Ac Yuam

Life at site over the past two months can be described best as nonstop.  I’m not just talking about working at the school or having lessons in the village, but there have also been some very important events that took place, and I was lucky enough to be a part of them.  I was invited by the village Chairman to attend the first communion and baptism of his five youngest children as well as dine with them afterward.  Then, just a few weeks after that, I was also invited to the high school graduation in PG and asked to come eat with two of the students’ families.  In each case, the main dish was pork; however, I don’t eat pork, so I was a little concerned about the possibility of having to refuse the food.  Somehow, though, each family had heard of my dietary habits and cooked a chicken just for me.  There may have been times in the past when I didn’t feel that I was integrating into the village as well as I would like, but after these celebrations, I’m starting to realize that people are slowly beginning to adopt me as a member of the village.

The largest celebration, though, came when my host brother got married.  The week prior to the wedding, people were already arriving.  By the eve of the wedding, there were over 100 people there to help cook and celebrate the event.  One group of people that came was from a village where there was another volunteer, so she came up to be a part of the celebration as well.  It was great to have her company, too, because nothing feels lonelier than being the only American surrounded by, what would eventually be, 250 Q’eqchi strangers.

The day of the wedding was awesome!  Buses had come from three or four other villages bringing family and friends of the couple.  At one point, I was speaking to someone and the conversation went something like this:

"Daniel, are you ready for the couple to tie…"

"…the knot?" I said, being the American that I am.

"No, tie their necks," my acquaintance informed me.

Yes, that is correct.  They do not, in fact, tie the knot in Q’eqchi weddings.  Instead, they tie their necks.  Now if you are like me, you may have the image of this couple walking down the aisle on their way to the gallows (and really, at this juncture in my life, I feel like a trip down the aisle and a trip to the gallows are synonymous); however, the neck tying was nothing like that.  As the couple stood in front of the packed church and said their vows, the preacher put a loosely fitting rope in the shape of an infinity symbol around their necks to signify unity and a connectedness that would last for eternity.  After the kiss (which came as a shock to my friend and me considering how much we know about the lack of affection that many Q’eqchi people show) everyone moved next door to my house where beef was served with a side of poch.  Overall, it was a great experience and something that I will remember for the rest of my life.

Aside from my busy social calendar, I have also been able to make time for work.  Most of my work continues to be at the school.  The world map that the students drew and painted is finally finished in the library.  Yes, there are still some little things that need to be completed, but those are only minor details.  The bulk of the map is finished.  I won’t lie to you either.  Going into this knowing that the map would be drawn by a bunch of adolescent boys, my expectations were pretty low; however, now that the map is complete, I can say that I am shocked.  Never in my mind would I have expected it to look as good as it does.  The students did an excellent job!  They have been able to leave a lasting legacy at the school through this project.  The principal, who will be switching schools next year, even liked it so much that he asked for the resources to do it at his next school! 

Side note: for anyone interested, this is not a project that is strictly Peace Corps.  This project can be done by anyone in any country.  It can be used to teach children about the world and even the different cultures around the world.  If this is something you’re interested in, let me know and I can try and get you the information.  It’s something that I definitely want to take back with me to the U.S.

 

Another school activity that I was fairly involved in was helping to train the boys football (like soccer football, not American football) team in preparation for the district finals.  Really, what this meant was going out and playing football with the boys every day after school for about two weeks.  Tough work, I know.  The kids had won the zone tournament but still needed a lot of work to be competitive in the districts, especially since they are pretty small. 

Training had been going well until the day before the tournament, three of the kids decided to disrespect the principal.  The principal quickly told the students that they would not be going to PG the following day and gave them back any money they had donated to help fundraise the vehicle.  It was immediately obvious that these kids were crushed.  Two walked out of the meeting on the verge of tears.  I decided I should probably go out and talk to them to make sure they were alright.  One of them is extremely smart and has loads of potential, but since he’s 14 he could technically drop out whenever he wants.  I really just wanted to make sure that he wasn’t planning on “sticking it to the man” by dropping out of school and ruining his future.

When talking to the students, they told me that they were just planning on going to the tournament on the bus the following morning separately from the team.  We talked more about it and decided that it would probably be best if they at least got the principal’s approval instead of just trying to show him up the next day.  They came up with a heartfelt apology and quickly went to the principal to get approval to support the team.  More tears were shed during this apology, and by the end, the principal was fully convinced that the kids would never disrespect him or any other authority figure again.  They did, however, also have to apologize to their teammates.

The next day, the whole team was off to PG to compete.  The boys won the first game easily but would have to wait five hours in the sun until their next match against a team that was much bigger and had had a first round by.  The boys came out nervous and gave up two quick goals in the first five minutes.  They held them for the final 15 minutes (the games were only 20) but they weren’t able to ever put a goal.  It was an unfortunate way to end the season but the kids brushed it off quickly as kids usually do and were joking around by the time we’d reached the car.  Still, though, to come from the back o’ bush and finish top 5 out of the 50 plus teams in the district is something to be proud of.  That being said, though, you better believe that I will make sure training starts much earlier next year.

