I've rejoined the 21st Century!

Well, I not only got wireless internet connected at my house this week, but through the miracle of a VPN (virtual personal network - whatever that is!), I am now on Skype. My address is jane.house2, and since we're two hours different in time, we can talk AND see each other any morning from 8-10 am, and in the evening after 7pm, Eastern time. Yesterday, I held my computer and gave my Dad, Kadi and David, Jill and Cristy a walking tour of my house and yard. Peoples, the dog, even put his nose up to the screen and introduced himself. It was pretty amazing, and I almost felt like they were here with me! So, if you're not on Skype, sign up for it and give me a call sometime!

It was short, but the lobster was sweet!

KC, Colleen, Linda and me
Last weekend was the first time since we were sworn in that we were allowed to leave our sites and travel around the country. So the four "golden girls" (those of us over the age of 50) decided to go to Caye Caulker for Lobster Fest weekend. Everyone arrived in Belize City on Thursday night, and it was fun having my first guests in my new house. We walked around the corner to the Princess Casino and had a wonderful dinner of shrimp cocktail, lamb chops, baked potato, fresh vegetables and chocolate cake for dessert - for $16 BZ (that's $8 US!) Then we went into the casino and bought $2 worth of chips and got 2 free drinks while gambling away our big bucks! It was a fun evening and a great way to start the weekend. The next morning we took the water taxi to the Caye, which dropped us off right in front of our hotel, the Seaside Cabanas. It was a darling resort and they stored our bags while we went to lunch for our first lobster meal - lobster civche! After lunch, we checked into our air conditioned, two bedroom suite with a living room in between. We settled in, visited the bar for our first round of happy hour beverages, and proceeded to pick out our lounge chairs by the pool. We swam, listened to Garafuna drummers and watched young people punta dancing until it was time for dinner - our second lobster meal of the day - delicious broiled lobster.
Unfortunately, tropical storm Alex didn't cooperate with our plans, and on Saturday morning the Peace Corps notified us that we had to evacuate the island and head to Belmopan until the storm passed. So, we caught the first water taxi of the morning to Belize City, took a cab to the bus station, a bus to Belmopan and a cab to the Garden City Hotel - which was nothing less than a shock from the beautiful Seaside Cabana where we had been peacefully sleeping only three hours earlier! But at least we had a great day together, ate some delicious lobster and got to see the beautiful Caye before the storm. I'm sure we'll all be back there many times in the next two years!!

There's no place like home, Auntie Em!

It's hard to believe it's been three weeks since my last post. I wish I could say it's because I've been so busy, but in fact, it's because I've had little access to the internet. I do have exciting news to report though. I found a beautiful place to live and moved in on June 11th. Of course, there's a story involved! In Belize City, the safest place to live is called the Kings Park area. So everyday after work, I would take the bus to that area and walk the streets looking for "For Rent" signs. I didn't see one sign in over a week's worth of looking, so I began talking to people on the street and knocking on doors of apartment buildings, asking if anyone knew of a place for rent. One afternoon I walked by an attorney's office. I said to myself, "Attorneys in America always seem to have enough money to buy investment properties, so maybe they do here also. Anyway, all that time I spent on getting the Paralegal degree might as well be of some benefit." So I walked into the office and asked the receptionist to ask the attorneys if anyone had rental property. A few minutes later a young man came out and said he had just purchased a house. He said he was going to move into the upstairs and was considering renting the downstairs. He gave me his card and when I got back to the office, I asked my Executive Director if she knew the name. She said she thought he was the son of the Executive Director of one of the member agencies that worked with us, so I called her and sure enough, he was her son. I told her she HAD to tell her son to rent the apartment to me (even though I hadn't even seen it yet!) Then that evening, I went to visit a Belizean friend I have made and showed her the card. She screamed and said, "He should have been my son-in-law, but he's too much of a bad boy!" She picked up the phone and said, "Ariel, you know who this is? It's Mary, and you need to rent your apartment to my friend Jane." Two days later, Ariel showed me the apartment and I rented it for $200 less than he usually rents it, because I told him the amount the Peace Corps allows me for rent and he agreed. It is a two bedroom, two bath, furnished apartment with nice wicker furniture in the
living room and a futon for extra guests! The kitchen has a full sized refrigerator, six burner stove (though one burner would have been enough for my culinary skills!), a washer and, ready for this? - AIR CONDITIONING in the living room! There is an eating area off the kitchen, and a cute alcove for my desk. My landlord is going to move upstairs in a few months, so we are going to split the cost of cable television and internet. That will help keep my costs down (so I can use the AC!) I planted two trees in pots and hung planters by the front door. It has a huge fenced yard, and I've been weeding gardens and planting coconuts, so hopefully there will be shade by the time I leave the country! I also have a private patio off of the bedroom in the back of the house. The house even came with a dog named "Peoples", who unfortunately likes everyone and onlybarks at other dogs. I'm afraid he won't be a very good watch dog, but he's great company! So, I'm ready for visitors any time you decide to visit lovely Belize!

