Welp, it’s been almost a month since my last post, so the
whole every 2 weeks or so thing has kind of gone out the window. Since then, a
lot has happened.
Starting from my last post, we had Kriol culture day on
Friday, August 26th, which would be our last culture day. It was
actually an absolute blast – the best culture day we’ve had by far. They fed us
as soon as we got there with some traditional Kriol breakfast food – Kriol
bread, fried jacks and coffee, it was great. They showed us some traditional
Kriol dancing and singing, which was actually a ton of fun. I’ll throw some
pictures at the bottom, but one of my favorite photos here so far is a close up
a friend took of me doing the plantation dance with a hat of leaves on my head.
After that, they showed us how to make traditional mosquito swatters out of
bush sticks, how they roast cashews, and how they make tongs out of bush sticks
as well. After that we had a Kriol lunch of rice and beans, chicken, pig tail.
Pig tail is a little weird, but it’s alright. We saw some awesome woodworking
after that, learned about Kriol culture, took a walk through the bush and saw
some howler monkeys, and then drummed and danced the rest of the afternoon. It
was a ton of fun, but we were all exhausted by the end of the day.
The next day was Xuntantunich, which is the Mayan ruin we
were supposed to go to about a month prior that didn’t work out. Super glad PC
managed to make it happen, but it was both super gorgeous and a ton of fun. We
had all morning there to just walk around and hangout – pictures below.
Afterwards we went to this place called Benny’s to eat in the nearby town, and
I swear to God it was some of the best BBQ I’ve ever had. Yes, that includes
Sweet Cheeks and Soulfire back in Boston.
The next two weeks after that were kind of a blur. Training
was really ramping up since it was the end of August and Swearing In was set
for September 15. We had a bunch of practicums and presentations for prep for,
packing, and planning our host family farewell celebration. Nothing much too
exciting going on there except that one of our practicums was about healthy
cooking, so we got to make some bomb breakfast burritos that was incredibly
delicious, and my mouth is watering just thinking about it now. Our last week
in Valley was that 2nd week, which was really sad actually. We had a
bunch of planning that week, taught in one of the schools in Valley (which was
actually a lot of fun), put on a health fair in the community and had all the
kids show up (thanks to Sarah for that one!), and then had our host family
farewell on Saturday. That was actually a ton of fun and everything went super
well, which was great to see after a ton of planning. We even managed to have
just the right amount of food, which never happens. After that, we all split
off to finish packing and spend a last night with our families. The next day we
left Valley at 2pm, and I’ll be honest, I definitely cried. I told myself I
wasn’t going to, and I would’ve made it if my host dad hadn’t come out crying
himself and hugged me. He gave me a k’oxtal (a hand-woven Q’eqchi bag that men
use to hold their corn when planting) and said he really got just to having me
around. That’s about as close as you can get to a Q’eqchi man saying that he’ll
miss you, so I lost it at that. That morning we sort of hung around and went to
the grandparents for lunch before leaving. Mira and I played all morning which
was fantastic, but when Vial went to drop me off, neither of them would look at
me before driving away. As sad as that was though, it was the start of getting
ready to going to CK, beginning with a week in Belmopan for Swearing In with
almost the entire cohort (love you Lindsey, we miss you).
Belmopan week was, in a word, spectacular. It was a last
little bit of training, getting ready for swearing in, and 21 of us in a hotel
for 5 days actually getting to hang out and unwind. It was also really
bittersweet at the same time though, since we’d be saying goodbye to each other
for 3 months come Friday when we all left for our sites. About a bajillion
wonderful conversations and heart-to-hearts and a ton of crying by all of us
later, we’d eventually leave.
Swearing In though. That was a thing. The Wednesday of
Belmopan Week we went to San Ignacio again to practice the ceremony and do another
counterpart workshop. Fairly boring stuff, but SI is beautiful and the hotel is
super nice. Plus it has an iguana preserve, so that’s pretty great. Thursday
itself was Swearing In, and the ceremony itself is fairly long, but it’s pretty
cool. It was actually really surreal officially becoming a Peace Corps
Volunteer after 3 months of intense training and over 2 decades of the idea
having been in my head. We also had 1 person from each of the 3 language groups
(Spanish, Kriol and Q’eqchi) give a thank you speech, and I got to do the
Q’eqchi one. Oishee and Nicole both killed it in Kriol and Spanish
respectively, and was told mine went well also. After Swearing In, we had lunch
at the hotel, and while I was super bummed my family couldn’t make it, I had a
blast sitting with Nick, Yanni, and Oishee’s families, who were all Kriol. We
eventually made it back to the hotel and got ready to head off again. We’d all
been invited to the U.S Ambassador to Belize’s house (thanks honorable judge
Carlos Moreno!), which was insanely nice, and technically made us be “back in
the United States” for a couple hours. After some great apps, we headed back to
the hotel to get ready for our last night out in Belmopan together. I’ll leave
it at the fact that it was a wonderful (late) night with lots of dancing and a
few tears. The next morning we all left for our sites and we all cried a ton as
we split off to catch our separate buses.
