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!