9.27.2007

Temptation

Standing in front of the sparkling clean freezer-case, I was faced with a
dilemma. Is $19 BZ too much to pay for a pint of Ben and Jerry's? Before I
tell you how I answered that very important question, let me explain how
amazing it is to be in the big city.

Belize City, a bustling metropolis of 35,000 people, has so much to offer.
Besides the only two fully functioning traffic lights in the country, Belize
City is also home to the only movie theatre, casino, put-put course (which
is now a bar), Indian restaurant, and grocery store that accepts debit
cards. I have wireless internet in my hotel room and I can buy soy milk and
shredded mini-wheats at the grocery store. All amazing things, but it is
all a matter of what a person is willing to pay for such luxuries.

So, back to the freezer case at the 2nd fanciest grocery store in the
country. $19BZ can buy a lot of things in this little country: 4 plates of
BBQ chicken, a bus ticket to Punta Gorda, a water-taxi to Caye Caulker, 57
tacos, 4 hours on the internet, and apparently one pint of Vermont's finest
ice cream. But I just couldn't do it, even though Chunky Monkey and Phish
Food did everything in their power to convince me that $8.50 US was a good
deal. So I said no and moved on. A mistake, perhaps, but some principles
just can't be compromised, no matter how tasty the temptation.

9.22.2007

My shower and Me



A rain poncho for a curtain and plenty of room to dance.

A group of 2nd Year Volunteers

Our numbers diminished, the hardy (at least those who showed up for the
picture) are left standing.

A lesson from the classics

  Here's a quote that I picked up from Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte, writing):
"What good it would have done me at that time to have been tossed into the storms of an uncertain struggling life, and to have been taught by rough and bitter experience to long for the calm amidst which I now repind."
Thanks Jane, you have thus summed up pretty well why, those many years ago when I signed up for all of this.  I have to remind myself of that urge, which Jane so Britishly portrayed, to leave the comfortable and seek the difficult.  Even on good or great or even outstanding days, which seem to be the norm nowadays, I find myself at some point or another gazing wistfully into space, conjuring up some image of easy, American life.  Maybe I'm checking the internet and notice that the temperature is 65° and sunny in Spokane, WA.  This seems unfathomable.  I can honestly no longer recall what it feels like to stand in full sunshine without breaking into a sweat and retreating as quickly as possible into shade.  Side-note: I do not, nor will I ever develop a tan while I am in Belize. The thought of baking myself under a tortuous sun seems damned absurd.  So what I am trying to say is that 65° and sunny sounds really good right about now and can't wait to be away from this heat.

Another instigator of Washington State whimsy is doing dishes.  I will never, once I'm done, complain about dishes again.  As it stands, after each meal I stack my dishes into a plastic strainer and carry them through my muddy yard to my water pipe, which releases its flow at about 24 inches above the dirt.  I utilize pot or large container for the soapy water and balance a strainer on some rocks while I assume a squatting position to avoid bending in half while I soap, scrub, and rinse each dish, getting splashed by dish water and muddy back splash in the meanwhile.  I carefully stack the clean dishes back into the strainer and balance it on my hip as I make my way back into the house.  I can not accurately convey how much this sucks.  I repeat this routine on average twice a day, have been for a year now, because even the slightest delay in attending to my dishes would attract the attention of the thousands of blood-thirsty ants that stand waiting, in case the smallest morsel of food should drop to the floor.

And those are just two examples of the daily reminders of how much easier my life once was, and will surely be again someday.  But Jane Eyre was right, what it has done me indeed to be tossed right here where I am.  My experience, often rough and occasionally bitter has taught me a thing or two.  So, back to those storms of a perfectly uncertain life I go.


9.13.2007

Shower at Last

Big news, after a year of oh so humbly taking my baths in the lovely Mojo River that runs through my village, I now have a shower!  I guess I should have asked sooner, because not one week after I took my request to the village waterboard, I had myself an enclosed structure complete with walls and roof over an existing cement slab that allows me to shower in total privacy.  The water pressure is amazing and no one can see through, so that means no more bathing in shorts and a tank-top.  This has changed my world, since I am now able to shower after dark (that is if I hang my headlamp on nail so I can see what I am doing).  Next step is to run an extension cord from my house out to the shower so that I can install a light bulb.  A picture will soon follow.

Other than that, life post-hurricane has been pretty tame.  I have been keeping busy with the many projects that are up and running in the village.  Between doing budgeting workshops with the waterboard, setting up meetings with other villages on a potential National Park project, cleaning up that library and assisting the PTA with their events, I have watched the days and weeks fly by.  Another school year has begun and the downward slope of my service stands before me.  My new cat, named Felix after the last hurricane that spared us, is growing and my old cat continues to be a pain.  The new PC volunteers are doing well as they adjust to life while reminding us old hats just how far we have come in one year.  With 20 of us in the district, we constitute a third of the volunteers in country and therefore the social life force.  Things to look forward to (besides a much wittier journal entry) are: new pictures of new volunteers, a discussion on the life and times of village animals, and an ode to my Masters Project (yes, I still have to do one of those).

9.05.2007

9.04.2007

missed us again

I am seriously feeling for Nicaragua and Honduras right now, but I have never been so pleased with the weather as I am right now.  I am safe again in Belmopan, waiting for the rain to pass over the southern part of Belize.  I am hoping for no flooding, but we are still going to get wet down there.  I will keep up with how my village fairs, but I am optimistic, as always.

9.02.2007

deja vu

All you Weather Channel junkies out there may have noticed that another fat storm is on its way to Belize.  This one looks a little meaner and a little more direct than Dean, woo hoo.  I am not at all happy about having to pack up my house, leave my cat and 3 week old kitten, and make my way up to the capital after being back in my village all of 3 days.  The last hurricane evacuation coincided with a training event, so I was out of Blue Creek for 2 weeks.  I will be in Belmopan by Tuesday AM, once again eating tuna with soda crackers for breakfast lunch and dinner as 60 Peace Corps volunteers explore the many forms of boredom while locked into a creep Chinese hotel together.  Good stories, unfortunately none of them suitable for web publishing. 

I will update if I can, but keep me and all of my Belizean friends in your thoughts during this next week.