not even here 2 weeks!

See photos at: (updated as of 8/26/09)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102016&id=640467317&l=4965dba765

But it feels like 2 months already - it has been so jammed packed! With all the various lectures from 8a-5p each day, my favorite being "Let's Talk About Bowel Movements" which is about WHEN we get diahhera, not IF. My head is spinning with info overload. And then we were shipped off to our CBT (Community Based Training) sites.

I’m now living in a small village, San Antonio, which is about 1.5 hours to the Guatemalean border by bus and 3 hours to the coast. So I'm in the middle of nowhere/middle of Belize. It's a pretty here at least, located in the mountains. There about about 1000-3000 people here. Seems like it’s barely 100 people, which is great, you really get to know your neighbors. But, there is no a/c and no running water. We do have electricity so I have a fan I can run at night which allows me to fall asleep. Staying asleep is another matter. Average temp is mid 90s. All the time. Even when it rains. Which is often.

And my first night here I woke with a start because someone was knocking on my window. Couldn't even breathe or hear anything because my heart was pumping so loudly. Turns out, the "tap tap tap" sound comes from a gecko. A bleeping geecko. Yes, jungle noises are FUN.

So I have my own room, sorta – the house is one large square about 26 feet wide by 32 feet long. My room is in the southwest corner, by the "kitchen" (which has a sink with no facuets and an electric stove/oven). It is an 8’x10’ space made out of boards supported by bungee cords and a credenza. It is open at the top to the ceiling (about 3’ of open space) so I can see the geckos when they come in from the roof. The family sleeps in another "room" caty corner to mine. There is a "living room" with a TV and DVD player, not sure if either work.

We have a latrine in back by the pigs (there are 9 of them, one is pregnant), which is past the chicken coops, about 100 feet away from the house. There are three dogs, one is pretty protective and my host mom has been very worried he would go after me. So I haven’t gone out at night for the bathroom. But I’ve started bringing him a cracker each time I do out during the day and I think he’s almost decided I’m OK so I might be able to go at night now.

My host mom, Antonia, is a very hard working woman. She takes care of her family (2 kids under the age of 4 and her husband who is gone quite a few days a week for work at a local resort which is 2 hours away) and is involved in the Women’s Group in town. They make clay products, embroider, jewelry but are struggling with power politics. The founder doesn’t want to share information and after 7 years it’s starting to grate on the others. Ahh, so good to know issues of power and control and the resulting nonsense is the same world over.

I help Antonia to wash the dishes (after each meal) - we use rain water and a lot of Dawn. I sweep the floor and learned how to do laundry on Sunday. Happily and luckily, she has a machine that agitates the clothes which then we double rinse in bins by hand then the machine does a spin cycle. Then it only take about 20 minutes for the clothes to air dry on a clothes line, if it’s not raining. Which it does. Often.

During the day, we (there are 5 volunteers here) are in “school” six days a week (about a 20 minute walk) with language (spanish) in the am starting at 8a and Tech Training in the pm, til around 4p. The language is a little too remedial for me but that's OK. I usually read ahead or look up vocab. The Tech Training is pretty good – things like how to do conduct community assessments in a way that will build trust. Includes SWAT and other tools and approaches I’m very familiar with. So all that feels easy.

Just not sure about the rural living for 2 years. It's just as tedious and wearing as I remember from India and Africa. But my final Site Assignment remains a question, won't know that until Oct 2, then I really know what's in store for me ... though I could guess based on the community based/practice run I'm going through right now.

One of the best parts of San Antiono is the daughter here at my host family. Julissa aka Julie. She’s adorable, four years old, a lovely Kamryn (my USA niece) substitute. My language skills are right at her level, we can have quite lengthy conversations. Especially about naming body parts and animals, counting, colors, etc. And my Spanish is pretty darn good if I may say so myself. At least it seems so in my head/to my ears. My host mom even said “sometimes when I hear your Spanish, it’s quite good”. That was after I had just said something to the 2 year old, ha ha ha.

The town is very religious. Of the 7 churches, 5 are Penecoastal. There is one Catholic Church and one Jehovah Witness temple. For the Penecoastals (my family) Fridays is church for the ladies. Sunday for the men. Wednesday for the kids. Saturday for the youths. A lot of church but at least I get to "practice" my Spanish by listening to it. Oh, and everyone here (and pretty much all of Belize) speaks at least four langugages: English, Mayan, Spanish, and Kriol (Garifuna is closer to the coast and German in the Mennoite communities). And they code switch without blinking any eye. Makes it real fun to try and keep up.

Food is OK - mostly beans and rice. Or rice and beans. With tortillas (homemade yum). Or rice with veggies. Or rice and a sort of stir fry. And hot dogs. With eggs. Or a veggie burger which is a bun with lettuce and tomato. Quite an array of fruits and veggies - squash, cassava, plantains, watermelon, mango, avocado!!!!, papaya, peanuts, sweet limes, starfruit, grapefruit, and a bunch of others I'm still learning. We can eat the fruits right off the tree...

Es una vida simpatica, y facil, mas or menos. Having the predictable moments of frustration and irritation but they pass. Would give anything for a hot shower (yes, my usual refrain) and mail since internet is hard to come by {hint LOL}

Adios, con mucho amor y besos y abrazos

MJP

Phase 2 - Community Based Training

See photos at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102016&id=640467317&l=4965dba765

Getting ready to move to our first host family tomorrow. I will be in a Spanish speaking town, with electricity yea, about 2 hours inland and spitting distance to Guatemala. I will be taking the bus back to the Capital, Belmopan, twice a week - on Tuesdays for Spanish lessons and Fridays for further Health and Safety sessions with everyone. The other days will be spend getting to know the country, culture, people. We get to visit the Belize Zoo and Blue Hole. No, not that Blue Hole (the famous dive site) but another onland sunked cave site. I've heard the Belize zoo is quite something. Looking forward to collecting information for my school - I'm signed up with my friend Nanci who is an elemantary school teacher to exchange info, well, send info about Belize so she can share it with her kids. And will do the same for my friend who is doing homeschool. Let me know if anyone else wants to join the fun. One of the Peace Corps goals is to teach Americas about the country where we are placed so I get "credit" for doing that kind of thing.