Aside from these mini projects, my main work at the school was in giving lessons on the prevention of non-communicable diseases.  This was something that I had been working on for a few months with the goal of having the students present what they learned at the health fair.  In order for this to happen, though, it was obviously important that my CHW and I were able to set up a health fair.

Originally, we wanted this fair to be at the end of May, but due to questions in the budget, the date continued to get pushed back.  The last possible day for the fair was on June 9, the day my family came into town.  Well, we were finally able to nail down this date a week and a half beforehand giving me very little time to get out invitations.  At one point, I was on the bus and had to give a letter to a villager of a different village and have her pass it off to a nurse in that village.  It was quite a stressful time.  I didn’t have confirmations until the day before the fair, and that wasn’t including the nurse in the neighboring village.  By that point, though, I decided what would be would be.  I could no longer do anything.  Luckily, there were four other volunteers who said they would help, so worst case, we would have three stands on diarrheal disease and hygiene. 

Luckily, though, all but one person invitee came.  Even the nurse from the neighboring village showed up.  The topics of the fair varied from vector control to diarrheal disease prevention to birth control and family planning.  We were even able to do cooking demonstrations for the children and members of the community.  By far, though, the biggest success, in my mind, was the fact that we had 34 women of childbearing age come and for an hour, they stood crowding around the birth control and healthy pregnancy booth.  About 60% of the village is under the age of 20.  This means that people are having a lot of babies and there are a lot of tweens that are going to be popping out kids soon.  To me, maternal and child health as well as family planning is one of the major targets for my CHW and me.  I was stoked to see so many women interested in the topic. 

Then there’s the latrine project.  Yes, that is still in full swing.  It’s a long process and I find myself constantly telling the villagers to just have patience, supplies are on the way.  There have been some major developments, though.  The first came when my CHW and I got a group together that would be in charge of the funds.  The name of the group is Ac Yuam Development Project.  Ac Yuam (pronounced Ak Tyuam) means New Life in Q’eqchi and was something that really resonated with me when brainstorming with my language coach about a name.  The goal of this group is not just to fundraise for latrines but for any needs that they see in the community.  Essentially, this group will hopefully bring new life into the community in a sustainable manner.  The next step in the process is to open up a bank account for the group.  I’m hoping that this can be done by early July.  At that time, we can begin to buy supplies and build latrines.  Expect details to come soon on how to donate to the cause!

All of your support, not necessarily for the projects but also for me, helps more than you can know!  Thanks for everything! 

First Vacation!

Right before I posted my last blog post, I had just finished up an excellent vacation with two of my good friends, Annie and Nicole.  Though they were only here for a few days, we had a blast! So much so that Nicole forced me to make this a separate blog post.  

I met them at the airport on Thursday where we quickly caught up before jumping in a taxi and making our way to the Belize City bus terminal.  We got lucky and had an awesome cab driver along the way.  He told us about the different events that'd be going on in the city and pointed out some upcoming projects that the city was working on.  I felt like it was a good introduction to the city for the girls (and for myself, having never been before).  It worked out even better that we got to the terminal at the same time as a bus heading down to Placencia, where we would be staying the next three nights.  

The bus trip was relatively uneventful except for we got warm sweet bun... You can't really beat warm sweet bun on a bus ride with friends.

After what was an extremely long bus ride down to Placencia, we dropped off our stuff and went out to meet some other volunteers at one of the local bars.  It was like two separate worlds were colliding. Thus far during service, I've had my Peace Corps world and my not Peace Corps world.  It wasn't until that moment at the Tipsy Tuna that they both collided and, with the exception of all the embarrassing stories that were told of me, it was awesome!  I really need to commend the girls, too.  I think when it was all said and done they'd been up for 23 hours or something crazy like that.  Despite that fact, they were up and at it early the next morning.

After getting some breakfast and sending off some of the volunteers, Nicole, Annie, the remaining volunteers, and I went out to the beach for the rest of the day.  The whole weekend was a pretty overcast, but there were times that were sunny during the day.  It was honestly the best day we could have had at the beach, so we made the most of it.  For lunch, we went down to this tiny restaurant off the dock to get some authentic Belizean food.  The food was great and the owner was amazing.  She conveyed everything that one would attribute to a Belizean: welcoming, kind, and carefree.  That afternoon, we spent some time jumping off a pear out into the sea until it was finally time to send off two more Peace Corps friends and start getting ready for dinner.

With the weather being a little iffy, we weren't really sure what we were going to do for dinner. One of the options was this restaurant called Tranquilo, which was supposed to be incredible, but it is on a dock off an island, so if the weather wasn't great, there was a chance it could be kind of an uncomfortable dinner. We decided to risk it, though, and it ended up being a great bet.  While we were waiting for the water taxi that would take us out to the restaurant, a couple just married came out, the bride still in her wedding dress.  You can imagine it was a little awkward when we showed up and employees began asking us if we were with the wedding party, but we handled it.  Overall, it was an incredible meal, especially the lionfish that I tried from Nicole's plate.  If you're ever in Placencia, I would highly recommend it, especially if you time it right for sunset.  

