The School Year is HERE in Belize!

Excited for it and to finally get out and see some of these schools in action! J

I have been slowly getting my new little house in order this past month! I am so excited to be on my own and now I have a place I can call home. Still have a lot of little things to do with it but I am settling in very well and enjoying the peace and quiet and cooking on my own! J I am really getting into cooking the Belizean food which isn’t that much different Mexican, rice and beans and tortillas, which I can totally do! So if you come to visit be ready for some homemade tortillas and crockpot beans!

I had the opportunity this month to play in a futbol game in Trinidad, a small village in Orange Walk to the West of us. So, this game came about through a fellow PCV, Kevin, who lives in Yo Creek and the girls’ team needed some extra players for their friendly match against Trinidad. Of course I was all over that, and I’m so glad I played in it! Little did I know until I got to Yo Creek that Kevin and his neighbor had been hyping me up to everyone in the village saying, “This American girl who looks Belizean is going to play with us and is really good!”… Of geez! Expectations now! Haha. So, we all piled into a little car and headed to Trinidad for 7pm game but as usual it didn’t start till about 8pm (Oh! Gotta love Belizean Time). When I showed up to play with the team, I felt like I was playing with my Estancia HS girls’ team, it was great! They were all about 15-18 in age, some playing in boots and many playing barefoot. These girls were very feisty, rough, and tough little players. We ended up winning the game 3-1 and the girls all piled up in the back of a pick-up back to Yo Creek cheering and chanting the whole way home that they had won…which is completely normal to do in Belize.

Life here in the Oh Dub has been good; we often go frequently to Enramada, the best ceviche in town! You can get a plate of ceviche ranging from $5-$25 and it is so good! I also recently got to see a youth basketball game outside on a completely refurbished court right in town one evening with another PCV basketball fan. It wasn’t the best basketball, but I loved their effort and their very flamboyant theatrics I’m sure they learned from watching NBA players like Kobe, Dirk or Blake Griffin, but it was fun seeing all these young guys playing and enjoying themselves out there. Some of us PCV have been getting together for dinner/game nights and I think it is going to be turning into a monthly thing here in Orange Walk (I swear this is like college all over again!).

Work has slowed down a little, which has been nice because the past month was so busy. Recently, we have been doing follow-up sessions on the QCFS Initiative with teachers who missed the other workshops and other schools who want to know what this is all about. They weren’t nearly as intense and long as the other workshop which was very nice! Me and the other PCV who works here at the District Ed Center are fitting right in here with our staff and work partners, we got invited to lunch at one of our fellow staff members for beans, torts, and pork chops! It was so good and a nice treat from our daily PB&J at lunchtime.

With school staring right around the corner (Sept. 5) and having such a busy last couple months I decided to treat myself to day out to Caye Caulker. But, before me and another PCV headed out there we went to the Grand Opening of gym a friend of mine just opened, a  young, enthusiastic  Belizean 19 year old entrepreneur! Then off we went for some nice relaxing in the sun with some good food. You are going to die when you here this…for only $17.50 BZ we got a whole lobster, shrimp kebab, and barracuda steak with rice, salad, bread and cake! We also took some kayaks out and cruised around the island for a little bit. It was definitely nice to get away even for a little while and I guess we are sort of lucky that we have these little oases off the coast of Belize to go get some R&R when we need to! J

Some other little happenings and quirky things going on:

• ·     Lately I have noticed that I am eating more and more treats/sweets than usual and even drinking more soda!!! So unlike me, haha. But, I have to tell you, having the best bakery in town doesn’t help at all. This bakery, La Popular, has the best sweet bread, treats, donuts, homemade bread, and any other sweets you can think of. As for the soda, you can never pass up the Coke with the real sugar in the glass bottle! J
• ·         I’m in the process of applying and getting involved with the HIV/AIDS committee for Monitoring and Evaluation with some other PCV. As well as, the WID/GAD committee through PC. The WID/GAD committee works with Belizeans of all ages to promote education and participation in women’s empowerment as well as educating Belizeans about the role that gender plays in society and empowering them to make positive life choices and overcome pre-existing assumptions.                     
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•             So, I’ve noticed and I am not the only one when riding the buses here in Belize, the bus drivers have sole command of their radio/CD player. And they play whatever they like, but the thing with the reggae music is quite interesting. Every time Bob Marley comes on the speaker everyone on the bus is singing loud and proud and in unison his words. It’s the neatest thing, it just goes to show you how much Bob is loved around the world! J
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• ·         I’m getting a PUPPY!!!!! One of our Peace Corps Staff, Jaime, got promoted and is leaving to Guyana and has these puppies she sort of inherited from her Belizean neighbors in Belmopan. The dog has gone through a little rough patch, she thinks it got hit by a car and wasn’t going to make it but it bounced back and is getting better. I think all it needs is a little TLC. J I went to go see her and she is a very shy, timid little black mutt. Her name is Tayo, and I hope to get it up here to OW in the next couple weeks! J
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•       September Celebrations are HERE! So, what I hear is that the month of September is just a month of parades, rallies, celebrations, parties and not much work gets done at all. There is Independence Day, St. George’s Day, Literacy Day, School’s Parade, Children’s Rally and many more celebrations. I can’t wait to see all these festivities and celebrations! J

Wow! That was a long one. Well, I hope you all are doing well! Miss you all everyday and hopefully I’ll see your faces soon. Enjoy! J And pictures are on their way too!

