Christmas in Belize

Let me first begin by acknowledging that this posting is long overdue. It's hard to believe that I have now lived in Belize for 6 months. Rather than trying to pick up from my last update, I'll start with Christmas and work backwards.

Belize is clearly a year round tropical climate. I have been led to believe that I would experience "cool" weather beginning in December. That is not totally inaccurate, but the "cool" weather has been limited and more often than not accompanied by rain. I believe there has been more rain in December than in any of the prior months, despite the fact that the rainy season was to have ended in November. So, I have learned that cool means temperatures in the 60s which sometimes entails sleeping with a light blanket at night. Daytime generally the temperatures are in the mid to high 80s (as opposed to high 80s and 90s), with the exception of maybe 3 or 4 days, when I have needed to wear a light sweater or jacket during part or perhaps the entire day. I will report back on how "cool" is "cool" in Belize in January and February.

Christmas here in Belize does involve Christmas trees and Christmas decorations (most of the trees and garland are artificial) and gift giving. The traditional Christmas dinner consists of baked turkey, ham, stuffing (stuffing in some Belizean households is a bit like seasoned breadcrumbs with gravy but others serve a Stove Top style of dressing, more in line with US tradition), rice and beans (of course), and potato salad (a mixture of cubed boiled potatoes, canned peas and carrots, and mayonnaise or a light yellowish durkees salad type dressing). Dessert consists of white cake (a plain white cake with no frosting) and black cake (a bit like a fruit cake, but instead of candied fruits, dried fruits are used and the cake may be flavored with a bit of rum). Many businesses shut down throughout much of the holiday, except for grocery stores and hardware stores (which are mostly run by the Chinese). All of the schools closed on December 14 for the holiday and will reopen the first week in January. As in the US, it is a time that families get together. There is not the mass marketing and gift buying frenzy that takes place in the states.

I am continuing to live with a Belizean host family through the end of January. The holiday celebrations began on December 15. At NAVCO, the organization which I work with, all of the board members came into Belmopan for an election, to elect a new president of the board to replace Ms. Sandlin who died September 13. Following the election on Saturday morning, there was a board workshop followed by a Christmas party. A traditional Christmas dinner was served at the party followed by dancing where I received continuing lessons/practice in "punta-ing" - the local dance. It's great exercise. From there, the Peace Corps volunteers (myself and 2 others) went to a second party hosted by the Training Director in Belize who is relocating to a post in Mexico. We actually had wine and vodka, which is definitely a treat considering that Belikin beer and rum are typically the principal alcoholic drink options, at least the only affordable options for local Belizeans and Peace Corps volunteers.

NAVCO was open the week of December 16, but the office was relatively slow and I did not go into the office at all the following week. How decadent is that! Christmas eve I spent in San Ignacio at the home of Maria, who works at NAVCO as a monitoring and evaluation officer. It was a lovely gathering which included her boyfriend Oscar from Costa Rica and two of her friends who also live in Belize. Maria moved here from Spain about 10 years ago, coming first as a volunteer. Her friends, Jan and Stephen, both came to Belize from England through the British international volunteer program (VSO) and have also stayed on after their volunteer stint ended. Oscar worked in Belize for awhile and has returned to his native country, Costa Rica. The dinner was great! Lots of vegetables which are not widely eaten by many Belizeans. I contributed a homemade apple pie and Grandma Roses' Fudge nut cookies (a decadent cookie that I often made at Christmas and periodically for the office). Jan, who is a vegetarian and had heard that I wanted to try to grow herbs in Belize, presented me with cuttings of basil, mint and parsley from her porch garden. Hopefully, these cuttings will help me develop a green thumb and a thriving herb garden. Hope springs eternal. I am determined to demonstrate that I have a green thumb that simply was simply slow to emerge.

Christmas day was spent with my host family (Carolyn and Marlon) and lots of their extended family. Carolyn's sister and her two grandchildren are visiting from Houston and following Christmas dinner there was a steady stream of visitors. The following day was also a holiday, Boxing Day (a holiday which originated in England and is still celebrated there) and more family and friends visited Carolyn and Marlon throughout the day on Wednesday. The family has been so warm and generous. They actually gave me two Christmas presents (a set of cups and sauces and baking pans), things that will be useful in my little Peace Corps rented house, which I hope to move into by February 1.