Or if you prefer the version with the manatee trying to drink my beer, there it is... 

The next day was rainy again, but Nicole and Annie were able to get out and see some manatees.  Other than that, though, most of the time was spent inside resting and getting ready for "The Fight of the Millennium" that would be later that night between Pacquiao and Mayweather.  After the fight, Nicole and I had some drinks on the beach and talked about all the reasons that she should join Peace Corps! We'll see if I was convincing enough.  Only time can tell.

The next day started early with a pretty rough bus ride into Armenia to see my host family from the village.  I couldn't let Nicole and Annie leave without getting to experience some of the Mayan culture.  It was great to see my first Belizean home again.  They are doing great! The youngest is doing really well in school and was at the top of his Infant I class.  He was speaking to me in English and everything, something that the Infants at my site struggle with.  Though the menu changed last minute and we had rice and beans instead of caldo, Nicole and Annie still got to experience some of the culture, such as playing Uno in a thatch house (alright, maybe minus the Uno).  Annie even used a latrine.  Nicole and I were both very proud. 

Time in the village was short lived, though, and as soon as lunch was over, we were on our way to Belmopan to stay with my embassy family, where Annie was back in her element. 

And then, just like that, the next morning came, and it was time to head back into Belize City to find the girls a taxi driver that would get them back to the airport safely.  Though short lived, I don't think it could have been a better trip.  There were drinks, karaoke, and sweet buns the size of a human head.  There were manatees, thatched homes, and pit latrines.  There were friendships formed, stories told about past lives, and memories that I'll take with me forever, and for all of these things, I am most grateful.  Thanks Annie and Nicole for coming down and sharing a part of my life that I won't be able to share with many people in the States once I return.  I had a great time!

Finding Grass

The past few weeks have been the busiest of service so far.  There are times that I find myself thinking that there’s too much to get done in the limited electricity setting that I find myself living in, yet somehow I’m still able to complete (most of) the work I have planned while at the same time managing to enjoy myself and my community. 

The latrine project that I am working on with my community work partner is finally beginning to take shape.  I am continuing to make house visits around the village asking the villagers who attended the diarrheal disease lessons how to prevent and manage diarrhea as well as when it is important to go to the hospital with diarrhea.  Naturally, this has led to an improvement in my Q’eqchi, especially when it comes to talking about poop.  I may not know much conversational Q’eqchi, but I could go on for days when talking about diarrhea.

We have also been able to get in contact with a group in the States that is willing to collect donations from the U.S. and wire them into an account that will be made up of community members who have been involved in the project.  My work partner and I will begin identifying people during the next month that we think would be able to support the group, which will ultimately be used for any community development projects that have been identified by the villagers.  To help in understanding how to set up a project of this magnitude, I was able to take a trip out to another volunteer’s site who is also working on a latrine project.  I was able to get information from her about building latrines, how to set up and run a village-based group, people to contact about fundraising, and where to find the best deals for supplies in town.  It was incredibly helpful!

Once the group has been registered as an official group, we will begin to ask for donations from the States.  Ideally, we will be able to come up with an Adopt-a-Family type situation where families in the States will get information on a family that they’ve decided to “adopt.”  Of course this will all take place with the families’ consent.  This way people who decide to donate can have a connection with the families in the village that lack toilets.  More information about this to come!

Aside from the latrine project, my work partner and I are also making headway on the health fair.  We finally have an agenda, a list of invitees, and a budget.  Right now all that’s left to do is get a set date, which I’m pushing to be June 4, but we shall see.  If all of the presenters can come, I think it has potential to be very successful.  For now, I’m just going to continue giving lessons at the school about Non-Communicable Diseases so that the kids can help present information to the villagers at the fair.

Things at site aren’t all about work, though.  Most of the time I’m hanging out with people in the village watching movies on my computer, helping them with household chores, or even just talking.  At one point, I went to go help one of the kids in the village throw beans.  What happens is that when the farmers gather their beans, there tends to be a lot of dried grass and dirt.  Throwing them with bowls helps to clean out some of that dust.  Naturally, never having done this before, my first few throws were terrible… I completely missed the tarp a few times and other times, I wouldn’t throw them high enough to allow the wind to blow out the dust.  It was at this point that the 13 year old corrected my technique, and by the time I finished I was a pro.  The whole experience was just one of those reminders that I don’t, in fact, know everything, and that there are even times when a 13 year old can teach me something.