Love ya,

Nat

The Pictures I Promised...

  Some Shepard Fairey artwork in Belize :)

 Lobster Fest on Caye Caulker

 My House!! 

 The Street in front of my house

kitchen

my room

 living/sitting area

 extra room for visitors! :)

 bathroom/laundry area

 shower w/running water

 my house!

 corozal...about an hour north of OW

 Personal Development Camp

 yoga class

 HFLE workshop in OW w/ the teachers

 getting into Sexual reproductive health! :)

some of our great facilitators!

Long over Due....the past 6 weeks in OW!

I read somewhere in a travel book before I left for Belize that you can definitely find a day of “nothing to do” in Belize. And I figured the first 2 months were going to be like that, while I slowly just observed, asked many questions and just really took in what the next 2 years were going to be like for me at the District Education Center in Orange Walk.

How quickly things change – the past six weeks have been a whirlwind of different workshops, prepping for CPDs at the District Education Center, organizing our staff and facilitators, and on top of all that trying to get prepared to move into my new place, while still trying to integrate into my community and be well rounded volunteer! J

About a month ago I attended a two-day Health and Family Life Education (HFLE) workshop in Belize City with some fellow volunteers, Orange Walk colleagues, and Ministry of Ed participants. The two days were very informative, teaching us about the HFLE curriculum and ways to implement it into the Belizean classroom, especially when some of the topics are very taboo in this country. From this workshop we planned our own two day workshop for our teachers in Orange Walk, which just finished from August 3^rd to the 4^th. That took a lot of organizing from our end and the Ministry of Education side, but it all went very well. It was very interesting to interact with the teachers on that level and see their ideas and knowledge of HFLE. Very eye-opening on curriculum that many teachers choose not to discuss or teach in their classrooms.

After the HFLE workshops in Belize City I had a couple days at work to regroup and of course I came down with standard cold! I was out of commission a few days and it was definitely rough with the heat and not being home, but I survived! J The following week I helped out with a Personal Development Camp in Orange Walk sponsored by Belize Family Life Association (BFLA) which is dedicated primarily to family planning and reproductive health. The camp was three days/two nights at the big gym in town. Sessions were set up all day for the youths on leadership, entrepreneur skills, communication, goal planning, health & nutrition. Those three days were very long! Not much sleep a lot of bug bites, a lot of basketball, but it was a blast!

The following week was another three day workshop in Belize City about a new initiative the Ministry of Education and Quality Assurance & Development Services (QADS) is starting throughout the country called Quality Child Friendly Schools (QCFS). Its main goals are to get the schools and its surrounding communities to become more involved and to take ownership in improving its schools. Its three main principles are inclusiveness (where all students are participating and treated equally), child-centeredness (school supports all children and creates healthy, safe, and protective learning environments), and democratic participation (school recognizes the importance of family and community involvement in school management so it engages parent and community member participation in school events and decision making activities). I’m really excited to get started on this and begin this process with some of the schools in our district.

That same week was camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World), it’s a week-long camp for girls throughout Belize and a way for them to meet other girls and learn leadership skills, team building, health, goal setting, self-esteem and values, athletics, arts & crafts, and many other fun activities throughout the week. I was able to help out one of the days with sports/athletics, so a fellow PCV and I had the girls playing capture the flag, doing three-legged races, and had a water balloon toss. It was so great seeing the girls enjoying themselves and really opening up and coming out of their shells. I am really excited to continue with GLOW while I’m here in Belize.

And now, this past week and continuing through next week we have Continuous Professional Development (CPD) for as many teachers we can handle. There are workshops on math, literacy, HFLE, school leaders, alternatives to discipline, spirituality, social studies, QFCS, and many more. The first two days of the week I was helping out with social studies and the next two days I was in charge and helping facilitate with some fellow teachers the HFLE workshop. Like I said earlier it went very well and the teachers seemed to really enjoy it, especially when we had a guest speaker (PLWHA) come and give his testimonial, I think that really hit home for some of the teachers because they could actually put a face to some of the issues that really need to be discussed in the classroom and with normal population at large. The following week I’m going to be helping out with the QCFS workshop and assisting with the teachers.

While all this is going on I have been trying to find a place to move into and I found a cute little two-bedroom house right across from where I am living now with my host family. I am going to be moved in there by August 5^th and have my first night there!! So its been very hectic trying to organize things getting delivered and moved over there while all these CPD and prepping for the workshop. But it’s all coming together and I can’t wait to call that little house my home for the next two years! Pictures coming very soon as well as many others!! J

Sorry for such a long read, a lot has been going on as you can tell and don’t worry I am not forgetting about you all and this blog! Miss you all, love you all and can’t wait to see some of your lovely faces out here! My six month “probation” ends to have people come and start visiting beginning September! (**Hint, Hint!**) J

Love ya, nat.