bus ride, we moved along quite well until we reached Blue Creek (yes, an actual Creek, or perhaps stream would be more accurate). I was sitting next to a very interesting lady who works as a nurse in Corazon Creek village. At Blue Creek we stopped (along with several other buses) because the water had covered the roadway and it was too high for the bus to pass. There were a few houses on our side of the Creek and the village of Blue Creek on the other side.
We spent maybe 1 1/2 hours or more killing time waiting for the water to recede a bit, which it did. One of the houses was kind enough to let people like me use the toilet facilities, an outhouse. Then, when the water got to a level that would not encroach on the engine area, the buses reloaded and started their journey across. I am told that the person in the front of the bus can make out the lines of the roadway and thus stay on the bridge while traveling through the water. This must be true as the buses made the trek across without incident and we were traveling toward our destination once again. We arrived in Corazon Creek sometime after 4 that afternoon. It is a lovely village and the people were delightful. Rob lives in a little one room house made of concrete blocks, a structure which had been started and which he finished constructing himself with help. He has a stove top with a couple of burners powered by butane which he cooks on, a hammock, a wooden single bed frame with a foam mattress and a desk. For light he uses an oil lantern and one of the battery powered head lamps, and candles. The village has no electricity except some of the houses have solar panels which run a few electrical things, primarily radios, a few TVs with DVD players. There are no television signals in the village nor are there cell phone signals. The one small store has a generator which provides refrigeration for a few items that it sells. No of the households have refrigeration. The village has one community phone. Many of the houses have thatched roofs.
The chess camp was great fun, but humbling. I have never played chess with any degree of regularity and have played only a few times with my grandsons in the last 5 years or so. Some of the kids were quite good, and I had to work hard to be able to end the game in a stalemate. I learned a few words of Kekchi as well and they appreciated my efforts and laughed at some of my pronunciations. It was a little daunting the one night that I needed to get up during the middle of the night to use the facilities, which were located across the road and a grassy area and at the back of the school. Fortunately, I had the headlamp to help guide the way, but it was really dark. As I was crossing the road, I spied a couple of very shiny eyes looking my way and realized soon that it was one of the horses that lives in the village.
The plan was that I was to leave the village on Monday morning. The one bus that services the village comes at 3:30 am on Mondays, Wednedays, Fridays and Saturdays. The weather had other plans for me. The rains started around 5 pm on Sunday and continued to pelt the area until early the next morning. As a result, no buses could operate because, the rivers and creeks had swelled again making the road impassable for the buses. Thus, I got an extended stay until Wednesday and notified the Peace Corps and NAVCO that I was safe but stranded. The added days gave me the opportunity to once more experience clothes washing (and bathing) in the river. Washing in the river is a way of life in this village. Fortunately, the river (Creek) by this village does not have a rocky bottom and I managed to maintain my footing while toting the clothes to and from the rocks that we used for washing. I did get a rather nasty sun burn on my back in the process, but it healed in a few days. And, I made the trek back to Belmopan with no glitches on Wednesday. I will be posting a few pictures of the village.
I have had two additional fun excursions to report. My friend Jan from San Ignacio stopped by one Sunday and we went for a hike in Guanacaste Park, a wooded area only about 3 miles from my house. She had her car, so we did not have to bike ride or bus it to the Park. The mosquitos were out in force, due of course to all of the rain, but the bug spray seemed to keep them at bay. The paths were reasonably dry. It was a lovely park and a lovely 2 hour hike. The Guanacaste Tree is a very large and quite impressive tree. A major part of the oldest one had unfortunately fallen but a younger version will hopefully grow to the same heights eventually and there was other interesting flora and fauna to look at along the hike as well as a body of water.
Just 2 weeks ago, I went to Placencia for a 2 day workshop put on by an environmental group, Friends of Nature. NAVCO decided they wanted a representative there and I got to be the rep. The best part of the trip was the travel to Placencia on a little 6 seater air plane. Two airlines operate the small planes which fly on short intra-country hops. I adore flying in small airplanes and the view of the coast from the plane was spectacular. I got to sit directly behind the pilot and watch the dials. It was a short 35 minute flight. From Placencia, I went to Hopkins to visit another Peace Corp volunteer. I totally lucked out and got a ride from Placencia to Hopkins rather than having to ride a bus. A very interesting gentleman, an Argentinian who lives and works in Belize and is an electrical engineer, stopped an offered me a ride as he was traveling to Hopkins as part of his job. Not only was the ride more comfortable, but the conversation was good as well.
Hopkins is an interesting little village of about 700 along the seacoast. Much of the population is Garifuna and there is a place where they make drums in the village. Another Peace Corps volunteer who works in San Pedro also came for the visit and we spent quite a bit of time just walking around eating, talking and drinking a little beer and wine. Wine tends to be rather expensive with very little selection, but Hopkins has a few more foreigners than many of the villages and few resorts, so the selection was a little better and we splurged a bit.
Other than the activities and outings described above, I manage to keep myself busy when at home with reading, sewing projects and jig saw puzzles. I am quite proud of myself in reviving some of my little practiced knitting skills. I have almost finished a knitted Christmas stocking, my fist time ever knitting in the round with 3 needles. I got a little help in figuring out how to shape the heel from friends. I also started a second knitting project, a open weave beach coverup. As for reading, it is so great to have a good selection of books which were shipped to me from Chicago, and to have the time to focus. I alternate between fiction and non-fiction. Three of the last several books which I have read that I am currently avidly promoting are: (1) The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan which recounts the true story of a friendship that developed between a Palestinian and an Israeli. The Palestinian first meets the Israeli just after the 1967 war when he returns to his town to try to visit the home which he and his family occupied up to 1948. He meets the daughter of the family occupying the house and the meeting blossoms into a friendship between the families. The story gives an amazing account of the events from 1947 as well as the Palestinian and Israeli prospective regarding key events. (2) Vol. II of the biography of Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook. I became slightly exhausted just reading about all of Eleanor Roosevelt's causes and activities during Franklin Roosevelt's first term in office and thru his first re-election. I have now adopted Eleanor's term "Griselda" moods, by which she described her crabby frustrated periods, as a short hand for my own down times. (3) Zorro by Isabel Allende. A fun, well written adventure story.