At another point in time, I was hanging out after school with some of the kids.  I was on my way home when I grabbed my book bag off the ground and stopped to talk with some of the teachers and students.  It was then that I felt something crawling on my chest.  Unfortunately, my first reaction was to grab and throw it, not flick it.  It turns out that if you try and grab and throw a scorpion, you get stung and it’s not like a bee sting.  It’s a full out sting that put me in more pain than I’d been in in a while.  My hand swelled up and there was a tingling sensation all the way up my arm and even into my mouth and lips.  It was crazy! The pain lasted a few days, but things are all good now, thankfully.

Of all the things that have happened in the past month, though, one thing in particular stands out to me as a real “lesson learned” moment.  There had been a bulldozer in the village that was charging people absurd fees to level out certain things like plots of land or the road that leads out to the farms which will just become uneven again as soon as the first rains come and the horses begin to walk the road.  On top of the price, the bulldozer was getting rid of grass from the village and leaving plots of dust in its place.  This is what really frustrated me about its presence.  All I wanted was my grassy yard back!

Just days after the bulldozer left, it began to rain more than it had at any other point during the dry season.  We had a week straight of rain, and all the dust turned into mud.  I had to start wearing my boots around the village and needed to focus on every step that I took in an effort not to fall.  What did I do about this? I complained about it: to the teachers, the kids, the host family, everyone!  To me, it was the bulldozer’s fault, so I continued to complain about that to everyone.  Essentially, I was full of negativity during that week of rain (now, admittedly, over a problem that is pretty minuscule in the grand scheme of things).

During the few days of rain, I began reading a book called The Tao of Pooh which considered the different types of people and how they relate to Taoist principles by looking at characters from Winnie the Pooh.  One of the ideas that the book presents is the importance of looking at potentially negative situations but seeing the good that can come from them and knowing that whatever happened occurred for a reason.  Literally within a day of reading this, I stepped outside and saw in the mud something I hadn’t seen since the bulldozer left: grass.  Had it not been for the rain, there would have been no grass. 

This made a profound impact on me.  It taught me to acknowledge the negative but also know that it did happen for a reason.  There will be times at site when something bad happens (probably it’ll be bigger than just losing some grass), but I’m going to need to take that negative and make it into something better, either through my actions or, more simply, my observations.  There was nothing I could have done about the rain, but I was able to notice that something good did come from all that rain and mud.  Because I was focused on finding the good from the not so good, I was able to find a positive – I was able to find grass. 

Keeping On

 Things are finally starting to feel kind of normal around here.  To most of the villagers, I feel like I seem more like just another person in the village as opposed to the strange white guy that’s working at the school.  I’m used to village life and have a routine that’s pretty set.  I’ve become adjusted to the slow pace of life in the village, and actually enjoy it much more than the stress that comes with rushing around in town checking email, making sure that I’ve bought everything for the next week, contacting everyone back in the States.  That sort of thing.  When you only have about 6 hours to get yourself situated for the next week, it gets pretty stressful, especially now that work is starting to pick up at site.  I feel like it gives me much more to do when I come into town. 

The main project that I’m focusing on is still the latrine project.  I’ve finished up with all the classes, and they were a huge success!  The CHW and I averaged over 30 people at each of the meetings, a huge number considering there are only 65 families in the village.  Almost half of the families had someone in attendance, so I was stoked about that!  The first three meetings were pretty awkward.  I would stand up and talk about poop in broken Q’eqchi that would then have to be translated by the CHW in order for the people to understand.  The last meeting, however, was completely different.  We spoke about diarrheal disease prevention with an emphasis on proper hand washing.

At one point, I was demonstrating how to wash hands.  I poured a little water and started to rub with soap for 20 seconds.  The usual.  Everything had gone pretty smoothly until I went to wash the soap off.  I finished pouring my water bottle when I realized I still had soap on my hands.  The audience thought it was hilarious.  Especially when I told them not to use a dirty towel or pants when all I wanted to do was wipe off the remaining soap.  Just at that point, an older man walked in late and came up to me, asked how I was doing and shook my dripping hand.  A look of disgust and confusion flashed across his face, and though for just a second, the participants didn’t miss it.  They died and began telling me to wash my hands again.  If only I had more water…

Now that the classes are over, I’ve started doing house visits to ask the participants questions about the classes – how to prevent and manage diarrhea, when to go to the hospital, even why do they need a latrine.  The biggest challenge now is finding out how to get enough money to bring in sand for the cement before the dry season ends.  I think I have a plan, though, that will be cutting it close, but hopefully will lead to latrines being built by around August. 

I’ve also started giving lessons at the school on the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCD), such as diabetes.  The plan is to have a health fair in the beginning of June where the students can come out and do skits and draw posters to teach the villagers about how to prevent NCDs.  On top of that, there will be various booths set up that teach about healthy eating and cooking where some of the villagers will use locally grown foods and sell them to people in the village.  The hope is that the people will enjoy the food and be encouraged to start a garden, or at least eat the healthier foods.  I’d also like to have maternal and child health booths for the mothers in the village.   Though my CHW and I are just in the beginning stages of planning, I’m already excited about the health fair and think that it has potential to be very successful!

