Bring it on, Harvey!

To Jimmy Stewart in the classic 1950 film, Harvey was a large rabbit seen only by himself. To me, Harvey is a menacing Tropical Storm expected to reach Hurricane status just in time to give Belize a thorough pummeling this weekend. Now, you loyal readers need not worry, for I am safe, sound, secure, and protected in our pink and white fortress in San Ignacio. San Ignacio is quite far inland anyway, so the storm will be greatly decreased by the time it hits us. If I were in San Pedro, Belize City, or Dangriga, or perhaps northern Honduras I'd be more alarmed, but as it is I'm not worried. If you'd like to watch Harvey's progress, click the link below for the national hurricane center. (If you don't want to watch Harvey's progress, perhaps you'd rather watch the 1950 film).

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ 

 Harvey's whereabouts as of this writing.

Well, yesterday and today have been filled with lots of work! Yesterday I worked a lot on redesigning the non-map side of the brochure for Succotz, and I'm really pleased with the outcome. It is a much more simple, yet much more striking design and I finally feel satisfied with it. I'll give you all a slight preview taste by revealing the all new redesigned cover:

While the old design with the collage of pictures was kind of fun, it ultimately looked too messy and busy once you printed it, so I started from square one again and recast the whole thing with this new theme and look. Isn't little Cathy just adorable? I figure tourists will be helpless to resist that cute little face! :)

Besides redesigning the pamphlet, yesterday, like usual, I went to Succotz to run more errands and put more pieces in place. My primary focus at this point has been solidifying the advertising blocks and locking them in with contract between each business and the village council. Similarly, we've been drafting a contract of usage for the revenue funds generated so that future village council members will be locked into using the funds for specific causes in the areas of village cleanliness/upkeep, subsidizing education, and improving public health. In the evening Katie went running and on the way back we saw a good omen, though I failed to obtain a very good photograph:

You probably can't tell from this rotten picture, but this is a lucky Nissan Altima! I had not seen one in Belize up until this point so I had to take a picture. (Some of you may know that I consider Altimas to be particularly lucky if spotted, so I was quite excited to find one here!)

As for today, we began the day by doing our very last work at the Barzakh Fallah Orphanage, where we've been helping to construct one of the live-in administrator housing units. Our original pledge was to provide materials and labor to finish the first construction phase of one of these unique buildings--that is, the stacking of bags filled with a dirt and concrete blend to create the shape of the building (see former posts for a more detailed description). We got that done early enough that we even began helping this week with the plastering phase, which will be completed by the owner of the orphanage and other volunteers and contracted workers helping him. Today we did more plastering and now the lower 2/3 of the building have their first outside coat of plaster. It is kind of sad that we won't get to see the completely finished building, but we did get to see more than we expected in the first place! Here's some pictures from today's orphanage work:

Any trip to the orphanage or to Succotz (unless we have the team van, which is usually doing other things) begins here in downtown San Ignacio, just a few blocks from our home at the main bus stop. The buses are a very unique experience and waiting here has become a very standard part of my daily routine. The orphanage is in Georgeville, about 15 minutes east of where we live, and we take the eastward-traveling Belize City-bound buses to get there. Those buses usually come about every 15-20 minutes, but today we had to wait nearly 50! First a westward-bound Benque-destined bus showed up; next, a bus to Belize City pulled in, but it was an express bus that doesn't make stops in little places like Georgeville; then ANOTHER Benque bus came before finally a normal Belize City bus arrived. At least we had the company of...

...our loyal dog Shadow! So, Shadow is one of the many strays in Belize, but she took a liking for the team before I got here (which couldn't POSSIBLY be the result of certain team members taking pity and giving her food...) and though we don't let her inside or try to entice her to stay, we don't mind her either. In fact, she basically lives outside our main door and guards us. She'll growl at other dogs who may not be as nice and even people if they seem menacing. We figure she makes us a little more secure down here. We TRY to refrain from feeding her (she probably mostly eats garbage from dumpsters like most of the dogs), not because we have no hearts, but because we don't want her to develop a dependency on us when we are only here temporarily to begin with. She usually follows us down to the bus station every day and then walks back to the house to take a nap on the porch after we get on the bus. Heaven knows we never touch her since she is still a wild dog and thus has lots of fleas and who-knows-what-else. This is hard because she is very likable and loyal and so sometimes we find sticks to scratch her back with or use our feet. But, you were expecting more on the orphanage, so let me move on...

Can you find the baby iguana?

We did more plastering, but first, we needed to add a few more edges to the foundation for landscaping purposes. You may have noticed in previous posts that the foundation of the building is made of tires. These tires are stuffed completely full of dirt and rocks. They were laid before I got here, but I'm glad we added more today so I could document the process as follows:

A number of large rocks are put in the tire.

A wheelbarrow is filled with dirt.

The dirt is poured into the tires and pounded in very tightly. In fact, this way astound you (it did for me!) but each tire, besides the rock already put in it, is additionally filled with THREE wheelbarrows full of dirt each! You simply compact it more and more and squeeze it all in! Those tires ultimately are super solid, and you additionally pour dirt around each one and fill in all the cracks just as tight. After filling 5 of these tires, we moved on to more plastering work, as described in my last post.

Meanwhile, that little baby iguana continued to make cameo appearances on both the outside of the building...

