My Training Site and a bit of kriol

Hello from Independence Village, Stann Creek District, Belize.  It is my third day in site and I am starting to get the lay of the land.  The village is a dusty little stop off that's main function is to serve the two slip deep water port about 2 miles away.  The dirt streets spread on both sides of the southern hwy.  Doesn't really seem to be a center, although I haven't really had too much of an opportunity to walk around.  My host family has been nice so far,  they run a cinder block operation from their front yard.  The fun part about that was that because it gets so hot here, they start super early.  Whatever sort of machine they use to make cinder blocks is loud.  Like for real.  It is especially loud at six in the morning,  i swear I thought my house was getting bulldozed!  But yeah, they're super nice, a dad, mom and about 15 assorted children runnin around.  Haven't really figured out how they are all related, and to be honest, I don't know if I ever will!     

   Each day I wake up, eat with the family and head a few streets over to the ice cream parlor that is owned by my teacher.  The Kriol classes have been alot of fun so far.  My new buddy Chris and I are constantly laughing as we introduce ourselves in the local language.  

See if you can interpret this:

Jake:  Da weh yu nayhn?

Chris:  Mee nayhn Christofah

Jake:  Da how oal yu?

Chris: Mee twentifo

Jake: pleez fu noh ya

Chris: Alrite byai, sotay!

Jake: lata

Yep, asked his name, how old he was and told him i was pleased to meet him.  it gets even more interesting when you get into proverbs such as:

Kriol:  Haad ayz pikni goh da maakit too tiam

Literally:  Hard ears children go to the market twice

Means:  People who don't listen will pay for their mistakes!

 mi di laan kriol!  dis de chroof alrite

sotay, (until later)

jake  

INDEPENDENCE, BELIZE

Guess what...I know where I'm going!  For the next few months I will be living in Independence, a small town on the coast.  I will be learning Kriol there.  Now its not Garifuna like I was hoping, but I am pretty excited about knowing where I am going, what I am learning and so on. This is exciting! :)  Plus i will be 10-15 mins from Placencia, supposedly the best beach stretch on mainland Belize.  (darn, right?)  So yeah, thats what's going on with me!  

Answering the questions asked:  

1. What does garifuna sound like:  different,  very different.  cant really give you much more than that.  sorry, but its cool.

2. Can I understand Kriol:  I can catch a few words, but seriously, its a whole 'nother language.  

3. Can I get chinese food:  The number of chinese places here is awesome.  I have gotten chinese three different times.  

4. How is the local cuisine:  Pathetic and devoid of protein.  

5. As far as logistics go: My classes have been in the main peace corps building, which happens to have wireless internet.  When I move to my training village (that has like 3,000 people) I'm guessing the internet situation will be different.

6.  The last pic is on the hummingbird highway, I dont know what the building is, but if you look behind the building you can see what is called "the sleeping giant"  (a man's face looking up at the sky) its pretty sweet huh?  and beautiful.  

Side note: does anyone know if my parents and brother are reading this?  Tell em to post something!  

From Kriol Kountry :)

jake

So here's the deal people...I wrote a whole entry and took care of all of my stuff so that people could have an idea of what i was doing.  I was so proud of myself!  Buuuuut...the images wouldnt load.  this makes Jacob sad.  What shall follow will be the post I attempted to put up yesterday.  Not so much luck.  Im going to keep trying and we shall see what happens in the grand scheme of things!

--Helloooo! Its Sunday.  That means I get a day off.  We haven't really had any time to ourselves yet, so today has been glorious.  We took a trip down to the river about 2 miles away.  Just got to laze about and have awesomeness.  To get there you walk about a mile and a half down a dirt road,  follow it to the bottom of the hill and there is this crystal clear stream.  On one side there was a rope swing and the other had a 20 foot cliff to jump off of.  A solid five hours was spent in that creek.  One side was shallow and we all got to sit in the water and enjoy finally being cool.  (its kinda hot here)  Both sides of the river is dense jungle and as we hung out we would chat with locals who were cooling off and or washing their laundry in the river.  Kids splashing, crickets and wildlife noises etc.  One of the other trainees cracked a few jokes about how our friends and families' tax dollars have sent us here...soooo...thanks y'all!  I brought my camera to the river and didn't manage to take a single picture.  Boo.  

   Lets move on to what went down on saturday...we got to go to Dangriga, which is the largest Garifuna settlement/village in Belize.  The story of the Garifuna is fascinating and I recommend checking em out online.  We got to visit a lady who makes Cassava bread in the traditional style.  Tastes kinda like a mixture of matzoh and a crispy tortilla.  I think I have managed to post a picture of her!  I managed to escape during lunchtime and wander around a bit.  Dangriga is right on the coast and is gorgeous in its ramshackle caribbean flavor.  Afterwards we had a performance of traditional Garifuna drumming and dancing. It was very African in its feel and was a unique experience.  We got to see a dance in which the white slave masters are impersonated.  They wore pink masks (like the white masters' faces) 

   So I got a bit of picture action going on!  Looks like I have managed to upload a few pictures.  I know one is doubled up,  i dont really know how to get rid of the second :)  Hopefully this will satisfy some of you guys who have wanted to see whats going on.  Thanks so much for reading and please please leave your questions and comments.  I love to hear from you and I would love to answer your questions!  

jake

Belize is purdy

IN COUNTRY!!!