A lot of the ideas that I have for the health fair are coming from another fair that I attended that one of the volunteers set up in her village.  Her health fair was awesome, but I was even more excited to get to see her and a few other volunteers in their villages.  They live in beautiful villages and it was fun to kind of experience and day in their lives.  I got to walk around and talk with people in the village and see how differently they live from the villagers in San Vicente.  The two villages I visited are only a few miles apart and even they are very different.  It’s something that I find very interesting.  What factors led to the villagers living so differently even though they are so close together?

Well, other than those two projects, the Student Leader Program is still going pretty strong at the school despite the fact that I’ve had to switch my focus more toward the community based projects.  They sell bananas with the help of some of the teachers and have even raised enough money to start buying toilet paper for the classrooms, something that students had to bring before.  If you thought you might have to go in class, you brought toilet paper.  Now they won’t have to worry about that.  The Student Leaders have also said they would be interested in buying buckets of water with a tap at the end as a way to continue to emphasize proper hand washing.  To top it all off, the world map is slowly coming along.  The students and I will begin to draw the countries sometime over Easter break, so I’m stoked about that!!

Really that’s about it.  I’m reading Don Quixote right now which is an incredibly long book, but I’m finally nearing the end.  Anyway, I read something that really stuck out to me: “Let us live while we can, speak while we may, and at present pursue our journey.”  I really liked that!  It stuck out as a reminder to me to just keep living.  Celebrate the highs and push through the lows.

And here, just because I haven't posted pictures in a while:

What a Beautiful Life

Sorry no pics.. iPod connector cable is temporarily MIA.

When people ask me how I’m doing, I have one answer for them: busy – and it’s incredible!  I always say I’d rather be busy than board, so I’m loving this pick up in work.  I’m still working very hard with trying to make the Student Leader program sustainable, something that can be difficult when the teachers at the school rarely stay longer than a year.  The kids in the program, though, are still dedicated.  They buy bananas and sell them at the school almost daily.  The money they raise is used to help pay for the World Map Project, which is slowly starting to look more and more legit.  We have an ocean now!!

Fun fact: you can buy 175 bananas in Belize for the equivalent of $6.00 USD.

Aside from banana sales and the world map, the Student Leaders are also working to get some clubs up and running.  They really want to see the creation of a boys and girls sports club, so I’ve been working to help them out with that.  They also want to have a chess club and a garden, something that I’m going to start looking into more in the next week.

The teachers at the school have begun to give me more opportunities to do lessons, as well, something that I think will be very successful.  I believe that if you want to see behavior change, it’s best to start with the children.  Learning healthy habits at a young age is how change takes place over time.  The one lesson I’ve given this semester was on diabetes and nutrition and was very successful!  I really felt like the kids understood what I was talking about, and, though they may not put into practice exactly what I said, they are at least aware of it.  Hopefully, with continued encouragement, behavior change can begin to take place. 

The lesson was so successful that I’m beginning to plan an NCD prevention series with the school that will focus on physical activity and healthy diet.  Once all of the classes are complete, I’m envisioning a field day for the students in which they can play new sports that I taught them, have a poster competition, and perform skits.  Maybe they’ll even be able to set up a booth and give lessons to some of the adults in the village.  We’ll just have to wait and see, though!  The teachers could also get together and cook some foods from the garden (which as mentioned before doesn’t exist as yet but hopefully will soon).  They could give community lessons about healthy diets and sell the dishes to make some money for the school.  I’m really stoked about this potential series.  I hope that it comes to fruition in the coming month.

The health work doesn’t stop in the classroom, though.  In the community, I’m really focusing on latrines and diarrheal disease prevention.  It’s my personal goal to see that everyone in the village has a latrine by the time I leave.  Ideally, I’ll be able to do it in a way that’s sustainable, too.  In order to do this, I’m requiring that people who want latrines attend four classes in which they learn about diarrhea signs and symptoms, prevention, and treatment.  Once I have completed the four classes with my CHW, I will do random house visits to make sure that not only the participants are applying what I taught, but that they are also teaching their children and spouses as well.  Only after they pass the courses AND house visits will they be able to get a latrine.  The first class was an introduction on the project and discussed the fecal-oral cycle and why it’s important to use a latrine.

Before I could begin these lessons, though, I needed to get permission from the village and the village leaders.  My CHW and I requested permission to speak at one of the village meetings.  Since my CHW actually speaks Q’eqchi, I was kind of assuming that I’d say a few words and he would explain the details.  Five minutes before the meeting, I decided that it would be a good idea to confirm this belief, just so I could plan out what I wanted to say while the meeting was going on.  Turns out, his expectation for me was to explain the entire project and then he would answer any questions the villagers may have.  What I was anticipating to be a few words to prepare suddenly had become a full on explanation…

Luckily, village meetings tend to be about 3-4 hours long, giving me plenty of time to prepare.  After figuring out what I wanted to say and repeating it a few hundred times in my head, I started to wonder what would happen when I finally spoke.  Would people just get up and leave out of lack of interest? Or would they be so shocked that the white guy was trying to speak Q’eqchi that they’d stay to hear/see the potential train wreck?  I’m happy to say that they stayed to hear what it was I needed to say! Unfortunately, however, the hours of repetition prior to actually speaking slipped my mind as soon as I was called on to speak.  Apparently, I did well enough, though, since some people had questions about time and place so that they could make sure to be there.  And, to ensure people remembered the first upcoming lesson, I made 22 house visits to the people I knew didn’t have latrines.  All this work proved worthwhile when 35 people showed up to the first lesson!!  