...and the inside!

Mixing the plaster. For whatever reason, most of our shovels were missing today and we only had 2! Luckily we are done with the bagging stage or that would have been really inconvenient. Speaking of the bagging phase, we actually still needed to put one last bag on top and we waited until today, knowing it would be our last on this project, to do so. Before filling it...

...we all signed it! :)

Emily and Mackenzie (the project leads for this project) precariously climbed atop the building to fill the bag as I shoveled buckets and sent them down the assembly line, up the ladder, and to the filling point up top. It was a fulfilling and memorable moment. :) Of course, it still needed to be pounded as well, so...

...Sarah, who has been a very significant contributor to this project, also made the climb and did the pounding job. Yay!

Here's the welcome sign to orphanage at Barzakh Falah, that will soon be able to drop the word "future." Writing about "lasts" is kind of sad. The orphanage project has resulted in my dirtiest, sweatiest, most exhausting hours in Belize, but it has been fun to build it alongside great team members and worth every sweaty minute invested. 

After the orphanage we hoped to have the street signs done for Succotz and begin installation, but the sign maker didn't have them ready and told us Monday afternoon!!! This is rather alarming and means we'll have to work very quickly on Monday and Tuesday to get all of them hung. At least we all had lots of great backup plans. Some people started packing, others wrote year-end reports. As for me--yup, you guessed it: I headed to Succotz, as usual, to do more errands etc, just like yesterday. It was a particularly productive run to Succotz and besides the street signs, everything is just about done and ready to go!

Upon returning from Succotz I had 15 minutes to catch my breath before an evening meeting with Jorge and Shamira about the Rainforest Haven resort consulting project. I had done a lot of work on the website during my down time recently and it was exciting to show it to them and really hammer out business plan details. Additionally, they treated us (Kyle, Lindsay, and myself) kindly to dinner at their favorite restaurant and I had one of the most delicious meals I've had here--fish and chips with curry mustard (the fish and chips are a traditional hold-over from the British occupation period). 

I think that's all I have for today. It's been crazy busy, and will continue to be until I'm back in the states! Meanwhile, help pray that the Hurricane Harvey will be short so as to not linger and hinder our project efforts on Monday!

Crunch Time!

This picture of flowers is a happy way to start my blog. This is necessary because the paragraph you are about to read is full of a fair deal of vented frustration (albeit with a happy, resolved ending).

Sorry if my blog gets more and more sporadic. Things are really picking up here in Belize as we try to tie up all lose ends and finish our projects before we leave NEXT WEEK!!! I have been running around like crazy talking to businesses and council members trying to get all the pieces in place for my project in Succotz. I didn't mention this before, but now that things have been resolved I will tell you a "fun" story that happened with the Succotz project. On Friday night, hours after we'd put in the order for street signs, we got a call from Gilly, the council chair telling us that there was a sudden voice of political dissent on the council regarding the project. Now, I don't want to publish details or names all over the internet, but suffice it to say that while most of the council was on our side, there were some who had... other ideas and they called for a re-vote on clearing the street names to stall the project. So, we called the sign printer to put the order on hold until further notice while the council met that evening. Needless to say, despite the fun I had on the weekend I was rather distracted by the thought hanging constantly over my head that nearly everything I've worked for the last 5 weeks was hanging in the balance dependent upon a few political conflicts. I was mad. I really wanted to be at the meeting on Friday night, but looking back I'm really glad I wasn't because I probably would not have been pleasant. Instead, having had time to mull things over and put myself in a diplomatic mood, I met with the council, and specifically the dissenting voices thereon (I wish to make it clear again that the majority was in our favor all along). We had a great discussion and I was able to plead my case. It worked for the most part. They became very excited about the prospects of the project, in fact. Once again, I won't go into some of the original political motives that spurred this set-back, but ultimately where they found it easy to bash the project to their fellow council members, it was not so easy for them to look the project's architect in the eyes and bring up very many legitimate objections. Ultimately, their dissent was boiled merely down to a matter of the street names--which they've had opportunity to bring up for the past 4 weeks, but were silent! Nonetheless, as one of them in particular was a very important person to have on our side, I chose the diplomatic route and explained that we needed to get the signs printed ASAP but would give him 24 hours to make any suggested changes to the street names. When I came back tonight to get his suggestions, he was just beginning to make his list for the first time. (Have you ever wanted to hit your head repeatedly against a brick wall?) So, to insure that the job got done, Kyle and I sat down and watched him until he was done. He carefully weighed the name of EVERY street on the map for about five minutes and changed 40% of them (it would have been more, but I said NO to some of his proposed changes and I think he realized that he'd already looked the gift horse in the mouth long enough). Luckily, most of his name changes weren't too bad and some were actually very good suggestions (that would have been nice 3 weeks ago when we ASKED for suggestions!). Furthermore, in a further effort to appease me, he actually proposed switching 2 names around to give the name "Steve Kenworthy St" (named after my father) to a bigger and more important road! :D An hour and a half into the process Kyle had to leave, so he left me with his phone and I spent the rest of the night in Succotz on my own to finish my tasks. The name-changing game lasted another half hour after Kyle left. Anyway, patience paid off ultimately and all is a go once again, and all of the village council member are now on our side, which is very reassuring. Political loyalties can run deep in Belize, and it is very good news to see opposite ends of the spectrum unite over ANYTHING around here; I am glad to know that my project finally has such a unanimous approval!

