Rina, Following-Up, and Dexter

First, to set your minds at ease: Kathryn and I are safe and sound. Hurricane Rina has passed us, moving north to the Yucatan peninsula. It's been downgraded to a tropical depression and might shower us with precipitation for the next few days, but it shouldn't disrupt our travel plans for next week's beach trip. Nice.

Next, I'd like to give you a brief follow-up on my last blog post. I read this earlier today. I'm disappointed and perturbed that the mayor would claim that "the man pulled a fast one on us,"--the man, I assume, being my fellow Peace Corps volunteer. I'd also like to point out that rainbows are now, apparently, offensive, so be careful fans of colorful t-shirts and Care Bears! I'd hate for you to be mistakenly agitating those around you.

All of this discussion leads me to Dexter. I read another interesting article here, about one of Kathryn's and my favorite television shows. For those of you unfamiliar with Dexter, he's a serial killer serial killer. At first glance, it's gory and risque in a way we've all come to expect from HBO. However, after a period of desensitization, Dexter begins to grow on you. You begin to realize that by following his train-of-thought, he makes logical conclusions. Eventually, you begin to root for him--or at least we did.

This season, Dexter comes face-to-face with a new spectre--religion. As a scientist, he's the archetypical analytical mind that requires empirical data and hard evidence. Except now, his world collides with that of two deeply religious individuals: the born-again ex-con and the Revelation expert responsible for the latest string of killings.

So what does this have to do with rainbows in Belize?

I could not be more excited for this season of Dexter because it creates the space for dialogue. Open-mindedness and tolerance are shaping up to be main thematic elements. By exposing the viewing public to these themes, I hope that society at-large can begin to think more critically and speak more openly when encountering the religiously other.

When I read news--whether Belizean, American, or other--my eye gravitates towards the religious topics. The unfortunate truth is that religion rests at the heart of some of the most heated debates of our time--abortion, sexual orientation, evolution as public school curriculum. Furthermore, history is peppered with instances of religious groups oppressing and enacting genocide upon others--the Crusades, the Inquisition, Israel/Palestine, to name a few. Even to this day, there remain religious undercurrents in many of the world's armed conflicts. Religious differences continue to divide humanity.

Currently, Dexter shows the varied levels commitment to one's faith and the potential for misinterpretation and misuse. For Dexter, religious experience is a last resort in a time of desperate need. For the character of Brother Sam, it's the motivation for a new life and an explanation of the otherwise inexplicable. And for Doomsday killer, it's a rationalization for death and violence. Highlighting these differences in men with similar personalities only shows how little divides disparate religious views.

It's instructive to remember that Jesus was most critical of those of his same faith. He did little to truly proselytize, but rather let his actions speak for themselves. Apart from the tables of certain money-changers, the only violence in Jesus' ministry was that done to him. Like God saving the pagan city of Nineveh, Jesus spoke a message for all humanity. And, in the context of the current discussion, if Jesus had to choose a serial killer, he would choose Dexter over the Doomsday killer any day.

When the season ends, I really hope Dexter remains agnostic. I think he'll bridge the gap from pure atheist to the agnostic, "I can't count it out," perspective, and that will be a win for me. The world needs to see positive models of discussion of religious differences. If that can happen, then hopefully demonizing rainbows is the next thing to go.

Peace,

Cisco

A Response

Blogging is a funny thing. I'm under no delusions that I'm good at it--I wait long periods of time between entries, I tend to ramble, and I'm not all that convinced that my subject-matter is terribly interesting. As a general rule, I'm simply better at writing about an issue. So today, instead of writing about the things I miss most from home, I'm going to write about a situation which has put one of our fellow volunteers in Peace Corps Belize in the proverbial hot-seat.

For context, this article is today's news coverage of a mural painted on a wall at Orange Walk Town Hall. The article focuses on the use of the rainbow as a symbol of the "homosexual agenda." Much discourse has occurred recently regarding the constitutionality of Belize's sodomy laws, and, unfortunately, the use of the term "abomination" characterizes the predominant opinion. As for me, I cannot make any judgements on political matters as a Peace Corps volunteer, but I can add my voice to the ongoing dialogue between the faith community and the LGBT community. To that effect, I'd like to talk a little bit more about the rainbow.

My most vivid memories of rainbows are from my childhood. Pulling off to the side of some unnamed road, my parents, sister, and I would stare awestruck at the beauty of this natural phenomenon. And, inevitably, we would all think about what it meant.