I'm not yet sure how New Years will be celebrated here in Belmopan, but will soon find out.

I've had a chance to do a little traveling around Belize since my last update. At the end of October I visted Placencia with a couple of my Peace Corps friends. It is located on the coast in the Stann Creek district. We are on the Peace Corps budget and thus are always looking for "bargain" accommodations which we succeeded in finding in this tourist area. Fortunately many of the guest houses have rooms that sleep 3 or more people and we found a very comfortable clean room to share near the beach with three beds that fit our budget. It was nice simply to get away, see something new, walk along the beach, have a yummy dinner (fish and shrimp with fresh steamed vegetables) and breakfast (french toast and coffee) in outdoor restaurants near the water and relax. It was also a way to check out tourist activities such as fishing and sailing excursions, boat trips to some of the cayes to swim and snorkel and an overland excursion to Coxcomb, which reportedly offers a water fall, good hiking and great bird watching. Francis Ford Coppolla owns a resort on the peninsula by Placencia which is reportedly quite plush and beautiful. We didn't get to scope it out. It was not an area readily accessible by local transportation and so I can't offer any first hand experience.

I also went to Dangriga in November to witness the celebration of Garifuna Independence Day. The Garifuna are former slaves who came from the West Indies and settled in Bermuda. They have their own language and use drums and dance in their traditional ceremonies. The celebration included drumming and dancing at a couple of outdoor locations in Dangriga throughout the evening and far into the night followed by an early morning reenactment of the landing of their boats on the Belizean shores in the Dangriga area. A traditional church service was then held in the local Catholic Church near the water front a bit later in the morning with traditional prayers, hymns, more drumming and dancing. Finally, there was a parade in the afternoon (which I missed because I had to catch the bus back to Belmopan). The native Garifuna dress is quite colorful and the drumming was neat.

In the last 6 weeks, I have also visited two more Mayan ruins, Xunantunich and Cahal Pech. Both are near the San Ignacio area. I managed to make the trip by tagging along on a school field trip. Carolyn's (my host family) niece is a primary school teacher and asked if I wanted to help watch over her class. The school children, all around 11 and 12 years old, were well behaved and fun. Fortunately, I was assigned to oversee 4 venturesome boys who were ready willing and able to climb all of the temples and check for caves. I still like Lamenei the best thus far, but my goal is to check out all of the sites while I'm here.

The NAVCO experience is going well. The sudden death of Ms. Sandlin (the Board President) slowed things down a bit. As mentioned at the beginning, a new president was elected on December 15. Prior to that the board had a planning session and created several board committees including a legal advisory committee. As you may have guessed, that is the committee which I will be regularly working with. The board is quite excited that I practiced law in the states. I have made very clear to them that I am not a practicing lawyer at this point and have no training in Belizean law. With that caveat, I am reading lots of statutes and regulations, learning about how the government of Belize functions, undertaking research into activities of local water boards and lots committees. I will be assisting the board in developing a list of Belizean legal counsel and other persons who may be helpful in lobbying for new legislation or changes to existing legislation and regulation. This development has been a pleasant surprise as I had not expected to find that some of my legal education and experiences may be useful here.

Finally, on the cultural front, I am working on sharing food culture with Belize. I have been cooking a bit for my host family. The guys are a bit resistant to vegetables even though cooked fresh and flavored with herbs, but I don't give up easily. The easiest sell is cookies and pies. My honey wheat bread and homemade bagels were well received. I also cooking a bit for my fellow volunteers. I hosted a dinner for several of them borrowing one of my Peace Corps colleague's little kitchen. Peace Corps volunteers are always anxious for a little more variety in their diet. At an All-Volunteer conference held in early December (apparently an annual event), I conducted a cooking class for 22 volunteers - the themes being cooking with herbs and bread baking. We made honey wheat bread and lentil soup and I passed out recipes and herb guides.

That about brings you up to date with my life thus far. You may be asking - where are the photos to document my excursions. Sorry to report, no pictures for now, but I will post more as soon as I get a USB connector for my camera or have enough photos to get a disc made.

May everyone have a happy, healthy and prosperous 2008. Ciao for now.

More Pictures from Belize

The pictures from bottom to top are: (1) my last host family home in Santa Marta; (2) Ms. Julia and her daughter Yareni (Riccardo wasn't available for a picture that day); (3) swearing in; (4) and (5) a float and marches in the Belize Independence Day Parade; and (6 and (7) Costumed participants in the Carnivale parade.

