Coding and Cartography

Probably won't be a very long post this evening because although my day was incredibly productive, it was really quite boring once you try explaining it to others. Most of my day was spent inside on my computer doing work that is vitally important to the projects I'm working on, but not very exciting.

The first part of the day, I created a home page for the resort I'm doing business counseling for, "Rainforest Haven." So, maybe I say this every time I create a new website, but I feel like this is my greatest work yet. While I'm not ready to show you the entire front page, as excited as I am about it, I will give you a slight preview of the top introduction bar to the home page:

I actually took and Photoshopped the picture of the large frond-leaf myself from a large potted plant in our living room! The background pic is actually from the resort. I am excited to show you all the rest of the home page, which turned out just beautiful! Hopefully the entire site will be ready in 2-3 weeks. So, while I was excited about the results today, the means to get there largely consisted of typing HTML code into Notepad (because REAL nerds never use editing programs! We code in the raw!!!) :-P

Later I did a little bit of shopping with about the half team, came home, and made lunch but not before first getting a Choco-banana from the vendor near our house (as mentioned in last Saturday's post)! Delicious! 

Eating a choco-banana while wearing my lucky shirt! 

Disneyland price: $4.00

Belizean Vendor: One Shilling (about 12.5 cents American)

We also ran into a man named Francisco on our way home who Lindsay is leading a social media project to get a wheelchair for. He has several severe physical disabilities and it takes him an hour to walk 3 blocks with a cane! We also filmed a segment for the YouTube fundraising video Lindsay is making for him. Here he is with Jake and Lindsay:

By the way, some of you may remember him from the fundraising video I made a few months ago. Watch it again and see if you can find him!

While out and about town we also distributed some flyers for our computer class, which we will begin again with a set curriculum on Monday. After that, we headed back home, as I mentioned before, and I was back at the computer again, this time doing more research for the Succotz revenue project I've been telling you all about. We made some VERY exciting progress and brainstormed some great ideas to help solve the revenue stream problem of that poor impoverished village. I also used satellite imagery from Bing Maps (see Monday's post) to start creating a map that will be very important in our plan. We are going to compile information on all restaurants and attractions in the village and put them on this map as a guide for tourists to draw them into the village more when they come through to visit the Xunantunich ruins. The reverse of the map will feature advertising space for some of those locations, the revenue of which will go to the village council to help make further improvements that will infuse additional capital into the village. This is just one part of plan to increase revenue in Succotz. Of course, for the map to be useful, we're going to need to coordinate with the village council to name all of the streets since most of them are currently nameless! We also will probably be installing street signs with the selected names in a few weeks. Take a look at my preliminary map (don't worry... it will be a lot prettier when it's done!):

I am, admittedly, not trained in professional cartography, but I must admit that making maps is really fun! It's also much easier when enabled by modern satellite technology. :)

Later in the evening we had our dinner from Sister Kay: heart-shaped waffles, sausage, Belize-style scrambled eggs (don't know what she did to them, but they were incredible!), and tossed fruit. Having "family dinner" together as a team is always one of the highlights of the day. We all get along so well and have such good times:

From left to right: Sarah, Emily, MacKenzie, Pete, Jake, Megan, Rin, and the hands of Ashley

Well, I told you from the start today that it would probably be a shorter, more boring post, and I seem to have delivered on that promise. But, of course, I have one last picture before I sign off for the night:

Can you find the iguana?

(Special thanks to Megan Swan for today's iguana pic since I was holed up on my computer all day!)

Adventure is out there!

Thatched roofs: Outside

Thatched roofs: Inside

Saturday and Sunday are our “days off” to sight-see, explore, and rest, and today I did a little bit of all of the above. As you’ll see in the pictures below, I suited up in my classic orange adventure pants (which I always wear before embarking on orange adventures) and saw some fantastic things! I have LOTS of pictures today and probably fewer words, but since each picture is in fact worth 1000 words, this just may be my wordiest post yet! :) Besides pictures of my experiences today, I also have a few additional pictures of events from the last few days that I got from some cameras other than my own (I am thus actually SEEN in some of the pictures today, rather than merely the photographer!). So… here goes!