I'd like a House Blend, please. Grande. Black.

Yesterday I bought a coffee maker. Don't get me wrong, I love coffee in the morning, and Minerva always has a pot made when I get to work. But, I realized this morning it was much more than the caffeine buzz that wakes me up. It's the ritual of morning coffee: the smell when you take the lid off the can, the sound of the coffee maker as the water begins to be sucked from the holding tank and dripped over the grounds, and finally the smell as the freshly brewed coffee begins to waft through the room. Yet, there's still more senses to be awakened. I glance over at my coffee maker and begin to see the dark brew dripping into the pot. Anticipation kicks in and I move over to watch my first pot of coffee emerging, drip by beautiful drip, and realize I'm sitting on the floor in front of my little coffee maker almost praying that the perking will soon be completed.
Having no kitchen (or for that matter a table) to sit the coffee maker on, I unpacked my new coffee maker last night and turned the box on its side. I took the plastic bag it came in and laid it over the box to protect it from drips, so I can use the box again when I move to my own house. I set the coffee maker on the box, then neatly (because you know how fastidious I am) put the familiar blue can of Maxwell House on the left, the nicest mug I could find in my host mother's kitchen in front of the can and laid a spoon beside the mug.So, here I sit, legs crossed, waiting patiently for the silence as the last drips trickle into the pot. I realize the only thing missing is a candle, japa mala prayer beads or a round-bellied Buddhist god of Java. As I sit there and pour my inagural cup, once again I close my eyes and take in the aroma. I lift the cup and cradle it in both hands, recalling how often the cup would warm my hands on a winter morning. But that's not the case today, as I notice my crossed legs are now stuck together from the incessant heat which causes my skin to constantly feel like I'm covered in a thin layer of molasses. In my mind, I add that to the list of things I miss - the comfort of warming my hands until it drives a shiver from my cold body on a chilly morning. As I sit in front of my Java shrine and bring the cup to my lips, savoring the first sip of my very own coffee, my mind says a little prayer of thanks for a touch of sanity, a little bit of familiar, in this strange new world!

I'm an OFFICIAL Peace Corps Volunteer!

It's been a whirlwind since I last wrote on the 22nd, but before I catch you up on my last week of training and the swearing in, I want to tell you about the WINNERS meeting I attended the Friday before I left. WINNERS is the volunteer group of WIN Belize and I must say I was a little apprehensive about the meeting that night. Like in America, many people take advantage of a holiday weekend to get away. They go to one of the Cayes or resort towns by the sea. So I was wondering what the turnout would be that Friday night before the Commonwealth holiday. (Remember this was a British colony - they don't celebrate Memorial Day or the 4th of July!) So at 5:30 when the meeting started I was happy to see about 5 people there. However, by 6:00 there were 10 more volunteers and by 6:30, over 20 women were present. I don't know if I've ever attended a better volunteer meeting because, unlike the famous saying by Woody Allen, "80% of success is just being there", these women were not only there but involved! Everyone dug in, volunteered to help with their projects and offered ideas and suggestions for making their efforts more effective. It was really neat!