I am only (barely) 23 years old, and sometimes I feel very young, like I still have lots of "growing up" to do. However, there are times when I feel so very adult-like. Facing off against a council member twice my age in a foreign country to defend a project I've poured hours and hours of time, energy, and concentration into definitely ranks up there in those "adult" experiences. Once all was settled I definitely had to pause for a moment and look around to see that this is the real life--is that ME doing these things? It's a weird feeling. I wonder if one ever grows accustom to feeling like an adult or if life's adventures continue to push one to more and more new experiences that  keep one wondering if it's for real. It is a weird feeling--this "adult" feeling, that is--that blends a happy sense of accomplishment with a wary sense of ever-pressing responsibility. When we were young, nothing we did truly mattered from a long-term perspective and even though it seemed like the entire world depended on Prom, we secretly always knew that our lives were completely care-free. It was a very free feeling, and I feel it less and less frequently now, but I think I like the greater depth of adulthood anyway.

Well, none of you came here to read rambling philosophical tangents, so I'll move on to more details from yesterday and today! But first, since I've addressed political matters in such a negative light thus far, I will balance with one happy political note: Sis. Medina won her election on Sunday to the San Ignacio/Santa Elena Town Council! She is now the first female Mormon in Belize to hold public office at so high a level! She will be an incredible member of the council.

Moving on now to other activities from yesterday and today, most of the first half yesterday was spent on the computer working on Succotz and Rainforest Haven (same today). Yesterday also had computer class and we taught them about email. Tomorrow will be our extra-long class on online business that all the students are extra-excited for. Computer class is definitely one of my favorite parts of being here. Our students are all very fun and intelligent and we've really been able to focus on useful skill in the class that will have lots of opportunity for use.

After computer classes, I headed to Succotz where I had my discussion with the dissenting council members, as mentioned earlier. We also did some final maintenance work on the adobe stoves and checked up on another stove that the village members have built all on their own at another location without any of our help! Isn't that great? They are building them for each other using the skills and design we taught them and now a healthier kitchen solution that vents harmful smoke out of the home is being employed at more and more locations in Succotz and the surrounding area without our having to supervise. I should have taken a picture of the new stove they built, because it also is very innovative and modifies the design brilliantly to accommodate specific circumstances. I'll get a pic next time I'm there.

Besides adobe stoves and my meeting with the council, I later met at the home of Jose Luis--one of the council members most supportive of our work and a good friend. (He's the one who's house is where we did Mackenzie's birthday after our tubing venture a few weeks back, and he often helps us out with anything we need when we're in Succotz). He had some additional business information for me to help the project. When I first got to his house, their adorable puppy, who was tied up, ran towards me but accidentally slipped and fell into the brand new 6-foot hole where Jose is going to install a septic tank and was essentially being hung by his own rope and collar. I jumped in the hole and saved poor little Negro (that's the puppy's name--it's Spanish, not racist). Their son Calvin wisely moved the stake where Negro was tied up to be a safer distance from the septic hole! By the way, Jose Luis has the two cutest kids in the world (at least for this paragraph). You've actually seen them before on the blog, but here's a new cute pic I got of them yesterday:

Calvin and Amy

Today, other than more computer stuff and the 2-hour street naming jamboree, Kyle and I visited some of the resorts near Succotz to solicit advertising for the brochure and had some positive responses. We also went to Benque Viejo Town to visit the print shop that is going to make the brochures for us. We go some samples printed, even though it definitely isn't done yet (after all, now I have to go back change half the street names!). The purpose of the samples was to see if the layout was correct for the folds and to see how the colors printed. Though they were only drafts, I must say I am very pleased with the quality of the print job! Take a look:

Now, the front pane on the folded pamphlet doesn't quite line up for the fold, so I need to adjust it. I also fully recognize that the front panel is as ugly as sin. Don't worry--it was a good concept gone terribly wrong and I intend to redesign it from square one (for the third time) tomorrow. However, the map looks gorgeous and We were very pleased. We are going to adjust a few colors on the map, but overall the design is just right!

After the naming meeting I attended (by myself--as you'll recall Kyle went back to San Ignacio during that meeting) I grabbed a quick bite to eat at Benny's kitchen (the best place to eat in Succotz, hands down) and then attended a meeting of the Environmental Youth Group of Succotz--a team of teenagers running an incredibly efficient and organized non-profit that is going to partner to build the up-coming Iguana Nursery for Succotz (similar to the one I toured a few weeks back). I was very impressed with how efficient they are and the initiative they show to get worthwhile projects done. If this group of young people (I was older than all 20 of them by at least 5 years--another one of those "old feeling" moments) is the future of Belize, then this nation is in good hands! After that meeting it was almost 8 (12 hour work days are exhausting!) and I took a Collective (long-distance taxi) back to San Ignacio.

The parrots who live at Benny's Kitchen in Succotz. Parrots can be either fun or annoying. These ones are domesticated, so they aren't so bad. The wild ones, you may remember from an earlier post, are the most annoying creatures known to man.

Some projects you haven't heard much about before!

Skipping days of blogging is dumb. Anyway, sorry for no post last night. I was tired and decided to sleep.