This first group of pictures is from Xunantunich—one of the largest Mayan ruin sites in Belize. This is the number one tourist attraction I hoped to see here, so I was pretty stoked!

10 of our group (the 8 pictured here plus Kyle and Lindsey) decided to come on the trip, accompanied by our trusty tour guide Edgar. (far left)

Edgar explains the significance of some of the artistic motifs to us.

Here we are sitting at the base of the largest temple in Xunantunich, the temple of the High Priest, probably constructed around 200 AD.

In its original splendor, there were originally 3 additional higher stories made of wood, but they were damaged during the Spanish conquest and eventually decayed away. Some of the wood support scaffolding could still be seen in the entrance ways around the back where the wood had been more protected from the elements.

Here we are at the place where the High Priest would make his announcements to the people. The acoustics are amazing--you can hear at the bottom all the from the top and vice versa because of the way the arrangement of buildings in the complex reinforce each other.

Megan and I know what color proper adventure pants should be. :)

Can you find the iguana?
(I KNOW that it isn't a Wish Willy this time because our tour guide pointed this one out and specifically labeled him as a specific kind of iguana. Don't remember what that kind was, but to you it is probably just the really sneaky kind, like most iguanas featured in this continuing series) Good Luck! :)

View from the top of the main temple. Do you see that white line in the distance? That's the border between Belize and Guatemala.

Some areas of the temple have Olmec motifs. Some theories are that the Mayas borrowed these earlier stones and incorporated them into their architecture. Others believe very late Olmecs enslaved very early Mayas and forced them to integrate their symbols. He still looks funny whichever story is true.

One of the interior chambers.

At the gift shops near the temple we met these two adorable children named Danny David and Diane Josephine (they both offered their first and middle names when asked). Some of our dialogue with them:
Ashley: How old are you, Diane?
Diane: Seven
Me: How old are you, Danny?
Danny: Six
Diane: No, he's three. He just says he's six because three plus three equals six.
Ashley: Wow, you're so smart! Where'd you learn that?
Diane: I guess I'm just one of those smart girls.

:)

Okay, so these next couple pictures feature some of the exciting fresh produce I'm experiencing:

Eating coconut straight from the coconut! Absolute pain to scrape out of that blasted shell! But very rewarding and tasty in the end.

This is called a starfruit and I've sliced a piece off the end to show you why. Absolutely delicious! I intend to have many more of these while I'm here! You also see a banana in the picture; I've eaten many of these since I've been here--they are 10 cents pretty much everywhere and always locally grown. I've also been told that around the corner from where we live there is a man who sells frozen chocolate dipped bananas, like the ones you can buy at Disneyland for $5. The difference: apparently this man (who I have yet to meet but eagerly await the opportunity) sells them for only a shilling (that's about 12 cents in American money)!!! [At a future date I'll give a more full description and commentary on the money system here. It's rather interesting and I'm getting quite used to speaking in "shillings," etc.]

Finally, these last pictures are actually NOT from today (except the very last one) but show a few pictures of things I talked about the last few days.

The Team! Most of these people have been here for 6 weeks to 3 months already and sadly, half of them are going home next week! :( They are all fantastic and I love every one of them. This is one of the most caring, compassionate, and intelligent groups of people you'll ever meet and they all came here to help eliminate poverty in Belize!

A few more chicken coop pictures.

This picture is from the business consultation I did the other evening. Lindsey (far right) and I pitch the marketing strategy we developed to Jorge and Shamira. They loved it! (See my Thursday night post, "Jumping In" for more details on this one, as well as future posts as we subsequently meet with them)

This 6-inch wingspan moth came swooping through our hallway this evening. At first it looked like a bat, but it is actually just a bat-sized moth! The girls thought it was gross; I named it Frank.