Krak Bak: Come Back

"My blog is like the Packers when they are behind by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, it comes back."

Okay as much as would like to take credit for that quote I really cannot because it is from an FX show I just watched. Bonus points to anyone who can tell me which one.

So the last time I posted we were all busy watching A-Rodg thread needles (alright you got me, that is also from the show, and about two lines after the first quote, but nevertheless it is true) and a lot has happened since then. I have cooked food never before seen on planet Earth before, we have won national championships, and I actually got visitors from the States. Now, I sadly only have about three months left. I will try and catch unu up on what has happened, in chronological order and with lots of pictures and few words.

In September we celebrated 50 years of Peace Corps serving in Belize by having a big ceremony at the U.S. Embassy with work partners and community members. We had lunch and dancers from the various cultures here in Belize came and performed. In addition, Peace Corps is moving in a slightly new direction here in Belize by only having 20 new volunteers coming in this summer and by having all of them work in health (whereas right now we have volunteers working in the education, health, and business organization sectors and there were 38 of us that arrived 2 years ago).

Signing the contract between the government of Belize and Peace Corps

Marimba

Stilt Walkers

Garifuna Dancers

Country Director with some Mopan Maya dancers

Some of the big events we have had this year are repeats so you may recognize some similar themes from previous blog posts. For example, we had culture day at the start of the year were the children are supposed to dress up in their cultures’ traditional clothes and foods from all the cultures are cooked.

Me barbecuing. Yes, you are correct, that is not me. I am basically the nicest person in the world so I allow the children to get the great experience of barbecuing. It has nothing to do at all with being lazy....

The boys weren't cutting it.

Q'eqchi Maya

East Indian

Dancing

Some Standard V kids.

My parents visited in late October/early November which was a lot of fun. I had not seen them in over a year and a half so it was good to just spend time with them. They got to eat a lot of great food, went fishing and to the cayes, made chocolate, visited waterfalls and rivers, and we traveled a bit up north to see some Maya ruins and meet my old host family.

My wonderful mother, who I hadn't seen for too long, and I at the airport.

Barbecuing gibnut for Mom and Dad with the help of some animals.

The gibnut.

My real mom with one of my new moms and her granddaughter.

Mom and Dad at the river.

Dad trying to relax in the hammock. Maya took offense.

We went fishing with my host brother (seen in the background).

Barracuda

Snake Cayes, where we went and had a picnic.

Mom chillin in the pristine waters by Snake Caye.

Reason it is called Snake Caye.

On the way to visit Danny and Breezie at Blue Creek.

Blue Creek

The cave at Blue Creek. The water was too high to go in it.

On the way home from Blue Creek.

Dad learning to play dominoes. He was actually pretty good.

My home inhabitants, minus the creepy crawlies.

We then went up north. This is Mom and Dad on top of Xunantunich.

Dad about to do work.

Dad being a chicken murderer.

Mom and Dad with my host aunt.

If you remember last year for Thanksgiving Ernest, Garrette, and I made a turducken and delivered it all over the place like Santa Clause. Well, we had a great time but even way back then talked about doing something more for this year’s Thanksgiving. We decided we wanted to make Thanksgiving this year a little more Belizean, and since chicken isn't anything special or really Belizean, we chose to substitute a gibnut in for a chicken. Therefore, this year we put a gibnut in a duck in a turkey to make the world’s first ever turducknut. It was delicious. However, it was no cakewalk to make. Wednesday evening came and we still did not have a gibnut. I had a workshop in a village an hour and a half away from PG so would not get back till late. In order to try and get the gibnut on the way back we stopped everybody we passed and anyone we saw outside their house asking them for gibnut, many times asking in Q’eqchi. We were unlucky though and by the time we had gotten to Silver Creek to drop Meredith off we were still gibnutless. However, at the 11^th hour and with a lot of luck we did find gibnut in Silver Creek, which was our last opportunity. Anyway, by the time I got back to town Ernest had already found and killed a duck so the tedious process of cleaning a duck began. We also deboned the fowl and seasoned it that night and by the time we were all done it was around midnight. I then had to wake up around 4 to start making the stuffing and get the bird/rodent in the oven. I ended up cooking it at Garrette’s house and while it was cooking went and coached some football games. After it was done, we took it over to Tim’s house, an RPCV (Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, though in his case he technically never returned) where there was a big Thanksgiving party and where we could watch the American football games. The bird/rodent was a hit and there was really nothing much left of it by the end of the night.

