So, October was just a very strange month – lots of random things to do and no normal schedule, really.

It started off with our mid-service medical appointments (we’re healthy, yay!) and then just kept rolling with lots of rainstorms, workshops, new volunteers swearing in, and some highway flooding.

We spent two weekends in Belmopan for Red Cross’ HIV/AIDS Instructor Training workshop. Anthony has already been certified as an IT, but as coordinator for the PCV HIV/AIDS Committee he was asked to bring this to the members of the committee as well as members of the WID/GAD Committee (which Ginnie serves on). Now we are both certified ITs for the Red Cross and are looking forward to conducting youth education sessions to train peer educators and to do outreach to various villages for education to prevent further spread of HIV/AIDS. The training was full of activities and sessions we can use when conducting training. We were also paired up to present a session as part of the certification process. Ginnie and Janine covered the topic of sexuality and had the task of explaining the difference between gender and sex, which went very well with the group. The training was surrounded by a consolidation of the southern volunteers, so we got to see a bunch of them as well and catch up after several months.

Working on a group assignment - SOCA model

What training would be complete without a human knot?

Tropical Depression 16 was the cause of the southern consolidation as it was expected to drop a lot of rain on the south and of course wiped out the temporary crossing for the Kendall River. The rains from the storm left lots of flooding and continued rains hit the western part of the country hard as well – our training was nearly postponed due to flood waters rising above the bridge from Belmopan to the west. The Peace Corps vehicle came in to save the day and training continued as planned. The flooding in the west was major however with waters overtaking places like the market in San Ignacio and other bridges.

There were so many days of rain we struggled to get our laundry done since we’d get it on the line thinking a break of sunshine would last only to have to rush out to take it all down before it was completely re-soaked. It was damp for many days inside and outside with all the rain and because the rain waters eventually flow into the city, we just had flooding in our areas late last week, causing us to cancel our anniversary weekend plans. We were in Belmopan for the swearing in of the new volunteers and got the call in the morning we were to return to site that we were not permitted to leave until further notice. Fortunately, we were released the next morning, but were on standfast for the rest of the weekend – meaning we had to stay in site. We’d hoped to make a trip up north and hop over to Mexico to see if any Dia de Los Muertos celebrations were happening with a back-up plan of a trip over to our favorite relaxation spot, Caye Caulker. Since neither was a possibility, we took the opportunity to splurge on supplies for homemade chicken and eggplant parmigiana (which we cooked in the crockpot!) and American ice cream and homemade brownies. It was nice and gave us the time to finalize plans for our Christmas trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Best homemade bread ever - we finally made a winner!

This is some quite fabulous chicken and eggplant parmigiana as well

Since we were home on Halloween, we were able to see some trick-or-treating Belizean style. As we walked to SavU for the groceries a group of about 6-7 children with faces painted and silly costumes came running toward us shouting “Trick or Treat.” They asked for sweets, which we didn’t have and then said “Ok, money then.” We also did not have money to hand out, but we did ask them about their costumes, to which the reply was befuddled faces and silence, until finally one boy said “cats… meoooow.” We then saw more children coming and heard the full request “Trick or treat; money or sweet.” Later that evening, our friends Kim and Carl came by and Carl told us some of what people were doing for Halloween and then much later (around 10pm) children starting arriving at the house! That’s pretty late to be trick-or-treating, not to mention walking around the city!

So swearing in was last week and it was a great ceremony and celebration. The new volunteers seem ready and excited to get started on their projects. Listening again to the oath and to all the speeches about volunteering in Belize helped refresh us as we continue in this second year. The ceremony was held on the lawn of the Belize House, which is the residence of the Governor General (Sir Colville Young, Sr.), who also spoke at the ceremony.

Governor General of Belize, Sir Colville Young, Sr

Saying the Oath to swear in for Peace Corps service

First and Second Year Volunteers - almost all a wi

Mica, Janine, Anthony, Ginnie, Matt, John

Following the event was a nice lunch and then later on the annual first year vs. second year football game. In recent years a second year group has not won this game, but this year our team changed that. It was a fun game and looks like the Gibnuts (the PCV team name) will be strong with the talent in the first year group. Incidentally, we should point out that neither of us play, we just like to support the team when we can. Ginnie did, however, hold the title of time keeper for this game, so it was very important! After the big game, everyone got all dressed up again to head over to M.I. Hot Bites (probably the best restaurant name around) for Indian food and dancing. It was a great dinner! Then it was back to the good old Garden City Hotel for hanging out and attempted sleep on the solid mattresses.

Stretching for the big game - and Josh just being silly as usual

Cheering for the second-years

The players after the game

Anthony & Janine at M.I. Hot Bites

A not-so-good shot of how we managed to squeeze 26 passengers into a 15-passenger van

Wow, Anthony and Nikki look really happy to celebrate

October really just flew by and now we hope to resume somewhat of a “normal” schedule once again with the beginning of November. Ginnie’s working hard on getting a library open at Trinity (and Anthony has been helping a lot, too). We’ll share more on that in a later post when there is more to share! We also will be helping with more HIV/AIDS IT and Peer trainings later in the month and will be visiting some PCVs as well. So, can we get back to normal now?

Yes We Can!

Oh, yeah, and here we are anxiously awaiting the elections results!!