Let's begin with yesterday, then, shall we? The day began with a trip to a semi-distant village called Duck Run Three where we worked on the Soilet project (the one we formerly dug worms for, if you remember). I don't think I've ever given a very full description of the Soilet project (mainly because I haven't worked much on it). A soilet is an alternative to a septic tank which filters waste naturally breaking everything down into non-toxic byproducts including clean water. It first uses vermiculture (worms) to initially break the waste down and then passes it through a series of filters over time. Unfortunately, last year's team started but did not finish some of these units, so we've been not only building a new one, but finishing the job that should have been done last year, finding pieces in disrepair. The unit at Duck Run Three was one such unfinished job. The waste box where the filtration happens was built, but that's about it. The box looks like a Belizean coffin. Nobody in Belize is ever buried underground (I assume because of high water table concerns), so the cemeteries are all full of cement boxes above ground where the bodies are laid. The soilet box looks just like those. Our objective at this spot yesterday was to make needed repairs to the box, build a connecting outhouse, and (first) fill in an irrigation ditch and dig in on an alternative path since it ran through where we needed to build the outhouse. Many of the team members were there all day, but I was only there from 9 to noon and primarily worked on the ditch redirection committee, though I was then able to help start the outhouse construction for a short while before leaving.

 Digging the ditch. 

Lots of pesky roots got in the way and had to be sawed out (or else hacked away by the broad end of the pick by yours truly)

 Opening up the unfinished soilet box to see what condition it was in (it wasn't very good).

Can you find the frog we found inside? Can you find the hole in the wall of the box as well?

 Repairing the hole.

Beginning the outhouse frame. It will be built on stilts (like many buildings in Belize) to not only protect from floodwater but the drain properly to the soilet box.

At noon, Megan and I had to go to get some other project work done. We soon discovered that the return bus wasn't for another half hour, so we ate lunch at one of the restaurants run by the German Mennonites (they make really good food and ice cream!), who heavily populate the Duck Run Three area. In fact, we ate at their new location which had this sign out front:

 This is actually not incorrect in Belize. In America we'd say "Now Open," but in Belize they say "Now Opened." Likewise, I kid you not, the other day I saw a sign for a "Becoming Closed" sale at a store. It's always fun to go to other English-speaking places and still learn completely different ways of saying things. As another example, when you go to a restaurant in the US the cashier will probably ask if you'd like your food "To Stay" or "To Go." In Belize they say "To Have" or "To Take" respectively! This is quite confusing initially until you get the hang of it, because if the lady just asks "is this to have?" then you'll probably say "yes, of course I want to have it" even if you do in fact intend to take it away and eat it elsewhere.

After the relatively long bus ride back to San Ignacio and some quick showers (digging the ditch got us splattered in mud once the water started coming in) Megan and I then headed out on a long round of errands. We first needed to print off reports for yet another project you haven't really heard much about on this blog: the suicide study project. This project was done almost exclusively before I arrived. Basically, everyone around here talks about the crazy unusual spike of suicides among teenagers in the town of Benque Viejo (the town at the border with Guatemala, just 2 miles beyond Succotz) over the last year. Some of the team members in the last wave did an in-depth research project for school and public officials' use investigating the cause of the suicides. If you talk to people around here, almost everyone will tell you that the cause is related to witchcraft. The research project, which not only investigated some specific suicide cases but also interviewed nearly 400 teenagers in Benque Viejo, concluded that the primary root cause seems to be parental neglect among a number of other complex causes. Our task yesterday was to print off several copies of the final draft of the comprehensive report from the data and research and deliver the copies to various officials who work at the schools in Benque, the ministry of education in Santa Elena, and other positions of influence of those who work with teens in the area. Hopefully they will use the research wisely to develop better solutions rather than blaming witchcraft (note: the officials we worked with and delivered these reports are NOT among those blaming witchcraft!).

After dropping off the reports we made a stop in Succotz on the way back to talk with a few officials and business owners about some Succotz Revenue project details. We made it back to San Ignacio again just in time for dinner. As Mama Kay is still out of town, we've been eating out all week and had a wonderful meal of rice and fish with a special sauce at one of our favorite restaurants, Cenaida's. 

Dinner at Cenaida's!

After I ate dinner Katie had to do her running so I went to the park and then we ended the day doing another Karaoke party--very fun! 

Today was another computer day mostly, though we did a little at the orphanage this morning. I am happy to announce that we have finished the bag step of the construction process!

Ta-da!

Top of the dome, viewed looking up from inside.

Can you find the white tree frog? He was just sitting inside, asleep and matching in with the bags!

The next step was to begin preparing for plastering by filling the foundation with dirt and then wrapping the whole building in chicken wire, as shown. Unfortunately, we ran out of chicken wire and will have to get more and finish wrapping it and then plaster it all next week--our last full week in country!

The rest of my day today was full of on-the-computer project work. Some was for Succotz, some was for the Rainforest Haven project, working more on the website doing a lot of underpinning HTML code. Fascinating to me, probably boring to you. Anyway, that's my report for another 2 productive days in Belize!

Futbol!

Today was great but largely another computer day. Today's post will be especially brief.

