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.