Productive day! Met up with Jay and Austin, the Peace Corps program coordinators to figure out what our next step is. AND....I am officially moving to Orange Walk. Its pretty exciting and I am looking forward to a new set of challenges, new people and new happenings in my life. In a way it is sad too. I know I am only going to be a few miles from Carmelita, but I am starting to get that feeling that comes about when a period of life is coming to an end.
I have this deeply grained instinct/desire for change. Its not so much a "grass is greener" mentality, but rather, I look for whats next. By sticking relatively close to my old site and maintaining alot of contacts I feel like I will be able to both tend to that instinct and still continue to progress and grow as a Peace Corps Volunteer.
I am incredibly excited about one of my new projects. I will be working at the Sandy Hunter Public Library. I will be teaching computer classes, leading a reading program for children, starting to work on an environmental group as well as initiating any programs I want. I feel like one of the best aspects of this is that there is already an established library building and community. I wont be starting from scratch. Ms. Elena, my new counterpart, has hosted many Volunteers. She and I are old friends already. I enjoy her passion and the vibrancy she brings to the library. I finally feel like I will be working WITH someone instead of against!!
Tomorrow I will be heading to meet Trainees as they get off the airplane and then the 2nd year volunteers will all head out to Caye Caulker for a bit of a reunion. Sometimes it blows my mind that I have been here for a year already. At times I have felt like it has dragged, but a year?!?! Wow.
Last post I mentioned that I am heading to Vegas in a week. The other day I had the first inkling of how much that is going to mess with my mind. My friend Rob, who lives in Belize City, and I went to the Princess Casino to see a movie. This was my first theater movie in a year. We saw GI JOE. Now the movie rocked. The 10yo boy who lives inside me was jumping up and down with glee the entire time. (Sub Arctic hideout?! YESSS!!) Ninjas, suits that make you run really fast?! Awesome chase scene through Paris?!...that girl can ride a motorcycle!!) Yeah, it was sweet. The only problem was I was nearly dizzy. I felt like a country boy who just moved to the big city. Like a blind man who opens his eyes and is confused by everything he sees! Lotta lights for this country bumpkin!!! Nevada should be interesting! Im doing desensitization exercises; flashing lights in my eyes, popping bags behind my ears, stepping on broken glass. You know, training for the big event. :D
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Sick :(
Hey all! got a quick update for ya about whats been going on with my life and health and all that business. I have actually spent the past three nights in the hospital. For the past week or so I have been developing a bit of a chest cold. I didn't think much of it, just bumped up the vitamin C intake and got a bit more sleep, but monday night when I tried to go to bed even the littlest breath was wheezing in my lungs. To be honest it was a bit scary. I have never had to deal with truly feeling like I could not get any air in my lungs. I would take a deep breath and it would rattle around inside me, but not do much. It felt like trying to breathe off the end of an empty dive tank. Obviously I called my Medical Officer first thing the next morning and made an appointment to go to the doctor on Wed. in Belize City. The doctor took one listen and 2 xrays and promptly laid me in a hospital bed and told me that I was staying in the hospital for at least two nights. Evidently I had come into the clinic with 25% lung capacity.
The past few days have been rather trying, no change of clothes, no computer, no ipod, no book. I had thought that I was going to visit the doc, get a course of antibiotics and promptly return home. OHHH NO. As of right now I am spending the next two nights in a hotel in Belize City. I have a monday appointment with the doc to check up on my lungs and see how I am doing. Its kinda a bummer, he has said that he recommends getting rid of the pets, especially the cats. I don't know what I am going to do, but all of this is a bit of a wakeup call. Guess at 26 I am getting to the point where i can't automatically expect my body to do whatever I want it to do, obeying promptly and without complaint. Hmmm.
In other news, the next few weeks will be pretty exciting. We have new volunteers coming in the 20th and then a week later I go to VEGAS for a good friend's bachelor party. I am also in the process of looking for a new site, quite possibly Orange Walk. It has gotten to the point in the village where I think it would be a good and healthy idea for me to extracate myself from what is going on there and find a spot where people are excited about what I am doing and willing to work along with me.
Crazy changes in life, and im guessing that this is only the beginning.
Jacob
The past few days have been rather trying, no change of clothes, no computer, no ipod, no book. I had thought that I was going to visit the doc, get a course of antibiotics and promptly return home. OHHH NO. As of right now I am spending the next two nights in a hotel in Belize City. I have a monday appointment with the doc to check up on my lungs and see how I am doing. Its kinda a bummer, he has said that he recommends getting rid of the pets, especially the cats. I don't know what I am going to do, but all of this is a bit of a wakeup call. Guess at 26 I am getting to the point where i can't automatically expect my body to do whatever I want it to do, obeying promptly and without complaint. Hmmm.
