day one of work

I spent my morning in PG (Punta Gorda) at the mental health clinic. Kriol a hodge-podge version of English is very hard to understand. You would think that we would be able to get it but no. Anyway, the hospital reminded me of hospitals in rural India, small, many patients to one room, and not in the best condition. Then we had an afternoon of orientation where we learned about the history of Belize, which I won't go into. Spent the afternoon trying to figure out why my wireless connection won't connect. I can see the network but it won't connect and cannot figure out why. Luckily the Ethernet input works. Any I wish my brother Dan was around to work his magic on my laptop.

I played with Ian, one of the staff members sons this afternoon. I brought out the trusty frisbee and we tossed around. He got pretty good after awhile. Perhaps I will convince him that ultimate is a better sport than soccer or I should say football is. :) Jimmy keeps emailing me about our trip to Peru which is making me excited to go. It is going to be fabulous.

There are tons of the birds around our "treehouse" at Hillside. I am making it my goal to learn what they are or at least the common ones. I realized that knowing the common birds back home help connect me to a sense of place.

One of the biggest things I have thought about recently is how trying to be environmentally friendly in the developing world, especially as a traveler is extremely hard. Plastic is everywhere and they definitely do not have recycling capabilities. Appliances are old and tend to use lots of energy. I find myself wondering how I would deal with it long-term basis if I moved here. And yet there are some things that they do better than us. A lot of the medical equipment that we throw away are re-used here. But I don't think that would be the case if money was not an issue. This reminds me of a story I read on how plastic jugs has replaced clay pots in India, creating a huge amount of waste as plastic does not degrade but clay pots do... I know I am off on an environmental rant. But such has been my thoughts as of late.

Tomorrow we head off to one of the villages.

vacation done. work begins.

After my stay in the Global Village Hotel, which I spent watching a pirated version of "The Pirates who don't do anything." I went to the airport to await my luggage and catch a plane flight to Placencia. My luggage took forever and the airline people were veryunhelpful until I talked to the manager and he took my back to customs to fetch my luggage. I made it off to Placencia withot a hitch and arrived at the Westwind Hotel. A quaint bed and breakfast type place on the beach. (If you ever go here, strike up a conversation with the owner George he will talk your ear off about Mayans, Catholicism, Mormons, Belizean politics and anything else. His perspective on the Spanish invasion of Central America is worth hearing even if you don't believe him). I met a bunch of Canadians in their forties - I always seem to meet Canadians --and we hit it off. Enjoyed dinner with them and talked about politics, religion and everything you suppose to avoid when you first meet people. I also made friends with the hotel cat, Squeakers, who decided that my lap was a pleasant place to lie. I spent most of my days walking the beach, looking for lizards and birds, swimming, snorkeling, and reading. Fantastic. I also managed to scare up a croc. Glad he was on the small side and not interested in people. I left today on a boat and then hopped a bus to Punta Gorda. En route I met Matthew a Brit who happened to also be volunteering at Hillside. The bus was late.. no surprise and hence missed my ride to Hillside. I guess I had the staff worried but I would have thought they would have expected Belizean buses to be late. Anyway, I gave them a call and got a chance to meet their adorable boys and headed to the clinic.

We had orientation and pizza this evening and then the whole crew headed off to a bar to watch the super bowl as I am sure most of you did this evening. I opted out hoping to unpack and try to figure out the internet, It took me an hour. I couldn't find the password and then I couldn't connect no matter how I tried. Turns out they disconnect everything each night as thunderstorms have a tendency to knock everything out. I finally found out where the connection was and then went on the search for the key. Obviously found that too. Still don't know the password though so I have been unable to upload pictures from my computer. I promise pictures will come.

Tomorrow I head to the local mental health clinic to see how that is delivered in Belize, which I am sure is worlds away from the US.

I think the coolest thing I have experienced this trip is the kindness of fellow travellers. The Portland couple who told me about the free hotel from Continental also bought my dinner that evening unbeknownest to me. The Canadians I met also bought a meal for me. Didn't expect any of that. People can suprise you every day.

landed in Belize sans luggage

I miraculously made it on to the flight tonight to Belize. I was the last person on and only made because some poor man's wife was no where to be found come boarding call. I had sat at the gate with a local and chatted about life in general. He was reading these Frank Peretti books that I had read during high school.. Which if you know the nature of the author probably put him on the "i am not going to scam you" spectrum. Yes , my guard is up as a sole young lady traveling to the developing world by herself. I walked on the plane said something to the stewardess about my luggage - which should of been a warning sign when she said she would get back to me and never did - and had a smooth flight to Belize. Then after landing the day continued down its bad course. Of course when I landed my luggage was nowhere to be seen and the luggage guy refused to believe that I couldn't find it. Then the security guy made fun of me for not having any bags and for not packing any clothes in a carry-on.

On the bright side, Maya Airlines re-booked my flight without cost to me for tomorrow at noon, hoping that my bags will come in on that morning flight. Really hoping. And the some friendly American strangers from Portland informed me that Continental would put us up in a local hotel with free shuttle to and from the airport since we missed our connection. So I am at the Global Village Hotel which is run by Taiwanese immigrants, eating fried rice. and drinking a refreshing Belikin beer. Not so bad end I guess. I am just stressed and exhausted. The lack of sleep and no one to commiserate with has made the situation seem worse than it is.

Signing off for tonight from a warm muggy room in the Global Hotel. I shall be off to the beach tomorrow. Hopefully today used up all the bad karma for my trip. Fingers crossed.

Not so good beginnings

My trip has started out badly. I got up at 3:30 this morning and drove to MSP with Skidaway and Jimmy. That leg of the trip went without incident - it was just hard to say goodbye. People did not know how to quickly navigate airports which always gets on my nerve, but I gave them leeway as people should not be fully functioning early in the morning. My connection time in Houston to Belize was 40 minutes. Tight I know but I thought feasible. But the weather had other plans. We got re-routed wot Austin, Texas and sat on the ground in the plane for 3 hours. I had the pleasure of sitting by the bathroom which got a lot of use during the ground time and our fellow passengers were not aware that the door should be immediately shut open exiting to retain smells. Anyway, I of course missed my flight and I now sit in Houston hoping to get stand-by status on the flight that was suppose to leave at 1:35... it's now pushed back to 2 - something. I just might be sleeping in the airport tonight... along with other disgruntled passengers.

I have flown a lot lately for my interviews and I started having the bad experiences with airlines again. Its bound to happen when you fly every couple of days. I use to just blame it on a particular airline - I have a bad track record with American. They always seem to lose my luggage... including my luggage before my wedding in Savannah which kept getting delayed secondary to a surprise visit by Chaney to the airport where my luggage sat. But I digress. I am just venting now as I have no other avenue and Jimmy is luckily not getting to hear me over the phone. I left that at home as I wouldn't be using it in Belize.

I think the funniest thing about this whole flight delay. Is that for the first time traveling internationally I has made plans for when I arrived. I had booked a flight to Placenia and a hotel until Sunday. Now that seems like wasted money and perhaps a sign that I should not be so "prepared" next time.

I sign off for now. Hopefully my next post finds me in Belize.

preparation

Jimmy and I finished our rank list for the Match this evening and now all we have left to do is wait until March. One item crossed off the to-do list before I leave on Thursday for Belize. Still have many more, but the rank list was the big one. Check back as I will hopefully be able to update while I am away.