This brings you up to date. This fall may be interesting as a whole new group of Peace Corps trainees/volunteers arrive August 20. I have served as a pen pal to 3 of them. Until next time.
Having now spent in excess of a year here, I can affirm that there is truly a rainy season here which typically lasts from around May or June through November. I was fooled last summer because the rains were not heavy over the summer and, in Armenia, where I stayed for several weeks, they actually experienced a drought. That was the period of time during which, as some of you may recall, the family hauled water from the river for baths, etc. and we washed clothes in the river. Well around the first part of June of this year the rainy season hit. During the first heavy onset, I believe that it rained for about 7 or 8 days straight, almost constantly and often a soaking downfall. The country has also experienced flooding a few times during this period, the most serious bout washed out a bridge on the highway south of Dangriga. For about a week, there was no road traffic beyond the bridge going down to the Toledo area and similarly no road traffic going north. A temporary bridge was put in place which eased the situation. That bridge was put out of commission during a subsequent rain fall but was quickly restored to working order. A few of the Peace Corps volunteers living in the South who happened to be in Belmopan during the bridge wash away were ultimately flown back to their area. More rain has come and continues intermittently. Fortunately at this point, much of the rainfall in this area happens at night. I very much appreciate that because riding a bike in heavy rain or immediately following substantial rain is not particularly fun. One tends to get very wet and muddy even with a rain jacket as it is impossible to avoid puddles of water. Thus one experiences healthy splashes of muddy water during the ride and needs to dry out slowly and clean up after arriving at one's destination.
The Southern part of Belize, I have come to learn is much more affected by the rains then the Belmopan area, as I will explain when I move on to talk about some of my trips. Before leaving the subject of weather, let me just tell you that it is hot here, hot almost all of the time, day and night. Thank goodness for my little fan as I use it every night. The rain often only serves to exacerbate the heat. If it rains during the day and the sun comes out following it, the earth becomes like a giant steam bath. I am reconciled to bad hair days everyday for awhile.
On to what I have been up to over the last 3 months or so. With respect to NAVCO, I am still working on researching and drafting amendments to statutes and regulations. It is a slow process and entails Legal Advisory Committee meetings and Board meetings as everyone weighs in and another round of revisions are needed. The activity in this regard should soon become more intense because there are currently Decentralization Projects happening, one sponsored by the Government of Belize and one by CALGA which is a Caribbean Assn. of Local Governments. You might ask what is "decentralization". It is an examination of governmental structures to give consideration to what authority and responsibility can be passed down to local government authorities and how those governmental entities can be strengthened. It entails in the process reviewing existing laws and regulations and considering changes or new provisions. There are many groups and constituencies involved in these projects. Thus far, I have only had the opportunity to read some of the reports, but with a little luck I am hoping to attend (as an observer) some of the meetings.
The activity thus far has come in ebbs and flows and, in the interim, I have tagged only with the Training officer at NAVCO to assist in some basic bookkeeping training with groups of village council members. I have found it pretty cool to meet and talk with village councils and hear about life in their villages and some of their economic and other hurdles which they confront. Travel is quite challenging here, especially to a number of the more remote villages that do not have direct access to paved roads. In the process of this training, I have spent a little time in all of the 6 districts, mostly at community centers where the trainings were held. The people that I have met have been very friendly and very appreciative of the training. Fortunately for me, language has not been too much of a barrier. Many of the attendees spoke some English even if they had some difficulty reading and writing in English. Even when language was a bit of a barrier, often others in attendance could help interpret. The sessions were all conducted in English, which is the official language in Belize.
I also continue to spend time regularly at the Institute of Archaeology. The Institute held its annual Symposium this summer in Belize City and I was able to attend one of the sessions. The Symposium draws attendees from other countries and had an impressive group of archaeologists who gave presentations on their activities and papers. Belize is quite a hub for Mayan archaeological research. Having spent time reading about excavation of caves and findings as part of my work at the Institute (coupled with a little reading of my own on the side), I actually could appreciate some of the presentations. Recently, I have moved on to studying antique bottles. The Institute has a collection of a little over 100 bottles that have been recovered in various areas in the country. Some of the bottles, as confirmed by my readings, appear to be quite old, as in earlier than the 19th century. I've actually found the history of glass making to be fascinating and feel pleased to have some clue of what I am seeing while looking for lines created by molds (which have been used for quite a long time as compared to free form blown glass) and "pontil" marks, etc. Anyway, I am still reading up on the subject as there are a number of web sites on the topic, in addition to the books at the Institute. I have started sorting bottles by size, color and characteristics, and measuring and cataloguing the bottles. Lest you think that I have spent all of my time at the Institute buried in books and artifacts, I did undertake a day road trip with one of the staff at the Institute recently. Several of the staff regularly visit the sites to check out conditions, interface with the workers who safeguard and maintain the sites, etc. I tailed along with Wayne one Friday and got to rather quickly see Barton Creek (a stream and cave site), El Pilar (a Mayan excavation), and a couple of other sites that I had already visited. We also stopped at Caracol, a very large Mayan site that had warred with, and at one point, conquered Tikal during the first century AD. Unfortunately, I was only able to quickly walk around and climb around 2 of the 5 plazas at Caracol because the day was quite busy for Wayne. However, he has said that I can plan to go back to Caracol one Friday, stay the weekend with the rangers who are stationed there, and he will retrieve me when he returns to the site the following Monday. How exciting is that! I can explore Caracol at my leisure over a whole weekend.
