Overview of Summer Vacation and Phase II

Greetings everyone

I have a few more days of summer left until classes resume. I enjoyed my summer holiday. Despite its relaxing and slow paced nature, I found that I always had something to do. I taught summer school Math for three weeks at Sadie Vernon. The class was only comprised of six students, all of whom, worked hard and behaved well. I got to catch up on some books I wanted to read in the afternoon, spend some time with the Peace Corp Creole Grammar Book (something I should have done more faithfully when I first got here), cook, sleep, go to Placencia, have my mom and sister visit, and convert the extra bedroom into a “lounge.” We intentionally scattered random objects which we came across when we cleaned out the downstairs kitchen for the first time-- a set of paddles, a hammock, an artificial Christmas tree, a table cloth map of the world, a baseball helmet, and a burlap bag filled with 20 scuba fins— to evoke the feel of a college dorm.

On August 1, Chris, Adam, Musanda and I picked up our six new community mates from the airport. Three of the new JVs will be living in PG and the other three here in Belize City. We were thinking back to a year ago when we walked off the plane a year ago and saw a large banner welcoming us to Micronesia (another JV site in the Pacific). For a few seconds we were extremely confused as to where we were. We never heard of Micronesia except during the previous two weeks of orientation when it was spoken of frequently. Now we were supposedly being welcomed to that country. The six hollering white people holding the sign should’ve given it away. This year we continued the tradition and wondered if the new JVs would be just as confused as we were. They were not (probably a brighter bunch).

While at the airport I was thinking about how much I’ve become accustomed to Belize during the past year. It was actually a year to that day when we arrived in Belize. And now we were picking up our roommates who would probably be thinking and feeling the same things we were a year ago. A couple small observations about my very first impressions of Belize a year ago and my impressions of them now.
1. One of my first observations of Belize was the low water pressure of the toilet and sink in the airport. I know that’s a strange first observation but the first thing I did when I got off the plane was go to the bathroom. This year when I went into the same bathroom I admired how clean it was and the steady and forceful stream of water unlike the faucet at our house.
2. A year ago the airport seemed extremely small and dim which was exacerbated by the heavy humidity. This time the airport seemed much larger. Something I never really noticed the year before was the landscape around the airport. Living in a place where grass (provided there is grass) is cut with a machete or weed-wacker I was surprised by the well manicured lawn and the shrubs outside of the terminal when we returned a month ago.
3. When we met our roommates at the gate last year they gave us a bag of water. Sensing our confusion they instructed us to rip a tiny piece of the plastic with our teeth and then drink its contents. I can now open a bag of water without spilling it all over me and question why I’d ever pay $1.50 for a battle of water when the bag costs 25 cents.
4. Last year the new volunteers looked and seemed so much older than we were in a appearance and demeanor. They knew exactly where we were going and didn't seemed phased at all by the one lane roads, advertisements in Chinese or Taiwanese, and the endless undeveloped plots of land on the way back from the airport. I wondered if we looked different or were perceived to be older by the new JVs. This year on the way back from the airport I was filled more with excitement about the presence of our new community and the opportunity to share with them what they probably were staring at with wondering eyes than some aspects that still seemed a little foreign to me.

During the first week of Phase II (in-country orientation for the new JVs) we all stayed in our house in Belize City and arranged for some of our friends and co-workers to come speak to them on different aspects of the country: the role of the Church, how volunteers are perceived, the language, social problems, and teaching in primary and secondary schools. The first night we had one of our friends cook the standard Belizean-- rice and beans and stewed chicken— and served it with a Belekin Beer.

That weekend we held our retreat at Banana Bank, a Jungle Lodge near Belmopan, Belize’s capital. To get to Banana Bank one has to take the bus to Mile 45 on the Western Highway, walk along a dirt road for a mile until he reaches the river, and then bang the gong to call the boat to be transported to the other side. The grounds at Banana Bank were really nice. They had 330 acres of land complete with hiking and horse trails, a jaguar, a large bird house filled with dozens of tropical birds, and a few monkeys on leashes whom we befriended.

One week later we ran a summer camp for the students at St. Peter Claver down in Punta Gorda (PG). During the mornings we held classes and then sports and arts and crafts in the afternoon. Our theme this year was science. We performed science experiments and tried to impart to the campers some understanding of the scientific method. Musonda arranged a couple activities for us during the nights and on the weekend including Garifuna drumming, a trip to the Santa Cruz waterfalls, and dinner with families in San Jose, one of the Mayan Villages, and a stay there overnight. Though I’ve been to the villages several times, I am still in awe every time I visit them. All the villages are located along dirt roads that cut through the dense bush. Women holding babies peer out the windows of boarded huts with thatched roofs while the children run outside and either stare at us in confusion or wave. The women are dressed in the traditional attire and the children are wearing the same (though some just run around naked). Sometimes when crossing over the small plank bridges it wouldn’t be uncommon to see people either bathing or washing clothes. The lifestyle and culture of the people of the Mayan villages is an anomaly to the very open and loud way of life in Belize City. It’s always a privilege and a blessing to visit them.

Phase II was very similar to last year. It's hard to believe that a year has gone by since I went through it. Repeating a lot of these activities with the new volunteers made me more conscience of the small amount of time I have to take advantage of the enormous amount of valuable opportunities that living in an environment that can make me value the privileges I have been given during my life and the amount of privileges I'll have when I return home, being able to understand the vulnerabilities and poverties that can become masked in quotidian affairs and conformability we possess in familiar environments, having a community that supports and challenges me to grow spiritually, and the opportunities for forming relationships with people whose differences at first glance (language, race, history, culture) seem to outnumber our similarities but in reality share the same emotions, passions, joys, and sorrows, as we all do, affords.

Moving onto the second year of my JVI experience and seeing the anxieties and occasions of joy that have become ordinary for me makes me feel more blessed and grateful for this opportunity than I did a year ago. During the past year a lot of times I allowed these small occasions of growth to become nuisances or viewed them as impediments to getting work done when they were really the most important experiences to be valued. I pray that I don’t fall into this trap again and that I don’t avoid the truly loving, amazing, and gifted people and experiences God will give me along the way.

Santa Cruz Waterfall