Little Updates

A new group of trainees has arrived in Belize so after only two months here, I'm no longer the newbie! My life has been a little crazy for the past few weeks as I've been discussing with Peace Corps how to improve my working situation. Not working during this time has allowed me the opportunity to experience some great parts of Belize. I've enjoyed several nice bike rides around Dangriga and swimming in the ocean from several different beaches in town. I've also spent a while in Belmopan at the Peace Corps office so have had a chance to get to know some of the new training group and answer a few of their many questions. I don't know a lot about Belize yet but I know the basics and think I do understand Peace Corps well. I'm able to participate in some of the more interesting sessions since I never went through training here. Last week they had a panel on politics and the local government of Belize. I realized that I've learned nothing about either of these during my time here. The panel included three volunteers that work with local government - one with a mayor, another with a village council, and the last with the National Association of Village Councils. They also had two Belizean women speak about their experiences. They were from the two opposing political parties but both are working to focus beyond political parties and look at the needs of the country. One is an employee that works with the association and the other is an elected official. She originally was elected to her village council, became chair, then asked to serve on a district association, and also is serving as a Senator. She's currently wearing all these hats at once so representing several different populations depending on which role she is working in at the time. They were very honest with us and explained how animosity between political parties can have a debilitating effect within Belize. It sounded very much like my own country! Today I'm back in Belmopan to attend a session on the history and government of Belize. Senator Hulse, who represents the business community in Belize, gave the lecture. He's a great public speaker and did a fantastic job making this topic interesting. Belize is a young country (30 years in 2011) and the senator could tell us stories from before independence up until today and many of the challenges the country has faced. He also shared the history of Europeans arrival in Belize and why it is so different than the rest of Central America. Since the arrival of Europeans, it has been considered more a part of the Caribbean than Central America but because of its location on the mainland and the large coral reef that prevented large ships from easily attacking, early settlements were fairly secure. I also was invited to participate in Culture Day, an annual tradition in Peace Corps Belize held at the very beginning of training. The group travels to an area of the country to spend a day learning about one of the local cultures. This year the focus was Garifuna and everyone came to Dangriga. We had a tour of the National Garifuna Museum, lectures on spirituality and the use of plants for medicinal purposes, a tour showing the process of making cassava bread, visited Pen Cayetano's art gallery, ate a traditional lunch, watched a drum-making demonstration, and enjoyed dance and drumming performances. It was a fun day and covered lots of information. I had met and spoken with most of the individuals that presented activities during the day but its always different hearing their formal presentations. Last week I did a little traveling to learn more about activities that other Peace Corps Volunteers are doing. I spent a day in Georgeville, a village in the Cayo district west of Belmopan, visiting PCV Jenna. The village has about 500 people in it I believe but is right on the main highway and in a popular tourist area. Cayo is very mountainous and beautiful and Jenna has a gorgeous house on the top of a hill with a great view of the village and countryside below. She works at a small primary school in the village as a teacher trainer and has done a lot of work with the school library, has reading groups, and started a running and exercise club. I enjoyed interacting with young kids since I haven't had many chances to be around children since I left Burkina! Later in the week I traveled to the very north of Belize to visit PCV Holly in Corozal. This is a large town near the border with Mexico and has a much larger Mestizo population than in my area. Its a beautiful town as well and feels so different than southern Belize. Its amazing how diverse this country is for being so small. Holly is a youth development volunteer but also works in a primary school as well as with other activities in the community. I've posted pictures from some of these recent activities so check them out!