In other news, the next few weeks will be pretty exciting. We have new volunteers coming in the 20th and then a week later I go to VEGAS for a good friend's bachelor party. I am also in the process of looking for a new site, quite possibly Orange Walk. It has gotten to the point in the village where I think it would be a good and healthy idea for me to extracate myself from what is going on there and find a spot where people are excited about what I am doing and willing to work along with me.
Crazy changes in life, and im guessing that this is only the beginning.
Jacob
Monday, August 10, 2009
Did That Really Just Happen?!?
So this past week I have been traveling the 10 or so miles to Guinea Grass to help my friends Melissa and Coy run a chess camp. We are teaching about 15 kids the basics of chess in the hopes of starting a club at the school. The idea behind it all is to use the game as a way to build life skills...yknow, cause and effect, thinking ahead, patience, self control, processing wins and losses etc. Its really fun to see how into the game these kids get.
The camp started each day at 9AM. Now I live only ten miles from Guinea Grass, but TIB, (this is belize!) Each day I was on the side of my road at 730 waiting to catch a hitch the 3 miles to the junction that leads to GG. I wait half an hour before a dump truck full of sand comes rolling out of the village. This is no ordinary MACK truck you might see rollin outta a construction site, no, this bad boy was built in 1964 (I asked). It had that classic 60's bubbly everything rounded off style to it. The thing might as well have had fins. So with a grind of the gears we are bumping along the highway at a very sensible 21 miles an hour. Those three miles were not the quickest of my life, but I got there and got dropped off on the side of the road. Before long I am joined by a Mennonite fellow who looked about my age. We are both sitting on a bench waiting for a hitch west. He's going through GG to get to Shipyard, the big Mennonite settlement out here, to buy parts for his tractor fixing business. One of the ironies of the Mennonites is that they don't drive cars but ride in them and they don't operate tractors but are the only ones in the country who fix em. Go figure.
It doesn't take too long before we are chatting away. His particular group lived in Mexico before Belize, so we are speaking spanish, him with a germanic accent and my flawless native tongue exhibiting its prowess...(riiight) We talk about life, he asks what Im doing in Belize, I ask about the Mennonite communities. (If youre reading this and dont know who I am talking about, look it up online, The Belizian Mennonites run this country; eggs, dairy, tractors, prefab buildings, poultry, beef and so on. They look like the Pennsylvania Amish)
We finally manage to catch a ride with a pickup truck heading down the dirt road. This was one of the good'uns too, there was a bench seat that had been taken out of another pickup bolted backwards in the cab. Hitchhiking in comfort...Posh Hitch...Pitch? Potchiking? Now at this point on the journey I love to break out my ipod and ride the last few miles through the countryside while rocking out to something fun. (Think Allman Brothers, The Roots, Marshall Tucker Band, Tribe Called Quest etc) Just something with a solid traveling beat. Now we are sitting shoulder to shoulder in this truck bombing down the road and I see the Mennonite eyeing my ipod. I think to myself "this could be fun" and offer him one of the earphones. OK...what do I put on?? I know...CCR! Southern Rock at its best. Somehow "Heard it through the grapevine" just seems to work so well in the bush! The guitar kicks in, then the drums, and I see this huge grin stretch across Joe Mennnonite's face. Those of you in Belize already know, its pretty rare to see a Mennonite smile. "Not bad" i think to myself. But thats when things start getting silly. This guy starts bobbing his head and tapping his feet. I'm sneaking peeks at this impromptu show(thank god for dark sunglasses) when the dude really lets loose. He whips off his straw cowboy hat and turns it into an impromptu air guitar. Seriously. Black overalls, steel toe boots, longsleeve flannel shirt, hat in the crook of his ars as he pretends to rock out the riffs and high pitched whine of the guitar. I can't help it and start to bust out laughing. He looks over at me with this huge grin, yellowed teeth poking out all over and yells something lost over the sound of the truck and the music. "Why not?!" I think to myself, and pull up my feet and start playing the air drums. My feet are tapping, my hands are banging out the rhythm on my imaginary cymbals and the last few minutes of the ride are spent rocking out side by side. By divine intervention the song ends just as we are heading into town. He gives me back my earphone, I shut down the ipod, roll up the headphones and put it in my bag. By the time I look over at my new friend his face is back in that unreadable Mennonite stare. I knocked on the side of the truck to let the driver know I wanted to get out, shook hands with my new bandmember and jumped down from the bed. As the truck pulled away the Mennonite shot me a smile and tipped his hat. I never even got his name.
How's THAT for cross cultural exchange?!?!?
