Orphanage and Belizean Culture

Volunteer Post: Sarah

I can’t believe how quickly time has been flying and that I have already been in Belize for over a month! It has been such a great experience and I’ve thoroughly loved getting to know Belize, my team members and the local community members. I’ve traveled to a lot of different countries the past few years but I think Belize is the most unique country I’ve been to. It's interesting how European colonizing countries from around 300 years ago still have so much influence on countries even today. Even just taking the bus to get to the orphanage in the capital city, Belmopan, there is a crazy variety of people and languages for such a small country. You've got the Mennonites with their beards, their suspenders and their wide brimmed hats; then the Rastas with their long dreads and colorful accents; then people of Mayan descent laden with their goods to sale and a bunch of little kids that stare back at you with bright dark eyes; and then just everyone from in between the races. It’s fun people watching with everyone crammed into an old style school bus carrying kids, groceries, umbrellas, balloons, and sometimes piñatas.

 I usually do this bus route once a week to the King’s Children Home mostly just to play with the kids and give the little ones one-on-one attention just to be held and cuddled. It’s really neat how the directors of the orphanage emphasize that it is not an institution but a home and a place for the kids to feel at home. Orphanages are like their own little society with leaders and homemade family units that look out for each other. I love seeing their interactions with each other. A few big kids look out for the little ones by doing their hair, feeding them and bossing around the bullies. I think it would be really interesting to track the lives of orphans and see how they all end up and if they stay in their homemade families. Talking to one of the directors at the orphanage, Mike, he told us that they raise good kids. Kids that go to universities and kids that give back to the community through their own service. I feel a bit sad every time I leave and it's hard to leave the little ones crying at the gate waving to us, but I'm glad they watch out for each other and let me into their world just for a few hours.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Livin' it up in Belize!

Volunteer Post: Laura


Living abroad brings with it some advantages and disadvantages. Hefting 40 lb. jugs of water from the store to your house in the blazing heat? Disadvantage. Having the police lend you their four wheeler and letting you pile four people on it and ride with reckless abandon? Advantage.


This week our whole team was able to help the Police Department of San Ignacio clean out an old police station in Georgeville (a town close to Santa Elena). They converted the old substation to a safe space for kids to study and hang out after school. They had already painted things on the wall to make it more fun and less policey. 

The station hadn't been used in a while and the floor was pretty dirty. We started sweeping up and realized that we just needed to do a deep scrub.

Now, in Belize (and other Latin American countries) the technique for mopping floors isn't with a bucket like we're used to in the US. They flood the floors using the spigot in the house and then scrub the floors with a broom and sweep the water and dirty (and bugs) out the doors. 

In our cleaning we found a tarantula, a few cockroaches, and all sorts of nasty in one of the bathrooms. We had a good time cleaning and getting the center ready for the grand opening later that afternoon. We also couldn't resist locking Kristina, one of our country directors, in a holding cell while she cleaned it out. Don't worry, we let her out after a while. 

By the time we left, the center was all ready to open, with a sparkly clean floor to boot. Our other projects continue in earnest and we're excited for our town movie night this Thursday. (Just our way of celebrating Independence Day.)

Welcome to the new blog!

Hi all,

Welcome to the new blog!  If you are interested in seeing any of the previous posts, check out our old blog here: http://belize.help-international.org/

Otherwise, stay tuned!

Bienviendos Wave 2

Volunteer Post: Brad

Here in Belize we’ve been busy with various projects and being awesome 100% of the time, it’s a demanding ordeal. This past week our first wave continued to work diligently up until the very last hour. Work at the women’s empowerment center continued at Cornerstone, teaching women’s skills such as baking, jewelry making, sewing and learning basic computer skills. Randy wrapped up his time at Octavia Waight, the old folks home, working with the fine people there with physical therapy. Kim and Danielle finished out their projects with the preschool and working with Cornerstone.

Thursday we had our last group dinner for Wave 1 at a restaurant called Fuego and then hiked up a large hill to grab some ice cream. We shared some of our favorite experiences this past wave and inside jokes that would be lost on the reader. Friday morning Trellany and I headed to Belmopan for Trellany’s volleyball team she’s been coaching and to renew our visas. Randy took off on a jet plane; don’t know when he’ll be back again. : (

However with every sad moment happy ones soon follow suit. Although we had already said goodbye to Randy, we were joined by 4 new faces. Wave 2 introduced Anne, Sarah, Jessie, and Laura and our current group of 6, grew to a large group of 10. We had a short time for introductions and had dinner. Saturday morning we said goodbye to Kim and Danielle, it was a sad moment just like all goodbyes but we wish Randy, Kim, and Danielle the best of luck with the rest of their summers.