My Pictures from Belize

The pictures above are yours truly standing atop a building at Altun Ha, next a segment of the river trip to Lamanei, the highest temple at Lamanei (225 ft), and the view from the top of the temple.











Here are a few photos taken during my first two months in Belize. They include pictures of my host family from Armenia and their home and store, and Altun Hai, and Lamanei.

The two pictures on the right are living quarters in the house in Armenia and several family members at Blue Hole and the picture immediately above is the front of the store owned by the family in Armenia

Hi All!

I acknowledge that I have been very delinquent in posting news. My excuse is that I have been kept very busy these last 9 weeks and have had infrequent access to internet. However, I am now officially a Peace Corps Volunteer instead of a mere Trainee and will now have more regular access to email as I am living in Belmopan, the capital.

Life has been interesting over the past weeks. I lived for 2 1/2 weeks in Armenia (a village about 10-15 miles from Belmopan) with a very sweet family, husband wife and 2 girls. We traveled by local bus to Belmopan to go to training class at the Peace Corps headquarters each day. All but the husband in the family mostly spoke spanish and I had no spanish language training at that time. Communication was sometimes a bit hard, but it got easier. I learned about bucket baths and learned how to wash clothes in the river. I also discovered that many Belizeans do not eat breakfast foods, but instead have rice and beans, hot dogs, sandwiches, chicken burritos or whatever for breakfast lunch and dinner. Next, I moved to Santa Martha, a town about 20 miles from Orange Walk which is north of Belmopan, but most of the road to Orange Walk was a semi gravel road that had very large potholes. Thus travel was slow and very bouncy. Buses ran to Orange Walk only 4 days a week (monday, wednesday, friday and saturday) one a day at 6:30 am with a return bus at 12 pm. Thus, we had infrequent trips to Orange Walk - the big town with internet etc.

Santa Martha is a town of about 600 inhabitants. It is laid out mostly along a road called the Old Northern Highway with about 4 roads off the highway that go in about 2-3 blocks. It had about 7 la tiendas (small store fronts), a futbol (soccer) field, and 2 churches, and a primary school. Life was rather quiet in Santa Martha and we were kept pretty busy with class usually 6 days a week - mostly spanish class, but also tech training for the business and organizational development group (a total of 11 trainees - 6 in Santa Martha learning spanish and 5 in Maskal, a village about 12 miles down the road, who learned Creole.) Spanish was hard and I can't say that I am fluent. I currently speak a form of Spanglish. So what do you expect in 5 weeks.

The first family that I lived with had 5 children and the dad cut grass which he sold to Mexico to use for use in making thatched roofs. The kids were aged 12 down to 2. I got used to bucket baths in the backyard with cold water, an outhouse a little ways past the bucket bath enclosure, and a managerie of animals who roamed the yard and parts of the house, including chickens (gallenas), a rooster, turkeys (pabos), 4 dogs (perros), one cat and 3 kittens (ghatos), and a parrot. I got mucho many bug bits including from fleas, but lots of nice fresh fruit - mangos, papaya, bananas, plaintains, coconut milk, pineapples and some fresh vegetables, including tomates and avocados. I moved into a new home the last 2 weeks of my stay and enjoyed an indoor shower and flush toilet - what luxury! The family, a mom and dad and one daughter (the five other children were grown and lived elsewhere, some in the US, in the Texas area). They owned a rancho that had 2 horses and 2 colts and some cows and they grow wonderful pineapples, mangoes, papaya, bread fruit (I never got to try it), plaintains and bananas. The rancho was about 4 miles out of town. At the house, they kept chickens (who lived outside) and 2 dogs. I had great fun and got their 12 year daughter hooked on pilates. I picked up a Pilates DVD for her in Orange Walk on my last visit there and for the rest of my stay she existed that we do the video work out every night. She'll be a great personal trainer one day.

The families helped with my spanish, but some of the members also wanted to learn English and spoke some English so I wasn't forced to use Spanish exclusively. I have a lot of practicing yet to do.

