Pay Day

It has been two weeks here in Belize. Just two weeks! I am amazed that just such a short time ago I had just arrived here at Martha's Guest house and settled down.



So much has happened since then. From adventures around town to going to the botanical gardens, everything has happened so fast.



Last weekend, almost my whole program went out to Caye Cauker. I decided to stay behind and explore San Ignacio some more. After a tough week of school, I was ready to just relax. However, the Friday, when everyone left, we made plans with Martha's niece, Rachel, to go to Spanish Lookout, a Menonite community. Our trip was delayed, due to Rachel's car being out of juice, but we had an interesting encounter. A man came by, with a bottle of Belikin (beer) in his hands yelling at us saying,"get out of our country you tourists" and "we dont need your money here". It was really humbling, and the worst thing was that Rachel, who is white and has a British accent, is part Belizian. It made me feel very unwanted and, for a moment, in danger. We were not home.

Soon enough, the car got jumped and we were on the way to Spanish Lookout. There, I got to crank our way accross the river in a hand operated ferry. Spanish Lookout hardly had anything to do. We, Jess, Rachel and Jess's Roomate Jess H just drove around. The land was slightly different than the rest of Belize because it was rolling hills of farmland. It actually reminded me of Pensylvania Dutch country with all the Amish. Anyways, the menonite community is the biggest producer in Belize and controls all of the Western Dairy products, so we decided to stop for ice cream before we left. Aparently the Menonites are severely inbred because they try to distant themselves from the other Belizeans. This, I think, maybe why there is tention toward the white people who live here. Belize is a huge melting pot for races and culture, but underneath there is definitely lots of tension.

Saturday, we went to the market and then went to Pine Ridge, a close by nature reserve. The ride was the best part because some of us got to sit in the back of the pick-up truck. There was Jonas, Jess, Caroline, Brent and I. Jess H, Jackie Chris (the driver) and Rachel (a Rotary scolar studying in Belize for a year) and their friend Dawson. Again, all of the UVM kids were at Caye Cauker, so this was with the other group of international students from the GLS program (global learning semester). After a while, bouncing down unpaved roads, we decided it would be a good idea to stand up and hold onto the roof. It was. Flying down the road, we would get all the wind in our faces! It felt like a roller coaster ride.

Anyways, the destinations we went to were 1,000 Foot falls; an incredibly tall falls that plumited into a bottomless gorge. The land that overlooked the falls was a peninsula high above the ground below. It was very interesting geography. On the way out, we stopped to swim at Big Rock Falls. it was a short hike in and well worth it. The pools were cool, but the view was amazing. We swam in a small pool right below the thundering falls. Jess has an underwater camera so we brought it accross the pond and into the pool below the falls and swam right up to them and got some great pictures, even some underwater ones. I hope you check out her shots, maybe she will put them online.

We topped the trip off with a road side barbaque (sheep) and a vegan ice cream cone from Cayo Twist, the place to go for ice cream. Jess and I split an Oreo Sunday. Yum!!

The next day, the power was out from 6 am to 3 pm so that the government could do repairs on the grid. It was kind of rainy but we had to go out and find food on the street. One vendor sold us Tamales and another sold us some mini burritos. At the burrito stand, we entered a conversation with a local and told him we were staying for four months. when one of his friends came by and started hastling us (not maliciously) he said "take it easy mon, they live here". That made me feel alot better. Since we were immersing ourselves, not just being tourists, we were accepted.

Later that day, the Patriots won, the Packers lost, and the power came back on (obvioisly).

Tuesday, I joined the softball team, after some indecision on the bus ride, I made the dive. In practice, I played a mean 1st base, so I will probably start in this weekend's tournament in Dangriga!!!! I am not sure if we will play much more than this tournament, but it will be a good way to exercise and have fun. I dont know about volleyball, I think thats a fall sport :-/ sorry guys.