The camp started each day at 9AM. Now I live only ten miles from Guinea Grass, but TIB, (this is belize!) Each day I was on the side of my road at 730 waiting to catch a hitch the 3 miles to the junction that leads to GG. I wait half an hour before a dump truck full of sand comes rolling out of the village. This is no ordinary MACK truck you might see rollin outta a construction site, no, this bad boy was built in 1964 (I asked). It had that classic 60's bubbly everything rounded off style to it. The thing might as well have had fins. So with a grind of the gears we are bumping along the highway at a very sensible 21 miles an hour. Those three miles were not the quickest of my life, but I got there and got dropped off on the side of the road. Before long I am joined by a Mennonite fellow who looked about my age. We are both sitting on a bench waiting for a hitch west. He's going through GG to get to Shipyard, the big Mennonite settlement out here, to buy parts for his tractor fixing business. One of the ironies of the Mennonites is that they don't drive cars but ride in them and they don't operate tractors but are the only ones in the country who fix em. Go figure.
It doesn't take too long before we are chatting away. His particular group lived in Mexico before Belize, so we are speaking spanish, him with a germanic accent and my flawless native tongue exhibiting its prowess...(riiight) We talk about life, he asks what Im doing in Belize, I ask about the Mennonite communities. (If youre reading this and dont know who I am talking about, look it up online, The Belizian Mennonites run this country; eggs, dairy, tractors, prefab buildings, poultry, beef and so on. They look like the Pennsylvania Amish)
We finally manage to catch a ride with a pickup truck heading down the dirt road. This was one of the good'uns too, there was a bench seat that had been taken out of another pickup bolted backwards in the cab. Hitchhiking in comfort...Posh Hitch...Pitch? Potchiking? Now at this point on the journey I love to break out my ipod and ride the last few miles through the countryside while rocking out to something fun. (Think Allman Brothers, The Roots, Marshall Tucker Band, Tribe Called Quest etc) Just something with a solid traveling beat. Now we are sitting shoulder to shoulder in this truck bombing down the road and I see the Mennonite eyeing my ipod. I think to myself "this could be fun" and offer him one of the earphones. OK...what do I put on?? I know...CCR! Southern Rock at its best. Somehow "Heard it through the grapevine" just seems to work so well in the bush! The guitar kicks in, then the drums, and I see this huge grin stretch across Joe Mennnonite's face. Those of you in Belize already know, its pretty rare to see a Mennonite smile. "Not bad" i think to myself. But thats when things start getting silly. This guy starts bobbing his head and tapping his feet. I'm sneaking peeks at this impromptu show(thank god for dark sunglasses) when the dude really lets loose. He whips off his straw cowboy hat and turns it into an impromptu air guitar. Seriously. Black overalls, steel toe boots, longsleeve flannel shirt, hat in the crook of his ars as he pretends to rock out the riffs and high pitched whine of the guitar. I can't help it and start to bust out laughing. He looks over at me with this huge grin, yellowed teeth poking out all over and yells something lost over the sound of the truck and the music. "Why not?!" I think to myself, and pull up my feet and start playing the air drums. My feet are tapping, my hands are banging out the rhythm on my imaginary cymbals and the last few minutes of the ride are spent rocking out side by side. By divine intervention the song ends just as we are heading into town. He gives me back my earphone, I shut down the ipod, roll up the headphones and put it in my bag. By the time I look over at my new friend his face is back in that unreadable Mennonite stare. I knocked on the side of the truck to let the driver know I wanted to get out, shook hands with my new bandmember and jumped down from the bed. As the truck pulled away the Mennonite shot me a smile and tipped his hat. I never even got his name.
How's THAT for cross cultural exchange?!?!?
Monday, August 3, 2009
Randomness!
Is it seriously already august?!? What happened to this summer! July has been a fun month, I had a visitor, my cousin Sam. Straight from New York City, he managed to fit right into Belize. From sharing mango wine with villagers at 10AM to busting his butt helping out with our volleyball/personal empowerment camp he jumped right in and seemed to get a kick out of the experience. It was alot of fun for me as well, I got to see the country from another person's eyes, and reexamine my own feeling towards my adopted home. Im guessing his favorite place in the country was Caye Caulker...big surprise! I would post some pictures but sadly my trusty point n shoot canon has bit the dust. Frankly Im surprised it lasted that long! The woods of North Carolina, the icy mountains of patagonia and the sweltering heat of Belize are probably not the best things in the world for electronics. So be it! First my laptop and then the computer. Booo!