Genesis 9
12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

Obviously, those were the days when my worldview didn't include a place for homosexuality, and my only experience of the symbolic meaning of a rainbow came from church as a sign of promise.

Most people growing up in the Judeo-Christian world know the story of Noah's ark (for a hilarious but graphic representation, see the Brick Testament). The world as God created it had descended into debauchery and moral decay. God finds Noah, an upstanding example of righteous piety, and charges him with the task of building an ark and gathering pairs of all the animals of the world. The rains come, the water rises, and all but Noah, his family, and his ark full of wildlife die. In the aftermath, God speaks to Noah and creates the rainbow.

I guess it goes without saying that the rainbow, to me, is a reminder of this story, not a symbol of LGBT rights. However, if LGBT activists want to appropriate this sign of God's love, faithfulness, and commitment to all of humanity, who am I to stop them? Aren't peace, love, tolerance, and equality implicit in God's covenant? And if we really look at the heart of the matter, isn't that what LGBT people are looking for--acknowledgment of their humanity? We afford all sorts of people a full range of human rights--from the cheating spouse to the misogynist to the back-stabber (the figurative one, not the literal one) to the drug dealer. Why should homosexuals be any different? And why should they be any less welcomed by a church body of dysfunctional misfits?

This is where Jesus becomes such a powerful figure to me. He surrounded himself with Jews, Greeks, Samaritans, adulterers, tax collectors, fishermen, brothers, sisters, neighbors, and enemies. He implores you, whether you consider them brothers and sisters, neighbors, or enemies, to love the LGBT community. Similarly, the antagonists in the story of Jesus were the religious authorities--the pastors, bishops, elders, and deacons of our day. His legacy to us, again from my perspective, is an inexhaustible pursuit of justice, equality, peace, and tolerance--in short, an extension of God's rainbow covenant.

I know that my views and opinions on this matter are far from orthodox. But in spite of our stances on the ethical/moral implications of homosexuality, we must advocate on behalf of those who have been marginalized by society. In biblical times, these would have been the widow, the orphan, and the alien. Today, they are the starving and underfed, the victims of human trafficking, and the lesbian, the gay, the transsexual, the bisexual.

Finally, if you have read this far, I hope you would remain open-minded regarding this topic. By inflaming others, we stifle the possibility of finding a mutually beneficial resolution to this issue. In that vein, I am more than happy to answer questions or discuss this topic further with anyone willing to do so in a respectful and productive manner. I hope you enjoyed this food-for-thought!

Peace,

Cisco

Phew wee, we are behind!

Hello Everyone, we have not dropped off the face of the planet. As I am sure you could guess we had a busy summer directing several camps, studying and taking our GRE, and are now in the process of applying to graduate schools. Therefore, we have had difficulty trying to muster up the will to do more writing in our spare time. I know boo hoo for us we should have been keeping you better up to date and now I will attempt to catch you up!

Summer Camps

Cisco was responsible for organizing and directing two different P.E.A.C.E. (preventing, engaging, addressing, conflict, effectively) camps, yes he came up with the name. Both camps were from 9-12 each morning and for two weeks long, so essentially Cisco had camp every day for one month straight. The two camps are divided into age groups and the first one is the middle school aged kids and the second is the high school aged kids. I had the opportunity like last your to assist leading the second camp with the older kids and from just my perspective things went great.  Cisco prepared this beautiful binder full of plans and activities, even a table of contents, and his organization made the camp go extrememly smoothly. The activities covered all manners of conflict resolution techniques and scenarios as well as topics like discipline, understanding our feelings, conflict in the news, and conflict resolution through ultimate frisbee. The camp was a lot of fun and extremely successful, they will miss him next year!

I was responsible for assisting in the week long morning day camp at the library which was slighty unorganized but in general a great opportunity for the children that participated. We had approximately 50 kids show up each day and the topic this year was agriculture. I planned a field trip to the local 4H show grounds which was the highlight fo the camp for many since alot of these children never get to travel far from their homes.

Overlapping a day with this camp was my 4 day 3 night Cub Scout camp at the national cub scouts campgrounds.  Wow! This was an amazing experience and an exhausting one. It is so interesting to be on the other side of the fence as the leader instead of the scout and I have a new appreciation for what my leaders went though! Even though it was challenging this was one of the most meaningful experiences I have had so far because it truly gave me an opportunity to get to know the kids and learn a lot more about cub scouts in general. I had a wonderful time and I wish I could do it again... Oh wait I am going again just a few weeks from now:) This time it will only be an overnight and a Olympiad (or track and field event) but nonetheless I am looking forward to it.