Anywho, my long tale ends with today: Pay Day. At dinner, we recieved our bi monthly allowance to tide us over for lunch and dinner on the weekdays. Dinero hasnt been so bad, since many of you gave me generous travel money. I havent touched most of it yet so I hope to go wild and spend a weekend out on the Cayes sometime soon!
Thats my story so far
Hope all is well with you in the states and around the world.

take it easy

End of the first week of classes

My first week of classes has just ended. Many of my classes tie together due to the fact that they are focused on sustainability. The classes I am taking are Consumer Law, Indigenous Perspective on Development, Social Issues in a Developing Country, Applications of Service Learning (my project class) and Mayan Culture and Arceology. They are all very interesting, but I have noticed professors have a tendency not to show up as much here, so classes have been canceled and movies have been watched in place of lecture. I wonder if this trend will continue.
Many of the students on my program finished classes yesterday and bolted for the shore this morning. They took the bus out to Key Cauker for a relaxing weekend at a Youth Hostel. I decided not to go because I wanted to explore around San Ignacio some more. Soon, I am going to go to the Spanish Lookout, which is an island on the Belizean river (I believe) and do other touristy things in the area. There are numerous Mayan ruins around here and I am excited to explore them all.
The students at Galen are facinating. They seem eager to make friends with us international students and want to learn about our culture. I have many new friends and hope to create a lasting relationship with them. I have been working alot on my spanish, speaking with anyone who will talk to me from the cleaning ladies at the hotel to the lunch ladies at Galen. Everyone is polite with my poor Spanish and it helps me feel more comfortable adressing them in the language. I find myself hard of hearing when people speak so I have to have alot repeated, but I understand alot even if I cannot respond in kind.
My diet here is varibiable, but similar. I have lots of rice, beans, chicken, burritos and tortillas (which I fry with some butter to make them tasty!) but there is a wide variety of different restaurents and types of food. Right next door there is a chinese food restaurent. I havent tried it yet, but I hear its good!
All and all my trip is going excelent and I look forward to a nice, slow weekend and cant wait to hear from my fellow class mates about the keys. Hopefully I will be able to learn from their mistakes and take a trip out to the water soon!

Its only been a week and 3 days! how incredible! I hope everything is going well in the states

love from Belize,

Colin

I thought I'd share this trip with people to see if everyone could get to Snapfish from here.On Sunday, we woke up early and went to explore the botanical gardens of a nearby hotel duPloy's. It is an incredibly beautiful place and I wish I could remember more names, but they all allude me at this time. After going through a beautiful tour, we had lunch. The whole trip, we were accompanied by some Galen students. Ashante, Lizbet, Carmin, and Soloman. They were very fun to talk to and I was able to sit with them all at lunch and hear their perspective on Belize. There are some up coming elections that our program directors are worried about, but most people here don't believe they will be violent. The government is so corrupt here, people just accept it and move on. They say they don't recieve the right money they should, while the administration spends thousands on themselves and their campaigns. not much different than the U.S it seems....anyways, after lunch we did a service project. I helped mix soil and sift out compost. It was very fun and we got to talk with our guide from the morning.After, we got to swim in a nearby river.Here is the link to snap fishhttp://www2.snapfish.com/photolibrary/owned_view=owned_2008/t_=102317660enjoyToday we started school. I had to get up just before 7 to make the 745 bus. Breakfast takes a while so we cant linger in bed. Classes were fun. I had "Dr. Jay" teaching my first, business law class. It was very interesting to see what we would learn this semesterI wont bore you with much about classes, it was a pretty typical school like day. Lunch, though, I had rice and beans and a frozen chocolate banana, yum!I hope you are all enjoying the cold, I hear Vermont just got dumped on a bit. Enjoy the extra inches while looking at my sunny winter :-)

First Weekend in Belize!

Hey everyone,

It is now been 4 or so days that I have been here. I left Wednesday morning the 9th from Regan National where mom and dad had dropped me off. I flew to Houston where Jess, myself and many others got our connector flight for Belize.