I worked a lot on the Succotz tourist map and have a preliminary draft done that I'm very pleased with. It reflects a lot of the data gathered in our recent "business tracting" venture in Succotz, organized and filtered for the most relevant entries and information. Take a look:

Can you find Iguana Rd?

We also had computer class and it went great! We started teaching about the internet today and how it can be used as a tool. Most of our students are adults who sell various things, often to tourists, and already are seeing the benefits of selling online. As they've done so well on everything so far, we decided that next Wednesday we are going to devote the entire class time to how to start a small online sales presence via eBay, Amazon, and social networking. This is all very exciting as it shows how our efforts at teaching these computer classes will not just give our students a mediocre introduction to computers in general, but real skills for application that will allow them to raise their standard of living.

In the evening, Katie had 7 more miles to run for the day to keep up with her Olympic-prep training schedule. I was her escort to the park and while there I ran into Pres. Lemos from the San Ignacio Branch of the LDS Church and his wife. It is fall futbol (soccer) season and he plays for San Ignacio United, one of the regional teams. These are very intense leagues, somewhere between intramurals and minor leagues in the U.S. From all of my observations, these leagues are a great blessing to Belize. Generally, the men who play on them tend to learn rigorous work ethics that translate into career habits since the leagues themselves don't pay so they have to make their living in other ways. It is a positive outlet for the men that can keep many of them from getting involved in gangs or drug rings. President Lemos is a really amazing man (and not too many years older than myself) and from what I can tell, the futbol leagues tend to be full of men of similar caliber. Tonight he and the others on their team began practice for the fall season and were setting up a bunch of cones and stakes to run maneuvers. So, I helped them set things up while chatting with Pres. Lemos and his wife as Katie ran her 7 miles (which only takes her 45 mintues--a consistent 6 & 1/2 minute mile pace and she never runs her fastest while just doing training runs). Anyway, it was great to chat with Pres. and Sis. Lemos, as they are both wonderful people. The evening made me wonder if Succotz has a team in the league and what a blessing that could be to their community.

These are the cones and pegs we set up.

Here are the players for San Ignacio United Futbol team, practicing their drills. Pres. Lemos is #4 in Blue.

I told you it would be short!

So...

So, have any of you noticed how often I begin my posts or even multiple paragraphs within one post with the word "so"? I've started to notice this unacceptable abuse of an unnecessary word, and will try my best to reform.

I have 2 weeks left in Belize to finish up the projects I'm leading while helping others finish up their own projects. It is crazy to think how little time is left and yet how much we have planned to make happen in those 2 weeks! Yesterday and today have been full of lots of little details and meetings with partners to make sure all the pieces are in place for these last 2 weeks to run smoothly and sufficiently to accomplish all necessary tasks. I'll get into some more detail, but first I have to rewind a bit and go back to Friday morning BEFORE the adventure to San Pedro and share 2 more birthday details. First is the happy birthday sign over the staircase:

This poster has been through a lot of birthdays! (I resisted a serious urge to start that sentence with "So,") It was put up originally over a month before I came for a team member from last wave named Shelbi for her 20th birthday. A few weeks later it was Sarah's birthday and the sign was still hanging, so they just put another piece of paper over the "helbi" in Shelbi and wrote "arah" over it to make it say "Sarah," who was also turning 20. That's what it looked like when I got to Belize. A week or two after I arrive, if you remember from an earlier post, it was MacKenzie's 20th birthday, so they put more paper over the name "Sarah" that said "MacKenzie." Finally, as it was still hanging for my birthday, they changed the "0th" in 20th to a "3rd", as shown above, and simply covered up the "Mac" and the "zie" in MacKenzie with yet more paper to make the resultant "Ken" shown above! To my knowledge, mine is the last birthday.

I also had one present to open in the morning before we left. There is quite a story to this. The week before last Lindsay's brother Jonathan came to visit for a week. He did a lot of adventuring around Belize, including a jungle trek for which he bought the standard instrument of choice of Belizeans: the Machete! He didn't intend to bring it back to the states with him as he had no room in his luggage and we joked about him giving it to one of us. He heard it would be my birthday 5 days after his departure, so the day he left I found this package on my bed:

 In case you can't read it, the note on this conspicuously machete-shaped gift says, "To: Ken It's a surprise! Don't open until your birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

Birthday morning came and revealed this bad boy!

Hmm. Now that I'm conscientiously trying not to start each paragraph with "So," I'm now having to resist the urge to replace every instance with "Anyway". Without using an unnecessary word, let's move on to yesterday and today!

Yesterday in the morning I finalized a street sign template for the street names in Succotz. We also went on a price hunt to different sign makers to get various quotes and find the best price on the job (as well as for printing the map brochures). It was a productive morning and really helped lay out the time frame for the rest of this project.

In the afternoon I did additional computer work, but also taught the computer class. One student, Orlando (the one I mentioned previously who only has 8 fingers) is progressing amazingly. Obviously he doesn't work much on typing, but when it comes to the other computer skills we're focusing on, he's doing really well. We learned a lot more about Excel and were able to focus on not only learning basic things it does, but especially how to apply those functions to basic problem solving in business scenarios. We made up a fictional company and entered in hypothetical transportation costs data and used functions in Excel to help us organize and use the data to make hypothetical business solutions. That way, he not only learns what a spreadsheet is and how to enter things, but thinks about ways to use its powers to solve a problem and help out a business.

