Anybody Got a Spare Ark?

Last week, out of the clear blue sky, or maybe it was actually a dark gray sky, we had a terrific thunderstorm to match the thunder, lightning and rains of Tampa Bay Florida (which happens to be the lightning capital of the world.)
In 2 short hours it rained enough to completely flood Belize City. Florence, my counterpart at WIN Belize, was at a meeting away from the office. She borrowed an SUV and drove to the closest street to our office that wasn't completely flooded. Minerva and I walked to the car and Florence drove us home, except that when we got close to my road, the water was too deep to drive through. So I had to walk the last two blocks in water sometimes up to my knees. The water was so deep in the back yard that I thought the boat might float, but no water got into my house - except through the window that I had left open! Luckly, the rain stopped that evening and by morning the water had receeded, leaving only a few puddles.

I've Got Mail (and a Mailbox)!

You might have noticed on the right side of my Blog, that I got a mailbox and can now receive mail at my home. Between the dog, the cat and now the mailbox, I think it's an official home! And it all happened almost like Disney magic. I attached my new mailbox to the fence on Monday, and when I went outside an hour later to meet a friend who was coming to visit, there was a letter in the box! My first letter - and of course, it was from Kadi!! Now let me tell you WHY it took so long to get my own address. When I moved in, I asked the landlord what the address was and he told me he had no idea. When he bought the house, I think the legal documents read, "the road behind the casino." So, I bought a map of the city and took it to the post office. I showed them where I live and found out the name of the street and my street number. I thought that would be the hard part, but alas after visiting every hardware store in town, I couldn't find a mailbox until I got to the last one! And it cost as much as a month's worth of bus rides to work! So feel free to send small cards and letters (a #10 envelope fits perfectly) because as you can see it's a small mailbox, but I want to get my money's worth.

It's been a very busy week outside of work. Last weekend I took the bus to the other side of the country to a town called San Ignacio to visit my friend, Linda. It was so incredibally different from Belmopan and Belize City, the only two places where I have been. The countryside was mountaionous and covered in very lush jungle! There are several Mayan ruins close to the town, so it attrracts many tourists and the town was very quaint, safe and there were flowers everywhere. It was really beautiful! On Saturday we got on the bus and went to the last town before the Guatemalan border, Benque Veijo Del Carmen to the "Benque Fiesta." My Peace Corp friends, Roger and Tracy, were there. Roger lives in Benque, and works with the Mayor. Several other volunteers were there, and one volunteer's parents were visiting. So we all had a great time eating lots of good food, watching the exibition football (that's soccer, in this country) game, and just being around friends!

This week, the National Institute of Culture and History is sponsoring an International Film Festival that is being held all week at the Princess Casino, where the only movie theater in the country is located. The casino is right around the corner from my house, so I've gone every evening and have seen some very informative documentaries about Belize: one about their music, another about the Mayan folklore, and one on the resurgence of the Mayan method of making clay sculpture that is being done in San Antonio village, where several volunteers lived during the first 2 months we were in country. I also saw some great avant guard films, some interesting animated shorts and a few really bad films! The sad thing is that the locals don't take advantage of this opportunity and I'm one of only about 10 people in the theater every night.

In the meantime, I am managing to find some time to do a little work! Currently a volunteer and I are developing a Mentorship Policies and Procedures Manual that we plan to pilot this fall when school starts with high school girls. When I first arrived at WIN Belize, I attended the first training for volunteer Mentors. We have now completed those trainings, and over the summer, several teachers and volunteers will be helping us develop an afterschool program for primary and high school girls, as well as the mentorship program. Several staff members here at WIN Belize wrote an incredible grant proposal to the U.S. Embassy to help support this program. We hope to hear about it in the next six weeks. If we get the grant, we have built a cultural component into the program where we would take the girls to some of the beautiful natural spots throughout the country that few have ever seen. We also added a section for sports and recreation and I am trying to work with my goddaughter Arrie's, dance studio to help bring dance to some of the girls. Only a few girls have ever seen ballet and tap, and even fewer have ever had an opportunity to participate in dance. They will need shoes and instructors, but it is very exciting to me and I'm hoping that Miss Cheryl Lee and her students will be as excited as I am about the possibilities. If any of you have contacts in the states with a dance studio, I'd really appreciate it if you could help me get in touch with them. It may not be feeding the world, but I think to be a fully restored Belize, young people must also learn an appreciation for the talent and arts of their country, so maybe I'm starting to find my mission here.

Meet the Newest Addition to the Family

On Friday, Miss Kitty became the newest addition to my Belize home. Miss Kitty has lived with three other Peace Corps volunteers over the last five years, and agreed to move from Belmopan to Belize City to live with me. She has refused to tell me her age, but I think she is about six years old. She is very mellow and sweet and loves to be scratched on the head. As you can see, she has already made herself at home on the sofa (though she is still trying out the bed, under the bed, the chair, under the chair, against the wall in the kitchen and in the closet.) It's nice to come home and have her meet me at the door with a welcome home "meow" and I hope she likes living here as much as I like having her here.