Finally Cisco and I were invited to the annual GLOW (girls leading our world) camp to present on healthy relationships. We also were asked to do this last year and were able to use a lot of the same materials. It was a lot of fun to talk about relationships with the girls and they always ask us interesting questions during our annonymous Q and A session. Things like... Did Cisco ever pear pressure other girls? Is Cisco respectful of you? Did you have sex before you were married? Like I said it's annonymous so they don't hold back. We finished this year with something we had prepared for Cisco's PEACE camp related to the topic of communication.  We acted out the classic Abbott and Castillo sketch, "Whose on First" which they had a great laugh about!

Kathryn's Vacation

Shortly after the summer finished I went on vacation with my Peace Corps friend Elsa to Antigua Guatemala.  The purpose of our trip was to attend a spanish immersion school for five days, studying 6 hours a day with one on one tutors, and staying with host families that only speak spanish.  Because we have been banned from certain regions of Guatemala do to safety reasons to get to Antigua we had to do about 13 hours of traveling by bus, boat, bus, bus, shuttle, and taxi. That is no exaggeration. The trip there was very smooth though and its was very exciting to arrive in Antigua because to my surprise it is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been! 

To draw you a picture the city is surrounded by volcanoes so it has a very green and mountainous backdrop. The streets are made of cobblestones and the houses are all connected to each other differentiated only by their individually bright colors, none being the same as the next.  The walls of the homes are covered with lavish ivy and flowers of all colors a testament to the temperate climate.  The architecture is that of the colonial era giving it a bit of a European feel in my opinion.  All in all it is impossilbe to describe how beauitful it really is.

Elsa and I lived three blocks from one another with different host families. We dropped Elsa off first and her host family consisted of an older single women who had decorated her room with signs and card welcoming her to Antigua. My family consisted of Abuela Clara Rosa, Don Elder, Dona Marina, and nieto Kenneth. It also included the four high school students that lived there during the week to go to school, it was a full house. My family was extremely sweet and patient with my spanish. They also had a nice room made up for me with a card welcoming me to Antigua. I was extrememly lucky because Dona Marina was an amazing cook and I was well fed during my time with the Elder family.

During this time I had two teachers one in the morning and one in the afternoon. With my teachers we would sit at a small table with a white board and my teachers huge pile of books and we would do exercises and mostly talk. It was very helpful and it clarified things that I have been confused about for two years now.  My teachers didn't speak very much English themselves so it really was a great way for me to improve.

Each afternoon after classes Elsa and I would explore the city and do different activities.  We would go to the market and shop which was a different experience in and of itself. We have to negotiate prices in Belize but things are even more negotiable in Guatemala and sometimes they will drop their price by up to 60 percent it is hilarious. You will go back and forth for awhile then they will sense you are about to leave and they will ask, "Cual es tu precio", what is your price, once you name it they hesitate, look annoyed, then agree, it is a fun process.  At the market Elsa and I also got a woven cloth decoration put in our hair, finally we could be tourists instead of having to appear integrated!  We also had the opportunity one afternoon to go with a bnuch of other students to the mountains and bath in a large naturally fed hot spring. Guatemala has a lot of volcanos and the seismic activity heats the water in certain places.  Another afternoon we took a 45 minute bike ride with some students and a guide to a coffee plantation where we were given a tour of the plantation and how they grow and cultivate coffee and of course at the end we were given free samples of coffee, followed by the ride back.  One afternoon we took a self guided walking tour of the city with two friends from the school and discovered the most beautiful Macdonald's I have ever seen with a beautifully landscaped courtyard and fountain. That day my friend Elsa got her nose pierced and I got my tragus (a part of the ear) pierced, something we had promised two other Peace Corps friends we would all do together, but unfortunately they had already returned home to the States.  To finish that day Elsa and I went on a very wet tour of a local museum that included tombs, ruins, local art, a grourmet chocolate making shop (which we couldn't afford) and a candel/pottery making shop.  We had the opportunity to take a salsa class which was fast and furious but a lot of fun! To make use of our skills we went out to a few of the local clubs one night and danced some salsa with the locals but then quickly transitioned to some reggae-tone and hip hop which I think we are more suited for. The final, and my favorite, activity we had the opportunity to do was climb the Volcan Pacaya small but active volcano.  The climb only took about an hour and a half and the view from the top was breath taking.  The volcano was active enough that heat radiates from the holes and crevices and the guide brings us marshmellows that we can roast by the steam of the volcano.