The flight down went fast and before we knew it we were on the bus to San Ignacio. The bus driver thundered along the highway, a single road, avoiding pedestrians, driving into on coming traffic and soaring over speed bumps. By the time we got to San Ignacio, it was dark. I was dropped off at the first stop just by the hotel we were staying at, Martha's Guest house. We quickly got set in our rooms and unpacked a bit. It is a beautiful room, I will try to get photos up soon. Out our shower window we over look the town . We also have a balcony that has a gorgeous view.

Right across the street is a little corner store that we can get almost anything we want. I found some Frosted Flakes, appropriately renamed Azucaritas because of the massive amounts of sugar on them. They were a little stale but quite delicious as a snack.

Back to the storyline. First night we all ate at Martha's Guest House for dinner. It was good to see what the place where we would be eating the majority of our meals looked like. The service was a bit slow, but the food here is delicious. When we returned to our room, we found that they had numerous channels on our TV. The Simpson's were on so we had that playing while we unpacked further. The next morning, Thursday (how long ago that seems), we got up and had breakfast downstairs. In Belize, and probably elsewhere in neighboring countries, they served this fried dough called Fried Jacks. They are delicious and go well with beans or jam. Also, each breakfast has a side of wonderful fruit, usually guava. All gets devoured hastily. This might be the first semester since I started college that I will eat breakfast regularly.

After breakfast, we had the whole day to ourselves. Jay and Meg, our program directors and UVM teachers, showed us around town. In the afternoon we went up to this beautiful hill top pool where I am now typing this post. I had some cell phone trouble, I got a ride up with Jay and avoided a long haul up a very steep hill. Today, Saturday, I wasn't so lucky, but I quite enjoyed the workout.

This hotel has a beautiful pool overlooking the surrounding mountains and towns. It has a giant terridactel and waterfall that spew water on occasion. You really just need to see the pictures, its hard to explain a terridactal that spews water. After that, we returned for dinner and went to bed earlyish. Friday we had orientation at our university, Galen.

Orientation began at 8:30, so a few bleary eyed people who had spent the night drinking stumbled onto the bus just before we left. It was hard for all of us, but particularly on them, sitting through the next 8 hours of information. The beginning speeches were good but the at 10, we started an orientation geared to the other international students, the Global Learning Semester program (GLS). It was very boring and Meg and Jay had already been over almost everything before so we were saturated with information by the end of it (3:30). We then got our book list and headed back to our rooms to prepare for a silly scavenger hunt, that seemed quite childish and touristy, to get to know the area. Having already been here for 2 days, we knew most of what was happening and where to go in San Ignacio. Exploring was fun, but we have 4 months to do so. Anyways, we had then met for dinner and enjoyed a night out on the town.

I have found, so far, most people here are very friendly and want to get to know us. However, there are some shady people who just want to know us for our money and generosity. Sometimes its hard to define a line for yourself at what point you think it is worth giving some money or not, but I think that will develop as we stay further.

One other thing I did not mention that should be mentioned on our free day was that we played a forty-five minute game of ultimate frisbee with the local kids during their lunch break. They were really excited about it and I hope to get back and meet with the kids during the rest of the semester. There is a school nearby Galen where I may do some tutoring, but I hope to do at least some community service for San Ignacio, they are doing so much to accommodate us we have to give back.

Today, Saturday the 12th, we had another free day. We got to go to an open market where there were some wonderful fresh fruits and assortments of foods to purchase. We don't have a stove yet, but soon we will be able to cook our own dinner. Now, I am up at that hilltop pool, overlooking the valley. It is amazing I can get internet out here and communicate with the world in such a remote place. The weather is nice, but soon it will get much hotter. We will have to find a place that is not such a long climb up. Maybe a river or something.

Hope all is well with everyone. I don't yet have internet at my accommodations, but hopefully that will be fixed soon.

Send me an email to tell me how you all are doing, and I will try to keep this blog as up to date as possible