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Coming Home to Belize They say that you can't go home again. But this year I decided to return to Belize, a country I had visited for the first time a year earlier and a place that felt more like home than anywhere I've been in a long time.
As I described in my February 16, 2008 update, I went to Belize last year with a group of folks from Portland Community College (PCC) to do volunteer work in the rural villages there through an outfit called ProWorld, which is something like a privately-run Peace Corps. ProWorld's division in Belize, called ProBelize, has five full-time staffers who work with college students, mostly from America who come down to Belize for a week or two.
I had an amazing experience in Belize last year with PCC and the trip made a huge impact on my view of the world, so I decided to sign up for the trip again this year. Our PCC group leader last year was Cecelia, who was in charge of the PCC Travel Program, but she had moved on to greener pastures (we still see each other occasionally, though, and remain good friends). So our leader this year was an affable PCC instructor named Spencer. We had a group of 18 folks, but I was the only one who had been to Belize. Therefore, within the first day I sort of took over things and became the group's unofficial leader, which Spencer was totally fine with.
About half of our group members met at the Portland International Airport early in the morning on Saturday for the 6:00 a.m. Continental Airlines flight to Houston, then we flew on to Belize City, the largest city in Belize and the only city in the country with an international airport. Others in our group had flown down to Belize a day or two earlier and were planning to join us at the Belize airport later that day.
The flight went well and we arrived in Belize City late in the afternoon, where we joined the rest of the group. Outside the airport, I met up with Michael, the ProBelize construction manager, who was there to meet our group and escort us to San Ignacio, where we would be staying for the next week. Michael, an American who'd been living in Belize for several years, was happy to see me again and gave me a big hug. Then he told me that some of our group had taken a connecting flight through Dallas, which had been delayed for several hours, so we had some time to kill.
As I led our group on board the school bus, I saw a young woman sitting on the empty bus who extended her hand and cheerfully greeted me. "Hi, I'm Kelsey," she said with a smile. Kelsey was a college student in upstate New York and was going to join us 30-to-60 year-olds during the next week. She had called ProBelize a few weeks earlier and asked if she could do volunteer work during her winter break, and ProBelize told her that she could join a group from Portland Community College that would be there at that time. The term "Community College" of course conjures up images of 20-year olds, so it was probably a shock for Kelsey to learn that almost everyone in our group was over 35 – and some nearing 70.
We killed a few hours in downtown Belize City waiting for the delayed plane from Dallas to arrive, then around 8 p.m. we hopped back on the school bus and returned to the airport The plane had just arrived, so we picked up the last folks in our group, got on the Western Highway and took off for San Ignacio, a city of about 15,000 in western Belize that would be our base for the next week.
It was a lively group and we had a pleasant evening drive on the highway through the jungles and villages. With all the windows down it was pretty noisy and breezy in the bus, but we chatted and got to know each other a bit. Finally around 11 p.m., we pulled into a modest resort called the Log Cab-Inn, a few miles outside of San Ignacio, where they had prepared a delicious meal for us, the first of many during our stay.
The next day, Sunday, was orientation day. Jonny, the Belize country director for ProWorld who I'd worked with the previous year, drove out to the Log Cab-Inn resort and spent all morning telling us about Belize, along with Adrian, his Belizean assistant. In the afternoon after lunch, I took the group into San Ignacio, hiking about a mile along the highway and into town, where we visited the Mayan ruins at Cahal Pech. Later in the afternoon, while everyone else hiked back to Log Cab-Inn, I walked for several more miles around San Ignacio and watched a spirited soccer game at the stadium for an hour, then I stopped at the farmer's market to get some fruit. It was nice to be back in San Ignacio.
Monday was our first work day and during breakfast at Log Cab-Inn, I split the group into two work parties. My group spent the day working at a small village called Selena, where we fixed up the restroom for the Iguana Creek elementary school and repaired the school's fence. I met a wonderful teacher there, a bright woman named Jackie, who was about 25 and full of energy wanting to help her students.
Iguana Creek is a rural area about 20 miles from San Ignacio and Jackie had brought her students into San Ignacio the previous year on a field trip to show them what life is like in a city – after dealing with the concerns and objections of parents, who finally relented and allowed the visit. As Jackie told me, "I wanted to show my students what a city is, what a parade is, and who Santa Claus is." I really admired Jackie for her spirit and aspirations for her young charges, and meeting people like her is one reason I enjoy working in Belize so much.
After repairing the fence around the school and fixing up the school's restroom, our group rode back to San Ignacio that evening and had a nice dinner on the patio at Log Cab-Inn, enjoying the unofficial national dish of Belize: barbecue chicken, rice and beans, plus some delicious watermelon juice to wash it down.
If you ever eat in Belize, you should stick to chicken (or seafood if you're on the coast) and stay away from beef, which is usually tough and lean. That's because the cows here are, well, tough and lean – at least compared to American cows, which are grain-fed and nicely fattened. And never drink the tap water in Belize or anything with ice in it. Only drink bottled water, as I learned first-hand on this trip, an oversight that would lead to a funny encounter the following week in an Abu Dhabi pharmacy in the Middle East. I'll describe that situation in my next update.
Most of the PCC folks retreated to their cabins after dinner, but I stayed on the patio until midnight, creating the work plan for the next day, a typical routine for me that week. I finally ambled back to my cabin, which I was sharing with Spencer, got some good sleep, and awoke the next morning at 5 a.m. to the cacophonous sound of squawking parrots. They tell me that parrots are the unofficial (yet ubiquitous) alarm clock of Belize and I certainly believe it.
Above left: Barbara showing off a newly-bought souvenir. Above right: Locals taking a cool trip down the Macal River.
Above left: The Farmer's Market in San Ignacio is a great place to stock up on fresh goodies. Above center: Burns Street is the tourist hub of downtown San Ignacio. Above right: Belize, unfortunately, has one of the highest rates of AIDS in Central America. AIDS awareness is a big issue here.
Above left: That tarantula lurking below my hand may explain my nervous grin. Above right: Breakfast on Monday morning at the Log Cab-Inn resort before splitting up and going to our various work sites.
Above left: Curious villagers at Iguana Creek on Monday morning checking us out. Above center: My group worked on various projects at the Iguana Creek school at Selena village on Monday. Above right: The inspiring teacher Jackie (left), talking to Marlynn.
Above left: A classroom wall at the Iguana Creek elementary school. Above right: One of our tasks at the Iguana School was to build a concrete landing for the school restrooms. With the form created, we tied rebar together and then filled in the form with rocks.
Above left: Then we mixed a large batch of concrete and poured it in. The final touch was smoothing it over, which a skilled villager handled. Above right: Working with Alyssa, Kelsey and some villagers on the Iguana Creek elementary school, scooping up the last of the concrete. We got a lot done and had a lot of fun, too. The little boy, Santiago, was a real kick.
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