Home Sweet Home

4/29/11

Belize City is Out and San Ignacio is In.

Belize City is obviously where the greatest need is in terms of HELP’s mission statement. But the mission statement probably would like for the volunteers to be alive, not raped, and sober. Ergo, Belize City is out, and today we drove out to Belmopan (the capital) and on to San Ignacio. As we pulled into Belmopan, we all immediately felt more at ease. I mean, all the attractions of Belize City are there (the stray dogs, the abandoned buildings), but it’s a much cleaner city. We met with a humanitarian partner and some peace corps volunteers to start getting some projects rolling when our volunteers arrive. Note to self: marry a guy who will abandon everything and join the peace corps with me. 

I took a walk around some shops and had the thought “Belize is so nice; as a VERY conspicuous foreigner, I haven’t even gotten one cat-call yet.” Not a moment later, a carload of men drove by whistling.

Then, we came home. San Ignacio is IT! It’s small and safe, has a ton of established partnerships for our organization, and is close to some of the best Mayan ruins and other attractions. The men are still flirtatious and you still get followed, but on the whole it’s a great place to live and I totally feel comfortable having our 30 volunteers based here. 

I really thought I would blend in much more here in Central America than I have in my past travels—that is false. Apparently, I’m not nearly brown enough to be considered local, and not nearly yellow enough to be believably Japanese. So I’ve got 4 months to brown up (and get a perma-Chaco tan). 

Belizeans are incredibly friendly! Maybe I’m overstating it because I’m in a small town, but people always return hello’s with a smile, and it’s not uncommon for them to approach and greet you. Compared with people glancing at your missionary tag and pretending they don’t hear you, this is a nice change. 

The LDS church branch is small and more than half are recent converts. Retention is hard in Belize because the church is not as established as it is in El Salvador or Guatemala, but I was impressed with the members’ hospitality when I showed up solo at their building. I suppose I would be hospitable as well if I saw today’s Sunday School teacher walking through the chapel doors. The relief society president, Sister Moreno, walks 5 miles each way to church and makes the trip at least 3 times a week for meetings. After running that stupid marathon, walking 5 miles sounds like the most miserable experience to me (did I mention I don’t run anymore?). 

They say the national language of Belize is English, but all you really hear is (a) Creole, or (b) Spanglish. Our life line here is Sister Kay, the adoptive mother to the missionaries and our potential cook. Her creole accent is as thick as her stewed chicken and her humor is borderline abrasive, so you can imagine how well we get along ;) She’s a hoot and takes good care of us. The first thing she said to me was not hello, but “SO TINY!” (she’s a big lady), and the second thing was “Why they let a girl be the director??” She’s giving me creole lessons and keeping me sane with all the country preparation stress before our volunteers arrive (May 4!!).

Some random highlights:

• Belmopan fair! We got to meet tons of other humanitarian groups and made great contacts. We also ate great steak and drank great water from green coconuts. It was great.
• Finding a beautiful house right in the center of town for our volunteers to live in. I think I developed 3-4 ulcers in the house-hunting adventure, but it’s over!
• Street cooking. 3 tacos for $1 BZ (50 cents US) and no immediate repercussions …
• Huge forest fire (the most efficient and considerate way to clear land for use) created a cloud over our town, meaning the temperature was a good 10 degrees lower. Thank you, deforestation.