One Month In

Well, as you can already tell, these weekly blog posts are going to be harder than I thought. Between 50+ hours a week of instruction, chores at the house, integrating with the family, studying, and planning community events, my life is just a 'little' packed. I can't believe I have already been in country for one month. It has both felt like the quickest and longest month of my life. It has been a month of many first! To name a few:

- learning to make tortillas

- watching chickens hatch

- watching chickens get killed for lunch (que- 'Cirrrrcle of life....")

- Attempting to learn Spanish

- Presenting maternal health topics...in Spanish to women in the village

- Taking a Machete to coconuts and drinking fresh Coco water

- taking 3.5 hours to do one load of laundry by hand

- making papusas

- visiting a Mayan village

- becoming close with 17 folks who without them not sure what I would do!

- contracting Giardia! (I will expand on this below)

- And being constantly humbled and in awe of my wonderful family that has accepted me as one of their own

.........and much more

Needless to say, it has been a busy and wonderful month, a roller-coaster ride of emotions, exhaustion, and joy. 

As some of you might have heard, I was hospitalized last week for 3 nights due to a rough case of dehydration and fever resulting from contracting Giardia (parasite from food/water contamination- common in the developing world). I get the award 'or lack there of' of being the first in the group to get pretty ill, but I surely won't be the last. The past week has been one of the most trying, and I have a seriously new appreciation for our healthcare system (despite its many flaws), ease of transportation, luxuries of being sick in the developed world, and my wonderful family back home and in Belize. After four days of being on a medication, I had a pretty rough reaction and had to be taken back into Belize city for medical attention. Thankfully, I am on a new medication and am not having any bad side effects today!

 As amazing as my family is in Belize, to be sick in another family's home, in another country, not speaking the language, and attempting to run back and forth to the outdoor latrine and recover in 90 degree weather without a fan or ac, is not the ideal. At the same time, I am so incredibly fortunate because this is the reality for so many people in the world. The Peace Corps response has been great, providing me fairly quick transportation (relatively speaking), adjusting my meds, and checking up on me regularly. I know the majority of PCV's (Peace Corps Volunteers) will get sick at some point, so I'm hoping this is something I can check off the list and not relive during the next two years. 

In other news, the last two weeks have been pretty good! My life here is starting to seem rather 'normal,' and I'm starting to establish some sort of routine. Since I last posted, we have officially delved into the technical aspects of training. The beginning portion focused a lot on maternal health, and I was even asked to help lead the breastfeeding sessions and to contribute to the sessions on ante-natal care, labor/delivery, and post-partum care! It felt great to be consulted on this portion, and I can’t wait to start working in this area. Unlike America, nearly all women breast-feed here, in public, and without any need or pressure to cover-up! However, the problem is women sticking to exclusively breastfeeding during the first 6 months….In addition to breast milk, it’s not unusual for women to give their 1 month old coke, coffee, or even a tortilla. Needless, to say, there is a lot of room for education in this subject. It’s amazing how in some aspects of maternal health, Belize is so much further than America and in other ways so far off….

We had our first home visit last week with the Community Health Worker in the village, and it was extremely eye-opening. We met with an elderly woman who was bed-bound from an accident one year ago. Let’s just say….I know it will be quite an adjustment to seeing the quality of health care and conditions in which so many people live here. On the positive side, there is so much room for growth and work to be done! Over 25% of the village is diabetic, many children are undernourished, and in general NCD’s (non-communicable diseases) are a major need to be addressed here.

Other non-technical training sessions have been long and intense about topics such as sexual assault prevention, food and water prep (would have been useful the first week), peace corps approach to development, and the logistics of working with the Ministry of Health and our Community Health Partners. I will soon write a post dedicated solely to the Peace Corps approach to development, but their philosophy is the main reason why I am proud to be a part of this organization. Rather than tradition development approaches- sending in the ‘educated white man’ to save the ‘poor folk’, their approach is entirely different. The Peace Corps focuses on building relationships, empowering communities, and partnering with locals to build sustainable projects in a spirit of ‘peace and cooperation.’ This is not some kumbiya, ‘peace and love’ type of approach, it is the only way to establish positive, effective, and sustainable change. I could go on and on about this approach all day….but I will spare you! As much as I am loving the theory, training in the practical application of the material is equally fascinating. We have been going into depth on conducting community assessments, facilitating group events, MRE (Monitoring, Reporting, and Evaluation), and the list goes on…

My host family continues to be amazing. My mama and I continue to attempt to speak to each other, and I am noticing that each day I can understand a bit more. It’s easy to default to asking my sister’s to help translate, but I have been trying to limit the easy way out and make myself really immerse into the language (definitely not the case while I was sick). My Mama is amazing in so many ways, but I am constantly humbled by her selflessness, hard-work, and unbelievably giving nature. Today she even surprised me with a new shirt she bought at the market! Tomorrow, my sister is playing soccer (football) against another university team in Belize. I will go with the family to watch the game in the nearby city of San Ignacio. There are some nearby Mayan Ruins and from what I hear, a great market, so I’m hoping to explore a bit! Most of all, I am looking forward to spending a day out of the village in a place that is not the Peace Corps office or the hospital!

Love to all :)



My adorable little cousin, Kelsey!

My Mama!