Me and my new friend Zander. He is the current volunteer in Trio village and will be leaving in September. Although we aren't identical, we both have blue eyes and similar haircuts so our village is convinced we're brothers.
The Mayan Mountains behind my village
Dan, Matt, Me, Alexander at Swearing In
The Armadillo we ate a couple of weeks ago
Me and my host brother Sergio on a trip we took to Punta Gorda
Me and the health team from the Bella Vista clinic on our trip to do a mobile clinic in Monkey River
The snake that greeted me in our latrine the other morning
The house where I'm living with my 4 host brothers until September
A few of the chickens and pigs at my host family house
Three of our baby parrots
My future home (I'll be moving in September)!Allright! This is what I signed up for!
Hey All,
Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the nice U.S. summer! I'm doing really well here in Belize. Things are moving along and I've begun to feel at home in my village. I'm living in a village called Trio (or Trion as the spanish speakers call it). It is almost all immigrants from Guatamala, Hondurus, and El Salvador. About 40% of the community is Mayan K'ekchi (Q'eqchi) so I've been practicing the few phrases I know and have a couple books that I've begun to study on the language. I've really been blessed with a good village for me--alot of nice people, quite a few are interested in playing/learning guitar, church services every night (I've been going to a Pentocostal Spanish speaking church, but I'm also going to start going to a K'ekchi catholic service to help me learn K'ekchi and get to know them more). I'm able to communicate pretty well so far because of my Spanish practice in Ecuador, but I think the two years will help me to improve alot. Football (soccer) is a huge pass time here so I'm having to resurrect my skills from when I was younger and played a lot. I'm finding I can keep up pretty well, but all the boys have better ball skills than me so I'll definitely be working on that.
The day I arrived in Trio was the first day they had the street lights turned on in the village (which is a pretty huge deal). They just finished connecting the electric poles and wires along the 7 mile road into the village, but most people (including my host family) don't have electricity or running water. In September I'll be moving into my own little house (its on stilts, has a thatched roof and a back porch that looks over at the Mayan mountains--needless to say I'm pretty pumped.
I've been helped a lot in these first few months by the Peace Corps volunteer (named Zander) that has been in Trio for the last two years and will be leaving in September. Zander came to Trio 2 years ago when he was just about my age now. He didn't speak much Spanish when he came, but is pretty fluent now and also speaks a bit of K'ekchi. The house that I'll be moving into is actually one that he built with the help of some of the other villagers (I'll try to put some photos up). When he's been around he's helped to introduce me to a lot of people in the village and tell me about the projects, etc. I've begun to be involved with the Health Clinic in two local towns called Independence and Bella Vista. So far I've translated some papers for them from English to Spanish, helped with the mobile clinics that they do monthly in 3 different villages. A few different volunteers and myself (just getting started helping) are working on a new manual to help teach the village health workers on different health topics (such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, infections, etc) so they can better inform their villages. My main task will be to translate all the sections into Spanish because some of the communities are mostly Spanish speaking. In the village there are a number of projects that are either ongoing (need for latrines at the school, drainage for the soccer field, etc) or things that some people would like to get started (English classes, HIV education, etc). Projects in Trio seem to move at a relatively slow pace and since Zander is still the main volunteer there, I've been mostly focusing on trying to get to know the community and start to learn more names, etc.
Although I've been keeping relatively busy, there still has been some time for fun ;). Now that a few people in the village have electricity in their homes, alot of people have been watching movies and I've become known as the movie guy. A couple weeks ago I watched all three Lord of the Rings in about 4 days with a number of children from the village. My host family brother's now love to pretend they're smeagol and talk about the "precious." I also watched the Bourne Ultimatum the other day which everyone liked, but the dialogue and plot was pretty confusing for most people. The most popular movies in the village are pure action (Stephen Seagal, Bruce Lee, Sylvester Stallone, etc).
Just a couple days ago I had a great time singing with about 6 K'ekchi children. They sang me songs in English, K'ekchi, and Spanish. I sang a few in Enlgish for them which they loved. I was really surprised when they knew all the words to Joy to the World, If You're Happy and you Know it, and a bunch of other common American songs. The boys at my home (Ehlmer-17, Sergio-16, Charly-13, Douglas-10) that I share a room with love to listen to music. I have a little crank/solar powered speaker that they always hook up to an old discman that someone brought them from the US.
Well, there's so much more to say, but I don't have the time now. Basically, I'm doing great. I'm really enjoying the Peace Corps experience thus far. I really haven't had much time to sit around and think alot, but when I move into my own place I should have a bit more freedom. I'm sure there will be difficulties to come, but so far it looks like I've got a great place to be and it will be an awesome experience.
The day I arrived in Trio was the first day they had the street lights turned on in the village (which is a pretty huge deal). They just finished connecting the electric poles and wires along the 7 mile road into the village, but most people (including my host family) don't have electricity or running water. In September I'll be moving into my own little house (its on stilts, has a thatched roof and a back porch that looks over at the Mayan mountains--needless to say I'm pretty pumped.
I've been helped a lot in these first few months by the Peace Corps volunteer (named Zander) that has been in Trio for the last two years and will be leaving in September. Zander came to Trio 2 years ago when he was just about my age now. He didn't speak much Spanish when he came, but is pretty fluent now and also speaks a bit of K'ekchi. The house that I'll be moving into is actually one that he built with the help of some of the other villagers (I'll try to put some photos up). When he's been around he's helped to introduce me to a lot of people in the village and tell me about the projects, etc. I've begun to be involved with the Health Clinic in two local towns called Independence and Bella Vista. So far I've translated some papers for them from English to Spanish, helped with the mobile clinics that they do monthly in 3 different villages. A few different volunteers and myself (just getting started helping) are working on a new manual to help teach the village health workers on different health topics (such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, infections, etc) so they can better inform their villages. My main task will be to translate all the sections into Spanish because some of the communities are mostly Spanish speaking. In the village there are a number of projects that are either ongoing (need for latrines at the school, drainage for the soccer field, etc) or things that some people would like to get started (English classes, HIV education, etc). Projects in Trio seem to move at a relatively slow pace and since Zander is still the main volunteer there, I've been mostly focusing on trying to get to know the community and start to learn more names, etc.
Although I've been keeping relatively busy, there still has been some time for fun ;). Now that a few people in the village have electricity in their homes, alot of people have been watching movies and I've become known as the movie guy. A couple weeks ago I watched all three Lord of the Rings in about 4 days with a number of children from the village. My host family brother's now love to pretend they're smeagol and talk about the "precious." I also watched the Bourne Ultimatum the other day which everyone liked, but the dialogue and plot was pretty confusing for most people. The most popular movies in the village are pure action (Stephen Seagal, Bruce Lee, Sylvester Stallone, etc).
Just a couple days ago I had a great time singing with about 6 K'ekchi children. They sang me songs in English, K'ekchi, and Spanish. I sang a few in Enlgish for them which they loved. I was really surprised when they knew all the words to Joy to the World, If You're Happy and you Know it, and a bunch of other common American songs. The boys at my home (Ehlmer-17, Sergio-16, Charly-13, Douglas-10) that I share a room with love to listen to music. I have a little crank/solar powered speaker that they always hook up to an old discman that someone brought them from the US.
Well, there's so much more to say, but I don't have the time now. Basically, I'm doing great. I'm really enjoying the Peace Corps experience thus far. I really haven't had much time to sit around and think alot, but when I move into my own place I should have a bit more freedom. I'm sure there will be difficulties to come, but so far it looks like I've got a great place to be and it will be an awesome experience.
