I've Finally Made it to Belize City!

On Wednesday, the counterparts from our projects came to Belmopan for a day of training. Two women from my project, WIN-Belize, came and we had a wonderful day getting to know each other. Then they drove me back to Belize City and took me to my new host family's house.

I am living with Sylvia Flores in a two story house. Mrs. Flores lives upstairs with her 103 year old mother, and I have an apartment downstairs. The bedroom was just painted and she had a lovely wood floor installed. There is no one else in the apartment, so I have it pretty much to myself. The house is in a very safe neighborhood and only a block from the water, so I can take long walks by the sea. I also just found a place to take yoga that is about a block away and hope to start classes soon with one of my co-workers at WIN. However, it's not quite the Hilton, and even though I'm very lucky to have hot water, here's a picture of how the water is heated. So, if I get electrocuted, at least you'll know I was warm when it happened!

WIN-Belize is a fantastic organization and the people I work with have made me feel so much at home. WIN is a network of many women's organizations and tries to help them work together on like issues in order to make a greater impact. We visited several of them on Thursday. On Friday evening, my co-workers took me to a play called, "The Effects of Gamma Rays on Man in the Moon Marigolds." It was in Kriol, but I actually understood the gist of the play, and the acting was wonderful. On Saturday,WIN held a training for volunteers who want to become Mentors of girls. Fifteen volunteers attended and the training was a big success. There will be two more sessions, then the volunteers will be assigned a girl who is involved in one of the organizations that belongs to WIN.

My counterpart, Florence Goldson, took me on a great tour of the north side of the city on Friday. She also showed me where to get the bus from my house to go to work, so tomorrow I will venture out by myself. I warned them that I often have trouble finding my way out of a bag (an expression I had to explain to them) and told them to come looking for me if I wasn't in by 9am. I will continue my orientation this week, visiting other member organizations, and another staff person is going to show me around the downtown area.

Then I head back to Belmopan on Saturday for the last week of training, called Bridge to Service. It will be great to see everyone and hear about their sites and projects. We will be sworn in on May 28th, at the Governor General's house (the "GG", as he is called, is the Queen's representative). We have been invited to the Ambassador's house on Friday evening for dinner, and the next morning I'll head back to Belize City for the next two years! I can't believe training is almost over and I can finally begin what I came here to do.