Well,
when I started writing and ultimately procrastinating this blog post
1 month ago, I appropriately introduced it singing to you all...“All
I want for Christmas is YOUuuuuuuuu…..Feliz Navidad…I want to
Wish you a Merry Christmas….” However,
now that the holiday season has come and past, Alabama won the
national championship (thanks for the updates, Dad), and that life
well...has kept going, I guess it's about time to finally finish this post.
I apologize for majorly slacking in my delivery, I can throw you all sorts of excuses, but this is the truth... When having such an intense experience, full of abrupt up's and down's, personal growth, inevitable failures, surprising successes, cultural mind-spins, and so on, it is not easy to convey into words (especially words that are appropriate for this forum!) With that being said, I will attempt to do so! Despite all the challenges, I know that this is exactly where I am meant to be at this point in my life. I am so grateful for this opportunity. So let's get on to the updates...
I apologize for majorly slacking in my delivery, I can throw you all sorts of excuses, but this is the truth... When having such an intense experience, full of abrupt up's and down's, personal growth, inevitable failures, surprising successes, cultural mind-spins, and so on, it is not easy to convey into words (especially words that are appropriate for this forum!) With that being said, I will attempt to do so! Despite all the challenges, I know that this is exactly where I am meant to be at this point in my life. I am so grateful for this opportunity. So let's get on to the updates...
This holiday season was filled with a
wonderful
over-abundance
of Christmas music, delicious food, and shimmering Christmas lights
decorating the village. Despite the weather staying at a tolerable
75-80 degrees, the Christmas spirit felt truly alive this month. For
this Jewish girl from the deep-south who spent the last two holiday
seasons in Israel, let’s just say the
December festivities were interesting
to observe and inevitably, become totally immersed into. In
addition to Christmas, I was privileged to experience two new
holidays in the village. These holidays, Feast of the Immaculate
Conception and Las Posadas are celebrated by the Roman Catholic
community across the region (RC is predominant religion in Belize). I
accompanied my host mom to church, who is thankfully the church 2
days a year kind of lady! From what I garnered from the experience
(and wikipedia), the Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrated on December 8th, recognizes the importance of Mary to the Catholic Church. The celebration
involved a large procession through the village with teenage girls leading the way by carrying a large figurine of Mary. During the painfully slow walking procession, we continuously recited Hail Marys. The second festivity, Las Pasados, is celebrated December 16th-24th. This 9 day holiday represents the 9 months of pregnancy, specifically in honor of Mary's pregnancy of Jesus. Catholic members of the community would go to a different house each night reciting prayers and getting snacks. Following these holidays was of course Christmas! It was a wonderful day that I spent celebrating both with my host family and my CHW's family (helps that they live across from each other!) The holidays brought a wonderful change of pace from the normal day to day of village life. I ate more ceviche, tamales, and relleno than I could ever imagine and had the pleasure of witnessing many cultural holiday traditions.
Aside
from getting into the Christmas cheer, unsuccessfully attempting
to make latkes, failed efforts of explaining Hanukkah, I
have been quite busy these past few months in San Roman. I have now
been here a bit almost four months, which means that the
integration/observation phase is coming a close (though these things
of course never truly ‘end’) As
is one of the core expectations of every PCV, Peace Corps is a 24/7
job. This means that even while on vacation or out of our site, we
are still representing the US as Peace Corps Volunteers, thus working. This also means
that we do not have a structured 8-5 schedule, weekends off, or
clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Though the thought of a normal and boring 8am-5pm desk job
makes my stomach hurt and the idea of doing ONE thing for the rest of
my life sends me into a minor panic attack, it has been really nice to get projects off the ground and to start really working. I have begun to establish some semblance of a daily routine, which includes teaching pre-school, teaching health education in the primary school, house visits with pregnant women, walking group, and many other things.
Beginning the Procession through the village
My Beautiful and Amazing Community Health Worker, Manuella. Yay, Christmas presents!
