I was speaking to a member of staff recently when I was in
Belmopan and he was telling me that blog posts usually fall off at about the 18
month mark. I can officially attest to
that. It’s around that time where I
really started getting on top of all of the projects that are going on in the
village. Latrines. BRO.
Pigs. Track. When I have a chance to get into town, my
only focus is on doing any work that I need to do to make sure that these
projects get completed in the next… what month are we in? April?… to make sure
that these projects get done in the next 4 months.
Really, I’ve gotten to the point where going to town is a
pain. If it weren’t for these projects
that I have going on that require internet, I don’t know if I would come into
town at all. Likewise, if it weren’t for
these projects, there are days when I’m not so sure I would go back into the
village. It’s funny how quickly we can
get accustomed to the small things that render us immobile. Waking up in a soft bed using only the
sunrise for an alarm clock. The calming silence that follows a gust of
wind through the cahun thatch. The
thought of having one more day to have one more beer on the beach with
friends. Receiving
a smile from one of the kids that tells a story greater than words could ever
express – a story of confidence and trust a year and a half in the making.
And in just four months, all of these draws, whether on the
beach or on the farm, will become memories, screaming and protesting as I step
onto a plane that will take me back to my past life.
Until that day, though, there is work to be done. The latrine project continues to move on
slowly but surely. The Health Worker and
I have finished education sessions for a second group of recipients that bring
the total number of toilets to be constructed to around 60, essentially the
entire village. It’ll be great to see
everyone with a toilet by the time I leave.
There’s still a lot of work to be done, though, before that can
happen.
I’ve also been working on a project called Pigs Dig
Education in which my work partner and I will give female piglets to eight
students interested in going to high school.
They are responsible for taking care of the pig and making sure that it
gets pregnant. Once it has babies, the
students pass one female piglet down to the next group of participants. They will sell the remaining pigs and use the
money to help pay for high school. This
is a project that I really think can be successful, especially since my work
partner seems very invested in the projected.
My hope is that whenever I go back to visit the village in however many
years, the project will still be going strong.
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| The "Pig" kids learned about financial management and spoke with their parents about costs for high school |
I’m also continuing the Boys Reaching Out (BRO) Club. Most of the boys in Standards IV-VI
participate and are excited about the club.
It is, however, in a transition phase.
Before, we would always meet on Sundays, but this proved difficult for
my work partners, so we are in the process of moving the club to weekdays after
school. It’s tough to make that
transition now, though, since the pig project is taking up time after school to
do life skills workshops for those participants, but by the end of the month we
should have a solid, more legitimate BRO Club.
We will also be going to a nationwide BRO Camp at the end of June so the
boys are already excited about that.
They just need to make sure that they attend a total of sixteen meetings
to be eligible for the camp.
I’m also helping the school set up a trip for the student
leaders. They have been working very
hard this year and the teachers and I agreed to work to help them go up to see
Xunantunich sometime in June. We are
also planning on having them speak with the Mayan leaders in Toledo and
representatives from the University of Belize.
My hope is that they will learn a lot about leadership and culture
through this trip and will be motivated to continue their education past
primary and high school.
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| Isaac, one of the student leaders |
Finally, I am continuing to help out with sports at the school. Right now, the main focus for the kids is
soccer. Mine, however, is track and
field. Even though it’s still months
away, I make sure that everyone knows how important it is to train for
track. It’s not like some sports where
they can do some quick training and go out and compete. For track, they’ll need months to train so
that they can be at their best. My hope
is that we have at least 8 students participate at the district meet and that
we can even take some of them up to nationals.
We shall see.
But that’s enough talk about work. The past two months have also been a lot of
fun! For one thing, Nicole came and
visited me again. We started the week in
Hopkins where we took things slow and relaxed with some of the other
volunteers. Nicole managed to get most
of the way there by herself before I met her in Dangriga to catch a cab down to
Hopkins. I figured it’d be a good test
to see how PC ready she is for the start of her service in Ecuador next
month. She passed the initial test in
flying colors! The next test for her,
though, was going to be a bit more challenging.
We went into the village and spent two days there where I got to show
her some of the work I’d been doing and also introduce her to the culture. While there, she got to try “corn shakes” (her
words, but really just lab, essentially corn drink) and “corn popsicles”
(ducanu). She wasn’t a huge fan of
these, though, so that meant I got extras! Not a problem for me! Following our time in the village, we went up
to Caye Caulker to relax for a few days before she left back for the
States. Caulker was awesome! We met a
lot of really cool people who were either just beginning a three month
backpacking trip or just finishing it up.
It seemed like everyone there was backpacking around. They convinced me to put it on my bucket
list. Overall, Nicole’s trip was a blast
and she showed that she’s going to be a kick ass PCV in Ecuador!
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| Nicole finding the babies in the village |
After Nicole’s visit, things were pretty slow in the village
until Easter weekend. The Catholics in
my village have a ritual of sorts that they perform every five or so years when
the rats get bad at the farm and eat all the crop. I just happened to be lucky enough that they
performed the ritual while I was in the village. On the Thursday before Easter, the men and
boys from the village and I went out to go catch some rats. The men started by standing in a large circle
around an area of the farm and chopping toward the center. As we would chop, all the rats would move to
the center until there was nowhere else for them to go except out of the
circle, where we had boys ready to jump on any rats that dared leave the
sanctuary of the ever shrinking circle.
I nearly caught one rat, but only managed to throw it in the air where
it fell into the hands of a waiting child.
Once we had corralled about 20 rats, we took them to the priest’s
house where we prayed and gave them cacao drink and tortilla. They stayed at the house until Easter Sunday,
when the men and I took them to a cave that was about an hour and a half walk
into the bush. I had heard the cave was
large, but I still wasn’t expecting it to be anything too much. When we arrived, though, I realized I was
wrong. The cave was huge. We went down for about five minutes, but they
said it went down another two miles!
Going in was steep and the rock floor slippery. For some reason they found it odd when I
decided to slide down on my butt…
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| Jose at the mouth at the cave |
After the five minute trip inside we were totally immersed
in the darkness. Only a faint light made
its way to us from the distant mouth of the cave. I was surprised to see a stone alter was
still decorated from past rat offerings.
The men placed the rats inside a hole with an entire dead chicken and
about 2 gallons of cacao drink. The idea
is that the rats are like prisoners serving time for their crime. I was also told that they wouldn’t die. I guess only the people who go out in the
next five years will be able to say for sure.
Once the hole was covered by stones to keep the rats inside, a fire was
lit on the alter and everyone got a candle and began to pray. It was an awesome thing to see! Definitely an
Easter I’ll never forget. By the time we
finished to pray and were out of the cave, the smoke from the fire had begun to
fill the cave and all of us blew black snot out of our noses. The people thought it was hilarious! All in all, it made for an awesome
Easter/birthday weekend! I can only hope
the last four months, continue on in the same direction.
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| Candles post prayer |