So these past couple of weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Projects that I have hoped were well on their way have stumbled to a protracted death causing me to reevaluate what I am doing here and what I hope to accomplish. If I learn nothing else from peace corps I will come back to the united states more able to cope with failure. Thats a good thing right?? So its been a time of reflection and searching within myself. I am learning what motivates me and makes me happy as well as realizing what kind of person I am, how I work best, and how to maximize what I do. I think one of the best conclusions I have come to is the fact that one of the reasons I am here in Peace Corps is to work on me. To make me a better person. My relationships with Belizians have developed as I let go of the United States and become more a part of the community here. For example, yesterday (sunday) I had just gotten home after a weekend of enjoying Fiestarama (imagine a county fair that has been left to rust for 5 years then the owner came back with the keys and started up all the rides again) and had just sat down on my porch with a book. My buddy Bat came by and yelled something out the window of his pickup. I couldn't hear a word through the pouring rain, so grabbing my umbrella I slogged to the truck. "I need a paddler for a canoe race!" "When?" I said. "Right now!" Oh crap I thought to myself. Its raining, I dunno how long the trip is so on and so forth. I finally relented and got in the truck. Turned out the race was only from the tollbridge to orangewalk, about 10 miles. But we had to paddle in Di Doctah, Bat's 25 year old 9000 pound puke orange satans spawn of a boat. My hatred towards this canoe was built up to its current frenzy after 174 miles of paddling the bitch for La Ruta Maya (see march post) Being the good sport that I was I jumped in with two other people who work for Bat (he runs a boat tour operation to Lamanai) and we paddled through the rain trying to win $300 for first. Sadly first price was taken by three fishermen who make their livings on the river and have, over the years, developed the ability to paddle insanely fast while still chugging gallons of mexican beer. My mind was blown.
But it wasn't until we finished the race, floated in the river for a minute and then hopped in Bat's motorboat for a cold one and a trip back down the river to cheer in the remaining teams that I realized that I had become an accepted member of this group. Sitting shirtless in the rain, Guinness in hand, bantering back and forth in Kriol it struck me that whatever my issues with this country, with my village and with peace corps may be, I could call these guys my friends.
I guess that sometimes when I feel like I have no good options left, that nothing is working out the way I want something comes along to kick me in the ass and let me know that its not all bad. I can make a life here, I can smile and enjoy myself and be happy for the next year...And thats exactly what I am going to do. Take this next year for me. Make it good, hopefully make a difference, but no matter what go home with both me and my friends here better for the experience!
I think Ill be posting more often now. I'd like to get back to the idea of putting down my thoughts and letting yall hear where I'm coming from. Im tired of simply recounting events. Mek ai cho wahn lee bitah spirit inah dese heer posts, no?!
So these past couple of weeks have been a bit of a rollercoaster. Projects that I have hoped were well on their way have stumbled to a protracted death causing me to reevaluate what I am doing here and what I hope to accomplish. If I learn nothing else from peace corps I will come back to the united states more able to cope with failure. Thats a good thing right?? So its been a time of reflection and searching within myself. I am learning what motivates me and makes me happy as well as realizing what kind of person I am, how I work best, and how to maximize what I do. I think one of the best conclusions I have come to is the fact that one of the reasons I am here in Peace Corps is to work on me. To make me a better person. My relationships with Belizians have developed as I let go of the United States and become more a part of the community here. For example, yesterday (sunday) I had just gotten home after a weekend of enjoying Fiestarama (imagine a county fair that has been left to rust for 5 years then the owner came back with the keys and started up all the rides again) and had just sat down on my porch with a book. My buddy Bat came by and yelled something out the window of his pickup. I couldn't hear a word through the pouring rain, so grabbing my umbrella I slogged to the truck. "I need a paddler for a canoe race!" "When?" I said. "Right now!" Oh crap I thought to myself. Its raining, I dunno how long the trip is so on and so forth. I finally relented and got in the truck. Turned out the race was only from the tollbridge to orangewalk, about 10 miles. But we had to paddle in Di Doctah, Bat's 25 year old 9000 pound puke orange satans spawn of a boat. My hatred towards this canoe was built up to its current frenzy after 174 miles of paddling the bitch for La Ruta Maya (see march post) Being the good sport that I was I jumped in with two other people who work for Bat (he runs a boat tour operation to Lamanai) and we paddled through the rain trying to win $300 for first. Sadly first price was taken by three fishermen who make their livings on the river and have, over the years, developed the ability to paddle insanely fast while still chugging gallons of mexican beer. My mind was blown.
But it wasn't until we finished the race, floated in the river for a minute and then hopped in Bat's motorboat for a cold one and a trip back down the river to cheer in the remaining teams that I realized that I had become an accepted member of this group. Sitting shirtless in the rain, Guinness in hand, bantering back and forth in Kriol it struck me that whatever my issues with this country, with my village and with peace corps may be, I could call these guys my friends.
I guess that sometimes when I feel like I have no good options left, that nothing is working out the way I want something comes along to kick me in the ass and let me know that its not all bad. I can make a life here, I can smile and enjoy myself and be happy for the next year...And thats exactly what I am going to do. Take this next year for me. Make it good, hopefully make a difference, but no matter what go home with both me and my friends here better for the experience!
I think Ill be posting more often now. I'd like to get back to the idea of putting down my thoughts and letting yall hear where I'm coming from. Im tired of simply recounting events. Mek ai cho wahn lee bitah spirit inah dese heer posts, no?!
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