What's in a name?

If you saw yesterday's post, then you probably noticed that none of the streets in Succotz village have names! This is a hindrance to the creation of a map for tourists, so today in our meeting with the Succotz village council we discussed naming the streets. They had a few streets they had names in mind for already, and then told me to pick the other names according to my best judgment. So, I've been naming streets in Succotz after notable figures in Belizean history, Mayan gods, Belizean animals, and a couple other surprises. I'll show you an updated map with the names in a few days after they are ratified by the village council.

So, my day involved a lot more research for the Succotz project including a fantastic meeting with the village council that Kyle, Lindsay, Megan, and I attended. We finalized some plans for a crucial meeting with some government agencies taking place this Saturday. I'll be attending that meeting along with the village council in Belmopan in connection with a national conference for village councils. I'm quite excited as it sounds like a fascinating and rare opportunity to observe the workings of the Belizean government.

Later on in the day I went to the Cornerstone foundation with Katie and Jake to practice a skit on self-esteem we're presenting at a summer camp for children tomorrow morning. It's interesting stepping into some of the other projects for just brief snippets of time, such as working with some of the youth summer camps. These are fantastic programs focused on helping children learn about peaceful conflict resolution in order to combat the unbelievably high domestic abuse rates that always seem to be disgustingly high in high-poverty settings. The results of these camps have been very positive, introducing many children to ideas of peaceful conflict resolution for the very first time!

This is just one example of a project that has been going on that I haven't yet been particularly involved in. So far, since I've been in Belize, I've helped with the Micro-farm (Chicken coop) project, the orphanage project, the computer class project, and the Francisco wheelchair project. Furthermore, I've been a team leader on the Rainforest Haven consulting project and my personal favorite, the Succotz Village Revenue Generation project. However, that's not even all the projects our little team is working on here! We are also helping construct a diabetes lab at the Loma Luz hospital, constructing adobe stoves to make a cleaner cooking environment, creative writing classes, music classes, ESL classes, the aforementioned youth peaceful resolution camps, a business-consulting project with an organization helping provide support for widows, a rural health campaign project, and a "Soilet" construction project. I might be forgetting a few. The point is, HELP International is making an incredible impact on Belize this summer! (Not to mention the projects additional teams are working on in El Salvador, Fiji, Uganda, Tanzania, India, Peru, and Thailand.) It is humbling to think about being a part of it all! Such a blessing!

Anyway, thanks for allowing the tangent! Anyway, after skit rehearsal I came back for dinner, followed by a meeting with Jorge and Shamira about the Rainforest Haven consulting project. They LOVED the home page I designed and we made additional plans to be able to open the business soon. It may involve me and some other team members spending the night on the resort property some time next week. I'm okay with that. :)

It wasn't a very picture heavy day. Sorry, I know that makes 2 days in a row without very many pictures, but I do have a few for you. I should note that tomorrow already promises to be a particularly picture-friendly day! Meanwhile, here's a few from today:

This run-down building in Succotz made for some fantastic artistic shots. People in Succotz often live in buildings much worse than this.

Megan eats a Wia (sp?) fruit. Of all the local exotic fruits I've tried, this is so far the only one that I haven't particularly been a fan of. The inside is just way too gooey for my taste!

Night shot of our home sweet home! We occupy the upper floors of this building on the hills in the more well-to-do area of San Ignacio. I love this place! Sometime I should make a video tour of the interior for y'all.

Can you find the iguana?

NO! YOU CAN'T! Why? Because there isn't one in this picture. However, there IS a reptile. Hiding somewhere in this picture is a basilisk--no, not the kind from Harry Potter. These little lizards are super fast and can literally disappear faster than the time it takes you to blink! They can be scared away by the click of your camera button, so I was really fortunate to grab a picture. These are the little guys that are so fast that they can run on water, causing some locals to nickname them "Jesus Lizards."