September
I started the month by traveling north to Corozal for St. George’s Caye Day. A couple friends and I walked along the coastal road, eating local cuisine and listening to the Punta music blare into the wee hours of the morning. This was followed by traveling to Mexico for a day trip in honour of a friend’s birthday. We spent the day drinking and swimming at Xul Ha. It’s a lovely little oasis of a lake – fresh water! – in the state of Quintanaroo.
 |
| Me & Alvin |
 |
| Taylor, Holly, Me & Alvin |
Then, of course, September celebrations continued. I walked with the students of my school in our School Children’s Rally parade. Garden City had a huge float and our dancers were stellar. Sadly, my pictures did not survive a technological oops, so you’ll have to imagine it in all its glory. For Independence Day itself, I opted to stay in Belmopan and experience the evening. At midnight there is a fireworks display down at Independence Plaza. For all my genius, I thought this activity would be an excellent one to take Trafford to. I’m assuming all you pet owners can see the idiocracy of such a move. He was wonderful with the crowd, enjoying lounging on our blanket until the gun salute started. Sheer panic! .... Once I successfully got his collar back on (because he wriggled out of it in 2.5sec), we took a little sprint walk back to the house, Trafford choking himself the whole way. He spent the rest of the evening cowering on the futon, while I went back to enjoy the festivities.
October up to Merida
After Independence Day, school finally starts to settle in to more of a regular routine. I have the privilege this year of fostering a pen pal program between a class at my school and my mom’s class. My students LOVE it and while they are struggling with writing and understanding English, they can’t get enough. It is by far my favourite activity of the school year thus far.
But – aside from school, I’ve been keeping busy in other things. The first weekend of October I participated in a soccer game of Peace Corps volunteers vs. a local team in Esperanza village. We lost 2-4, but we played well (despite the sudden downpour near half time).
I went to Benque to visit my friend Emily and witnessed the Miss Cultura pageant. It was completely wonderful, totally Belizean, and by the end of it, I was simply ready for bed. Let me explain....The pageant featured 4 young women who each competed with song, dance, and a cultural skit highlighting different facets of the Mayan/Mestizo lifestyle. And it was done all in Spanish...kitchen Spanish. The program was to begin at 7, so we naturally got started close to 8:30. Each act was followed by musical filler from the Marimba, or from one of the contestants for a local “American Idol” type production, Duets. SO.....nearing 1am, I was finished attempting translation in my head, parched, and quite ready to hear them announce the winner. Moral of the story – 6 hours of a pageant later and my favourite was gipped! UGH. AND- bars were closing so we couldn’t even be bitter with style...so Emily and I headed home. Deepest sleep of my life!
 |
| the Benque Catholic Church... so pretty |
On the 22nd, myself and several other volunteers led an H.F.L.E. (Health & Family Life Education) session for several teachers in the Cayo district that teach at our government schools. This was the first such session that the HIV/AIDS committee held to introduce a supplemental manual that we’ve created to assist teachers with the tricky subjects (puberty, feelings, HIV/AIDS, etc.). It was the culmination of several months of work by many and we were really pleased with how it went. I’m even more excited that the teachers from my school found the material useful enough to immediately begin with it in the classroom at Garden City.
So what could possibly top off the end of my month?? Hurricane Richard. Now, Belmopan has been labelled by Belizeans as the safe zone. The government offices relocated here after the Hurricane in 1961 (along with several other political offices, including the US Embassy & Peace Corps four years ago). Located in the middle of the country, it very rarely feels the effects of coastal storms –and most of the hurricanes impact the north-east or south-east parts of the country. Until now. Hurricane Richard was simply the small percentage chance that everyone underestimates. On Sunday, October 24th, Richard hit Belize...right in the middle. It then produced to travel along our western highway all the way to the Guatemalan border where it slowly dissipated. Seriously...right along the highway. Such a nice passing guest...keeping to the main road and all. Unfortunately, this is where several of the villages are. From Belize City to Belmopan was the hardest hit. Clean-up is still being done in smaller communities where housing structures were simply not able to hold up against the wind of a Category 1 hurricane. Several national parks have been destroyed and still remain unopened.... and yet, we are all grateful that it was ONLY a Category 1. My house was fine, although I had a serious tree clean-up to undertake the next morning. Power was restored within a day for Belmopan (yay for living in the Capital!) and things quickly got back to normal. Pictures of damage around my town are below:
 |
| Metal rod in the backyard tree... |
 |
| my pile of debris -7am, Oct. 25th |
 |
| Trafford: this is his version of helping out :0) |
 |
| There is a house under those trees...somewhere. |
 |
| Apparently soon open gets to keep its name....it lost its entire roof! |
 |
| My school garden - minor set back! |
No comments:
Post a Comment