On Saturday morning I took the bus back to Belmopan. It was my first time taking the bus and of course, it was an adventure! I asked the taxi driver on my way to the bus station when the bus left, and he told me 11:00. At 12:30 I was still sitting in the bus station waiting for a bus that said Belmopan when the young man who sells juice and snacks came up to me and said, "Lady where are you going?" I told him and he replied that about 5 buses to Belmopan had left in the last hour. I said I watched every bus and none of them had said Belmopan. After he stopped laughing, he told me that ALL buses go through Belmopan on their way to another city in Belize and that I could pretty much take any bus heading west or south to get there. So I jumped on the next bus and an hour later I was pulling into the familiar bus station in Belmopan. I walked to the hotel and immediately started seeing the familiar faces of my wonderful Peace Corps friends.

We went downstairs to the Chinese restaurant where Linda and I celebrated our mutual birthdays by enjoying two bottles of wine! More volunteers continued to arrive and the restaurant became the central meeting spot, as we were so glad to be with familiar faces again. Peace Corps volunteers filled every room of the hotel - OK, so it's not a Hyatt Convention Center, but we roamed the 40 or so rooms all evening exchanging hugs and expounding on the variety of diverse stories about our first week in our new homes - from my adventures in the big city with military men carrying machine guns on the street, to a village you can only get to by boat that has no running water or electricity! Later that evening, we all went upstairs to "the ballroom" as we refer to the empty space on the third floor. Some volunteers had made birthday cakes for Linda & I and we switched from wine to $5 a bottle rum!! It's amazing when you're far from home with no one or nothing familiar, (and drunk on cheap rum) how close you can become to perfect strangers in so little time, but I feel such a bond to all of these amazing, intelligent, fun people who have such positive attitudes!

The next day training resumed, but with a whole different tone. Now we were learning about how to patch a bicycle tire and put a chain back on, how to connect a propane tank to a stove, how to hand a mosquito net and how to sharpen a machete and cut weeds without cutting off your foot!

Then Friday finally arrived - the swearing in! We had practiced the Belize National Anthem, when to stand at the arrival of the Governor General and Ambassador, and how to walk to the podium, shake hands and accept our certificates. We were taken to the Governor General's House where four beautiful tents had been set up. All the Peace Corps volunteers from throughout the country came to welcome their newest volunteers, our host families were there and all the staff and trainers who had helped us get to this point in a mear eight weeks. For me, and I think everyone else in our group, it was very emotional, especially when they played the Star Spangled Banner! After the ceremony, lunch was served and congratulations and pictures abounded. Here are the girls of Peace Corps Belize 2010!

After the ceremony, we returned to our hotel and immediately changed into play clothes, as it was time for the annual volunteer "futbrul" game between the "old" volunteers and the "newbys". I contributed by whistling on the sideline, though since I don't know how to play soccar, I think I might have whistled for the wrong team sometimes. Us new volunteers were easy on the old guys and ended the game in a tie to save face.

Back to the hotel to change again, this time to attend a dinner party at the U.S Ambassador's house. It was a fabulous evening, albeit a culture shock becasue as we passed through the gates of the U.S Embassy, it was as thoughwe were transported into one of the most exclusive communities in Naples Florida! After enjoying "real American wine!!" we dined on a delicious dinner of Indian cuisine. The Ambassador and his wife sat at my table, so of course, I took the opportunity to give him some suggestions about how to remodel the Embassy and do his job here in Belize! After dinner, Ambassador Thummalapally's wife Barbara, assembled some chairs in a circle, gathered two guys from our group who had brought their guitars, and sat down for an impromptu karaoke session. It was a great evening that I'm sure I'll always remember - especially when I'm sitting in a thatched hut eating beans and rice for the 3rd day in a I'm back in Belize row.

So, now I'm back to the real world, trying to settle in and bring some normalacy to my life. I come to work everyday at WIN Belize and am trying to find a place to live. Santos, the bus driver, actually knows me already (might be because I'm the only white girl within miles!) and tells me where to get off at my stop. I've met several people who wait with me at the bus stop in the morning and I've got them looking for a place for me to live also.