August Rush

So I hope it's not offensive to say that this blog is a chore. It's not that I dislike doing it, but more that I dread sitting here agonizing over what to write about. I really do much better with the intangibles of philosophy and theology than I do with the events of our everyday life... and now I've been far too honest in a very public blog post. C'est la vie, n'est-ce pas?

Moving onward, today's post is coming on the eve of a big weekend that begins a big month. September is the month of independence in Belize, and if reports are to be believed, the country grinds to a halt to relish in the celebrations. First will be St. George's Caye day next Friday, then will be Independence Day on the 21st. Add to that my father visiting between the 15th and 25th, and this weekend's triathlon (more on that momentarily), and this month is going to be ram-jammed.

And yes, you read it right, Kathryn and I will both be participating in this weekend's Lion-Man Triathlon in Belize City. We're on separate teams; she'll be running and I'll be swimming. She just became involved this past week as one of the runners dropped out at the last minute, and she was more than happy to fill in, especially after the indefinite postponement of a half-marathon she has been training for. Myself, I signed up in July, I believe, and procrastinated getting the go-ahead to train in the US Embassy pool before getting sick for the first part of August, incidentally the same time my clearance came through to swim. So, true-to-form, I've been training for a meager two-and-a-half weeks for the 1.5km (.9 mi) swim. (It must be mentioned that I considered writing about this long ago, except that I knew the response it would receive from certain individuals [Dad]. The response would have been something like this: "Cisco! What are you doing? You know better than that! You need to be more responsible! Geez. Enough is enough!" Well, out of respect to those responding this way, who would inevitably be wasting breath on the lost cause that is me, I waited until such comments would be of no avail and, therefore, unnecessary to actually make. You're welcome for saving your breath.)I'm pretty excited by the whole thing, though. It will be a challenge, certainly, and fun, hopefully. And there will be a good number of other volunteers with whom I can chat during the rest of the race. Good times all around.

Recently we've been busy. I've said it a couple times already today, to various people, but we're busy here, but in a relaxed way. It doesn't sound logical, but that's if you consider "busy" in the way folks do in the states. Here, you have things to do, but you don't pack them in all in one day. Likewise, there's not the same hurry to accomplish what needs to be done. You do it, you work hard, but it's like the time is not an object--or at least, it's not a vitally important object.

Last week we spent half the week in a workshop with a conflict resolution specialist from Ohio. She was invited to the country by the US Embassy, and we were privileged enough to attend. Most of the information was rehashing the things that we dealt with in the PEACE Camps last month, but we now have, literally, ten times the resources that we had for activities, games, and lessons on how to deal with conflict. Now all I have to do is filter the information, condense it, sell it to the principals of about 12 different schools, and then take it to them based on how much they're willing to invest in it. Easy, right? But truly, I'm up to that challenge.

On the home front Kathryn and I are quite happy, if a little homesick. It's going to be great to have dad here, and then mom later in the fall (fall for you, for us there's only the rainy hot and the hot hot). Kathryn has put a great deal of effort into meal-planning for us. It's been a struggle in a new environment where nothing comes pre-made to find meals that are healthy, inexpensive, and require less than 3 hours to make. To that effect, Kathryn has been making a weekly dinner schedule, planning the dishes we'll make and the ingredients we'll need in advance to make things flow more smoothly. It's been going great, and though I'm quite difficult to wow, I am particularly satisfied with the results. I've been eating like a king. Oh, and about the seasons thing, the rainy season is officially here. You can tell by a few different things: First, there are mosquitoes everywhere. Rain falls, stands in puddles for days, and breeds the pesky beasts. I am, therefore, a giant pincushion. Second, none of our clothes stay clean. Whether it's from our bikes, our feet, or the dogs' feet, we get mud everywhere, and keeping our floors clean is a lost cause. Third and finally, every other night or so, we wake up to torrential downpours. To the extent that the dog dishes are filled with water at least 3 nights a week. It's unreal.

One more thing before I go: We signed up for free Spanish classes at the Venezuelan Institute. After our placement tests we found out that, to her great pleasure, Kathryn has been placed in the intermediate group, while I, quite unsurprisingly, have been placed in the basic group. Classes will be for 14 weeks, from now until December. Kathryn's classes are Tuesday and Thursday, mine are scheduled Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If they don't accept my plea to work extra hard in the intermediate class, the gulf between our knowledge of Spanish will continue to increase. But I refuse to spend three months without a week-night at home with my wife. It's ridiculous.

Well that's that. I hope everyone is satisfied for now. We're happy, healthy, and busy enough to keep out of trouble. I hope you can say the same. Until next time!

Peace,
Cisco

We're so behind...

I'm sorry it's taken so long but Belize it or not we have gotten busy! It all started July 22nd the week of our dear friends John and Sylvia's wedding. If we haven't already talked about them enough I want to make sure they have been adequately introduced to everyone.  They are our landlords and we live right behind their house not 100 ft away. We share a fenced in yard, 2 dogs, a vegetable garden, two lime trees, and soon to be chickens, and an herb garden together. It didn't take more than a week living behind them that we had made friends for life. We all love games and play them several nights a week together as well as buy and watch movies together. We take trips together and John occasionally takes us places in his pick up truck. We share meals, Sylvia helps me with my Belizean cooking, and we talk a lot! They asked us to their wedding which was quite an honor but in addition to that they asked us to sing at their wedding too.  Unfortunately Cisco got sick and his voice didn't recover in time so I sang "Wing Beneath My Wings" one of Sylvia's favorites at the wedding and "At Last" at the reception. Sylvia also asked my to help direct her wedding once she found out how much experience I have with it having attended and participated in just under 20 weddings in 3 years. It was a great experience and in the process I made good friends with her bridesmaids and feel like I am really starting to integrate in Belize. It all got really busy a few days before the wedding when John's groomsmen flew in, two of the three groomsmen being past peace corps volunteers in Belize so we all hit it off quite well and the festivities commenced for several days if you can imagine what that means. The wedding turned out wonderfully and it really was one of the most fun things we have done in Belize so far. Here are some pictures of John and Sylvia, and Cisco and I at the reception (later at the reception)