Anyway, suffice it to say I'm in the "honeymoon" period of adapting to my new situation - it's all great and good and fun and wonderful. Glad to be getting out of the classroom and starting to get into the communities.

Oh, and we learned if we're being harrassed by guys to say "gaad noh likh oagli" ('god no like ugly' in Kriol). That just cracks me up ... But I'm pretty much taller and therefore bigger than most of the men here so far so no worries.

Take care! Love always - MJP

It's so pretty here!

Yea, arrived safely and uneventfully in Belize yesterday (Thursday)! It's SOOO pretty here - the water (which I only saw as we were landing, I'm now an hour inland) is the most unusual color - like a clear green, hard to explain. And the countryside is green green green. Definitely in a jungle. With lots of palm trees.
We had the best welcome - almost all of the current Volunteers (about 20 people) met us at the airport and were shouting and hooting their welcome. All of a sudden all the namelessness, facelessness, impersonalness fell away - it is great to be here and everyone is so supportive and excited we are here. But we were the Belize Peace Corps Zombie Unit when we arrived, running on no sleep. Luckily the staff took pity on us and let us out from Training early so we could get to the hotel and crash.
The Hotel uses a box spring for the mattress (with a box spring underneath it) but we were so tired no one cared. Will see if that changes after tonight. And, my personal nemesis, back to cold showers. That was the only moment that I questioned why I was doing this but I know I'll get over it. In fact, it's so hot and humid, if you time your shower right, it actually would feel good.
The Staff are great - really energetic and organized [yea and whew :-) The Training topics for the next week focus mostly on health and safety and checking in with us as a group and individually to see how our health and safety are. In terms of health, and safety, here is what we've learned so far:
"Don't get Bit"
"Don't get Hit"
"Don't get Lit" {or 'drunk' in case my younger friends don't know that synonym}
"Don't do It"
"Don't eat Shit"
ha ha ha
The Staff are also well aware of the reputation or assumptions everyone has about a Belize placement. They asked us "are you looking forward to PCV?" to which we replied "yes" thinking they were referring to PCV as 'Peace Corps Volunteer'. See, right now we are PCT, Peace Corps Trainess, and don't become actual Volunteers until we pass Training in early October. Anyway, they said "no, are you looking forward to PCV? Your 'Paid Caribbean Vacation'" ... we wish! But one of the current PCVs who lived in Punta Gorda, which is right on the beach, said he was only able to get there 5 times during his 2 years.
We are going to an Archeology site tomorrow, a Mayan temple called Xunantunich, near the Guatemalan border. Includes a lecture on Mayas and Mestizos in Belize and cultural presentations on marimba music and mayan traditional dancing. Then on Sunday, we go to the River to swim and wash clothes (no joke) and will play kickball in the afternoon. Then back to "health and safety" lesson on Monday.
Next Thursday I move to my first host family, I think I'm posted about hour away from the capital, Belmopan, in a town called San Antonio. Looks like I will get a good indoctrination on the bus system. Will update you when I can, probably each Friday for the next few weeks.
In September, I can look into getting a cell phone. In October or November, can look into getting my own internet service. Telecommunication is pretty easy here, except I have Vista on my laptop and it sucks/doesn't work well with the systems here.
Take care! XOXO MJP

life is now officially run by the DMV LOL

Registered today with the Peace Corps and just went though 4 hours of "getting to know you" activities and various briefings: Peace Corps mission & goals, our aspirations and anxieties (for most it's around getting sick), managing risks (health, pick pocketing, harrassment, assaults), and Peace Corps policies.

The gist of it reminded me of the 2nd* most important thing I learned working in health care: "if it's wet and it's not yours, don't touch it" LOL

We check out at 1:30am, leave for the airport at 2am (Reagan National which is 15 minutes away), flight is at 6am. Two hours to Miami. Hang out there for 2 hours. Then 2 more hours to Belize. And then ...

There are 38 of us (28 women and 10 men), eight in the organizational development unit, the rest in either youth development, health education, education, or environmental programs. There are 4 married couples, about 10 retirees, including one guy "Dickie" who joined the Peace Corps because "he was homeless" [I'm so going to like him]. Will send word once I've arrived and wheeeeeee - here I go

Thanks all for the messages and good thoughts - hope we avoid the storms around Florida -

Love alwaysMJP


*the 1st thing I've learned from working in health care is "don't get sick, don't get old"

Manissa's Going Away Party (50 photos)

Click on the picture to view or copy/past link:
http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=600151250385517770/l=3648802007/g=27582894/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Why I became a buddhist ...

http://www.aliainstitute.org/fieldnotes_blog/archives/Issue10/I10_Wheatley.pdf

The Journey

"One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice - though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles.
'Mend my life!' each voice cried. But you didn't stop. You knew what you had to go, though the wind pried with its stiff fingers at the very foundations - though their melancholy was terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road full of fallen branches and stones.
But little by little, as you left their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice, which you slowly recognized as your own,
that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the world,
determined to do the only you could do - determine to save the only life you could save."
- Mary Oliver