Belize Isn't in Africa?

Upon telling people my summer plans to go offer humanitarian aid in Belize, I was usually met with one of the following responses:

• "No way! I think my cousin went on his mission there! He loved Europe." 
• "Belize? I've never been to Africa before. . . "
• (after a long puzzled stare) ". . .Oh, that's cool." 

Well, here I am in sunny San Ignacio, living in a country whose population is about the size of the Provo/Orem, UT area. For those of you who didn't wiki 'Belize' upon reading this, the commonwealth nation of  Belize is the farthest north country of central America, wedged between Mexico and Guatemala.

I'll be living here for the next four months as a country director for HELP International, a Utah-based non-profit. Volunteers and interns come out for anywhere from 6 weeks to 4 months to work on humanitarian projects in (1) healthcare, (2) education, and (3) entrepreneurship.

I'll paste in all the emails I've sent to the family and see how well I actually upkeep this. I've never been a blogger and am only sending this link to the Swan family, but I figure y'all will all appreciate this more than my email bombardments, (especially with mom and dad's Malaysian adventures coming to our inboxes as well).