I have done a few other things over this period, just for fun. For one, I went down to the Toledo area to help one of the Peace Corps volunteers living in Corazon Creek (a little Maya village of about 165 people) conduct a chess club for some of the children in the village. Chess is very big in Belize. Many of the students are learning chess and tournaments are often held. The trip was an adventure. I left very early on a Friday morning by bus from Belmopan. Fortunately, I caught an express bus which left around 6:45 or 7 a.m and arrived in Punta Gorda around 11:15 or a bit later. I then had to locate my friend Rob at the Snack Shop in PG and go with him to catch a bus to his village which left at 12. We met up, gathered all of the supplies which he had purchased for the weekend, and wandered over to the bus, for another projected 2 1/2 hour ride. Before continuing let me take just a moment to describe the typical bus here. It is an old school bus, most of them date back to the 1980s or so, with torn vinyl seats, windows that open from the top down and no air conditioning or fans. Often the buses are crowded, because this is the primary mode of transportation for a majority of people in the country. So getting back to the bus ride, we moved along quite well until we reached Blue Creek (yes, an actual Creek, or perhaps stream would be more accurate). I was sitting next to a very interesting lady who works as a nurse in Corazon Creek village. At Blue Creek we stopped (along with several other buses) because the water had covered the roadway and it was too high for the bus to pass. There were a few houses on our side of the Creek and the village of Blue Creek on the other side.
We spent maybe 1 1/2 hours or more killing time waiting for the water to recede a bit, which it did. One of the houses was kind enough to let people like me use the toilet facilities, an outhouse. Then, when the water got to a level that would not encroach on the engine area, the buses reloaded and started their journey across. I am told that the person in the front of the bus can make out the lines of the roadway and thus stay on the bridge while traveling through the water. This must be true as the buses made the trek across without incident and we were traveling toward our destination once again. We arrived in Corazon Creek sometime after 4 that afternoon. It is a lovely village and the people were delightful. Rob lives in a little one room house made of concrete blocks, a structure which had been started and which he finished constructing himself with help. He has a stove top with a couple of burners powered by butane which he cooks on, a hammock, a wooden single bed frame with a foam mattress and a desk. For light he uses an oil lantern and one of the battery powered head lamps, and candles. The village has no electricity except some of the houses have solar panels which run a few electrical things, primarily radios, a few TVs with DVD players. There are no television signals in the village nor are there cell phone signals. The one small store has a generator which provides refrigeration for a few items that it sells. No of the households have refrigeration. The village has one community phone. Many of the houses have thatched roofs.
The chess camp was great fun, but humbling. I have never played chess with any degree of regularity and have played only a few times with my grandsons in the last 5 years or so. Some of the kids were quite good, and I had to work hard to be able to end the game in a stalemate. I learned a few words of Kekchi as well and they appreciated my efforts and laughed at some of my pronunciations. It was a little daunting the one night that I needed to get up during the middle of the night to use the facilities, which were located across the road and a grassy area and at the back of the school. Fortunately, I had the headlamp to help guide the way, but it was really dark. As I was crossing the road, I spied a couple of very shiny eyes looking my way and realized soon that it was one of the horses that lives in the village.
The plan was that I was to leave the village on Monday morning. The one bus that services the village comes at 3:30 am on Mondays, Wednedays, Fridays and Saturdays. The weather had other plans for me. The rains started around 5 pm on Sunday and continued to pelt the area until early the next morning. As a result, no buses could operate because, the rivers and creeks had swelled again making the road impassable for the buses. Thus, I got an extended stay until Wednesday and notified the Peace Corps and NAVCO that I was safe but stranded. The added days gave me the opportunity to once more experience clothes washing (and bathing) in the river. Washing in the river is a way of life in this village. Fortunately, the river (Creek) by this village does not have a rocky bottom and I managed to maintain my footing while toting the clothes to and from the rocks that we used for washing. I did get a rather nasty sun burn on my back in the process, but it healed in a few days. And, I made the trek back to Belmopan with no glitches on Wednesday. I will be posting a few pictures of the village.
I have had two additional fun excursions to report. My friend Jan from San Ignacio stopped by one Sunday and we went for a hike in Guanacaste Park, a wooded area only about 3 miles from my house. She had her car, so we did not have to bike ride or bus it to the Park. The mosquitos were out in force, due of course to all of the rain, but the bug spray seemed to keep them at bay. The paths were reasonably dry. It was a lovely park and a lovely 2 hour hike. The Guanacaste Tree is a very large and quite impressive tree. A major part of the oldest one had unfortunately fallen but a younger version will hopefully grow to the same heights eventually and there was other interesting flora and fauna to look at along the hike as well as a body of water.
Just 2 weeks ago, I went to Placencia for a 2 day workshop put on by an environmental group, Friends of Nature. NAVCO decided they wanted a representative there and I got to be the rep. The best part of the trip was the travel to Placencia on a little 6 seater air plane. Two airlines operate the small planes which fly on short intra-country hops. I adore flying in small airplanes and the view of the coast from the plane was spectacular. I got to sit directly behind the pilot and watch the dials. It was a short 35 minute flight. From Placencia, I went to Hopkins to visit another Peace Corp volunteer. I totally lucked out and got a ride from Placencia to Hopkins rather than having to ride a bus. A very interesting gentleman, an Argentinian who lives and works in Belize and is an electrical engineer, stopped an offered me a ride as he was traveling to Hopkins as part of his job. Not only was the ride more comfortable, but the conversation was good as well.
