I tell ya…less than 3 months to go in Belize…it’s absolutely
surreal. How can I possibly have been here for 2 years already?! It honestly
feels like I’ve only been here a few months sometimes, but then I think back to
everything that’s happened over the past 2 years and it seems like I’ve been
here for 5 years. It’s a real mind trip getting to this point. I’m no longer
one of the “old” ones here; I’m ancient with one foot out the door. Two groups
before me have gone, and two groups have arrived since coming here. BH5, the
year after us, they’re now they “old” ones, and BH6 are in country now and are
the babies that just came in! It’s wild to think that I’m going in to help with
training for a 2nd cohort next week, and that in a few short months
I won’t be here at all. At this point I’m in the homestretch, and I’m not
really sure how to deal with that.
Most of me is absolutely not ready to leave. I love it here.
I’ve loved my time here, my job, my family, and the people in my village. It’s hard
for me to fathom leaving any of that, especially my family here, who have been
so wonderful I can’t even put it into words. Part of me though, albeit a small
bit, is ready to move on to the next thing. I have trouble with the idea of
settling down and staying in the same place for a long period of time, and 2
years have come and gone already. I’m ready to move somewhere new, find a new
job, and do a bit of traveling before that all happens. As of now, my last
official day as a Peace Corps Volunteer is 20th September. After
that, I plan on sticking around for another week or so, and am aiming to leave
the first week of October. After that, I’ll be back for a few weeks before
heading off to Mexico (on a one-way ticket!) for Addison and Sonja’s wedding in
November!! I absolutely cannot wait to see y’all get married, it’s about damn
time! I love you both so much. I’ll be there for a week before venturing off
for some solo travel around Central America. Tentatively I’m going to be in
Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and maybe Nicaragua (depending on the situation
there), before coming back to the States (theoretically) for good. I’m shooting
for 2-3 months of traveling, but we’ll see how that goes. At this point I
should tell you all that as much as I love Christmas and would love to be there
for it this year, with my travel itinerary, I have no plans of being back from
Christmas this year. I will likely be back in January, pending any changes
happening along the way. After that, I’ll come back to WI and try to find a job
somewhere.
The last few months leading up to this point have been
pretty crazy! After BRO Camp, things started moving full steam ahead with
getting ready for GLOW camp! After weeks of selling doughnuts and panadas and a
movie night, we raised enough money to send 3 girls to camp. They just got back
yesterday, and as sad as I am I couldn’t go, I’m glad they had the chance to go
and have a great time! I’m so proud of all of them, and I’m so glad someone
like Mrs. Cec could take them (and have a wonderful time as well!). We’re
moving forward on building a fence around our health post, and have all but
secured all the materials we need to do it. All that’s left is to deliver a
couple letters and wait for the materials to come in. Everything should be done
there by September! We also finished up our teacher’s resource center, which
still requires a bit of work, but will open officially with the school year in
September as well! Graduation was a few weeks ago as well, which was absolutely
incredible. My brother Tony graduated from preschool, and my sister Senaida
graduated from Standard 6. I’m so proud of both of them, but especially Senaida
who is going on to high school next! Last week she had orientation for high
school, as well as GLOW camp. I’m so proud of this kid, and I can’t wait to see
her graduate high school in 4 years. And
finally, the library.
The library is, I think, FINALLY moving forward (though I
feel like I’ve said that a million times at this point!). We’ve secured the
space, officially, and we have a ton of books. HUGE thank yous to Jeanne
Styczinski (Mrs. Jeanne) and Jo Aamodt for their generous donation of a box of
books to our library! Mrs. Jeanne is a local Wisconsin children’s author who
writes some fantastic books that will be an amazing addition to our library! Feel free to check out her website at https://mrsjeanne.com/. Jo
is her sister, and graciously purchased a number of Mrs. Jeanne’s books in
order to donate them to us. In addition, I’ve heard that they have coordinated
some additional book donations from friends and family that they’ll be sending
our way as well! Thank you both so much for all your help in stocking our
library, we’re hoping to have it open by September! Also, thank you to my dad,
Norb, and my step mom, Jill, for being the ones to organize the donations and
send them down here! Finally, thank you to Renee in the Independence Public Library
down here in Belize, Ms. Sunny Wilbur, and Darien Book Aid, a Peace Corps established book aid
foundation, for giving us a ton of books as well! I can’t wait to be able to
share pictures of our finished library when we (hopefully) open in September.
I think that’s all for now. See y’all in a few short months!
Love,
Bryan