On Saturday, Kyle took off to the airport to pick up our last Wave 2 volunteer and the rest of the group headed to Xunantunich, an ancient Mayan ruin. The ruins were SWEET and we got our taxi driver to come along with us, while we were taking pictures of the ruins we would catch him taking a few quick pics of Kristina our CC. The ruins were a lot of fun and was definitely an educational experience for everyone that went.

Later that day we were greeted by our last volunteer Michelle and our Wave 2 group was now complete and ready to go. AVENGERS ASSEMBLE! We’re off to save Belize, well #HELPBelize is more like it. We’re all pumped to be working here and couldn’t ask for a better group. Our group is now: our two CC’s Kyle and Kristina and our volunteers, Trellany, Brad, Anne, Sarah, Jessie, Laura, and Michelle. Wish us luck as we continue to fight poverty and empower people in Belize.

The View from Down South

It’s almost been a week since my last post and I apologize for the long gap. Time slipped away and after a long weekend and being busy with different projects I’ve found the time to update everyone on what’s been going on here in Belize. So strap in readers, cause this might be a long one. This past weekend was a 3-day weekend because Monday was Commonwealth day. So the group decided to head south for Belize’s annual Chocolate festival. Yes, a festival of chocolate.

We left Saturday morning at 5:50 to catch a bus to Belmopan (the capital) that left at 6:00. We got on the bus and got cozy for the long 6 hrs of Belizean bus rides in front of us. The hour to Belmopan went by quickly enough and after a brief wait in the terminal we boarded the next bus that would take us down to a place called Punta Gorda, or as Belizeans referred to it… PG. We made about 50 or so million stops along the way picking up all sorts of people making their way South.

Around 12:30 we finally caught view of the beautiful Caribbean beckoning us to leave our sweat-stained and indented seats to walk around in the sun with a warm tropical breeze on our faces. It felt pretty good to be off the bus sharing a seat with only God knows whom, and to be walking around stretching our legs. We found the festival in full swing and jumped right in to the festivities. Chocolate was everywhere. Chocolate milkshakes, chocolate fudge brownies, Belizean Kriol chocolate, Mayan dark chocolate, frozen hot chocolate, chocolate and banana smoothies, chocolate covered bananas, chocolate bbq sauce, Mayan cacao drink, chocolate cheesecake, the list goes on but needless to say I said “yes please” and enjoyed the chocolate. I also was reminded firmly of a Spongebob episode where he and Patrick sell chocolate bars and have some crazy fish dude scream “CHOCOLATE!!!” running after them, I was that fish dude.

CHOCOLATE!!! The festival was crazy, filled with dancing from local groups and a few fun scam games I lost $3 on. While enjoying all the craziness we were supposed to meet up with the owner of the hotel we were staying at. Kristina had handled all the arrangements up to that point and apparently one of the owners told her the festival was only 2 miles away from the hotel. That would have been fantastic had she informed us that it would have been the next day but for now we were 2 hours away by bus from the hotel and the last bus that direction was getting ready to say adios. So after the confusion the owners said they had some jungle casitas and lodges near where the festival was currently and that we could stay in those for a higher price. It went from $18 to $30 so not too bad.

The owner’s name was Lee and he was Canadian that owned a hotel down here with his wife. We met up with him and dropped off our backpacks we had been lugging around all day in a place where they would be safe. We enjoyed the festival some more, watched some very awkward white girl try and dance like she was some tribal native and then enjoyed more reggae and chocolate.

We found a bike rental shop near the end of the street and we all rented bikes for 3 hours for only $10 Belize. We rode around PG for a while going into the back neighborhoods and up and down hills on beach cruisers. Those things go surprisingly fast. I ended up turning in early as my bum knee was giving me trouble but the rest of the group kept going. Later on Trellany and Danielle arrived with their bikes and then we waited an hour for the rest of the group, whom had gone off into the jungle in search of Howler monkeys, only to come out with bug bites.

