Written 8/24
My New Home!
I have recently returned from a very exciting week. An
integral part of pre-service training is the site visit, which is when trainees
visit our soon to be homes for the duration of our service. We spent four days
at our site, which included about 12 different task that we were to complete in
that time frame. It is hard to describe the mixture of emotions in finding our
permanent sites last week. There was a level of excitement, anxiety, and
eagerness that I have rarely experienced. What would be the size of my
community? Which region of the country would I be placed? Would my
counter-parts be good to work with? Which friends would I be near (if any)?
Would I get the opportunity to work on my passion of maternal health? Learning
our placements for the next two years is an extremely significant moment. The
process of matching volunteers with communities is quite detailed and complex.
Staff must take into consideration- community need, volunteer skills, desired
remoteness, comfort with lack of amenities and isolation, language ability,
etc. It is a selection process that has been a work in progress since before we
arrived in country as trainees. It is an
exciting moment which marks the first of many significant moments of our Peace
Corps service. It is a culmination of PST- a roller-coaster of emotions, tedious,
and lengthy process of which we have been through up until this point. As
significant as this moment was, I know the true pinnacle moment of my service
is when we are finally sworn in as volunteers (in 3 weeks!)
There were soooo many questions that have been eating at all
of us since before applying to the peace corps, but I am extremely happy that
most of the big ‘unknowns’ are now out of the way! I am proud and excited to announce that my
home for the next two years is the beautiful village of San Roman in the
district of Orange Walk in Belize. In visiting my new community last week, I
discovered that my village is about an hour and half from the town of Orange
Walk (down unpathed roads, passing a multitude of Cane Farms). It is a small
village of 453 people which is about 5 miles from the border of Mexico. As far
as Peace Corps sites in the north go, I am rather remote, being about 1.5-2
hours to the nearest town. Upon entering the village, I was immediately struck
by its astounding beauty. The village is aptly placed on the banks of the Rio
Hondo River (The deep river), which provides a prime opportunity for cooling
off in hot days and trying the plentiful ‘river fish’. In fact, sitting on the
couch of my new room I have a great view of the beautiful river and the many
coconut and avocado trees surrounding the village. I had a great chance to meet
with my Community Health Worker and teachers of the school (my counterparts for
the next 2 years). There is a lot of need in the community, and I am excited to
start brainstorming areas to start. As far as maternal health is concerned,
there are many areas of opportunities in the village, including potentially working with
the district health educator in the nearby hospital to increase awareness and implementation of
safe birthing practices. One key area that I would like to
address in maternal health is the frequent usage of non-breast milk during the
first 6 months of life. It is not uncommon for people to give babies coke,
coffee, or even tortillas before 6 months old. I am very excited to have great work partners who are motivated and excited to begin working in the community.
Additionally, my community health worker, whom I will work
most closely with during my next two years, is an amazing and strong woman,
health worker, and mother of 6. She goes above and beyond her required duties,
and I am in awe of her desire to better her community. However, during my
initial assessment of community resources and my many conversations with the
community, I was saddened to realize how few resources the community really
has. Community health workers are tasked with many responsibilities (defacto
triage nurses), most of which she is unable to do, due to our severe lack of
resources. The community does not have access to the most basic necessities
(scale, blood pressure cuff, glucometer, and essential medications). The
ministry of health seldom restocks community supplies, so CHW’s (community
health workers) are left to ration their supplies. Every project that we do as
volunteers should be in a sustainable and collaborative manner, thus if anyone
has ideas or suggestions of partnerships that could provide a sustainable
resources to my community, please let me know! I already witnessed a very sad
moment. While at my CHW’s house, a 1.5 year old was badly burned by hot water.
By the time he arrived at the CHW’s house, the child was in obvious pain
(screaming and crying), and the 4 inch burn site was badly infected. My CHW was
only able to provide a poorly bandaged protection and tell the mother to take
him to the hospital in the morning (only transportation is once a day). It is
hard to fathom that there were not even supplies to clean or provide comfort to
this baby or to provide immediate and necessary transport. In addition to meeting with CHW’s, the school, and members of
my community, I got to spend a lot of time with my ‘new’ family. They are
wonderful people. However, It will certainly be quite the adjustment from my current
family, which I have gotten sooooo close with and am dreading leaving! I am excited that my family has
massive avocado and coconut trees right in the back yard!
My goal for
keeping this blog is to provide as much insight and honesty as possible into my
life as a Peace Corps volunteer in Belize. Additionally by doing so, it
fulfills 1 of the 3 goals of the Peace Corps, to
provide insight to Americans about country of service. However, for obvious
reasons, there are many things that I can’t include here, due to the public
nature of this blog and my position as a Peace Corps Volunteer (or soon-to-be
volunteer). However, I do feel a responsibility to portray an honest picture of life here....There are some incredible challenges that many PCV's face during our service...whether it's feelings of isolation, miscommunications, troubles integrating, ethical differences, sexual harassment, religious challenges, etc. Having experienced all of these to varying levels, I firmly believe that these challenges will both make me a better person and volunteer. Additionally, the challenges that I face here are nothing in comparison to the warmth, hospitality, and support by my family, community, and Peace Corps staff. With all this being said, I am beyond thankful for my time here
in Belize. I am falling in love with the beauty of this country, its natural
beauty, cultural complexities, and rich diversity. I am constantly humbled and
reminded that I am a guest in Belize, and I am incredibly fortunate to be given
this amazing opportunity- both by Peace Corps and by my community which I will
serve. It is incredibly rewarding to serve in a spirit of cooperation and
collaboration with local communities and participate in development work which
focuses on models of sustainability, partnerships, and empowerment.
