The Mystery is Revealed!

Today, all of us gathered from throughout the country where we have been in our Community Based Training for the last six weeks, to find out what our projects will be and where we will be living for the next two years. We have been so anxious for the last few weeks, all us trying to pry the information from our trainers and making guesses about who would be going where. So since I had to wait for six weeks, I'm going to make you wait a little longer and tell you how the secrets were revealed.
When we got into the training room, a huge map of Belize had been drawn and on it were 37 pieces of colored paper that coordinated with our groups: yellow for Education, green for Youth, pink for Healthy Communities, and purple for the best group, Business & Organizational Development! Chairs were set up in our four groups and we were told that each group would take a turn sending up two people to play "Belize Tabu". One person gave their partner clues to a word that related to something about Belize or our training. If the person guessed the word in 15 seconds, they could go to the map and pick a piece of paper to uncover, under which was the name of one of the trainees, where they were going and the name of their project. Everyone tried to pick the place where they thought they were going, but many of us were surprised. It was so exciting and amazingly, it seems like everyone is thrilled with their new project and the place where they are going.
So, (drum roll) when the purple paper was pulled off Belize City, there was my picture and name! I couldn't be happier. Of all the 37 locations, it is where I wanted to go the most because the project is so awesome. The agency where I will be working is called WIN Belize - WIN stands for Women's Issues Network. It is a coalition of like-minded groups working together for the betterment of women in Belize. I will be networking with over 20 organizations, including the Belize Cancer Society, YWCA, youth and AIDS organizations, women's business co-ops, food banks, battered women's shelters, and environmental groups like the Audubon Society. My job will be to assist in volunteer recruitment, establish their advocacy programs, and strengthen their member organization's practices and policies by providing staff training in the areas of organizational skills, monitoring and evaluation of current projects, networking and fundraising. Our counterparts from the organizations will be coming to Belmopan for two days of training together, then they will take us back to our new homes on Wednesday.
I will be living in a very nice area of Belize City called Kings Park, with a lady who used to be the Peace Corps nurse, so I'm sure she will be very nice and a great place for me to stay while I look for my house and get it set up.
I am so excited about the fact that I will be in Belize City. Though it might not be as much of a cultural experience as living in a rural village, I'm thrilled to have electricity and running water! Belize City is the laragest city in Belize. It is centrally located on the coast, and only a water taxi away from all the beautiful Cayes! Also, the airport is located there, so when you come to visit, we can use my house as base camp and travel around from there.

Just a reminder about a few things on my Blog. First, I just figured out how you can view my photos in a slide presentation, which you can see at the top, or click on a picture and you will be linked to the album to see the pictures with captions. Also, there is a place for you to leave comments at teh end of each posting. I'd love to know who's reading and what you think about my posts, so please leave me a message!