The duck

Plucked

The gibnut

Ernest deboning the birds.

Duck in a turkey

Gibnut in a duck in a turkey

Right before putting it in the oven.

Coaching some football

Right after taking it out of the oven.

Delicious

Before you get the wrong idea I will remind you all that I do actually work (quite a bit in fact), it is just not as interesting to read or write about it as my personal life. However, throughout the year and also the last few weeks of summer Meredith and I have continued doing various workshops to all the teachers in the 50 schools in Toledo. Here are some pictures of our work adventures. I was even awarded volunteer of the month alongside Meredith back in February for my/our great work. It should also be noted that this was the first time Peace Corps gave this award while I have been here, and my picture is still hanging under the sign over a month later. I am taking it to mean I am the volunteer of the whole two years.

On the way to a village.

A random river we crossed.

One of the many beautiful villages I am lucky enough to be around and work in.

Some of the teachers.

After Thanksgiving we had Special Olympics and this year it was held done here in PG, which meant a lot of preparation work for us Toledo people (see, more work). We made it a two day event this year and it was a big success. After two days of fierce competition the South region (my region) won the national championship!!!

This was at regional.

"Let me win. But if I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."

Torch run at nationals.

Shot put

Toledo cleaning up

National Champions!!!

We also had Disability Awareness week and for that we took the students all over the place. They were able to swim in the sea, visit a local clinic, go to the public library, and talk on the radio.

Talking on the radio.

Swimming at sea.

The local health clinic

Special Olympics and Disability Awareness week were the first week of December and the next big event after that would then be Christmas. I spent the break down south and did not travel and spent Christmas itself doing the same thing I did last year, eating copious amounts of food and hanging out with friends and family. I do not have any pictures of it but I will reiterate how much fun Christmas is down here. The food is great, the people are fun, and the weather is warm.

In January we had our annual Methodist conference but due to an increase in violence in Belize City I was not allowed by Peace Corps to go to the city with them. However, I did get to go to Altun Ha with them, another Maya ruin here in the northern part of Belize which was fun. If you remember from an early blog, the Methodist conference brings all the Methodist schools from across the country and Honduras too to Belize to connect with each other and have fun.

The group at Altun Ha.

In February my Grandparents came which I was very grateful for. I had been trying to convince them to visit for some time and once my parents came and had a great time they decided they would come down also. I think/hope they had wonderful time and did some of the similar things that my parents did. They also made chocolate, saw some Maya ruins, ate a ton of great food, learned to bake corn tortilla, played some dominoes while drinking rum, and went to the river. In addition, my Grandpa got to give his talk that he gives to schools in the States about being a WWII veteran. It was a very unique opportunity for the kids down here, many of who sadly have never heard about Hitler or WWII before. All of my villagers loved them and couldn't believe how healthy they were for their age and I personally was very glad they could come down and I could spend a week with them. I am supposed to write an article for the PC paper about his visit and if I had it done I would put that in my blog now. However, since I do not have it done (even though it was due last Friday), I will instead put an excerpt of what Meredith wrote to our Country Director about his visit to her village. It reads as follows:

"When the workshops were winding down, I told the boys, my fellow colleagues, that we should celebrate with a big rice and beans dinner cooked with fresh coconut milk and my favorite (and your’s too) fried ripe plantains. Yes we would do that, in two weeks time.

Since I am not so proficient at cooking rice (as you might remember) and I have no idea how to stew chicken, I enlisted the help of my neighbors. Also, it just so happened that Jay’s 89-year-old grandfather and 86-year-old grandmother would be paying him a visit in two weeks and he wanted to come to the village. We thought they should enjoy our big bag of leftover token economy as well and so they came to dinner too. Our celebration was getting bigger and bigger.

As always with visitors, my neighbor family wanted to know the details: how old were the visitors, where do they live in the states, and what did they used to do. I told them that they were going to see the real xa’an ut mama, old people for sure. Rosita clapped her hands and told me that she hopes they won’t just eat and leave, that maybe they could tell them stories. She had no idea what she was about to get.