Hopkins is an interesting little village of about 700 along the seacoast. Much of the population is Garifuna and there is a place where they make drums in the village. Another Peace Corps volunteer who works in San Pedro also came for the visit and we spent quite a bit of time just walking around eating, talking and drinking a little beer and wine. Wine tends to be rather expensive with very little selection, but Hopkins has a few more foreigners than many of the villages and few resorts, so the selection was a little better and we splurged a bit.
Other than the activities and outings described above, I manage to keep myself busy when at home with reading, sewing projects and jig saw puzzles. I am quite proud of myself in reviving some of my little practiced knitting skills. I have almost finished a knitted Christmas stocking, my fist time ever knitting in the round with 3 needles. I got a little help in figuring out how to shape the heel from friends. I also started a second knitting project, a open weave beach coverup. As for reading, it is so great to have a good selection of books which were shipped to me from Chicago, and to have the time to focus. I alternate between fiction and non-fiction. Three of the last several books which I have read that I am currently avidly promoting are: (1) The Lemon Tree by Sandy Tolan which recounts the true story of a friendship that developed between a Palestinian and an Israeli. The Palestinian first meets the Israeli just after the 1967 war when he returns to his town to try to visit the home which he and his family occupied up to 1948. He meets the daughter of the family occupying the house and the meeting blossoms into a friendship between the families. The story gives an amazing account of the events from 1947 as well as the Palestinian and Israeli prospective regarding key events. (2) Vol. II of the biography of Eleanor Roosevelt by Blanche Wiesen Cook. I became slightly exhausted just reading about all of Eleanor Roosevelt's causes and activities during Franklin Roosevelt's first term in office and thru his first re-election. I have now adopted Eleanor's term "Griselda" moods, by which she described her crabby frustrated periods, as a short hand for my own down times. (3) Zorro by Isabel Allende. A fun, well written adventure story.
This brings you up to date. This fall may be interesting as a whole new group of Peace Corps trainees/volunteers arrive August 20. I have served as a pen pal to 3 of them. Until next time.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Tobacco Caye
One of the fun things about Tobacco Caye is the bird watching and snorkeling that can be done right there. The pictures include a shot of the Reefs End Lodge "club house" , where meals are served, the bar is located and tables for playing cards, games etc in between meals. The deck is a great place for watching birds and sea life. Also, is a snapshot of one of the "cabanas" that we occupied while there. The last shows a couple of pelicans who came around every night. Unfortunately the picture is dark and does not do justice to them; but, the sea birds were magnificent to watch as were the four giant sting rays that visited every evening.
Another Trip to Lamanai
The first two pictures are of the High Temple, with the second giving a bit of perspective regarding the height. We all climbed up to the top. My younger grandson made it about 3/4s of the way the first day, but decided he was going all the way the next day. As a result, I got to make 2 trips up to the top during this last visit. A great workout! The last picture is of a dead snake found by the boys. Rest assured that you would not be seeing this picture if the snake had still been alive, as I would never have gotten this close to a live snake.
More Xunantunich and Spanish Lookout
The top picture is an overview of Xunantunich which I visited again with my family. The second picture show Rudolfo, our guide during horse backing riding to and from Xunantunich and at the site. He was knowledgeable and generally great to chat with. The next shot is a picture of the horses that we rode. The bottom picture is a car and pedestrian ferry used at Spanish Lookout ( a Mennonite community near St Ignacio) which is similar to the ferry used at Xunantunich - totally manually driven. The operator only allowed the driver in the car during the ride and all passengers had to exit and walk on, ride and walk off the ferry.
Friday, May 23, 2008
My current house
Here are views of the bedroom, living room and kitchen of the house which I rent. It is not nearly as pretty or plush as the house on Sosa, but it is nice to have my own dedicated cooking and leisure space. Life is always a series of trade offs. I am getting quite proficient at cooking with an oven that has no temperature gauge, which I use to feed my Belizean friends' sweet tooths with cookies and breads.
The bedroom I used at my host family home in Belmopan
The house on Sosa Street where I lived until February of this year was quite a lovely house as evidenced by the two pictures from the bedroom, on the second floor, which I occupied.
Belize Zoo at Christmas Time
Picture 1 shows the tapir which is the national animal. The second shows spider monkeys hanging out in the trees. The third photo offers you an example of the hand-written informational signs posted at the various areas throughout the zoo. Fourth you can see Junior, the newest jaguar in the zoo. On a good day, one can spot most of the jaguars that reside at the zoo but they are often up in a tree or otherwise partially hidden and hard to adequately capture in a picture. The last picture shows some of the beautiful macaws.
School trip to Xunantunich
Picture 1 shows the ferry that one rides across the river to access Xunantunich. The second picture shows some of the glyphs (Mayan writing) on the side of the main temple at the site. The third picture is one of the smaller buildings at the site shaded by a bit of foliage.
Garifuna Settlement Day in Dangriga
Picture 1 shows musicians in Garifuna dress. Pitcure 2 shows the decorated boats traveling from the sea down the river. The annual celebration includes a re-enactment of the Garifuna's first arrival in Dangriga by boat. The occupants of the boats are wearing traditional dress.
Placencia
Picture 1 shows the beach front at Placencia, and picture 2 some of the foliage in the area.
