First Week in Belize!

Welp, here comes the first “real” post since I’m in country now, so it’s probably going to be a long one. Here goes!

For future volunteers, my packing list can be found in a separate document, there’s a lot going on there and I’ll upload that later on. Packing itself wasn’t too bad, but that’s mostly because I had moved cross-country back from Boston to Wisconsin prior to leaving for service, so I already knew where everything was!

I spent my last night in the Midwest in Minnesota with the Shackeltons, Jefe, Cooper, and Kylie, and that was awesome, I couldn’t have asked for a better send off. It was pretty surreal hopping on the plane to Miami, but I was definitely ready to go. Plus I knew at least one person who’d be on the same flight as me, Chelsea, who was from the same program in Boston and joining the same program with me in Belize. Little did I know that another trainee was from St. Paul too, so I met Megan, and the 3 of us flew off to Miami.

Miami was hot, but it was actually a nice precursor to Belize, which would be just about as hot, if not a little more, and more humid. We got to Miami a day early, so we had nothing for Staging until the next day, so the 3 of us bummed around Miami with Chelsea and I’s friend Odette. We had some amazing food and got to check out this awesome outdoor mural art gallery in Wynwood, which lent us some pretty sick pictures. Even I wasn’t opposed to taking some there, and I guess it was a good way to force me into starting to get used to taking lots of pictures. (I’m still not super great at that, but I’m getting better, Q :-P). After a great night, we had Staging bright and early the next day. Getting to know everyone was awesome, and I loved my cohort from the start, all 22 of them (shoutout to Chelsea, Megan, Andy, Nicole, Trinity, Chat, Carly, Yanni, Nick, Josh, Grant, Morris, Mio, Eileen, Ellen, Lindsey, Loryann, Taylor, Latisha, Grace, Oishee, and Anna – I swear I didn’t even look that up because I know them all because they’re all that awesome). After a long day of staging, we packed up to get ready for an early departure from the hotel.

I was one of the 4 section leaders for leaving the hotel, so I had a checklist to follow (you’re damn right I loved that part), but also had to coordinate things when we got to the airport, which I’ll admit I was a little anxious about. Things went well minus a couple minor hiccups at security though, and we got through alright, and were off to Belize! It was pretty crazy touching down there knowing this is where we were all going to be spending the next 27 months of our lives, but I was crazy excited about it. No trouble with customs, and then we walked outside to only the 2nd greatest welcome I’ve ever had, greeted by a bunch of the Peace Corps staff. The greatest would come later when we got to the office and met ALL the PC staff. That was some seriously awesome stuff, and I’d never felt more welcome anywhere in my life. On the way to the office though, the first bit of culture shock set in. Belize definitely wasn’t what I expected, and it really hit home that we enjoy a great bit of luxury in the U.S. At the same time though, Belize was absolutely beautiful. I began falling in love with this country on that first bus ride in to Belmopan.

We had a few days of training in Belmopan, and were staying at a hotel in the city. It was actually a bit overwhelming at first with all the information they were throwing at us, and frankly, that hasn’t really stopped yet. Those first few days in Belize were amazing, getting to know everyone, the culture and the city. We had some absolutely amazing food as well – in particular, our driver Abel took us to this small restaurant off the beaten path that I swear for just $3.50 US I had some of the best food I’ve ever had, and we hadn’t even gotten to our CBT (Community Based Training) sites with our first host families. We also had some interviews during those first few days to go over medical stuff and figure out which language we’d all be learning. Among the 23 of us, 12 would be learning Spanish, 5 Kriol, and 6 Q’eqchi (a Mayan language).

They told us not to have any expectations going into the language decision, but it’s hard not to have at least a little bit, especially when this effectively decided the direction of the next 27 months of our lives. I’ll admit, I really wanted Q’eqchi, because the culture is fascinating, but I would have been happy with either of the other two. I was absolutely stoked to find out at the language reveal that I was one of the 6 Q’eqchi volunteers. We’d be training with the 12 Spanish volunteers, and the 5 Kriol would be in a different location. It sucked separating from the Kriol people, even though we’d known each other less than a week, it already felt a lot longer than that. We would get to see them at least once a week though, often much more than that.