I’m not going to lie, my confidence in my Q’eqchi was pretty high after introducing the project at the village meeting basically off the top of my head.  That was when I decided to do another lesson the following day with the football club on the importance of eating healthy to prevent NCDs.  For the most part, it seemed like most of the men were more interested in watching football, but apparently someone was listening since one of the men showed up two days after to get his blood sugar and vitals checked!

I’ve also added some more… interesting… foods to my list of foods consumed during service.  The very same day that I presented at the village meeting, my CHW killed a deer.  Needless to say, I had a few meals that consisted of deer; however, that’s not the interesting part.  On the evening following the meeting, I sat down to eat at my host sister’s house and she served me something called kot li kej, or literally deer shit.  It looked like something I’d had before so I figured I’d just eat it and pray that it was, in fact, edible.  Though far from appetizing, I was able to get it down, at which point her husband came in and explained to me that it was actually the deer’s intestines cleaned out and steamed.  Needless to say, I suffered from some digestive issues the following day.  Funny how that works.

Aside from work, I’m still focusing on cultural integration, or as I prefer to say, getting the villagers to like me.  One of the key integration activities I’ve participated in recently was helping to build a house.  The first step to doing this was to go out with my host dad and brother and find four or five trees to chop down and debark.  We then got together with about 20 other men and started putting up the house.  I didn’t do much the first day, but I was able to make the group laugh when I pretended to knock my head on one of the rafters and told them the house was too short, something that’s very common (at least by my 6’2” standards) in Q’eqchi villages. 

Once the frame of the house was completed, they began putting on the thatch, which they got from the cahun palm trees.  It took about 400 palm leaves to make the roof.  As you can imagine, this required a lot of walking back and forth with the horses hauling the leaves.  At one point, I decided that I wanted to go help, so I walked about a half mile to the place where they were loading the thatch on the horses.  I then walked about a quarter of a mile further, across a creek, to where the thatch was located.  Dragging the thatch back to the horses that quarter of a mile was tough, especially around the creek, but I managed with only a little stumble around the creek.

When I returned to the horses, one of the villagers gave me a rock.  It was very smooth, flat on back and a carved edge on the opposite side, resembling an axe head.  When he first handed it to me, I was stoked because I was (and still am) pretty sure that it’s an axe head carved by the ancient Maya; however, the villagers had a different story for the rock.  They believe that when lightning strikes a tree, these rocks are a part of the lightning and are the reason that the tree splits down the middle.  So, whether an ancient Mayan axe head or a lightning rock, I am stoked to have it, and even more honored that it was given to me by one of the villagers.

Before I finish up this post, I just want to tell one final story about what I consider to be one of the best bus rides I’ve ever had into PG.  To start off, the bus left from my village, meaning that I didn’t need to go through the extremely uncomfortable ride in the back of a truck to the neighboring village.  As the bus was leaving the village, it stopped to pick up a family.  The first person on the bus was a little five or six year old named Vasilio.  As soon as he saw me on the bus, he ran up and sat right down next to me, not even waiting for the permission from his mom, who, with his cousin, was laughing about the whole situation.

Vasilio and I spoke some at first, but as the bus began to move, he started looking out the front window and became transfixed with the movement of the bus over the rough hills.  As I as observing him observing the road, a song came on my iPod: I Mua by Nahko and Medicine for the People.  As the song nears its end, Nahko starts repeating “What a beautiful life.”  This really resonated with me.  I thought of how lucky I am to be in my village and to have been able to build relationships with the people of the village in just five months.  I also thought about the potential that I have to really have an impact on this community and the people that I’ve fallen in love with.  These people to people interactions are, in my opinion, as important, if not more so, than any health lesson that I can give.  As I Mua reached its conclusion, I realized that this really is a beautiful life.

Back to School

Things at site over the past month or so have been picking up faster than I ever could have anticipated.  I decided to spend New Year at site instead of going into the village.  Six hours into the church service, around 1 AM, I began to think that maybe next year it could be fun to see how they do things in Punta Gorda next year.  After church, though, I got to spend some time with the other members of the Baptist church and eat some caldo chicken and poch before heading to bed.