That was last Friday, and since then, I’ve been living in CK
and mega-loving it. Things are definitely hard sometimes, especially because
while Q’eqchi has been coming along well, I by no means know anywhere close to
everything. I can communicate fairly well most of the time, but it’s still hard
to understand a lot of the time. That’s been the biggest challenge though, the
rest has been great. I got here on Friday, and pretty much just hung around
with family all weekend long. Lots of sitting around talking, playing with the
kids, and learning as much as I possibly can. Saturday I went into the bush to
cut firewood with the fam and played football with the kids. I went to Q’eqchi
church on Sunday morning, and it was even longer this time, but at least it
wasn’t at night this time so I wasn’t exhausted and trying to stay awake this
time. Monday we went to the creek and I learned how to wash my clothes by hand,
which I’m pretty sure I did about half right. Some of my clothes came out
smelling alright! I also saw 4 scarlet macaws there, and they were gorgeous. Tuesday
I went to the school for their Independence Rally. Independence Day here is
September 21, but since it’s a national holiday, the schools are closed that
day and so they did their celebration a day early. It was really great actually
- each of the classes performed a skit, song, poem, or dance on a stage the
teachers made outside the school. Then they all went on a parade around town,
it was a great morning. In the afternoon I went to the community center
(hereafter just referred to as the center) for a talk from the District Health
Educator about Rubella, which is going around here. Turns out my host dad is
just getting over it, and my host brother Ven had it last week. Monday and
Tuesday my host sister Zenida was teaching me to sing in Q’eqchi, which was a
lot of fun. They also made me sing some stuff in English as well, including the
Star Spangled Banner. I love singing, but I’ve never been a fan of when it’s a
small group of people all staring at you. PC is one big exercise in feeling
awkward a lot, so I’m kind of starting to get over that.
Wednesday (the day I’m writing this) I went to the farm all
day. Up at 5:30am and back around 3:00pm and despite sunscreen, I got burned
again. I’m on doxy now for anti-malarial meds because the chloroquine was
messing with my being able to sleep, and one of the side effects is sensitivity
to the sun. As if my pasty whiteness wasn’t bad enough in the sun already,
haha. Turns out the farm is a 4-5 mile walk from CK, so I definitely got way
more than my fair share of steps in today. I could have ridden a bike, but PC
doesn’t let us unless we have a helmet (PSA: wear your helmets y’all), and I
didn’t think I was going to get a bike out here so I didn’t check one out.
Stupid me. Good exercise though I suppose! (PSA: walking is good for your
heart!) It was also a beautiful walk, so that was pretty cool. The entire day
was devoted to building a small house and thatching it for the corn, so I got
to see how Q’eqchi houses are thatched, and that was awesome. After a long day,
we went back to eat caldo at one of my uncle’s places (Elias and his wife
Cecilia, I’m sure they’ll come up again in here at some point). Went home and
rested, and here we are.
I gotta say, I’m absolutely loving it out here. I love these
people, this village, the fact that I can walk around and literally say hi
(dyoos!) to anyone, or straight up go to someone’s house unannounced and just
hang out for a bit. That last part is actually done all the time and encouraged
in Q’eqchi culture, which is amazing. Here’s the hippie you predicted coming out
Sarah, but I’m totally digging the collectivist culture in Belize. I’m also
reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac right now since one of the last volunteers left
it here, so that’s probs feeding into the lingo there too. I love that
everything is shared here, and that while I have a room and can close the door
if I want to, I don’t want to, because it’s just another part of the house here
that everyone shares. Even now, 3 of my host siblings are looking at photos on
my camera right next to me as I type this, and it’s great. Just being present
really is enough here, and that’s really flipping cool. I have a feeling these next
2 years are absolutely going to fly by, and it’s going to be so hard leave here
when I have to. In the meantime, there’s a lot of work to do, and a bunch of
awesome little kids next to me to hang out with.
Yo’o!
Bryan
P.S. My village definitely does not have internet, and I’ll
likely get access to it every 2 or 3 weeks I think if I’m lucky – so if it
takes awhile to reply, that’s why!
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