A friend in Belize
This is Sandra, who lives in Santa Marta, where I studied Spanish last summer, with her relative. She had some of us over to her house a number of times while I was living in her village and, on one occasion, made tamales and escabeche. Sandra and her relative came to Belmopan for a Peace Corps workshop in April of this year.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
One important correction to Latest Update
I made one incorrect statement about the Belize House of Representatives. For the record, there are 31 members (not 35) in the House of Representatives. Pictures coming soon. Liz
Sunday, April 27, 2008
A New Update At Last
Apologies for the lag time between my last post on December 30, 2007 and now. My latest four months can be briefly recapped as periods of frustration while waiting for things to happen, things starting to move forward (not always as quickly as I would hope) and a recent fantabulous vacation made possible through visits from my two special daughters and their sons, my three extra-special grandsons.
My last blog update ended with a recounting of Christmas in Belize. It was very quiet over the holiday and I took the opportunity to make a second leisurely visit to the Belize Zoo. If you ever come to Belize, it is not to be missed. Albeit small, it is a fun experience. The setting is tree filled and the animals feel very close and in a natural setting. This time I found all of the jaguars, who can be elusive, and thoroughly enjoyed the holler and spider monkeys. As you may have guessed those are my two favorite type animals at the zoo.
New Year's Eve in Belize was pleasant and sedate. I spent the evening with my host family, Carolyn and Marlon, Miss Jane (Carolyn's mom), Anne and Shay. They all offer excellent company. Marlon had purchased fireworks, as do many people in Belize, and the evening was spent enjoying food, music, good conversation, a bit of New Year's cheer and fireworks. At midnight the fireworks at our house were part of the Sosa Street display of fireworks with contributions by the Sosa Street neighbors. The City of Belmopan set off a few fireworks as well to contribute to the display. When the fireworks subsided, there was visiting with the other neighbors to exchange New Year's good wishes, hugs included.
Following the holidays normalcy (or more accurately routine) briefly resumed at NAVCO. A board meeting was scheduled to take place in January, the first meeting following NAVCO's election of a new President, which had taken place in December. However, the board meeting never happened because around January 7, the Prime Minister of Belize scheduled national elections. This announcement had been expected as the 5-year term for the Prime Minister and the National Assembly was ending. Belize has a Parliamentary form of government similar to the system in Great Britain whereby the people vote for representatives from their respect districts for the seats in the House of Representatives (a total of 35 seats) and the party obtaining the majority of the seats establishes the government. The Leader of the winning party becomes the Prime Minister and he and his party appoint the various Government Ministers and some of the members of the Senate (which is an all appointed body). The Opposition Party also gets to appoint 3 members to the Senate. At any rate, unlike the U.S. which allows campaigning to go on forever, the campaign lasted 30 days and the election was held Thursday, February 7.
During this period, NAVCO was very quiet. The Managing Director took a leave of absence and ran as a candidate for area representative in Benque, which is in the Cayo District of Belize. She ran as part of a slate of candidates offered by one of the independent parties. The two major parties in Belize are the PUP, the government in power when the elections were called, and the UDP, the opposition party. Also, a number of the NAVCO directors were involved in campaigning for their parties of choice and/or their favored representatives. Their campaigning was done in their individual capacities as NAVCO maintains neutrality given its quasi governmental role in representing the rural villages throughout Belize. The campaigning was active, but did not seem as pervasive and consuming as in the U.S. The local newspaper carried a lot of articles and posters were put up around the towns and villages. Also, the parties held rallies and candidates went door to door to meet people and convince them to vote. Radio carried a lot of candidate news, but Belize TV is limited primarily to nightly news programs on two channels. TV is predominately American channels that are part of the cable programming here. The Peace Corps got very nervous about safety, probably influenced by the riots in Kenya and the fact that the rhetoric was a bit heated regarding widespread corruption allegations. Just before the election, the Peace Corps instituted a emergency action plan whereby many of the volunteers were required to travel to Belmopan and all volunteers were ordered to standfast (specifically, to remain indoors beginning the day before the election until notified otherwise by the Peace Corps). The election proceeded without incident and the UDP won 31 of the 35 seats and thereby became the party in power. It was rather interesting to learn Belize's voting method. Voting is by paper ballot, but the safeguards implemented to prevent fraud are pretty extensive. The Carter Center sent election observers and found no evidence of fraud during the voting process. Paper balloting is feasible here because the population of Belize is quite small, about 300,000 residents. The election results were announced the same day, at about 11 p.m. election night.
The day after the election, I finally was able to move into a place of my own (well not quite my own, the house is owned by the Peace Corps and rented to me). That day was a long time in coming, longer than for the vast majority of the Peace Corps volunteers in my group. One of the difficulties in Belmopan is that rents tend to be high and housing is hard to find. The Peace Corps owns several houses and duplex units and I had to wait until one opened up. Originally, I had been led to believe by the Country Director in place last year, that a house would be available around mid December, but upon talking with the Peace Corp volunteer occupying the house, I learned this was not accurate. He advised that he was not leaving the country until January 15. I subsequently got a call from the departing volunteer who apologetically reported that the paperwork in Washington had mistakenly listed him as leaving service at the end of January and he and the Peace Corps officers here had decided that it would be too much trouble to try to correct the date. Hence, he stayed until the end of January. Next, I was advised that the Peace Corps would need a few days to do some cleaning a repair work before I could take possession. This process was slowed down by the influx of new Peace Corps Belize Officers - a new Country Director, Assistant Country Director and Training Officer came in or were going to be coming in during this time. Also, the elections were going on. Due to all of these events, I wasn't able to move until the day after the election, Feb. 8. Fortunately, Carolyn and Marlon were in no hurry to have me move out and have remained friends that I regularly visit since the move.
