Winner takes all…
Which is certainly true in the case of our trivia games. That’s right, every other Monday in Cayo we play trivia for a cash prize. Both times I’ve played, my team has won - which I would say speaks to how fantastic my team members are: not only are they full of random information, they continue to let me reap the benefits of being on a winning team even though my contributions are small. (However, I was fairly adequate at knowing theme songs for television shows). Needless to say, I can now order a lime juice and STILL afford my bus fare this week - success!

All in all, I think it was a good start to the my last week in San Ignacio as a trainee. I plan to do ridiculous amounts of laundry tonight after training so that I can attempt packing for the move back to Belmopan and beyond. Since we all know how much I love the packing process, I’m banking on a fairly eventful night of attempting to smash all my accumulated crap back into one bag. Bonus activity…I have to haul the stupid thing through town and hoist in on the bus. There is nothing quite like the entertainment that Gringos (that would be the white skinned folks) provide for the locals…

Training is finishing up and I am more than ready to make another transition - into my future site. We find out on Friday where our site placement is…I think we’re all fairly anxious to find out and start the next leg of our Peace Corps service. Limbo is no longer the fun place to be. It's like that summer you have between college and your first job - you know, that time when something is just around the corner that WILL or should be amazing...but you still have to fill the days in between with God knows what. Training is our 'God knows what' and I've had my fill. Bring on the next adventure.

Don't mistake my anxious anticipation for the notion that I've had an awful time here. Its quite the contrary...I've loved living in this city, meeting the people, and learning another culture. I've had the best times celebrating holidays, trying new foods and learning the right way to greet a local on the street, and getting to know my fellow PCVs (have you read any of the previous entries?)...I'm just ready for something new.

The time in San Ignacio has indeed flown by as so many people said it would...And really, considering the luck I had in getting this placement for training, I'd say I won big in experiences. So I'm off to enjoy some of the local atmosphere while I still can...and yes, that includes one gigantic lime juice (paid for by my unearned trivia winnings)!

Belizean Birthday

Sorry for the delay in updating...its been a busy week and this will be a short update at that. Over the past week there's been a bunch of celebration and partying in honor of Belize's 28th Independence Day. Here are a few of the highlights of the weekend:

On Friday night, San Ignacio had Belikin fest so once we hopped the bus, we headed straight to the carnival area...the night was a blur, but I can tell you that it ended with a delicious basil omelete! Also, let it be said that Belizean ferris wheels (one of which I had the privilage to ride) spin at ridiculous speeds and should not be attempted on a full stomach. HOWEVER, if you like the lose-your-stomach feeling from rides...this one is perfect (just dont pay too much attention to the missing bolts or the fact that the wheel is operated via a homemade clutch system).The carnival fun was topped off by the group enjoying some delicious cotton candy!!

I enjoyed some free time at Blue Hole national park on Sunday where I got to swim in the freezing blue-green water and hiked through some brush that was full of mosquitos! I'm happy to report that none of us in Youth Development procured a bot fly...yet. The night ended like a typical 4th of July...lots of partying and FIREWORKS (which we watched from the rooftop of ProBelize's office).

The daily routine hasn't changed much, training everyday and hanging out as a group or attempting to relax at home once our work is over. I'll admit that living in San Ig

nacio gives me a great advantage to enjoy a ton of perks: i.e. seeing a movie in air conditioning, ordering food at a restaurant that resembles something close to American dishes, having wireless internet connections, etc. but I often forget the niceties when I feel completely stressed with the work schedule we have.

This weekend I'm helping facilitate a training session to parents of Belizean high school students at St. Ignatius (in Santa Elena). My co-facilitator and I were able to observe the last session and realized that we have a lot of work to do to make it beneficial to participants. Number one on the list: make sure to have a Spanish translator! Its completely ridiculous to run a session entirely in Kriol when more than half of your participants only communicate in Spanish (yes, this was how our counterpart facilitated...and she didnt quite understand the lack of involvement).

Fingers crossed that the activities we have planned work out and the session goes smoothly...other than that...not much new going on. Hopefully I'll have the chance to update again soon with more interesting stuff!

week three!

...coming to you from Belmopan! I'll update you in bullets about what has been going on in the past week because its quicker and I'm exhausted...

• Sunday we had training in the morning and in the afternoon a group of us forked over 10BZ! to swim at the pool at Cahal Pech (yes, we hiked that miserable hill...but the view and experience was COMPLETELY worth it!)
  