Caldo is one of the major foods for the Q’eqchi people.  It’s essentially a naturally colored red soup that is flavored with cilantro, oregano, and other herbs.  The Q’eqchi people are known for this and can caldo anything: chicken, cassava (yucca), chocho (chayote), anything.  This, along with either corn tortillas, is definitely one of the foods that is incredibly important to the culture.  If you were to walk up to a random person in my village and ask them what their favorite food was, there’s a very good chance they’ll say caldo chicken.  Poch is another food that is important to the culture.  It’s known as the traditional Q’eqchi tortilla, and is essentially corn masa placed in a large leaf and steamed.  Some people also call it a grenade because it blows up in your stomach.  Despite that, though, I still think it’s delicious.

Aside from caldo and poch, I’ve had the opportunity to taste all sorts of other foods.  There are loads of fruits and vegetables that I’ve been introduced to that I had no idea even existed.  I had never heard of chocho before coming here, but now it’s something that I’ll eat at least once a week.  One of the fruits that I’ve recently discovered is the ch’elel, a pod fruit that essential looks like a large string bean and requires that you suck the meat off the seed in order to eat.

Then come the foods that are a little tougher for me to eat: the meats.  Being a former vegetarian (or vegetarian away from site, as I like to refer to my situation), trying different meats was something that I knew I’d have to get over.  Though I still don’t eat pig, I have had the opportunity to try brocket deer, coati (a raccoon-like animal), and, the strangest animal by far, the ground mole.

Tyuuk, or brocket deer

And this terrifying creature is the ground mole, a little bigger than in the States

Shortly after New Year, school started again, and I was back to work! My goal for the school going into this year is to get the student leaders group up and running.  If I can get it solidified this year, then I can work on making it sustainable next year.  Essential, my vision for the group is to get students from Standards III-VI and have them come together and advocate for the students.  If the students want a sports club, let’s try and get it to them. Before the break, the nominees campaigned and were elected.  There wasn’t someone from every standard, but I was able to get five students.  I’m happy to say that the more we get into the term, the more excited they seem.  I really think that next year, I’ll have a full eight kids to work with.  Children in Std. II are already telling me that they want to make good grades to become a student leader, and the students in the group have said that they are going to study to make sure that they can remain a member. 

The main clubs that the students wanted to begin were a sports club, a gardening club, and a chess club.  Yes, I said chess.  The sign-up sheets filled up right away, so I’m hoping that we can get the chess and sports clubs started next week.  The gardening group will take a little longer to get situated but I’m hoping in the next few weeks we’ll have one up and going.  Each of the leaders will team up with a teacher to make sure that the group works as effectively as possible.  The student leaders and I agreed that the students in the different clubs would have to pass next term in order to remain in the club the next term.  If they don’t pass, then the student leaders will open up a tutoring program for the students who weren’t able to pass.  I’m hoping that this will encourage the students to study, thus lowering the 33% fail rate that was present last term.

The student leaders are also working with fundraising for the school.  Right now the goal is to raise money to help fund the World Map Project that some of the students and I are drawing on the library wall.  I’m hoping to incorporate the map with some of the books in the library to spark the children’s interest in the world.  To make money, the student leaders and I were first selling rubber bands, but after the students began to shoot each other, we had to stop.  The next products are going to be bananas and popcorn – far less dangerous, I believe.

Maynor and Manuel working on the World Map grid

One of the down sides of going back to school was that I noticed the children that were no longer there, either deciding to drop out or forced to by their parents.  There was one boy who had been living with his mom and siblings while the dad was in America.  When the mom decided to move to a different village, the boy decided to drop out to take care of his grandpa’s farm and his siblings.  Two other girls were forced to leave by their parents.  Both were smart girls who wanted to be at school but were no longer allowed.  Luckily, one of the girls came to me, so I spoke to the principal on her behalf.  He spoke to her dad and, though it took two weeks, I’m happy to say she’s back at school!  Still the fact remains that children in fifth and sixth grade are ending their education, and that bothers me.  One of the goals that I’ve set here is to try and turn that around.  I want to spark an interest in the world that will make students want to stay in school.  I want them to find their strengths and interests so that they can see how much more there is in the world and all the doors that an education can open.

I guess this is a good time to throw in that I am a health volunteer, for those that didn’t know.  The work that I’ve done at the school is all secondary projects that I believe will be very important to the students and, hopefully, their futures and the future of the school.  Aside from the school projects, though, I’ve been making plans for future health projects.  As I said in my last post, I’m going to be focusing on a latrine project which involves four classes and random house visits.  I’ll also begin fundraising sometime in the next few months.  Aside from the latrine project, I have plans to give a lesson on diabetes and nutrition to the futbol team in the village.  Hopefully all this will work out, and people will start getting healthy!

Around the middle of the January, I took some time to go into Placencia for a night for the College Football National Championship game.  Placencia was a different world!  The beaches were awesome, even with the little sun that we had, and it was great to catch up with some friends.  After leaving Placencia, I went to my friend Dan’s site in San Pablo, a little Q’eqchi village near Bella Vista.  It was interesting to see the differences that existed between the two villages, mostly size, dialect, and geography.  Plus it was just crazy to be at someone else’s site and see how they live and their interactions with their families.  Over all, it was a great few days!  I’m looking forward for an equally exciting February!