Moving was a bit of a hassle. My possessions had expanded beyond the two suitcases that I had packed last June 2007. Also, I had to address furnishing my little house. Stove and refrigerator typically do not come with rental units, nor furniture. Fortunately, I was able to arrange to buy a number of these items from the departing Peace Corps volunteer, plus I found other sources for used goods, such as a bed and mattress, a coffee maker (I decided I couldn't leave without fresh brewed coffee), a blender some dishes, drinking utensils, flatware, etc. Since I like to cook and bake and intended to make most of my meals (it is far too expensive to eat out regularly on a Peace Corps stipend, plus there are few restaurant choices here), I bought a few small appliances and baking pans and utensils. At any rate, the items I had acquired, plus miscellaneous books and the like, all had to been transported to the new place. With lots of plastic and paper bags, a few boxes and the help of Carolyn's brother, all my goods were transported to the house that Friday. I also stopped off during the moving process to pick up some linoleum like floor covering for 2 of the rooms to cover up the hideous splotchy, pitted concrete floors in those two rooms.
The house is certainly a step down from my living arrangements at Carolyn's and Marlon's house, but it is nice to be in my own space and regularly do my own cooking. Pictures of my little abode will be posted on this site along with zoo and vacation pictures once I upload the pictures from the camera onto my memory stick or burn a CD. The stove is not exactly what one would call modern. It is powered by a propane gas tank (which ran out a day after I moved in and which I had to then refill). It has 4 burners, a compact oven with one shelf and a oven dial that simply lists notches 1 thru 5, no temperature settings in degree format, and no broiler. The refrigerator is about 3 ft high and the freezer section is about 6" high but only freezes items that sit no higher than half of the freezer height. It has to be defrosted about once every 3 weeks. I bought a washer, and it works fairly well, but is quite different from the automatic washer which I used at Carolyn's house. One has to push the unit into the bathroom, fill the left side of the washer from the shower, set the dial and let it wash, then use the hose to let the water drain into the shower, then refill it to rinse the clothes, and then move the clothes in two batches (because the spinner is compartment smaller than the washer compartment) to the spinner side and then hang the clothes on the line outside to dry. I have a whole new appreciation for the washing routines used in earlier times, but I also keep in mind that this is far easier than washing clothes in the river or scrubbing them by hand in a wash tub on a scrub board. I also keep in mind that I have an in-door toilet and a warm shower. In short, I have nothing to complain about. I also have a few unexpected luxuries for which I can thank Carolyn and Marlon and their niece Ann and my sweet sister-in-law in Connecticut. I have a TV and cable which is needed if you want to actually use your tv (cable runs only $27.50 Belize a month here). Ann had a TV which she had used in her bedroom that didn't work and offered to get it fixed since she had other TVs in her house which they primarily used. I took care of getting it fixed and fortunately it did not require major repairs and borrowing the set for the duration of my stay. My news junky self can now watch CNN (the only cable news channel besides Fox), John Stewart and Bill Maher and catch movies on HBO, Showtime and Starz. Marlon was kind enough to lend me speakers, because the speakers with I had bought from the former occupant of the house died, and my sister-in-law sent my a new replacement disc player when the disc player which I had bought used from the former house occupant also died. Thus, I now have music as well.
Thanks to my sweet daughter and an Belizean shipper living in Los Angeles, I also received two boxes of books which affords me lots of good reading material. I access the Washington Post on line for free and other news sites. And I have space to do jig saw puzzles and needle work to amuse myself when I want to huddle in my little house.
NAVCO and the Institute of Archaeology keep me busy most week days. The NAVCO Board has had a meeting since the election and the Legal Advisory Committee had its first meeting shortly before Easter. The seating of the new government gives lots of opportunity to address legislative and regulatory issues. I am doing a lot of research into how the legislative process works in Belize and have undertaken some preliminary drafting of amendments to existing legislation and regulation related to rural villages. At the Institute of Archaeology, I am helping gather information from their library regarding various caves that have been explored at different times and updating their data base with descriptions and findings in those caves. There are over 300 caves in Belize, many of them used by the Mayans during their history and I am learning a lot about early Mayan life and hope to learn more. I also get easier access to some of the Mayan sites here in Belize. I am helping the Institute a bit but really getting access to some fascinating studies. I also have been asked to study up on antique glass bottles and help them with cataloguing and describing some of the bottles in their collection. I've started preliminary readings on the topic.
The last bit of news to relate is a recounting of my wonderful vacation. My younger daughter Tonya and her boys arrived on Good Friday. I found out that everything shuts down here in Belize and Good Friday and it was quite an adventure making my way by bus to the airport. There were very few buses that day. We picked up a car at the airport and began our adventure on Easter Sunday after introducing them to Belmopan and my humble abode. First, we traveled to San Ignacio and our activities included a horse back riding trek to Xunantunich with a tour of the Mayan site and cave tubing in a series of caves used by the early Maya. Next we set off for Lamanai, another Mayan site, in Orange Walk and stayed at a lovely lodge nearby. We climbed the temples the first afternoon and went back the next morning and saw parrots, toucans and other birds and a set of monkeys that were frolicing in the trees. We also heard a group of wild pigs scurrying and two of them crossed the path ahead of us. Fortunately, they had no interest in us. From Orange Walk we returned to Belmopan and then picked up my older daughter Yvonne and her son from the airport, exchanged the car rental to a slightly bigger car, and took off for Dangriga. In Dangriga, which is south of Belize City we picked up a boat to Tobacca Caye where we spent 4 days and 3 nights. There was snorkeling, swimming and fishing and lots of bird sightings. The pelicans and split tails would come in and roost and feed every afternoon by the Lodge and our cabanas. We also made trips to the zoo and my older daughter, her son and I also went cave tubing on their last full day here. It was sad to see them go, but time for me to get back to work. It was also quite a luxury to have access to a car for a couple of weeks, but alas it is back to biking and riding the bus once again.