After computer class, Kyle, Lindsay, and I went to Succotz to scope out every street corner to see how many already had poles infrastructure in place for the signs. We were delighted to discover that most of the street corners already have places to hang signs on the power poles (very common street sign place in Belize) and that will save us a LOT on costs! 

Rainbow: a good omen shines over the village of San Jose Succotz!

After scoping out the street intersections, we returned to San Ignacio for dinner just as the remaining vacationers from the team arrived from San Pedro. Our wonderful cook, Mama Kay, is out of town in El Salvador this week (I believe she went to go see the temple open house) so we are eating out each night, paid for by the team funds that we'd usually pay Mama Kay with. We ate last night at a really nice and fun Kriol-themed tourist restaurant in downtown San Ignacio called "Flayva's". I'd eaten there one other time. The staff knows all of us and is very friendly. After dinner we finished the night off with our usual Monday night planning meeting.

Today began with more work in Succotz on 2 different projects. I primarily went around recontacting some of the businesses we tracted out, soliciting for some of the larger businesses to advertise on the tourist brochure. The advertising is projected to be immensely effective based on the distribution plan of the brochures and comparison to the virtual lack of advertising structure currently in place. Furthermore, the funds generated from the advertising will be invested back into the village by providing the village council with more money to subsidize the cleanliness initiative, education, and public health. 

We also revisited some locations of a former project: the adobe stoves project. I haven't written much about this project as it was primarily the work of the former waves. This was a great project that gave better cooking facilities to various poor families in Succotz. They formerly would cook in enclosed buildings over little pit fires--i.e., lung cancer waiting to happen. The adobe stoves provide the user with a self-venting system which can cook much more than a pit fire at a time and more efficiently while getting the smoke completely out of the house and away from vulnerable lungs. We built 5 such stoves in Succotz this summer and some of them simply needed some revisiting to finish a few loose ends and improve their efficiency. Meanwhile, the sustainability of the project is already in full swing as various individuals in the community are teaching others how to build the stove and so now at least 2 more stoves are being built even without HELP International's involvement! I only helped a little at the end of the morning today as I was doing business contacting around the village, but I helped a little at the end.

 Here is Jake, doing some repairs on Natalie's adobe stove.

Here is an all-new adobe stove in the making, completely begun by the people of the village themselves at a new location! This is the real fruits of such a project--to know that we haven't just built 5 adobe stoves to benefit 5 families, but that we've taught members of a community something new that will spread after we leave to bless many more families than that!

My business contacting had some good results, as well as some interesting discussion in general about the Succotz Revenue Generation project and its potential effects as well as pitfalls. Considering potential weaknesses was especially important for two reasons. First of all, if we recognize weak spots, we can try to prevent some of them in advance. Second, as not all weaknesses are preventable, it gives valuable insight into the nature of development work. It can give insight into how a project might be improved upon when implemented elsewhere. Furthermore, it reminds us to be humble and remember that there is no "silver bullet" for development work. I am hardly the first person to attempt to reverse the tide of poverty in a village--even this particular village--and should not expect this project to solve every possible problem there! Knowing this helps us remember to remain specific in the goals we want to see come to pass and focus on key areas where our particular skill sets can make the greatest impact that could perhaps win a battle even if not the whole war. I would love to see poverty eradicated from San Jose Succotz, but this one project alone will not do that. However, I do expect it to make a difference. Ultimately, the results I specifically see coming from my project are as follows:

1. Increased revenue to the village council, enabling them to:

    a) Make improvements to village infrastructure and trash collection system in the short term

    b) Subsidize education and public health in the long run

2. Increase the tourist-based revenue flow to private businesses in Succotz, thus helping those willing to work who currently struggle despite their best efforts to provide for their families.

3. Create a platform for further development projects especially via the increased link to the tourist industry, relevant national government agencies, and other partner non-profit organizations.

Not everyone will see a major business increase, but some definitely will. Not every child's education will be improved or decreased in costs, but some will. The public health system will not be completely perfected, but it will be improved. Ultimately, I believe that the impact will be very real, even if there will still be more to do for a very long time. 

After the morning in Succotz and a quick bite to eat, the whole team headed to the national capital of Belmopan to spend the afternoon at an orphanage, where we dropped of a number of care packages sent from the states with supplies such as toothpaste and brushes, clothes, hygiene items, etc. This is not a long-term or continuing project, but rather something we focused on just this afternoon. There were about 30 children there, all very eager for attention and most of them extremely bright. Once again, we are not in a long-term partner arrangement with this orphanage this year but were last year and the team last year recorded that they were not a good partner organization at all. We saw that for ourselves today. Our focus is on sustainable projects with continuing impact. There are literally scores of organizations who come to countries like Belize, do some sightseeing, visit orphanages and take pictures, then go back victoriously in the name of development work. Certainly visiting orphans is nice, and today was wonderful, but to come for a day or two and then leave does not make much lasting impact on the conditions of the lives of those therein, hence why today's visit was a one-time thing since we had care packages to deliver anyway. We quite enjoyed it, but it made me want to cry to see the poor conditions that these children grow up in. To change the orphanage would come down to somehow changing the hearts, minds, and methods of the rather irresponsible caretakers there. From all our observations today and in a needs assessment visit some team members made last week, the caretakers mainly just talk in the kitchen all day while the kids run around wild all day with absolutely no structure to their lives. They desperately need parental CARE but indications reveal very little available to them. Fortunately, other organizations do exist which focus specifically and entirely on orphanage reform around the world and I hope someday they visit the orphanage we visited today and focus on making long-term lasting changes there.