When the bikes were returned we went to grab some grub (even though we were overflowing with chocolate) and went to a local spot that we heard was good called Asha’s kitchen. It was out by itself far from the main town but it was filled with people, and the food smelled great. We found out after waiting in line that they were out of food and nobody else would be getting any. Darn. So we ended up going to some other bar place. That was a mistake. The food took an hour and a half to make and they had the music from the boom box on the counter turned up so loud I couldn’t hear anything anyone said. I got a fish, and not a fillet, they gave me the whole fish, head, gills, eyes, tail, spine everything. I picked at it for a while and then was glad when we headed to our lodge for the night.

We took some taxis to our lodge to once again meet up with Lee the Canadian to check in. He showed us to our rooms one of which was a jungle hut. Kind of cool but the girls took it. We got a smaller room that seemed nice, the AC was broken but I’ve been without AC for a while it didn’t even faze me. Although the room was nice, I was faced with a nice large wolf spider on the wall near my bed that frankly, I was too tired to kill. I watched Randy poke it with a stick like Steve Irwin and was waiting with sleepy eyes for it to attack him. Unfortunately it didn’t and Kristina came in and just killed it. So much for a show before bed. I turned down my sheets and was greeted by about 10 mosquitoes under the sheets, some dead some still zipping around looking for blood, literally. Wonderful I thought. I brushed the dead ones off and added to the body count, by killing those that remained. Then I was greeted by the welcoming arms of sleep. I took a shower somewhere in there but it was just meh.
            The next day we checked out and headed out to catch the bus that would take us a bit northeast to the city of Independence where we’d take a water taxi to the peninsula where we’d stay in the beautiful beach town of Placencia. On the bus we talked to another Canadian named Will all about sports. It made the bus ride go by quickly and we were soon in Independence. There we walked about half a mile to the waterfront to catch our water taxi. When the short but fun water ride was over we got out we walked around in search of where we’d be staying for the night. Again it ended up being a little further away than we thought. This place was found by using one of those sites where people rent out their couches and homes for travelers. We just so happened to come across one of the coolest people for ours. Kristina called him on the phone and he was 12 miles away but said he’d be down soon to pick us up. Hallelujah, no more walking with heavy packs.           

We grabbed a bite to eat at a place called Detach that was literally on the beach overlooking the Caribbean, very cool. We each got a burrito the size of my forearm. They were pretty huge but delicious. Soon after we met up with McKinley, the guy we’d be staying with. He was from South Carolina and had moved here last year with his family. He had 4 little kids who were very excited to get to play with new friends. They were pretty cute kids and full of energy. I think the oldest was 8 but he may have been a little younger.

            So McKinley and his wife, whom we didn’t get to meet, had been on a show called House Hunters International and we all watched the episode they were in when they moved to Belize. He gave us some behind the scenes info, which was fun to see how the show played out certain scenarios. And it turns out the house they “chose” on the show wasn’t even the one they actually got. We stayed in a huge house that was right on the beach and had a sweet pier out into the water.

The pier from McKinley's house

The next day was a party day at the resort that was right next to McKinley’s house. We walked over there and played some beach volleyball and then swam with McKinley and his kids in the largest pool in Belize. We swam and had a good time for hours playing pool games.

Around 2:00 we all said goodbye to the kids and McKinley drove us back into town to the water taxi. The water taxi was full so we opted to catch the next one and get some food. We searched around for a good place to eat but due to the holiday (Commonwealth Day) most places were closed. We ended up eating at Detach again and it was still good. After that we thanked McKinley for his generous hospitality and friendship and boarded the water taxi to Independence.

When we got off in Independence Randy and Kyle sprinted to catch the bus we needed to be on and hopefully hold it. Unfortunately we barely missed it so we had to wait ‘til 5:30 for the next one. We waited at a park watching some locals play basketball and we threw a Frisbee around for a while and had some ice cream and Fanta.

Finally the bus came and we got on to head up to Belmopan. Along one of the stops in Dangriga a whole slough of people boarded the bus and we were all literally being marinated in humidity and body heat. It was gross, but I couldn’t help giggling at the sight of about 50 people standing and sitting on top of each other in the isle while the rest of us were smushed 3 to a seat if possible in little school bus seats.

Freedom came in the form of a bus station in Belmopan where we exited the sauna bus and boarded one with spacious leg room and tired faces from a long day of traveling. After 5 hours of buses we finally reached San Ignacio and hobbled back to our apartment, happy to see our beds.