That's all for now folks. Hope everyone is doing well out there. Sorry that the winter throughout many parts of the country was very harsh this year, but I must admit I was not sorry to miss this Chicago winter. I will try to be more diligent in future in posting updates and I will post pictures soon. I promise!
Best wishes to all.
Liz in Belize
My last blog update ended with a recounting of Christmas in Belize. It was very quiet over the holiday and I took the opportunity to make a second leisurely visit to the Belize Zoo. If you ever come to Belize, it is not to be missed. Albeit small, it is a fun experience. The setting is tree filled and the animals feel very close and in a natural setting. This time I found all of the jaguars, who can be elusive, and thoroughly enjoyed the holler and spider monkeys. As you may have guessed those are my two favorite type animals at the zoo.
New Year's Eve in Belize was pleasant and sedate. I spent the evening with my host family, Carolyn and Marlon, Miss Jane (Carolyn's mom), Anne and Shay. They all offer excellent company. Marlon had purchased fireworks, as do many people in Belize, and the evening was spent enjoying food, music, good conversation, a bit of New Year's cheer and fireworks. At midnight the fireworks at our house were part of the Sosa Street display of fireworks with contributions by the Sosa Street neighbors. The City of Belmopan set off a few fireworks as well to contribute to the display. When the fireworks subsided, there was visiting with the other neighbors to exchange New Year's good wishes, hugs included.
Following the holidays normalcy (or more accurately routine) briefly resumed at NAVCO. A board meeting was scheduled to take place in January, the first meeting following NAVCO's election of a new President, which had taken place in December. However, the board meeting never happened because around January 7, the Prime Minister of Belize scheduled national elections. This announcement had been expected as the 5-year term for the Prime Minister and the National Assembly was ending. Belize has a Parliamentary form of government similar to the system in Great Britain whereby the people vote for representatives from their respect districts for the seats in the House of Representatives (a total of 35 seats) and the party obtaining the majority of the seats establishes the government. The Leader of the winning party becomes the Prime Minister and he and his party appoint the various Government Ministers and some of the members of the Senate (which is an all appointed body). The Opposition Party also gets to appoint 3 members to the Senate. At any rate, unlike the U.S. which allows campaigning to go on forever, the campaign lasted 30 days and the election was held Thursday, February 7.
During this period, NAVCO was very quiet. The Managing Director took a leave of absence and ran as a candidate for area representative in Benque, which is in the Cayo District of Belize. She ran as part of a slate of candidates offered by one of the independent parties. The two major parties in Belize are the PUP, the government in power when the elections were called, and the UDP, the opposition party. Also, a number of the NAVCO directors were involved in campaigning for their parties of choice and/or their favored representatives. Their campaigning was done in their individual capacities as NAVCO maintains neutrality given its quasi governmental role in representing the rural villages throughout Belize. The campaigning was active, but did not seem as pervasive and consuming as in the U.S. The local newspaper carried a lot of articles and posters were put up around the towns and villages. Also, the parties held rallies and candidates went door to door to meet people and convince them to vote. Radio carried a lot of candidate news, but Belize TV is limited primarily to nightly news programs on two channels. TV is predominately American channels that are part of the cable programming here. The Peace Corps got very nervous about safety, probably influenced by the riots in Kenya and the fact that the rhetoric was a bit heated regarding widespread corruption allegations. Just before the election, the Peace Corps instituted a emergency action plan whereby many of the volunteers were required to travel to Belmopan and all volunteers were ordered to standfast (specifically, to remain indoors beginning the day before the election until notified otherwise by the Peace Corps). The election proceeded without incident and the UDP won 31 of the 35 seats and thereby became the party in power. It was rather interesting to learn Belize's voting method. Voting is by paper ballot, but the safeguards implemented to prevent fraud are pretty extensive. The Carter Center sent election observers and found no evidence of fraud during the voting process. Paper balloting is feasible here because the population of Belize is quite small, about 300,000 residents. The election results were announced the same day, at about 11 p.m. election night.
The day after the election, I finally was able to move into a place of my own (well not quite my own, the house is owned by the Peace Corps and rented to me). That day was a long time in coming, longer than for the vast majority of the Peace Corps volunteers in my group. One of the difficulties in Belmopan is that rents tend to be high and housing is hard to find. The Peace Corps owns several houses and duplex units and I had to wait until one opened up. Originally, I had been led to believe by the Country Director in place last year, that a house would be available around mid December, but upon talking with the Peace Corp volunteer occupying the house, I learned this was not accurate. He advised that he was not leaving the country until January 15. I subsequently got a call from the departing volunteer who apologetically reported that the paperwork in Washington had mistakenly listed him as leaving service at the end of January and he and the Peace Corps officers here had decided that it would be too much trouble to try to correct the date. Hence, he stayed until the end of January. Next, I was advised that the Peace Corps would need a few days to do some cleaning a repair work before I could take possession. This process was slowed down by the influx of new Peace Corps Belize Officers - a new Country Director, Assistant Country Director and Training Officer came in or were going to be coming in during this time. Also, the elections were going on. Due to all of these events, I wasn't able to move until the day after the election, Feb. 8. Fortunately, Carolyn and Marlon were in no hurry to have me move out and have remained friends that I regularly visit since the move.
Moving was a bit of a hassle. My possessions had expanded beyond the two suitcases that I had packed last June 2007. Also, I had to address furnishing my little house. Stove and refrigerator typically do not come with rental units, nor furniture. Fortunately, I was able to arrange to buy a number of these items from the departing Peace Corps volunteer, plus I found other sources for used goods, such as a bed and mattress, a coffee maker (I decided I couldn't leave without fresh brewed coffee), a blender some dishes, drinking utensils, flatware, etc. Since I like to cook and bake and intended to make most of my meals (it is far too expensive to eat out regularly on a Peace Corps stipend, plus there are few restaurant choices here), I bought a few small appliances and baking pans and utensils. At any rate, the items I had acquired, plus miscellaneous books and the like, all had to been transported to the new place. With lots of plastic and paper bags, a few boxes and the help of Carolyn's brother, all my goods were transported to the house that Friday. I also stopped off during the moving process to pick up some linoleum like floor covering for 2 of the rooms to cover up the hideous splotchy, pitted concrete floors in those two rooms.