On a positive note, not all orphanages in Belize are like that. In fact, you may have been following the orphanage construction project we are working on I've written about several times before. That orphanage, where we are building additional small single and double room housing units, is a very trusted operation which provides a much better atmosphere for the kids living there than the one we visited in Belmopan today. I've focused a lot in this post on the sustainability of the projects we are involved in as it is very important to me that non-profits focus on making real change in the communities where they work. Too many international groups promote "volun-tourism" where people just visit sights and orphans, as described earlier. To be blunt, I believe this is largely a waste of the funds of those who invest in such organizations. There is already too little by way of funding for work like this to use it ineffectively! I know that may sound somewhat harsh, but I strongly believe that significant reforms are needed in the NPO/NGO world if the goals we all desire for humanity are to become a reality.

I'll get off my soap box now and conclude with some pictures from our orphanage visit. Once again, though not a long-term focus, it was an enjoyable afternoon and eye-opening to additional problems which still plague this struggling country. The kids were all great.

Ashley and Maren (not pictured here) led this mini-project and before our visit put together a small activity to help the kids focus on life goals and plans. In this way, even though we were only able to visit this one time, our visit was able to hopefully at least do a little bit of good for the kids beyond the supply drop-off. It was a great success, as you can see here the kids eagerly participating.

Sarah gives some one-on-one attention to an adorable 3-year-old named Jamesey.

 The kid in blue is Edgar. As part of the activity, we asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grew up. After he told me he wanted to be a police officer, I told him I wanted to be a ninja when I grew up. He looked and me and said, "You're already grown up. It's too late now. You can never be a ninja!"

So, (sorry--old habits die hard!) overall yesterday and today have been particularly thought-provoking. I have been so grateful for the chance to help here, despite the limits that exist to development work. I am grateful to have been raised in a loving home and not an under-cared for orphanage. I hope with time we will someday see problems like that disappear forever as well all pool together to make one small difference at a time, specifically differences that are long-lasting and life changing!

What is a "barbecue"?

If you've been keeping up with the blog, then hopefully the title today makes sense. Otherwise, you'll get it later. :)

Anyway, I'm not a big fan of having to cover 2 days worth of work in one night, yet I keep putting myself in that situation a lot as of the last few days and am about to do so again the next few as well! I'm going to try to make it kind of brief since I have lots of other things to get done tonight, but we'll see.

So, let's start with yesterday, shall we? In the morning, Ashley and I headed to Succotz to fill in cracks in information after mining through all the data gathered in the first phase of the revenue project there. We also had another very important and productive meeting with the village council there and talked about a lot of important details of the project and the next phase which we intend to begin next week--street sign installation! The morning was overall very productive and good for our legs as we did lots of walking around Succotz visiting different businesses to ask different questions. The particulars may seem strange to blog about, but I'll show you a few pictures I took while we walked through the village:

The first time I saw this unusual sight last week, I thought it was an unfinished or destroyed house. It is not. It is the village park. That structure is the play-place. It has rusty nails and rebar sticking out of it. It is boring and not fun for children in any way imaginable. It is covered in trash. With the new revenue flow to the village council resulting from our project, funds will now be available for them to do things like fix this disaster of a playground disguised as an injury factory. On a more meaningful level, the project long-term will give funds that will ultimately subsidize education and public health.

The park also featured this fantastic sign urging us to not litter or bring pigs to the park. Uncertain whether they mentioned the pig part because they are worried for the park or the pigs. Given the park's condition as described above, I pick the latter. Either way, it is a wonderful and absurd sign!

A great view of the village nestled on the hillside, taken from a road near the park.

Can you find the iguana?

We were just walking along the western highway which runs along the river and suddenly Ashley points to the grass 2 feet from me where we saw this beautiful 5-foot male, already turning orange for the mating season. I guess we startled him and he started running off. It wasn't long before one of the many stray dogs saw him and started chasing but he was fast and got to the river where he lunged in and swam out of sight!

So, after Succotz Ashley and I met up with Jorge and Shamira to go get supplies for the Rainforest Haven resort (part of a consulting job project I'm working on) so we could have our team outing there/photo shoot for the website, as will be described later. Along the way, we had to stop off at Shamira's grandmother's house. Her grandmother has a tree in the backyard with 6 iguanas! I couldn't ever get all of them in a single shot, but I have a few pics you can find them in:

Can you find the iguanas?

If you click to zoom in and look closely, you can see 2 iguanas swimming in the river in the background.

Anyway, after the errands we got back just in time for me to go teach computer class. Unfortunately, the Cornerstone Foundation where we hold the class was for some reason locked when we got there. Luckily I had my laptop with me and we just taught our little handful of students out on the porch. It was not very ideal since they couldn't all follow along and do the actions themselves on their individual computers, but at least it got the job done. Hopefully that won't happen again!

