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.