Jay’s grandfather served in World War II at the age of 19. Mr. Schulz published a book last year about his experience and has been traveling around the state of Wisconsin recounting his stories to high schools. You can imagine that there are very few WW II vets living. Earlier that night he had showed them how is hearing aids worked and told them how his legs ached from hiking around the rocks of Nim li Punit - a feat for any nearly 90-year-old for sure.

Mr. Schulz was a stenographer in General Patton’s army and ended up seeing many of the sites that litter our history books. He traveled from the UK and approached the war through the beaches of Normandy just before D-Day. He visited the first concentration camp ever discovered and more than that he had a camera. He told them the story of his service, the history of the war, the mass genocide of the Jews and ended with recounting the tale of his Colonel that had died while trying to save a beautiful cathedral in France. The Teul family had never known about the World Wars; they didn’t know who Hitler was or what was the Holocaust. From age 7 to 50 they sat and listened to this man recount major history. They told me later that they didn’t know many of the words he said but from their affixed gazes you could never tell. To anyone it would be impressive: a first-hand account of a concentration camp and the gruesome photographic truth he had taken with is own camera, but for them it was a tremendous experience.

As they drove away, Rosita sent her youngest daughter to run after us. She asked them if they could please wait, because they wanted to give him a special gift: a cuxtal (the traditional Mayan planting bag) that had just come off the back-strap loom of her sister. She just needed to sew it up. Rosita was nervous to give it to him, she said she didn’t know what to say and asked me how I thought she should explain it to him. But she ended up working it out on her own, “Here is a gift from the family. Thank you for the stories.”

They sat there for awhile, showing mutual gratitude for each other and for the chance to share a meal together. And for me it was a moment where I felt like all my work was done and I didn’t even mean to."

Grandpa playing some dominoes.

Making chocolate

The almost finished product.

We had the spelling bee while they were here and for the second straight year the student I worked with won!

Eating dahl roti and takari chicken, an East Indian dish.

Meeting the Ambassador from India.

Learning to play the drums.

Relaxing at the river.

Learning to bake corn tortilla.

Telling his story.

Receiving the cuxtal.

Telling his story to the students at my school.

Exploring Maya ruins.

Barbecuing gibnut for a going away party for my grandparents.

Devouring said gibnut.

These two pictures, imho, are great. We tried to have a group picture at the party and Ernest of course tries to ruin it. I see him acting like a real bubu and try to kick him to stop him. Grandpa decides to take the picture at that exact moment.

We realize the picture has been taken and burst out laughing. Notice Shar too. The people in the foreground have no idea what is going on and continue smiling. Grandpa catches the moment on camera.

Grandpa, shortly before going back home, truly enjoying the Caribbean life.

Recently we also had our Sports Day. If you remember from last year it is when the three Methodist schools in the district come together and compete in running races, jumping, football, and other fun events like lime and spoon. After an off year last year the trophy is coming back to its rightful owner here at Forest Home Methodist.

No hurdles?!?!?! No problem. Got kids?

This was not my idea at all and I in no way shape or form condoned it.

It was, however, hilarious and I certainly think it deserves three pictures.

Long jump

I was also fortunate enough to have the U.S. Ambassador come to my village the other weekend. He was born and raised in India so my village was really excited to meet him because they too are of Indian decent. We had our dance group perform for him, took him to the graveyard where ex-Confederates were buried way back in the 1890's (the ones my villagers' ancestors would have worked for), feed him local food, and also showed him some old sugarcane processing machines.

Dance group.

The Ambassador (in blue) talking to some of my villagers. The girl in the orange and blue dress just won an East Indian beauty contest in Belize and is going to Trinidad in October. She would have also been invited to compete in India but you have to be 17 to go there and she is only 16 still.

Well that is about all I can think of off the top of my head right now. I know it has been a long time and I should write more but I wanted to get something done because otherwise it would never happen. Hopefully the pictures are good at least. I will leave you with a few more random pictures and then two videos that I hope you will enjoy (I don't feel like trying to upload them, so I am just putting in a link for you to watch them at youtube). One is from our COS (closing of service) conference and another is just a funny song that other PCVs made. It is absolutely spot on.