BBQ Time!
New Years Eve was an amazing experience! My first time out of the village was spent back in Valley of Peace with my host family from training. Being that it was the day before New Years, my journey back to valley consisted of jam packed bus rides- one being a two hour ride from Orange Walk to Belize City…Standing for two hours squished between people was made slightly better by the wonderful reggae beats that were blasted on the bus. Arriving back in Valley of Peace was wonderful...it truly felt like going home and I am still so thankful for the relationship I have with my family in VOP. Immediately after getting off the bus, I was greeted by warm hugs of the children, my sisters, and of course my amazing host mom! The joyous reunion was brief as everyone was really busy preparing food for the day, which included making hundreds of tamales (or so it seemed), ceviche, and cakes. In true family fashion, I was promptly handed a knife and lovingly told in more or less words to get my ass to work in helping prepare the absolute largest bowl of ceviche that I had ever seen! It was also wonderful to travel with my amazing friend, Jade, who also went to see her host family in Valley of Peace...
Jade and I getting ready to celebrate NYE! So thankful for this gyal!
My amazing host sister's- Ara (left) and Irma (right)
My main focus has been split between a few different projects. First and foremost, I have dedicated my time and energy to establishing and teaching pre-school in the village. As mentioned in the previous posts, the pre-school was established last year by the previous Peace Corps Volunteer, and is a project that is heavily desired by the community. My first week in the village I was asked about 5 times a day when ‘kinder’ would be starting! If asked a year ago, I absolutely never thought I would be a pre-school teacher, but after a few months of classes, I have truly started to feel more comfortable in this role. The kids are adorable, and every week I have enjoyed teaching more and more. I am lucky to have some wonderful counter-parts and volunteers who are also helping with classes.
Nature hike day! Spent our lesson collecting various objects to practice counting, sorting, and other skills
Our clinic converted into a pre-school class!
In addition to kinder, I have been Muy Occupada… (really busy!). I am working towards applying for an official ministry run pre-school in the village, starting an exercise group, teaching in the school, childbirth education, doing health talks, working with my counterparts, and generally just trying to continue integrating into the village. Additionally, I have been asked by several women in the village to accompany them to the hospital to help support them with their birth! I will try to keep everyone updated!
I am thankful there are more happy days than sad days, bountiful fresh coconuts scattering the village, making friends with the village fisherman, making friends with the retired American Mennonite couple who live in the back of the village and spoil me wonderfully, my growing ability to engage with love and peace with those I utterly disagree with, for this fleeting beautiful cool weather, my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers who provide much needed sanity, laughter, and support, my CHW and her beautiful family that I now feel apart of, for my beautiful host family in valley of peace that are the most generous people I've ever met, for gaining trust of women in the village to ask me to support them during their birth....I am thankful for a true experience. I am thankful this is not simply an idealized grand adventure of beautiful cultural exchange and meaningful work...but rather a long process of building trust, relationships, a heavy dosage of needed personal growth, and perhaps some small seeds planted for eventual positive changes.
I am thankful there are more happy days than sad days, bountiful fresh coconuts scattering the village, making friends with the village fisherman, making friends with the retired American Mennonite couple who live in the back of the village and spoil me wonderfully, my growing ability to engage with love and peace with those I utterly disagree with, for this fleeting beautiful cool weather, my fellow Peace Corps Volunteers who provide much needed sanity, laughter, and support, my CHW and her beautiful family that I now feel apart of, for my beautiful host family in valley of peace that are the most generous people I've ever met, for gaining trust of women in the village to ask me to support them during their birth....I am thankful for a true experience. I am thankful this is not simply an idealized grand adventure of beautiful cultural exchange and meaningful work...but rather a long process of building trust, relationships, a heavy dosage of needed personal growth, and perhaps some small seeds planted for eventual positive changes.
A gift from the fisherman in my village...eyes and all!