Happy Holidays from Belize!

Before I get started with any new updates, I'd first like to say happy holidays! I'm also sorry about the lack of pictures. They will hopefully be coming soon!

Now, how about those Tigers? Wins over South Carolina and Oklahoma have made it a very nice December here in Belize, especially since I was able to see both games! Coming into town for the S.C. game was a little difficult.  I had to hike 4 miles and jump on the bus just as it was starting to leave, but I made it! Luckily, it wasn't as difficult to see the Oklahoma game.  All I had to do was pay for a hotel room with a television and BAM! Good to go.

Aside from football, things here have been going well.  My cohort had its first In-Service Training (Reconnect) where we all got together and were given some direction for the next year: how to continue to motivate work partners, how to report data, etc. This was also the first time that all of us have been able to get together as a group since Pre-Service Training. I'm happy to say that all of the volunteers that attended swearing in in September are still here today, something that is pretty rare for Peace Corps.  In fact, the Country Director informed us that this is the first time in at least a decade that no one has Early Terminated (ET'd) in the first three months of service. 

It was great to see everyone and hear all their stories and different experiences!  It's crazy how different a Mestizo volunteers service is from that of a Q'eqchi volunteer.  Apart from the language differences, Mestizo villages tend to be larger and many sites come with more amenities such as washing machines, electricity, and internet.  Despite these perks, there are still many challenges that Mestizo volunteers face.  With larger villages come a greater risk of crime.  It can also be more difficult to integrate in the village.  At my site, I know almost all of the primary school kids by name and I at least recognize almost all of the villagers.  For the Mestizo volunteers in the larger villages, this is difficult to do since, in some cases, there are upwards of 2,000 people in the village.  Even through the challenges that we all face as volunteers, Q'eqchi or Mestizo, we've stuck with it and are continuing to do great work!

After Reconnect, I returned to site motivated and ready to start putting some projects in motion.  One of the needs of the village that has been voiced to me by many of the villagers is the need for latrines.  Currently, only about half of the people have a latrine.  Those that don't have latrines simply go to the bathroom in the bush, a term that can range anywhere from the forest in the backyard to a spot a few feet from their house.  Obviously, there are some health concerns when it comes to not using a latrine, mainly an increased prevalence of diarrheal disease.  The idea that my Community Health Worker (CHW) and I came up with is to have classes on latrines, maybe once a week for a month or a month and a half.  These classes would talk about the different ways to prevent diarrheal disease and what to do if you have diarrhea.  After an individual finishes the class, the CHW and I will make three random house visits to ensure that people are doing what we taught them.  If they pass the house visits, them we'll work on getting the materials for the latrines and the family will build the latrine itself.  That's the tentative plan for now at least.  Obviously, there are some other factors that will come into play, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there.  This, I believe, will be one of my main projects over the course of the next two years.

To figure out the other needs of the village, the CHW and I will go around the village and ask people what needs they perceive to be most relevant. Some other needs that I've noticed are maternal health, diabetes education, and childhood nutrition.  Fun fact about the village: of the 404 people in the village, 242 are younger than 20.  Clearly, family planning is something that needs to be addressed.  I spoke to the village midwife and she agreed to start a women's group that will touch on family planning as well as other maternal health factors.  I'm hoping to get that started around March.  My CHW has also expressed an interest in a health fair, so hopefully that will take place sometime in mid to late 2015.

About a week and a half before Christmas, some doctors came into the village to set up a clinic.  They allowed me to borrow one of them to go out and do lice treatments with the families of the children I'd found lice in.  Hopefully lice will finally be eradicated from the village! On Christmas Eve, I was on my way to give out the second round of lice treatment to the families when my Q'eqchi language teacher came up to me and invited me to watch two pigs get slaughtered at the Catholic church.  Being a former vegetarian, the idea was kind of terrifying, but how often in one's life does an opportunity like that come around?  After three hours of watching two 350 lb pigs get turned into meals, I finished the handing out the lice treatments.

Later that night, I decided to spend more time with the Catholics.  For nine days before Christmas, they have a service at one of the villagers homes and then move to another house where dinner is provided by the family.  They next night, the family the hosted dinner the night before hosts the service.  This continues until Christmas.  All the while, they carry the Virgin Mary, symbolizing her search for an inn.  On Christmas, she finally rests at the church.  I really enjoyed being a part of this pasada.  I really felt like it helped bring together the families in the village, instilling a sense of community.  Plus, the service was beautiful!  Then, at midnight, I got together with the Baptists and had some more food while the villagers shot off their firecrackers, something that is custom for Christmas in Belize.  I can't wait to see what happens for New Year!

Overall, I have no serious complaints.  Everyday, I wake up and think how lucky I am and that I have the best job in the world.  Thanks to everyone who supports me, too! You guys don't know how much your support helps.  The next time I type up a post, it'll be 2015, so HAPPY NEW YEAR!