The End to the Beginning

I can now say that I have successfully completed Pre-service training for Peace Corps Belize. It has been a very busy last three months thus why I haven’t written a blog post recently. During these past three months, I have improved with speaking Spanish while testing to the Intermediate level. Though I will be continuing my language learning and I will be having a language coach for the next few months to improve. There were a total of 4 health practicums in which we were responsible to prepare in groups for and be evaluated by upper level staff. These practicums included: Maternal and Neonatal Health, Prevention of Childhood Illnesses, Healthy Cooking Demonstration, and Community Health Fair. We were expected to implement and demonstrate each of these in our targeted language to the community.  I have got to experience the various different cultures of Belize with having “Culture Days” in which those involved traveling to four different parts of this beautiful country with my training group and Peace Corps staff to learn about their specific language, history, religious belief’s, and cultural norms. The four main cultures in Belize that I had the opportunity to learn more about are Mestizo, Kriol, Maya, and Garifuna. I find this as a huge advantage because recognizing that my site placement is diverse and consists of each of these different cultures within it, I will be more familiar about the norms for each of them and how to approach working with each of them. With that being said… It was revealed to me earlier in August that I will now be living in the village of St. Matthews until September 2017! I am more than excited to transition into this new village and call it my temporary home. After finding out my site placement, the following week a counterpart workshop was scheduled for each of us trainees and our future village counterparts. Counterparts that were in attendance to this first workshop were mostly community health workers, school principals, and nurses from each of the villages. After arriving three hours late to the workshop due to multiple flat tires on the bus transfer and Peace Corps staff vehicles, we met each of our counterparts and had the chance to discuss exactly what our roles will be while working in the community and schools.  That evening, we boarded buses with all trainees and counterparts, and then departed to our new villages for visit that lasted 4 days. During my visit to St. Matthews I stayed with the Sinturion Family, which will be my host family for the 2 years of my service. I feel as it was a fantastic match due to the fact that this family is very outgoing, loves to joke around and pull pranks on each other. Anybody who knows my family in the U.S. would agree that it should be a good match.  They had no problem at making me comfortable and feeling like I was part of their family. I had the opportunity to attend the staff orientation at the St. Matthews Government School where I will be teaching weekly health lessons. While it was great to meet all the teachers and staff, it was even better to have their support and the motivation that they have for me to teach at their school. It was beneficial to have tours of the village led by my community health workers and to also assist with home visits to the elderly and the ill. After the four days were up, then I headed back to the training site for 4 weeks where I anxiously awaited to finish language and technical trainings.  The final event that our training group was expected to do was to host a health festival in the village that we had completed our training at. This is something that us trainees worked together with the Peace Corps training staff to successfully advertise and carry out. Each of us chose a particular health topic that we then created ways of interactive learning and activities to make it more interesting toward children.  September 17, 2015 is a day I’ll never forget. Why? Because that is the day that I officially became a Peace Corps Volunteer for the Belize Health Cohort # 3. All of the stressful and overwhelming yet beneficial days/weeks with working on community projects, practicums, co teaching in schools, integrating into a Spanish speaking family and language/technical sessions are now worth it. I am now ready to embark on my own and begin my own Peace Corps experience. The next 3 months will mostly consist of observations and developing a plan of action for my service. I will be doing a communitywide assessment to identify the health needs and prioritize what needs to be implemented to result in a positive change.

