Life in Trio!

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.

Another Update

Hello All!
I'm still in Cristo Rey with my four fellow colleagues and our language trainer Brian. Training is going well and I'm already caught up and learning more Spanish than before. My host family is really nice--they actually own a small bar so there's music going most of the time. When I'm not in class here or in Belmopan or traveling to other sites for training. I've been spending time with my family--watching sponge bob square pants with the kids, movies and novellas (spanish soap operas ) with my host family sisters Jasmin and Keri. I also have been reading my health related books alot, swimming in the river and at the waterfalls, with my friends, played guitar once with a guy in town, etc. This weekend I'm doing a Volunteer visit with a PCV in Orange Walk and I think we're going to visit Corozal and the coast too.

The story of the last couple days has been "trying to eat and enjoy onions, (green) peppers, and tomatoe chunks." Those that know me, know that these are my least favorite foods--in fact I have a gag reflex when they go in my mouth. Needless to say I have been giving it my best effort. Last night my dinner was tortillas and a pot of onions, peppers, tomatoes, and little chuncks of meat. I sat at the dinner table for about 45 minutes trying to swallow each bite. Then, this morning I was given a wonderful omelette filled with the dinner concauction. I'm proud to say I ate almost the entire thing--but I can't say I enjoyed it.

Well, I've got to head out. I'm currently working on preparing a nutrion presentation to give to my training group, a group health fair for our town, a class presentation in the local school, and a Spanish presentation on the history of my village here. I appreciate all the notes and prayers that have been sent my way. If you think of it, please pray that I will fall in love with onions and peppers and that I get sent deep into the jungle for my final site placement (or that I am content whereever I get sent). Belize is awesome! Sorry about the randomness of this post. Until training is done my internet time will be sparce. Love to all,
Owen

Cristo Rey!

Hey All,
I'm going to make this brief. I have just started the training phase and am living in a little town (population cerca 800) called Cristo Rey. Cristo Rey is set right in the middle of the rolling hills in the western portion of Belize (we're about half an hour from Guatamala). I'm living with a host family made of Faldi (mother), Jose (husband), and Jasmine and Keri (both daughters of Faldi by other marraiges). Keri and Jasmine are both seniors in highschool. The whole family speaks Spanish and English and Kriol, but we speak Spanish together. I have a wonderful room on the second floor of their home where I have a porch and a rocking chair where I can sit and watch Toucans, etc. Just about everyday I have gone to swim at the Macal river which is just down the hill from the house. Today we started Spanish clases and tomorrow is our first Healthy Communities class. Everything has been going great and I will try to give you some more info soon,
Love,
Owen

Arrival!

Hello Dear Friends and Family,
I'm currently writing from the Peace Corps office in Belmopan. So far everything has been going great--I'll do a little recap:

Last Wednesday: arrived in Dallas after a quick morning trip from State College to Phili to Dallas. There I met the 37 other new volunteers that have become my good friends in the last few days. We've got people from California, New York, Indiana, Minnesota, Florida, North Carolina, Washington, etc. I'm one of the youngest in the group, but we've got a bunch of twenty-somethings and even a few 50s and over. Everything went great in Dallas and we did a whole bunch of introduction, orientation, get to know you stuff. I've really enjoyed getting to know my Healthy Communitites group. We've got 8 people and most are about my age. Right now I'm sitting beside Dan Lieberman from New York City.

We arrived in Belize on Thursday afternoon in a place called Ladyville, which is near Belize City. Immediately getting off the plane we were hit with the heat and humidity something that has been pretty constant up until today which was a little cooler. Its a bit intense at times, but I think I'm going to enjoy being in a hot climate. We were greeted at the airport with cheering and clapping by about 30 current volunteers and staff we came up to welcome us. Then we jumped into a bus and headed to a hotel where we were introduced to rice and beans.

The trip from the airport to Belmopan showed the beauty of Belize. There's much green here! We passed homes and farms, streams, and mountains (not so much mountain ranges, but a number of rounded hills). Belmopan, is one of the smallest capitals in the world--population about 8000. This week we're staying at a Chinese hotel in town--we've even got air conditioning! Each day we walk to the Peace Corps office and having sessions on everything from security, to health, to language, etc. On Friday we had a Kriol cultural day and visit a village called Bermudan Landing--they roasted cashew, made brooms, sang, danced, and took us on a tour of the Baboon (Black Howler Monkey) sanctuary that includes several towns. About twenty years ago they only had a couple hundred monkeys--now they have over 3000! We got to see a few howlers (pictures will come in a bit). Sunday I went to church with a couple other volunteers and then we went swimming and played kickball. I've had a great time getting to know my fellow volunteers--we really get along well. Well, I've got to head out, but I will try to post some more in a week or so. I haven't been getting much time to get on the internet, so apologize before hand for the time in between posts. On Wednesday we find out what training site we'll be going to (one is for learning Mayan Mopan and the other for learning Spanish (this is probably where I'll end up)). We move in with our first host families on Thursday and start training on Tuesday (everything is closed for about 4 days for Easter). Everything is going wonderful. I'll be in touch again soon :)