Giving Thanks Peace Corps Style

Over the Thanksgiving holiday many volunteers came together in Belmopan to celebrate Thanksgiving, enjoy a nice home-cooked meal together, and give thanks. Each district was responsible for providing various dishes, desserts, and appetizers for all 80 or so attendees, and Peace Corps took care of the turkey (5 or 6 in all). Our district was responsible for desserts and since pies are difficult as well as quite expensive to make here in Belize, we decided to make dessert faves into cookies of sorts. Ginnie made an amazing and quite popular pumpkin pie cookie and Anthony made oatmeal applesauce cookies. It seemed as though there was food to feed a thousand hungry souls. Everyone ate until they were quite literally stuffed. When all was said and done, as ravenous as we had been, we were still left with a table full of many appetizer, salad and dessert plates, as well as a few pounds of turkey. As in years past, Peace Corps gathers these foods and donates them to a shelter in Belmopan. Sooo, although we were unable to take part in the traditional day-after custom of building ginormous sandwiches from the leftovers, food was put to good use. We had a wonderful day and enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time together. Afterward, Josh came home with us to Belize to continue the fun with a meal at a PCV fave, Riverside Tavern, and to check out the entertainment options at the Princess. Once there it was off to the lanes for some bowling and then a lee trip into the casino for the highly addicting 5 cent electronic roulette game where we ran into Ginnie's counterpart also out for an evening of fun. Below are some photos.

We hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and wish everyone a safe, happy, and memorable holiday season.

Table centerpieces at Nicole's Thanksgiving Day turkey dinner

Our beloved Nurse Jackie (c) chats it up with a few volunteers

The appetizer table spread (potatoes, salads, mac and cheese, etc.)

Some desserts made by PCVs - bread puddings, cookies, pies, and cakes

Mr. Stanley continuing the turkey carving tradition. He carved all 5 birds!

One of the many decorative centerpieces at the George Price Center

Some fellow PC staff members - Ruth and Kent

Ginnie's amazing pumpkin pie cookies

The welcome sign at George Price Center

1st, 2nd, and 3rd year volunteers

Josh, Anthony, and John

Ginnie and Nikki looking perky...cheers

Check out these fancy shoes...perhaps some bowling is in order

Look who we found!

Check out these scores (not sure what happened with Ginnie on this one, she did better in the first game, really and look at Anthony's and Josh's almost turkeys in honor of the holiday!)

So many choices...which one do we roll with

Scott, April, Josh, and us, after our holiday bowling adventure

AHHHH!!!!!! Look out, Ginnie!

Yay Turkey!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Minister of Education Visits Our Schools

On November 6 and 10, the Minister of Education, the Honorable Patrick Faber, visited Trinity and St. Luke schools respectively. He was nearing the end of his nationwide tour of schools and shared a good message with the children about the importance of staying in school and receiving a good education to be independent and have good jobs. He also had all children make a pledge of nonviolence in light of the recent increase in crime in Belize. Minister Faber also spoke to the teachers about the significance the current government is placing on teacher training to strengthen the entire education system.

Each of the schools' different divisions prepared special items to perform for the Minister and the officials who traveled with him. They also planned a formal program for students and teachers to share remarks. At Trinity, our principal made an impromptu decision to bring the entire staff up to introduce everyone. A few days after the visits, a Ministry official contacted the principal asking if she could meet with her and the Peace Corps Volunteer to plan a training session on the new language arts curriculum, since she'd mentioned Ginnie works on literacy education with the teachers. Needless to say, Ginnie was pretty excited for the opportunity and quickly asked to have Anthony included. We'll be working on trainings for each division to present in January and February. We're pretty excited for the opportunity to work directly with the Ministry of Education, in fact, when the initial meeting took place with the principal, she shared a literacy schedule we worked on for the school and now we will be using that frame as our basis for structuring the training and for teachers to use as their model for planning their language arts time schedule! Situations such as this always remind us of how amazing it is to work in such a small country where a simple introduction can turn into a major project with a huge potential for impact!

Here are some pictures of the visits:

This is just too cute not to share!