Well now I am in the big city, Belmopan and beginning my new life as volunteer. We were sworn in as volunteers last Thursday at the US Embassy. The ambassador was not in town, but his second in command officiated. I moved in with a new host family who are great! Carolyn is a principal at a high school in Belize City (the largest of the 3 cities in Belize) and Marlyn works at the US Embassy. They have no children but lots of relatives whom I have met. Carolyn's mom and dad live with them and they are delightful. Ms. Jane is a very mentally alert and fun 82 year old. Her husband Joe remains very active and is also interesting. Carolyn and Marlyn are great and Carolyn is wonderful cook. They are Creole and thus I am learning about another important ethnic group in Belize. Family members often drop by and I have met a brother, nephews, nieces etc. They treat me like one of the family. Of course I don't get to practice Spanish, so I will be looking into taking classes at the college here or getting a tutor to continue my language work. My house is awesome and I am feeling spoiled already. I have a nice room with a comfortable bed, a dresser and table. I have a complete indoor bathroom with access to warm shower water. It is a 2 story house with a living room, full kitchen with oven and microwave, a washing machine, a den, tv with cable and stereo.

My job is cool also. I will be working with NAVCO (National Association of Village Councils). The Village Council is the form of local government which was created by a law enacted in 1999. Each village elects a council of 7 which includes a chairman or president. The council serves a 3 year term. The councils with each of the 6 districts in Belize elect a district board from among their ranks and the district board from each district appoint 2 members (the district board chairman and an officer) to serve as the Board of NAVCO. The Village Council members elect a President of the NAVCO board at their annual meeting selected from the NAVCO board members. My job along with another Peace Corps volunteer is to assist the NAVCO board administratively which includes assisting in training new village council members and the DAVCO board members in handling their administrative and financial duties and in following the 1999 law and its amendments and the regulations subsequently created. I will get to travel to some of the villages to interface with the council members as well as to the distict boards. In short I get to see some of the rest of the country in my new job. Already, I have traveled to Punta Gorda, which is a town on the water at or near the southernmost tip of Belize. It is small but a fun town with some beaches, lots of fishing and great views of the water, restuarants and of course some night spots. The first trip was to accompany a photographer and a producer who were finishing up the filming of a training video which will be used to assist in training village council members. I got to stop at a few of the smaller villages along the way. The drive is beautiful with lots of green hills and some creeks and rivers in some of the towns. Just last Friday and Saturday, I returned to Punta Gorda to help out with registration and take the minuntes from the Annual General Meeting of the Village Councils. About 120 delegates came. It was really interesting. I confess that we played Friday night - dancing at one of the local hot spots - all in the line of duty of course.

I have seen a few tourist areas, but there are so many more to see. Belize has so many great Mayan ruins, some nature preserves and of course the seacoast. Key Caulker and San Pedro are supposed great - all in good time. I went to Blue Hole, not the Blue Hole spot off the coast, but a natural spring just north of Armenia, that is very blue in the middle and quite dip. The swim was very refreshing and I took about a mile hike around the area. There are more hiking trails, great bird watching and caves which I need to go back and explore. I also went with the Bus Org/ Org Dev. trainees to Lamanei and it is a wonderful Mayan ruin. We took a boat from Orange Walk to the ruin, which is about a 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hour boat ride depending on how fast you go. The boat was driven by a guide and holds about 12-13 people, which was perfect for us. Say lots of birds, bats, lily pads and some saw a crocodile on one side of the boat along the way. The river widens to a lagoon as you approach Lamanei. It is a site that has about 70 mounds (i.e., there are structures underneath) but only 7 have been uncovered thus far. It is reminiscent of Tikal, because the 7 different area are surrounded by jungle with paths to the separate areas. It has a nice little museum with a lot of background facts. Unlike so many of the ruins, a number of the structures were built between 1000 BC and 1 AD and it remained in habitated until around 1530 or 40 when the Spanish invaded and the Mayans dispersed. It has lots of great trees and birds and we say a group of holler monkeys in a couple of the trees. The highest temple is 225 feet, which we of course climbed. The view from the top is spectacular in all directions.

I have taken pictures, but have not yet had the time to go to a camera shop to get a disc made to faciltate uploading a few to this blog. That is my next project.

Hope that you are all well. I will try to be more diligent in posting updates and try to get some pictures posted in the future. Ciao for now!

Welcome!

Hello to all and welcome to my blog. At this site, you can get the latest news on my adventures in the peace corps, view photos, or post a message. You can also send me an email directly to my gmail account: epitrof@gmail.com.

Look forward to hearing from you.

Liz

"You know you can't spell Belize without Liz"