First Wave is here in Belize!

  

Volunteer Post: Brad

Greetings from Belize or should I say “Wata gaain?”

 I’m Brad, one of the volunteers in the first wave for Belize 2013 and we all want to share with you what has happened these first 2 days here in this beautiful country. After arriving at the airport we were greeted by our Country Coordinators Kyle and Kristina, then we all hopped in a taxi and learned some sweet Belizian Kriol. We got to the bus station to take our 2 hour bus ride to San Ignacio, a small but busy city near the border of Belize and Guatemala.

The city is pretty awesome. It’s a hustle and bustle and people are out everywhere just enjoying life. Our first full day here we got to go help out at an elementary school and paint a wall for them that had seen better days. The kids were curious as to what was going on and kept coming by and checking out what we were doing.  With so much paint and kids the inevitable happened and most of the kids walked away with paint smeared hands and uniforms. I don’t know if they didn’t quite get the memo of “Don’t touch” or they were just really curious. Either way we had half Belizian half Smurfian kids running around with blue paint on them.

 

After we had the school lookin fresh with nice shades of blue we got some grub at our local fruit market to make some smoothies. Our power was out so we didn’t get to make them but we still tried to scarf down some fresh fruit and plenty of water because it is HOT!

 

After lunch we did a city-wide scavenger hunt to find and take pictures of different places we should know while being here.  Some more than friendly people were willing to help us out finding the places we needed to check off. 

At the end of the day we enjoyed some relaxation time and got to know our group better by playing some banana grams, I’ll be honest, I was terrible. That has been our experience so far here in Belize and we’re looking forward to finding a lot more things to do and help out.

 

Trellany here jumping in real quick! Today we got to meet with Dave who is a local man with his own seafood shop! But we were surprised that he is actually from Scotland and met his wife here in Belize and lives here now with his kids and grandkids. He was so awesome and full of tons of advice and knowledge about anything we had questions about. He is going to be a great contact to have for future projects because he is well connected and knows everyone and their story here. So overall we left enlightened and even made a new contact for potential partner while we are down here.  Everything here is so great and wonderful and we can’t wait to get started next week digging in deep with more projects.

HELP Belize 2013

Country Director Post: Kristina

Greetings from Belize!

I am Kristina and one of the Country Directors for Belize this summer; Kyle is also a Country Director for the program and he will be joining me here soon. I arrived last Saturday and have been orienting myself, meeting locals and doing some house hunting and networking. It has been an adventuresome week so far and VERY warm.  From the variety of the  people to the town to the kindness - it has been an adventure and I'm excited for the summer.

First, the variety of people. Though Belize is just about the size of Massachusetts it is full of variety and flavor.  Most people speak Creole, English and Spanish with cultures ranging from Indians to Garifuna to Chinese and El Salvadorians. It has a Caribbean vibe, but also a very traditional Central American feel to it. People are very kind and friendly and you make friends just by walking outside. 

Second, the town.  San Ignacio is a small but bustling little town/city.  It is right across the river from Santa Elena which they call the two the twin cities.  The bridge that connects them is often a point of reference with directions and connects the two.  There is a big market when you first come into the city which is there every day.  It has fruits, a butcher shop, trinkets, clothes, CDs, etc.  As you come into town you find busy little streets with cars driving through them and pedestrians making their way as well. 

The grocery stores are often referred to by the race of the owner rather than the name - something that would never fly at home!  Everyone is friendly and there is a relaxed feel to the people.  I think partly because it is so hot right now (dry season, rainy starts in June) and partly because it is just their way of life. 

Third, the kindness of the people. On one of my first few days here I learned the importance of eating and drinking enough.  Though I think the experience I’m about to describe is also a result of a malaria medication side effect… I needed to drink more nonetheless! But I walked into town to get something to eat and saw a new friend I’d met the day before.  He motioned me over, introduced me to more people and we chatted for a bit.  I soon found myself feeling dizzy but I didn’t want to be rude and interrupt, but knew I needed to eat something. 

I eventually just said, “Uh, I think I’m feeling dizzy…” then sounds started getting muffled and the next thing I knew I was sitting in a chair being fed one lady’s lunch she just bought to go and giving me water.  They were all so nice and as I offered to buy something the lady told me I could just have it.  They were all so kind.

I’ve been enjoying exploring the place, meeting people, house hunting and networking and do far, so wonderful.