I'm in Belize!  Its true!  This crazy unbelievable journey that started so many months ago has finally brought me to this country.  We arrived on Wed. and promptly launched into training.  They are definitely organized and keeping me busy.  Security meetings, survival kriol, medical chats, more meetings etc.  

    Lets start this blog from when we arrived in Belize.  We flew into Belize City and as we stepped off the plane I heard the Volunteers already in the country cheering loudly.  The welcome was as warm as the air.  (that was lame...)  So we loaded everything into the bus and went to a restaurant on the coast.  Felt like i had just arrived in paradise.  We got a chance to meet some of the volunteers and hear their stories over lunch.  The rest of the day was spent driving to the capital city of Belmopan (the world's smallest capital at around 10,000 people.)  I guess it took opening the door to my hotel room (home for the next week) To help me realize that this is Peace Corps and I am no longer in the US.  Its a chinese owned place, and everything from the soaps to the light switches are in chinese.  The bed is on the saggy side, and the entire building looks like a soviet bomb shelter.  But my favorite part, by far, is the overwhelming smell of mothballs when you enter the room.  We're talking gag reflex if you open the closet.  Lovely :)  

    Sooo... Each day we wake up to make it to the office, a few blocks away, by 7:30 or so.  We eat breakfast and start our classes.  Today I learned about the history and politics of Belize and we had a group discussion on Development (what is it, who does it, what for etc)  At times I feel like some of the people here are light years ahead of me when it comes to knowledge of these subjects surrounding economics etc.  I am trying to catch up and still be an active participant.  We will be a large training group for the next few days before we split into our individual concentrations.  Youth development will be training in either Kriol (the local patois) or Garifuna, an african arawak language.  Whatever group I am placed into in the next few days will determine the population I am with for the next two years.  I have my fingers crossed for Garifuna, but part of this whole process is being open to whatever happens,  so thats where I am trying to put my head right now.  On Wed.  I will move with 3 or 4 others to either Georgetown or Independence,  two villages in southern Belize.  I am so ready for this info.  

   All these logistics aside, I think I am still trying to wrap my brain around being here.  I guess it hasn't really sunk in just yet.  Tomorrow we visit the town of Dangriga, which is Garifuna, and then the next day we have a river trip to wash our clothes, go swimming, and generally spend a day outside of a classroom.  There is so much together time with the whole incoming class that I have been craving a bit of alone time.  I took an hour yesterday and went on a run...kinda snuck off from the group after the class day was over.  I feel like I am in limbo.  I have yet to separate fully from the US, I haven't done anything but be in class here, and I am unsure as to what my next week will look like,  much less next year.  Hopefully things will get clarified in the near future and I will be able to give you all an update as to what my next move is.  As far as pictures,  its only been classroom time so far.  (plus i need to learn how to upload pics!!!)  I hope ill be able to show some cool stuff after this weekend.  

Love,

Jake

The Very First Day

Hello all!  In a perfect world I would have set this blog up weeks ago.  I would have detailed the journey from application to nomination to medical clearances to legal to whatever else I did.  Its not a perfect world.  And I am not the perfect blogger.  Nonetheless, here I am, writing to you at 10:06 PM while on my bed in the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Miami.  The past 48 hours has been a whirlwind.  Saturday night was my going away party, and it was fantastic.  It was great to see everybody coming together just to say goodbye.  Sunday was a bit tougher.  Essentially it was saying goodbye to one person after another.  First there was Joshie.  Usually its a slap on the back and a "see ya soon"  this time was different.  I teared up, and despite his rock hard exterior, I think he did too :)  Next came Bridget, Daniel, Max and Lila.  Its really tough knowing that I might not see my niece and nephew for another two years.  They will change so much, I will miss so much.  I felt like I was abandoning them.  As if I wasn't close enough to losing it,  after hugging everyone goodbye I had to drive Suzy to the airport.  Now if you don't know,  Susannah Ayliffe has been my rock throughout this whole application process.  She has kept me organized, motivated me, buoyed my spirits, and generally been absolutely amazing.  How selfless to devote your time to helping your significant other move away from you.  I don't know if I would be in this position today were it not for her. (thank you Bruiser!)  

     When I got home from the airport I went out to dinner with the rents.  As always, hanging with them is both wonderful and trying.  That last night of packing  and this morning's trip to the airport made the scope of this trip so much more obvious.  I am so lucky to have parents who support me leaving the country for 2 years.  Who will take all my crap and put it in their gorgeous new home, who I know will come and visit me as soon as they can, and who are generally the most caring and involved parents I have ever known.  When I was a teenager I would complain about family dinners and friday nights at home.  Thank you, mom and dad, for giving me a foundation that I can build on for the rest of my life.  

    After all the events of the past few days, today was pretty tame.  Basically I have walked in, made some friends, and sat through four hours of lecture.  Tomorrow is an early morning, so I am going to turn in.  But I promise to keep this blog going and tell all about what this experience is like.  Please Please Please feel free to share this with friends, family etc.  My internet musings are as much for me as they are for you.  

from tropical storm'd miami...

jake