We did a few bumps in the road which I think are worth mentioning to provide you with the big picture of our story. We had one incident one night when we had gone out for some dessert and during our time at the  restaurant it started to rain, no big surprise since it was the rainy season, we started walking home at about 9 pm. We had been in the city for a few days and never had felt unsafe so we didn't think there was much of a problem to be walking around at that time because it is usually pretty busy with people. Because of the rain it was much darker and there were very few people out when Elsa and I had to separate at the corner a block from her house and two from my house the incident occured. Apparently a man came up behind Elsa and tried to pull her skirt down, when she turned she jumped away and started screaming profanities, apparently the only thing she could think to say, and he ran off in my direction.  I was just putting my key in the door and turning my body inside when this guys face appeared in the doorway and he reached in and grabbed my arm.  I was taken completely by surprise and started screaming like a banshee, I quickly began shutting the door on his arm repeatedly until he pulled it out and ran away. By that time I had woken up 6 of the 7 people in my house and they all came running. If you can imagine I was very shaken up and I had to try to explain what had just happened in Spanish, basically we played a ridiculous game of charades until they got the picture and I had calmed down.  It was a scary experience that had me sleeping with my light on for the night but we survived and nothing terrible came of it, thank God!!

Our other problem resulted in a series of miscommunications and I believe untruths from the bus company we used to return home.  Basically our ride back to the port city where we needed to catch a boat home took twice as long as we expected and we missed the last boat that left earlier then we had expected anyway. At this point we arrived late it in city that most people don't choose to hang around in, without a place to stay, and here's the kicker we were almost out of money.  Suffice it to say my friend had a bit of American money that we could use for the hotel, which was actually not a terrible place to stay and we took refuge for the night.  The next day we got a boat home and it all worked out but for a variety of reasons it was a very difficult end ot the trip, but it certainly did not spoil such a wonderful time!

GRE

Wow I am already tired of writing but I am going to catch you up if it takes all day!  Four days after I returned from Antigua Cisco and I left for Atlanta, Georgia where we stayed with the Eysters and we took the GRE.  We were only in the States for four days so it was a very quick trip. Fortunately Mom F. came down and brought my baby, my first chance to see her in a year in a half. Needeless to say a very emotional experience but it was a blessing to get to see them both.  Zach and Britney gave us a wonderful time showing us around their city and taking us to a couple fantastic bars where we had the best beers we have had in a LONG time.  We got to do some much need shopping and spent some time as the local parks as well as one trip where we hiked up a mountain. It was a great trip. We took the GRE's and it was a relief to be finished. We don't have our official results but my unofficial score was fine, not great and not terrible, I had hoped for better but the more I look around my scores will be fine. Cisco on the other hand did remarkable and we are lucky that most likely we won't have to pay for one of our graduate schools because they should be fighting over him!

On our way home we spend three days in Playa Del Carmen the city nearest to Cancun and spent the time relaxing at the beach, eating delicious dinners, and rebooting for our bus ride home.  To futher explain this it is much cheaper to fly into Cancun then to Belize so we take a bus to and from Mexico to make the travel expenses less, although the travel time is much much more!

Graduate Schools

We have finally determined the schools we will be applying to for graduate school and what we are hoping to do. I will start with Cisco! Cisco will be applying to University of Virginia (his number one choice) as a Masters straight through to PHD student of religious studies, Princeton University, New Jersey, Duke University, North Carolina, and Emory University, Georgia, Eastern Mennonite University, Virginia, and potentially one more.

I am applying to the University of Pennsylvania for their Master's of nonprofit leadership, James Madison University, Virgina, North Carolina State University, Georgia State University, University of Georgia all for Public Administration with a concentration in nonprofit managment. 

We are working for diligently on this process and plan to be finished before Christmas. We intend to both return as full time students but hope for assistships and/or fellowships to help with our tuition while we study.  we will keep you posted on our progress and information on where we will end up when we return home.

Finally

We only have 8 months left in Belize and time is flying by!  If any of you are still planning on coming to visit you need to do it before March so better start planning, as we are expected by the Peace Corps to stop travelling and accepting visitors in the last three months. I will also be posting another post very shortly with one last wishlist. This wishlist will be things for my library, our neighbors, and a few things we could use in our last few months. Thank you for everything you have already sent and as always don't feel obligated to send anything these are just requests for those interested. We hope you are all doing well and we will be seeing you in no time at all! Thanks for your continued support and we are sorry this is long overdue.

Con abrazos y besos,
    Kathryn