The day after language reveal was Saturday, our 4th day in Belize, and this was the day we would meet and move in with our host families. We all packed up and got ready to meet them at lunch, where they had us do this activity where we had to match puzzle pieces of our host family’s house to find out who we’d be living with. That was when I first met (part of) my host family: Floridalma (my host mom), Elmira (my host little sister), and Gina (Flor’s sister who wasn’t living with us), and that first encounter was actually pretty rough. My Q’eqchi (we had a basic crash course that morning) was pretty non-existent at that point, but they spoke English as well, so that helped…still a bit rough through. My host mom, host sister, and my host mom’s sister were all there to pick me up, but my host dad (Vialto) couldn’t be there, so I met him that night when we got to the house. I settled in and we had chicken panades at a local restaurant, and they were fantastic. The next day, I actually went to the farm with my host dad, meeting his dad and 2 of his brothers while we planted corn. That was definitely an awesome experience, though I can say for certainty I am definitely not a farmer. Still, I got to learn a lot about my host family and Q’eqchi culture doing that, and it was pretty damn good exercise. I took a hard earned nap when we got home and then helped my host dad fill in mud holes caused by the rain with stones and dirt. My host sister didn’t want to talk to me yet, but by the end of that second day, I was really loving Belize.

Then came this week, the first full week of CBT, which means long days and lots of information. Learning Q’eqchi is difficult, but I’m definitely enjoying it, and it’s unlike any other language I’ve experienced. I’m starting to get better at it, and my family is talking to me in Q’eqchi more and more, which is great. I still can’t understand or say much at this point, but it’s improving, and they’re helping me along a lot. The Wednesday of this week we got to go back to the office for what they call Core Training, which everyone gets, so we got to see the Kriol people. It’s amazing how excited you can be to see people you’ve only known a week when it’s only been a few days since you’ve left them. But it feels like we’ve known each other longer than a week, and it felt much longer than just a few days. Core days aren’t the most exciting, but it means we get to see the Kriol people and use the internet, so that’s pretty great. It was also Nicole’s birthday, so the 6 of us Q’eqchi volunteers learned how to sing happy birthday in Q’eqchi, and the PC staff got her a cake, so that was pretty cool.

Going home that night was super interesting though, as the bus popped a tire on the way back. They called for another bus, and there happened to be one ahead of us, so we plodded along at a few miles an hour anyway in a jam-packed sweaty bus until we made it to the next bus. There was a pretty crazy point where we were inching around a corner and it felt like the bus was going to tip over to the left, so we all instinctively leaned right to try and keep the bus up. Thankfully we were fine, made it to the next bus, and made it home.

After a rough day, I was greeted by my host sister actually saying my name for the first time, when until now she hadn’t ever talked to me, and just referred to me as “Saq”, which means White in Q’eqchi. I thought that was pretty funny, but it was awesome that she was now fine with talking to me. We played for a couple hours that night running around the yard and playing a lot of hide and go seek/peek-a-boo (she’s 4), and that was the happiest I’ve been since I’ve gotten here (which is saying a lot, because I love this place). The next two days were more training and nothing really notable. Saturday I helped my host dad for a bit in laying the foundation for a new store house, and played soccer with some of the other volunteers. It’s super hot today though, so I took a nap afterward. Oh yeah, the house. We have a big yard and 3 little structures here: one is the common room and my room, the 2nd is the store that my host family runs, and the 3rd is the kitchen. There’s a wooden stall that’s ¼ open in the backyard for bucket bathing, so learning how to do that was interesting. Think I’m doing alright at it now though about a week in.

Overall though, things here are great and I’m doing well. I love the people and the culture, my cohort, and my host family. The language is tough, but awesome, and I can’t wait to get through PST (Pre-Service Training) to swear in on September 15 and move to site. Haven’t taken a ton of pictures yet, but I’ll try to take more and post them sometime this week or next.

Xikwe! (I’m going in Q’eqchi)

Bryan