After computer classes, I did some work on my computer and also got things ready to go for an evening at the resort! The whole team came out so we could do a big photo shoot in the various rooms and on the grounds for the website. Read my former posts on Rainforest Haven for more details on this project. Ironically, even though it was a photoshoot I don't have many pictures to show you since we did most of the picture-taking on a few of the nicer cameras some of our team members have. I did take a couple, but none with any people; really only shots of the beautiful grounds, like these:

We made a little camp fire at dark and roasted some marshmallows and had a fantastic time together. It was great fun at the end of a productive work day, but also productive in and of itself! I did learn some interesting things while staying there. First and foremost is that domesticating parrots is a really good idea. Why? Because wild parrots are the most annoying creature known to man! Several flocks of parrots live around the property and they make the most annoying squawking noise I've ever heard in my life. They are super loud and all squawk together as they fly in little groups of 7-15; for any other type of bird I'm sure you'd need at least 50 to make that much noise! They are especially annoying at 4:00 in the morning. I also discovered that they are rather violent birds in the wild and like to fight each other. In fact, I witnessed such a battle, as two parrots in one of the flocks got in a fight in midair and wrestled each other in free fall until they hit the ground about 10 yards away from me, whereupon they looked up startled and flew off. 

So, after our beautiful resort excursion I worked most of today on the Succotz project again, most of my time on the computer. Then, in the evening I learned yet another area-based definition of the word "barbecue." Let me explain the history of my experience with this word. I grew up believing that "Barbecue" meant meat, like hamburgers or hotdogs, grilled on a barbecue grill, and possibly served with barbecue sauce. However, when my family moved to Wisconsin when I was 9 I was introduced to an alternative definition of the word, as it was there used to describe sloppy joes. Yet again, later while living in Florida, it seemed to refer specifically to pulled pork. Well, I have another even more unique definition to add to the list. 

You see, last week the branch of the Church here in San Ignacio invited us to have a "barbecue" with them in our honor this evening. We've grown very close to the members in both the San Ignacio and Santa Elena branches, even though we aren't here specifically as Church members doing Church things. We still become very attached to these branches as we offer our services on Sundays at Church and often in the evenings with activities, etc. Furthermore, several of the church members have helped us out a ton on our projects and even given us great leads on places to help out. We were touched and honored to be invited by Pres. Lemos, the branch pres in San Ignacio, to this special barbecue in our honor, to be held Thursday night. So, Megan and Kyle told our cook, Mama Kay, to take the night off since we'd have a barbecue. However, when we got there they had set up a great big branch dance party with some snacks but no actual substantive food. This is when we discovered that in Belize, "Barbecue" means "Get-together" or "social" and doesn't necessarily entail food. After having a good laugh, Megan and I went and got some food for the team so they didn't starve to death while dancing. 

In the middle of the party, Pres. Lemos stopped the music and called everyone together for a bit to bring things down and make a presentation for us. He talked about his love for Belize and how touched he was that we would leave the comforts of our own country to help make his a better place. He bore the sweetest and most touching testimony of service and being where God wants us to be and we were all in tears. He then gave each one of us a beautiful and personalized magnet in the shape of Belize each with various unique pictures painted on along with our names that the branch members had made for all of us. It is a simple gift, but perhaps one of the most meaningful I have ever received in my entire life.

This is my magnet handmade by the branch members in San Ignacio. I was particularly glad to see that mine featured the ruins of Xunantunich as they are the major attraction attached to Succotz village where most of my work has centered and the ruins serve an important role in the revenue stream of that village. Truly the gesture of the gift itself as well as the images it depicts will forever remind me of my experiences here in Belize.

After the gifts and a few more remarks, a much larger portion of the branch showed up to turn the party on! Belizeans absolutely love music and dancing. The branches out here have dance parties (or "barbecues") all the time, and dance parties often just break out at people's homes (like Jose Luis' house in Succotz a few weeks back if you remember). The music is a fun blend of American dance music hits (often slightly remixed) and the native Belizean hits that are in English, Spanish, Kriol, or even a mix of the three! (I haven't yet heard any in Mayan, but that is primarily only spoken down in the southernmost areas of Belize) Do you remember how last summer every other song on the radio was "Hey, Soul Sister"? Well, the current mega-hit in Belize is a song called "The Tornado Song" that is a really silly dance song with a very simple dance associated with it that every man, woman, and child in the country can do. The song tells the listener to "shake your tornado" and some times has bouts of "slow tornado" followed by "faster, faster tornado." YouTube it, as you probably won't hear it on an American radio any time soon. :)

Belizean dance party! Yay!

I have a FANTASTIC video as well that I took, but photos take long enough to load on this internet connection that I don't think I'm going to try a video. I'll just put it on my YouTube channel, probably when I'm back in the states. If sooner, I'll let you know. It was another unique interruption to the dance party that can only be seen and not described. 

Anyway, I guess this post wasn't very short after all! I have to warn you again that I'm going to probably be internet-less again, this time until Sunday! You see, my wonderful team member have planned a birthday getaway surprise trip for me to the Carribean islands that are part of Belize off of the mainland coast. During our time down here, we get weekends off and as you've probably read we've had some great adventures on the weekends. We also get 2 additional "vacation days" and I'm taking one of them tomorrow for this birthday trip with the team. So, it will be a 3-day weekend without internet till we get back on Sunday after Church in San Pedro. Talk to you then!