• Monday the Youth Development group facilitated a computer skills course at St. Barnabus primary school just outside San Ignacio. Overall I'd say the youth were very receptive and the experience was great for learning the various levels of students in the school system here.
• Tuesday was fairly uneventful but I did manage to squeeze in some relaxing time at the house for a bit. Its rare that I get some alone time so when I can sneak in an hour or two it makes the day so much better.
• Wednesday we found out where we would be going for our PCV visit this weekend. Luck of the draw and I headed back to Belmopan... I was diappointed at first, but the experience has been amazing and I'm so glad that I've been able to see another side of the Garden City. Also...it was the eve of National Day (aka Battle of St. George's Caye Day) so a group of us braved the late night hour and headed out for some fun in San Ignacio. A bunch of us went to see a movie in the air conditioned theatre (we saw Brothers Bloom) and then made our way to where the fireworks display was. There was a LOT of drinking and fun to be had....which made
• Thursday...recovery day. I'm so glad that I was able to lounge around and do some laundry. I did manage to pull myself together mid afternoon and head downtown for the parade and to meet up with other trainees that were in town to watch the celebrations. Christine and I also decided to try our hand at making pizza...we failed. After buying all the ingredients (which cost as much as just ordering one) we set out to make one fantastic pie. Everything was going according to plan - including my homemade dough -until it was time to actually bake the thing. Apparently in our rush, we had managed to blow out the oven and our crust didnt bake...HOWEVER, due to the warmth of the oven, all the cheeses melted and it became an unbalanced cooking mess. I believe we'll attempt again, hopefully with better results.
• Friday was our weekly trip to Belmopan. I had packed my weekend bag for my PCV visit and we hopped on the express bus to the capital city. This is supposed to be faster....it was not. After some issues with immigration resulting in half our trainees being asked to get off the bus, we once again arrived late to the session. We're now hoping that everything is straightened out and that this next week we will finally get to Belmopan on time. The end of the night was spent with the volunteers in Belmopan...we checked out a local coffee place that reminds me of home called Perk-Up. There was live acoustic music and delicious food...great night!
• Saturday we got up early and headed to Belize City for a tour. Once there we shopped around and got to check out the disgusting view of the ocean. For those of you cruise ship tourists...you generally only get to experience "tourist village" in the city...its a line of a few shops that are brightly painted with a view of a sailboat harbor. it looks quite nice from where you sit. Let it be known that this is NOT an accurate description of the city at all! Please, brave the cultural experience and step outside those gates - get another perspective of the country. We left around 4 and arrived back in Belmopan in time to sweat profusely, grab a snack and head to a festival at Governor General field celebrating the 2nd annual celebration of Independence for Mesoamerica (Central American countries from Mexico to Panama have September Independence Days). There was a huge crowd, lots of entertainment and drink - one of the funnest cultural nights I've spent in Belize thus far. After the festival, a larger group of us went out to a few bars with the intention of calling it an early night...we strolled in around 2am having had a fantastic evening out with some new friends.
• This morning I was awoken by blaring Christian music at 6am...Our neighbor loves his church music and apparently felt that the appropriate time to begin his lovely music filled morning was at a time that not even the roosters felt necessary to be awake for. OY! We headed to the Belize Bird Rescue for the morning and checked out some beautiful land in Camalote village. The owners graciously showed us their home and projects and introduced me to a whole new way of looking at wildlife preservation...IMPRESSIVE lives they lead. It was unusually hot here today so we then headed for a long walk to a local resident's pool. Again, so worth the trouble to jump into water and cool off for an hour or two.
  

My weekend in Belmopan will end after I get the chance to experience a day-in-the-life of my lovely hostess, Tonya. Its another busy day, but I wouldnt trade the experience of this weekend for anything.
Hope you all are enjoying the cooling weather at home!!!!

week two!

First of all, HAPPY BELATED 4th BIRTHDAY ANNIE!!!!
(I did, in fact, mail a card but who knows when that will actually show up...be on the look out!)

My first full week in San Ignacio has flown by! I have to tell you all that I have been very blessed with both the living arrangements that I have here as compared to some of my fellow trainees. Yes, it is unbelievably HOT...but I still get a shower and a flushing toilet. It's the little things that make it so much of a great experience.

The week started with language and technical training classes...they're long and sometimes tedious but they're generally keeping us all on task to learn what we need to be effective during the next two years. This week was more of orientation so hopefully they will pick up in the next few weeks. I did get my first youth group assignment and will be co-partnering with another trainee at St. Ignatious High School in Santa Elena. We're going to be facilitating a parenting teenagers course as well as helping to plan a teen leadership program.

By far the best part of my time here is when all of us trainees get together during what little free time we have. On Monday night, we went downtown to Eva's and played a round of trivia. I'm proud to say that my team completely dominated and we even came away with our 1st place cash prize. Our group also enjoys meeting up for ice cream or attending a pirated movie where we can sit in air conditioning for a while.

On Friday we all headed back to Belmopan for our daily session. This was the first time that I was able to see our other trainees that have been all over central Belize...exchanging stories with them was amazing and it seemed to be that most people were enjoying their time with their host families. This week was also my switch to my new host family. Miss Nalida is wonderful and the house is beautiful. She is amazing and has breakfast, lunch, dinner, etc. waiting for us always and she continues to check-in and make us aware of Belizean culture.

I was surprised to find that the new bedroom I share has an air conditioning unit. I ran it the first night and completely FROZE. Apparently we do adjust to hotter temperatures. Needless to say, it is too expensive to run on a normal basis so we have two fans to replace it and that allows my roommate and I to sleep comfortably. Also, I have learned that you should never put on lotion prior to climbing our "hill" to Cahal Pech...you end up looking like you just jumped into a pool.

Tonight the San Ignacio group is heading downtown to check out our city's block party that kicks off September celebrations. Apparently it is the place to be...complete with music, drinks, and local/traditional cuisine. Tomorrow we've decided that we're going swimming at one of two pools that are at hotels (we pay 10BZ and can use the resort hotel for the day)...after a week of go-go-go....water just seems like the perfect way to relax before our week begins full blast again.

Hope everything is going well back home...keep updating me on what's going on in your lives!