The house is certainly a step down from my living arrangements at Carolyn's and Marlon's house, but it is nice to be in my own space and regularly do my own cooking. Pictures of my little abode will be posted on this site along with zoo and vacation pictures once I upload the pictures from the camera onto my memory stick or burn a CD. The stove is not exactly what one would call modern. It is powered by a propane gas tank (which ran out a day after I moved in and which I had to then refill). It has 4 burners, a compact oven with one shelf and a oven dial that simply lists notches 1 thru 5, no temperature settings in degree format, and no broiler. The refrigerator is about 3 ft high and the freezer section is about 6" high but only freezes items that sit no higher than half of the freezer height. It has to be defrosted about once every 3 weeks. I bought a washer, and it works fairly well, but is quite different from the automatic washer which I used at Carolyn's house. One has to push the unit into the bathroom, fill the left side of the washer from the shower, set the dial and let it wash, then use the hose to let the water drain into the shower, then refill it to rinse the clothes, and then move the clothes in two batches (because the spinner is compartment smaller than the washer compartment) to the spinner side and then hang the clothes on the line outside to dry. I have a whole new appreciation for the washing routines used in earlier times, but I also keep in mind that this is far easier than washing clothes in the river or scrubbing them by hand in a wash tub on a scrub board. I also keep in mind that I have an in-door toilet and a warm shower. In short, I have nothing to complain about. I also have a few unexpected luxuries for which I can thank Carolyn and Marlon and their niece Ann and my sweet sister-in-law in Connecticut. I have a TV and cable which is needed if you want to actually use your tv (cable runs only $27.50 Belize a month here). Ann had a TV which she had used in her bedroom that didn't work and offered to get it fixed since she had other TVs in her house which they primarily used. I took care of getting it fixed and fortunately it did not require major repairs and borrowing the set for the duration of my stay. My news junky self can now watch CNN (the only cable news channel besides Fox), John Stewart and Bill Maher and catch movies on HBO, Showtime and Starz. Marlon was kind enough to lend me speakers, because the speakers with I had bought from the former occupant of the house died, and my sister-in-law sent my a new replacement disc player when the disc player which I had bought used from the former house occupant also died. Thus, I now have music as well.
Thanks to my sweet daughter and an Belizean shipper living in Los Angeles, I also received two boxes of books which affords me lots of good reading material. I access the Washington Post on line for free and other news sites. And I have space to do jig saw puzzles and needle work to amuse myself when I want to huddle in my little house.
NAVCO and the Institute of Archaeology keep me busy most week days. The NAVCO Board has had a meeting since the election and the Legal Advisory Committee had its first meeting shortly before Easter. The seating of the new government gives lots of opportunity to address legislative and regulatory issues. I am doing a lot of research into how the legislative process works in Belize and have undertaken some preliminary drafting of amendments to existing legislation and regulation related to rural villages. At the Institute of Archaeology, I am helping gather information from their library regarding various caves that have been explored at different times and updating their data base with descriptions and findings in those caves. There are over 300 caves in Belize, many of them used by the Mayans during their history and I am learning a lot about early Mayan life and hope to learn more. I also get easier access to some of the Mayan sites here in Belize. I am helping the Institute a bit but really getting access to some fascinating studies. I also have been asked to study up on antique glass bottles and help them with cataloguing and describing some of the bottles in their collection. I've started preliminary readings on the topic.
The last bit of news to relate is a recounting of my wonderful vacation. My younger daughter Tonya and her boys arrived on Good Friday. I found out that everything shuts down here in Belize and Good Friday and it was quite an adventure making my way by bus to the airport. There were very few buses that day. We picked up a car at the airport and began our adventure on Easter Sunday after introducing them to Belmopan and my humble abode. First, we traveled to San Ignacio and our activities included a horse back riding trek to Xunantunich with a tour of the Mayan site and cave tubing in a series of caves used by the early Maya. Next we set off for Lamanai, another Mayan site, in Orange Walk and stayed at a lovely lodge nearby. We climbed the temples the first afternoon and went back the next morning and saw parrots, toucans and other birds and a set of monkeys that were frolicing in the trees. We also heard a group of wild pigs scurrying and two of them crossed the path ahead of us. Fortunately, they had no interest in us. From Orange Walk we returned to Belmopan and then picked up my older daughter Yvonne and her son from the airport, exchanged the car rental to a slightly bigger car, and took off for Dangriga. In Dangriga, which is south of Belize City we picked up a boat to Tobacca Caye where we spent 4 days and 3 nights. There was snorkeling, swimming and fishing and lots of bird sightings. The pelicans and split tails would come in and roost and feed every afternoon by the Lodge and our cabanas. We also made trips to the zoo and my older daughter, her son and I also went cave tubing on their last full day here. It was sad to see them go, but time for me to get back to work. It was also quite a luxury to have access to a car for a couple of weeks, but alas it is back to biking and riding the bus once again.
That's all for now folks. Hope everyone is doing well out there. Sorry that the winter throughout many parts of the country was very harsh this year, but I must admit I was not sorry to miss this Chicago winter. I will try to be more diligent in future in posting updates and I will post pictures soon. I promise!
Best wishes to all.
Liz in Belize
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