Homestretch

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 2^nd 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 20^th 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