The Usual...

Much hasn’t changed here in Orange Walk Town, which I guess is a good thing. The school year here in Belize is really winding down to an end and it’s really a fresh of breathe air for me, haha. It will be a nice break to have the months of July and August to work and help in some other capacities in town. In July, we have our big Camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) for an entire week in the Cayo District. The camp is going to be for young Belizeans girls’ ages 9-15 years. The purpose of this camp is to encourage young women to become active citizens by building their self-esteem and confidence, increasing their self-awareness, and developing their skills in goal setting, assertiveness, and career and life planning. The main principles and themes include developing leadership skills, improving self-esteem, increasing knowledge of women’s health issues, respecting and caring for the environment, and promoting the belief that every young woman can make a difference in her community. And for the entire week I will be cooking all the food for the campers and counselors…time to get my Paula Dean on! J

While planning the food menu and getting a budget ready for the camp in July, I will also be starting construction on the preschool in Santa Martha Village where I go and help two-days a week. Filling out paper after paper of applications for the Ministry of Education and filling out more papers for Peace Corps and a 15-page proposal later it’s done with the help of principal, Mr. Hernandez. It’s very exciting and we are hoping to start construction the end of this month so we can open it for the first day of school on September 3.  And the big, exciting news is that I just got word that the proposal was finally approved by Peace Corps Belize!!! So, the school community and I have a lot of things to get ready or organized to get the preschool open for the new school year. Thank goodness the building already exists it’s just going to need a lot of work to renovate the entire building which will also include a library/resource center and a little kitchen for the feeding program. This whole process has been quite a learning experience for me from top to bottom. Putting together all the appropriate paper work and making sure there is constant communication and understanding of the process between, the Ministry of Education, the Foundation, the village of Santa Martha, Peace Corps and my work partner. Now, the fun part starts from purchasing the material to the actual building of the preschool and getting the village to help in the entire process! J

This past month I volunteered at the Cacao Festival down in Punta Gorda Town. I helped out with the Wine and Chocolate Night, serving wine to the guests. The food was great, the chocolate amazingly awesome, and the wine was “eh.” J The weekend festival was put on by the Toledo Cacao Growers Association. I highly recommend anyone who is visiting Belize in the month of May to go down and check out the event! Here is the website of all the activities that occurred… http://www.tcgabelize.com/cacaofest/ 

Kelly & I serving wine at Chocolate and Wine Night!

These past weeks have also been focused on a little more running than usual (p.s. the knee is a lot better). I work out with a couple girls here in town and we have a little running group called, The Suga City Road Runners. It’s a ton of Fun! We run in the afternoons usually, but lately we have been trying to beat the heat and started going at about 5:30AM. At the end of the May, the group and I ran in a race in Belmopan to support and help raise some funds for Camp GLOW. It was their first race ever and it was a 10K. They both finished in less than one hour and ran the entire thing. I was so proud of them! It was a goodtime because we stayed overnight at a friend’s house, cooked pasta the night before, took the bus together the day before. So, hopefully now we can get some more races in this summer and improve their confidence out on the road. I also had my last football game with the women’s team I play on. We played Dangriga again, in Dangriga and got our butts handed to us; 4-2 was the final and it was just not a pretty game, but even though we lost we still ended up winning the entire competition because of our record and goals for.

 Brenda, Me, and Nelli after the race

Suga City team...CHAMPS!

My work partner and I have also been doing a lot more work with NAC (National AIDS Commission) and the Orange Walk HIV/AIDS Committee, who works a lot through NAC. We had a couple two-day workshops talking about the committee we have in town and what we want to accomplish and putting together a strategic plan for the district of Orange Walk. A lot of great community members are getting involved and it’s going to be a wonderful thing to have a better focus, goal and vision for the future years in dealing with HIV infections in Belize. More information on NAC here is the site… http://www.nacbelize.org/

I have also been able to squeeze a little rest time in between; a few friends and I went to Tobacco Caye off the coast of Dangriga. It was absolutely relaxing, gorgeous, and peaceful. If you really want to do NOTHING in Belize, then this is your caye! We just swam, slept, read, ate, relaxed, chatted, slept and ate more, and did a little snorkeling. The pictures speak for themselves! J That little weekend was much needed!

And this month can’t go any quicker because I’m finally going to be coming home for a visit!! It has been 15-months since I have been home and it is going to be quite a change. I can’t wait though! Excited to see my family, boyfriend and friends! Even though it will be a short trip, it will be nice break to relax and regroup for what I have in store when I get back to Belize.

And check out this video to my Auntie Becki's pen-pal class in El Monte from the students of Santa Martha Gov't School...much love to Ellen for helping put the video together!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WiEw04mUx8&feature=youtu.be

So no more "until next time," I'll be seeing you ALL soon-hopefully! :) J ... love ya, xoxo!