During this same week Cisco did our first joint presentation at Camp GlOW. Thsi is a camp for Girls Leading Our World and consisted of about 20 girls from all over Belize that applied and were accepted. These girls were Mayan, Mestizo, and Kriol which even though they all coexist very serenly their personality types are quite different and they tend to hang out in clicks of the same ethnicity. All that to say we were warned that they had a very interesting group dynamic and were painfully shy so not to feel bad if there was little participation. The person that was going to do this presentation was stuck on the wrong side of a flooded bridge so we only had a few hours in the morning to prepare for our talk on relationships, boundaries, and peer pressure. We took the bus to Camalote with our friend Molly who had been staying with us as she was helping with the camp and they had run out of room for staff and we lived relatively close. Our presentation went beautifully. We started with my favorite game I have unoriginally named it the circle game and if any of my Western students are reading they know exactly what I am talking about. This gets people moving and running in to each other while learning about each other and I think it was the perfect icebreaker to our presentation because we had exellent participation the whole time and it really was a lot of fun. The toughest part was the annonymous Q and A section at the end where they really asked us some personal and tough questions but we answered as honestly as we could and I think everyone really learned a little something from it!

After this we had one of my favorite events since I came to Belize. We participated in a special birthday yoga mala with our yoga instructor Marla Dwyer. Marla is the wife of Bryan Dwyer who was the second in command at the Peace Corps headquarters. I had been doing yoga 2 times a week with Marla since we first arrived in Belize and Cisco started not long after I did. I can't even describe how much I have loved yoga and home much I have gained from it in the short time I have been practicing. Unfortunately though Marla and Bryan were moving to Honduras where Bryan was relocated for the Peace Corps.  So Marla decided since her birthday had just gone by and she was leaving soon to finish with a special mala celebration. Mala's are practiced at the changing of the seasons and for people's birthdays to celebrate newness and rebirth. We had our mala at Monkey Bay Sanctuary about an hour way on the Western Highway in this awesome open screened wooden building that mark my words Cisco and I are going to rebuild someday behind future house. For our mala we began with seated meditation, then we performed 108 sun salutations (with a short break in child's pose at 54), and finished with a long savasana. It was incredibly difficult and incredibly rewarding. After we finished they served us a delicious vegetarian buffet where we all got to spend time together and say goodbye to Marla.  I know we will see Marla ad Bryan again they are two of the most amazing people I have ever met. Here are a few pictures from the mala.

After the yoga mala Cisco and I began preparing for a two week camp from 9-12 each day called PEACE camp. This camp was at the George Price Center and is Cisco's primary project but because my school is on summer break I got to help him with it. The peace camp stands for Preventing Engaging Addressing Conflict Effectively, Cisco named it are you surprised? It is teaching kids to avoid conflict and or deal with it in an appropriate way. Cisco had just completed this camp with primary school kids a now we were presenting it to middle and highschool aged youth. We had 17 kids which gave a nice small group to work with. The outline for what to cover was already done by the GPC and other peace corps volunteer Sandy came up with the schedule and activities for the whole camp. Cisco and I adjusted and added activities made an pretty intense power point, which I am finding out I am pretty good at making. The kids were a great group and I feel certain we will continue to bump to them. One girl in particular I hit it off with and I think we will continue to have a mentor like relationship which I think would be very positive for her right now in her angsty teenage stage of life. It was great watching Cisco present I have never gotten the chance to work with him like this and he does a great job with the kids and we seem to work very well together.

During this week another very exciting thing happened to me. I met with my counterpart for lunch and I opened up entirely about my apprehensions. Most being that I came here to gain experience on things other than music and that I particularly don't like working with primary school music and that I just couldn't do the things she wanted me to do. She was very understanding and we decided that I would let her know what musical activities I am open to helping with, right now that is a school choir and the December musical, and otherwise I will be doing things other than music. I told her all my ideas for different things I would like to do at the school and she seemed very happy about them. I feel like in this conversation with also became more comfortable and honest with each other and I think it really helped our relationship, so I am hugely relieved.

Last but certainly not least, this weekend to celebrate the end of our camp and take a break we travelled with fellow volunteers and friends Allyson and Clifton Klaverweiden to the beautiful Caye Caulker. We stayed in a true Peace Corps style cabana that as very tiny and located at a cat sancutuary, with over 80 cats, 4-5 dogs, and a very aggressive drake. The cabana was dorm style with a bunk bed and one full bed. Cisco and I squeezed on the bottom bunk together. There was a small table that was not large enough to play settlers on, and a bathroom outside with a shower in it. The place was very inexpensive and really did turn out to be comfortable and clean. We stayed from Friday evening to Sunday at 12 and spent our time eating at very yummy restaurants, taking advantage of the happy hours, laying in the sun, swimming in the sea, browsing the shops, and playing games. Even though I am a lobster it was a relaxing weekend and it was fun hanging with Allyson and Clifton. If you don't know Caye Caulker is one of the little tropical islands off the coast Belize and probably one of the most popular Cayes on which people vacation. We will post pictures of this soon but they aren't even on my computer yet because we returned home last night.

Well this took a long time and I am exhausted I need to run to the vegetable stand before it closes to get things for our dinner. Miss you all and will try to keep up better!

Peace,

Kathryn