Exploring Different Parts of Belize One Week At A Time

The start to my third week in Belize is approaching rather quickly. I have had the opportunity to visit both the northern and southern districts within the last week. It started off with a trip with my host family and extended relatives to one of the northern districts of Belize called Orangewalk. It was about a 2 ½ hour drive from the village I am currently living in to the ancient Mayan ruins of Lamanai. As we drove through a fairly large Mennonite and Amish village consisting of mostly Germans (of course we stopped and got some homemade ice cream), we then arrived to the gorgeous grounds of the ruins that were adjacent to the large salt-water lagoon filled with crocodiles (hints the name Lamanai which means submerged Crocodile)! After lunch was served under a batch-roofed hut by the lagoon we began our day touring the grounds, which consisted of 3 main temple ruins. The largest temple we ended up climbing to the top was over 30 meters high and had the most breathtaking view of the lagoon and overlooking the tropical rainforest. Very interesting to take into consideration knowing that this temple was constructed in 100 BC, and was abandoned in the Early Postclassical Period. We also saw another smaller temple that had an ancient Mayan face carved in it.  This was the perfect photo op to get some family pictures with both my host mom/sister and the rest of the family, which was a great feeling to now feel as part of their family. What an enjoyable weekend to bond with my family and pick up on some Spanish. As a part of our technical training we had a half-day session on the essentials of gardening. We first had a lecture from one of the current PCV’s who will be finishing up her service in September about her experiences with gardening. She helped us understand how to influence our future villages and host families on how to eat healthier and teach them how to grow vegetables and fruits at their home resulting in not only improving their diet but also save them money in the long run. We then worked together as a group to create two garden beds while setting and plowing it all by hand. It was much more difficult then expected but after a couple of hours we had our gardens set and planted to start growing. As many people know I’m not much of a gardener but this has given me a better outlook on doing it in the near future to help my future host family and village on how to improve their health. As for what is going on with Spanish classes.. They are coming along slowly but I’m improving, even daily. We are currently learning basic vocabulary and conjunction of regular/ irregular verbs and how to use them in conversations. Flashcards have recently become my best friend and are with me almost everywhere I go to practice. The week ended with our first Culture Day as a group and we traveled to the Southern District of Stann Creek to get a first hand experience on the Mayan Culture.  We visited the Mayan Culture Center where we got to learn many things about their prestigious culture. Some things we learned about were their historic dances, handmade instruments they make, what their homes mostly look like, and their religion. We also had the chance to get some hands on action where we got to make our own corn tortillas, carvings, Mayan print clothing stitching, make dark chocolate from hand grinding coco beans and adding coco butter to it resulting in making a chocolate bar and also making own coffee. From there we then went down the street meet a herbal healer for their area. The woman we met is well known around the country for being a healer but also for her amazing Mayan recipes known around the world. She informed us that traditional Mayans rely on herbs for healing rather then medication. She told us stories on which she has helped so many people over the last 12 years. Very interesting to realize that so many plants and things we overlook can have a totally different result if they are mixed together. She pointed out one type of leaf that is commonly used to tear into very small pieces and rub onto mosquito bites that are on the body. You can best bet that I took a few of the leaves and did exactly as she said since I have constantly had the bites since arriving in Belize. I can honestly say it did improve the bites within hours and I wasn’t feeling the constant itch. I may need to be finding these leaves out in the forest so I can stock up on them to use from now on! Well, another week down and I am learning new things everyday not only about the culture and language but also details on what type of work I will be doing starting in September following the Pre-Service Training. Enjoy the following pictures!

Week Number 1

Well I can now say I have officially survived my first week in Belize! Due to very limited Internet access I will be sharing a shortened version of what all has been going on during this very busy week.  I arrived in Belize City on June 24th after a short staging event in Miami the day before. I left the U.S. with my diverse trainee group of 19 people (8 men and 11 women) to begin our journey together. We arrived in Belize City after a fast 2-hour flight to a welcoming group that consisted of a few members from the staff at the Peace Corps Office- Belize.  We then bused to the Peace Corps office where we met with the remaining of the staff at the only countrywide office. The group was split into two groups where we stayed in hotels close in proximity until Sunday. The fellow PC Volunteers that are currently serving throughout the country organized a scavenger hunt around the city to familiarize us with the community and key places that will become useful to us throughout our service.  We had a lot of time to bond and get to know each other as well as learn how to navigate ourselves around the capital city of Belmopan. My group also had the pleasure of meeting the U.S. Ambassador to Belize, Carlos Moreno who gave a very inspirational speech on thanking us for our service and why the Peace Corps is so respected internationally. After being placed in the Spanish language training group (which I was relieved to hear) with 7 other people in my group, I then repacked my bags to condense my baggage to take to the village of Valley of Peace, where I will be living until September for the duration of Pre-Service Training.  I arrived to the most beautiful rural area I think I have ever seen. I am thankful to be living in a very beautiful home that has all of the amenities that would be considered the norm in the United States. My host mother is Rosa Amaya and I am also living with her daughter Heidi Amaya. They joke around saying that I essentially have two host moms since Rosa is old enough to be my grandmother and Heidi is closer to my mother’s age! I have noticed that the mix between the amazing community awareness, the scenic agricultural fields, and the pride that families have for their homes and culture are a few things that I have stuck out to me within the last few days of living here. Valley of Peace was an El Salvadorian refugee camp that was established back in 1982 when El Salvadorians fled their country in hope of protecting their families from violent crimes that were going on in and around the country. All of this was told to me first hand from my host brother who was 12 at the time of him traveling to Belize with the family of 10. His family was pioneers to establishing this amazing village and allowing suffering fellow El Salvadorians a chance of rebuilding their lives and giving them a sense of “peace”. Hearing his family story and how the village was started gave me a completely different viewpoint on how I look at the people who call this home and have for many years.  These people have been more than generous already by welcoming me into their home and life of which I will forever be grateful for. Last night I experienced my first “black out” in which we were out of power for about 12 hours but that did not stop my host family from spending dinner together and ending the night by sitting outside gazing at the stars in the clear night sky with a few extended family members nearby playing guitars and singing traditional Spanish songs on the front porch. It was my first time since being here that I actually had a moment to both reflect on what I have experienced thus far and what I have to look forward to in the next couple of months. This week was a very intense and stressful training week consisting of courses in culture, language, security and safety, and also health. But, I continue to remind myself of how lucky I am to have this incredible opportunity to do what I really want to do in this world that we all live in. With that being said, enjoy some pictures that go along with what I have experienced and seen through this first week!