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).

lucky this time

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.

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.