The girls of Standard IV at Trinity

The pikni mi geh a lee restless

Look at those cute lee Infant I students

Introducing the staff of Trinity Methodist School

A dance performance by Standard II & III students

Minister of Education, Honorable Patrick Faber delivering his address

Yeah, she's adorable

Students of St. Luke Methodist School prepare for the visit

Chillin' on the veranda

What a great smile

Minister Faber making his way to deliver his speech along with principal and vice principals of St. Luke School

The children of St. Luke looking fabulous in their lavender and white

The choir sings for the honored guests

And now, more pictures from St. Luke, showing off the pikni!

Girls dancing and boys drumming for the occassion

The Minister's address for St. Luke children and staff

Some samera shy Infant I students

"Oh sun...please go away for just a lee bit!"

Standard III ladies striking a pose

Hey, Mr. Anthony, look at us!

One of the 25 teachers at the school strikes a pose

Work and Play in 'Shuga City'

This past weekend we traveled up north to Orange Walk town. Orange Walk is the agricultural and social center of northern Belize and is probably most famous for its abundance of sugarcane and being home to the ancient Mayan site of Lamanai. While in town we visited with fellow PCVs and also took a short 2-mile bike trip out to the village of Chan Pine Ridge to visit a local library started by a PCV a couple of years ago. Orange Walk is a little under two hours north of Belize City on the new northern highway. Getting there was less of a challenge than it had been in previous weeks since much of the standing water has started to recede a bit. During the last few weeks there has been widespread flooding across much of the central and northern parts of Belize due mostly in part to the swelling rivers, streams, and Caribbean Sea. Even though much of the water has dropped from its peak a week or so ago, much of the area on the way up north is still practically submerged by water. Many houses are flooded up to their windows and some all the way to the edges of roofs. The extent of the damage caused by the flooding is still unknown since so much is still covered up. One of the strangest sights were the trees along the highway that no longer looked like large ominous beasts, but rather lee mangroves just barely breathing above the flood lines. Unfortunately, both government and locals alike believe that much of this water will remain until at least the Christmas holidays.

Ginnie...AKA the gyal with the camera 24/7; never missing a Kodak moment, even enroute 60mph

We spent Friday night hanging out with fellow PCV, Nikita. Spending the night with a fellow PCV is oftentimes the equivalent of having a sleepover party, just like when we were kids...Ah, Good Times Fi Tru.

You're not coming back to Utah. There's just not enough room for you and all of my 'Belize it or Not' Souvenirs!

On Saturday we borrowed bikes from a couple of first year volunteers and headed out of town on our excursion to Chan Pine Ridge village. Chan Pine Ridge is a small Mestizo village nestled amongst endless rows of sugarcane, and is a short, scenic ride from the town center.

I can see for miles and miles and miles...wait, it's all sugarcane...Yummy!

At play in the sugarcane fields

As we rode through the streets and finally reached the turn off to the village, we all breathed a sigh of relief for the quiet and peacefulness found on the outskirts of town. Bicycling through at a relaxing pace, chatting and learning about the area was really great…until…well, being that it is a rather narrow dirt road and all of the past rains have completely disappeared leaving it a desert like landscape, let’s just say it was great until trucks started to slowly pass. As they came closer mounds of dirt churned like twisters down the street; into our mouths came the dirt and grime, teeth became crunchy and mouths turned dry and pasty. One man passed by (albeit, after covering us in dust and dirt), yelling from the cab of the truck…"Yeah Peace Corps!" As you can imagine, the required helmets that we all wear while riding our bikes around Belize sort of make it sometimes too obvious that we’re not from these parts. Safety First!

The Chan Pine Ridge library was really cool and allowed both of us to an opportunity to gather more ideas and insight about our own library projects going on at our sights. We’ll keep you all updated as things happen, so check back often.

The library at Chan Pine Ridge

PCVs have their own WID/GAD moment. Guys cooking, ladies chatting. *N.B. WID/GAD = PC acronyms for Women in Development and Gender and Development, an area that all volunteers are asked to spend time and energies developing while in Belize.