Feeling the Countdown

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. 

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. 

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!

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…

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.

Candles post prayer