"Not all Who Wander are Lost": May 2008

25 May 2008

Special Olympics Belize 2008

On Saturday, May 24, Belize held the 5th National Special Olympic Games at Marion Jones Stadium in Belize City. We served as volunteers and were assigned athletes to accompany to their events throughout the day.

It was a hot day, but we barely noticed as we had so much fun with the athletes and cheering on all the competitors in their running races, walking races, long jump, softball throw and relays.

Here are some photos of the day:

Parade of Athletes, Opening Ceremony

Kadeem competing in the Long Jump

Awards for the 75m female walk

Awards for the 100m male walk

Ginnie and Crystal (who took Silver in all three of her events!)

Anthony and Kadeem (he earned awards in all his events!)

Johnny, Nicole, Carrie, Ginnie, & Anthony at the end of a long, fun day!

Circle of Friendship - we had to spread out to nearly the size of the field

Many of the day's volunteers

18 May 2008

25th Anniversary International AIDS Candlelight Memorial

Today Belize participated for the first time in the International AIDS Candlelight Memorial due to the hard work of this year's co-coordinators, none other than our very own Anthony and 2nd year PC volunteer Kimberly! They both worked really hard for the past two months to put together this event, contacting organizations throughout the city that work with HIV/AIDS and marketing the event through media. In fact, Anthony made his national radio debut on Love FM when he was called into the station this morning for an impromptu interview which aired during the mid-day news.

Anthony mentioned in his welcome address some of the information that brought this event to fruition; The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial commemorates 25 years of awareness and activism this year. The historic Candlelight Memorial is among the world’s oldest and largest campaigns against the disease. Since 1983, the event has been meant to honor those lost or affected by the AIDS pandemic, demonstrate support for people living with the disease, and educate, serve, and mobilize community based responses to HIV/AIDS.

On May 18th, The International AIDS Candlelight Memorial was held in more than 100 countries worldwide, making it the largest grassroots AIDS event ever. Caring people from around the world – from Argentina to Zambia - join to remember those who have died of AIDS and support those who are living with HIV/AIDS.

Belize's memorial was held at the YWCA in Belize City and was supported by the National AIDS Commission, Peace Corps Belize, UniBAM, Hand in Hand Ministries, and the local Scout troop. Speakers shared their wisdom on the impact of AIDS in Belize and called everyone to action in the fight against this disease and the stigma associated with it, particularly in the country.

Ribbons and candles for the event

Co-coordinators Kimberly and Anthony

Welcome address

Singing Belize's National Anthem

Find out more at www.candlelightmemorial.org

17 May 2008

School Trips

In late April and May, our schools took their educational tours to different sites around Belize. We both joined the Standard I and II classes (2nd and 3rd grades) from Trinity on their tour of the Coke Factory and Altun Ha ruins. It was a beautiful day that began with our tour of the Coke Factory, where the pikni could drink all the soft drinks they wanted (as long as they finished them at the factory) and they definitely took advantage of this offer - some boys claim to have finished 6 sodas (which might explain their energy to run around at the plaza in Altun Ha!).

Here are some highlights of our tour:

Sprite bottles being labeled and on their way to being crated

Tasting the syrup; one girl kept drinking it, scrunching up her face and saying "That's not nice" (Nice is how Belizeans describe good food), yet she kept drinking it...

Lots and lots of Coke! This factory makes around 100,000 soft drinks per day! And there are only 300,000 people in Belize (and there are 2 other factories!)

Recycled glass bottles coming through the cleansing process on their way to being filled with orange Fanta (when we saw them they had already filled over 19,000 Fantas and it was just after 10am!). The machines were getting prepared to switch to Sprite after the Fanta bottles finished.

Coke, Sprite, and Orange Fanta syrup. The Orange Fanta is the sweetest of all the soft drinks (even more so than the Red, which is surprising because that one really tastes sugary - and like cough medicine, so not a fave)

This is how the plastic bottles look before being blown into their shapes

The Coke Bus

After leaving the Coke Factory, it was off to Altun Ha just a lee bit further up the Northern Highway and then onto the Old Northern Highway, where we drove through Boston Village and made our way to the ruins tucked about 20-25 minutes off the Northern Highway.

According to Lonely Planet, Altun Ha is Northern Belize's most famous Mayan ruin, but we hear a lot of good things about Laminai (which they say is the most impressive site, so I guess that's the difference?). Altun Ha means "Rockstone Pond" and is a small Mayan trading town.

We ate our lunch when we arrived at the site and then took the kids on a bathroom stop before heading into the archeaological site. We spent the remainder of the afternoon in the plaza and took groups of children to the top of the temple and let them run around and burn off some of that soda! It was a great day with the kids and we enjoyed the experience.

Belize flag at entrance to Altun Ha

Map of Altun Ha site

Walking into the plaza

The temple we climbed, as always it doesn't look as steep as it is once you get to the top; though it is one of the smallest we've climbed

This dog was hanging out at the entrance and seemed to think playing with the kids would be fun, so he joined us on our tour

We're heading up to the temple; Sovrin, the boy in front, said he was not scared at all, then as we got closer he said "I'm not sure about climbing, I don't know..." but he made it!

We made it to the top, now no one wants to climb back down quite yet

View from the top

Just getting some shade to cool off (it is the dry, hot season and it is hot hot!)

This is where our bus travels when not taking kids on field trips, we like the name of the last village

Belize Zoo with Infant I and Infant II

This week, Ginnie joined the Infant classes (kindergarten and first grade) on their trip to the zoo. Because of working with the director of educational programs (Celso) on a secondary project, Anthony helped to coordinate it with him, so Ginnie went in to meet him and get the plans for the tour - well, due to some unexpected work Celso needed to do, he said "You know the map and your way through the zoo, you can take them." And that is how Ginnie ended up as the tour guide for the zoo! It worked out fine as the kids were too antsy to stay with each animal for long and we had plenty of parents there to help, so the main job was navigating our way through the lanes and exhibits. It was fun!

We constantly told the kids to keep their fingers away from the cages (and I had to share the story of a biting incident so they would avoid getting too close to the birds!). We saw almost all the animals despite the heat. They seemed to be taking their siestas near the fences that morning.

Watching the Margay try to relieve an itch on the fence

Sitting on the fake Tapir. You don't want to get too close to the real Tapir - he pees on people, it happened to a friend when she was on a school trip!

The real Tapir - Belize's National Animal

Spider monkey just hanging out - he entertained us with swinging through the trees and hanging on vines and branches

After lunch, the kids found the playground!

The mountains that look like a man lying down - we see it everytime we ride to and from Belmopan

Joining in on these trips was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, we couldn't make it on the other trips with Trinity and St. Luke's but we are planning now for the trips we'll get to chaperone next year! The kids love spending the day in a new place and learn more about their country in the process.